December, 2016

• 19 December

  Fairfax to buy Allied World for $4.9 billion

  

    Bloomberg Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. agreed to buy insurer Allied World Assurance Co. for $4.9 billion in cash and stock in Chief Executive Officer Prem Watsa’s largest purchase. Fairfax will pay $54 per share, which is 18 percent higher than Allied World’s closing price on Friday. For every share, Allied investors will receive about $10 in cash — half ...

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• 19 December

  SCA enters wound care with $2.9bn deal ahead of spin

    Bloomberg Svenska Cellulosa AB will acquire BSN Medical for 2.74 billion euros ($2.9 billion) as the Swedish maker of Velvet tissues expands into wound care and orthopedics ahead of a planned split from forestry products. The purchase of the dressings-and-bandage maker from private equity firm EQT Partners AB, to be funded through debt, is expected to generate annual synergies ...

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• 19 December

  Iran to land first Airbus jet within weeks under sanctions pact

  

    PARIS / Reuters Iran expects to get its first new jet within weeks under a multi-billion-dollar deal with Airbus for 100 planes, a senior official said on Monday, as Tehran and Western firms race to reopen trade almost a year after sanctions were lifted. The first of the Airbus jets should be delivered in mid-January, part of plans to ...

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• 19 December

  Airbnb to build flight-booking tool to rival Priceline

  

    Bloomberg Airbnb Inc. is developing a service for booking air travel as the home-rental start-up looks to compete with Priceline Group Inc. and Expedia Inc. for more people’s online travel spending. Development of the flight-booking feature is early, and the company is considering various routes to break into the business, said people familiar with the plans. Airbnb may acquire ...

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• 19 December

  Musafir.com partners with Visa in UAE, Qatar and KSA

    Emirates Business Musafir.com, the UAE’s first premium-experience travel website, announced a partnership with Visa across the UAE, Qatar and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and launch of dedicated websites for Qatar and KSA. The move is a breakthrough in Musafir.com’s regional expansion and to the continuous increase in online travel bookings in the region. “At Musafir.com we like to ...

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• 19 December

  Pakistan’s embattled national carrier mocked for goat sacrifice

  

    Islamabad / AFP Pakistan’s embattled national carrier has been widely mocked for sacrificing a goat next to a plane to ward off bad luck, weeks after one of the country’s worst air disasters. A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) turboprop plane built by European manufacturer ATR plummeted into a mountain in a northern region on December 7, bursting into flames ...

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• 19 December

  BA in last-ditch talks to avert strike

  

    Bloomberg British Airways Plc (BA) and cabin crew representatives are set to hold talks aimed at stopping strikes that would hit thousands of passengers flying in and out of the UK over Christmas, as Prime Minister Theresa May’s government clashes with unions over a wave of industrial action. The Unite trade union and BA agreed to meet in London ...

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• 19 December

  Ukraine nationalises country’s largest bank

  

    Kiev / AFP Ukraine nationalised the country’s biggest bank in a bid to avert a financial meltdown in the war-scarred former Soviet state. The government moved to take over PrivatBank after months of rumours that the lender was heavily burdened by bad debts. PrivatBank controls one-third of the east European country’s deposits and even has branches in the Baltic ...

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• 19 December

  Indonesia plans to cut three zeroes from Rupiah

  

    Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank is reviving a plan to redenominate the currency of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy despite the threat of market turmoil as the US steps up the pace of interest-rate increases. “Re-denomination must be done while the economy is stable,” Bank Indonesia Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara told reporters in Jakarta on Monday. “Now, at this moment, ...

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• 19 December

  Barclays severs ties with clients to boost returns

  

    Bloomberg Barclays Plc is preparing to tell 7,000 clients to do more trading with the firm or find another bank, the latest move in an industrywide trend of winnowing down customer lists to the ones that produce significant profits. The British bank launched a new computer system, called Flight Deck, this month that ranks every customer of its trading ...

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