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Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden was expected to arrive in Washington, the eve of his inauguration, with the usual backdrop of celebrations and political comity replaced by a military lockdown. Biden was expected to spend the night at Blair House, the guest residence across the street from the White House — one of just a few traditions being honoured during the ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) needs to find new ways to recapitalise businesses so that the hole on corporate balance sheets doesn’t derail the recovery, according to a financial-industry group. Companies face an equity shortfall of as much as $724 billion, as existing government programs and private funding won’t suffice to fully cover the roughly 1 trillion euros ($1.21 trillion) ...

Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak can’t afford to wait for the budget on March 3 to provide extra support for hobbled UK firms, according to the UK’s biggest business lobby group. With Britain back in a severe lockdown, urgent action is needed to help companies survive, the Confederation of British Industry said in a letter to the Chancellor ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) risks squandering the potential of its recovery fund unless spending is properly policed, according to the biggest business lobby groups in eight Nordic and Baltic countries. The 27-member bloc agreed on a 750 billion-euro ($907 billion) pandemic relief package in December to help end the worst recession on record. The money is also supposed to ...

Bloomberg European car sales plunged the most on record last year as relatively resilient demand in the second half did only so much to make up for the collapse during the initial outbreak of Covid-19. New-vehicle registrations fall 24%, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Tuesday, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1990. A strong finish to ...

Bloomberg Call it the prop-up effect. As France lived through its worst economic slump since World War II, business failures paradoxically slid to the lowest in 33 years. The number of bankruptcies and firms seeking protection from creditors or entering receivership fall 38% in 2020, as government aid in the face of the coronavirus pandemic kept French companies afloat, according ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Masdar, one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, and Taaleri SolarWind II Fund, which invests in utility-scale wind and solar assets, have together acquired 50:50 stakes in two wind farms in Poland. The 37.4 megawatt (MW) Mlawa Wind Farm is located in Mazowieckie in northern Poland and the 14 MW Grajewo Wind Farm is located ...

HARGEISA / WAM A delegation from the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation opened two hospitals in the Republic of Somaliland. The first, is the “Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital,” in the city of Berbera, northwestern Somalia, and the second, is a specialised hospital for women, childbirth and neonatal care, in the city of Burao, the second largest ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Maritime City (DMC), DP World’s purpose-built maritime centre, has announced that infrastructure works in Phase 1 of its commercial district are nearing completion. Almost 80 percent of the construction of the AED140 million road and infrastructure works of the development’s first phase have been completed. The site is set to become a major hub for maritime ...

Bloomberg The first cold blast this winter that propelled European power and gas prices to their highest levels in years may be about to dissipate, but its impact will be felt for months to come. From a snow storm in Madrid to record spikes in the UK power market as wind dropped — the weather has been the main driver ...