Latest World news
In its report on Monday, Ryanair (LON: RYA) said that its annual profit after tax came in 13% higher in fiscal 2020. The company also slashed its target for annual passenger traffic by another 20% and expressed plans of withdrawing from some of the European airports. The low-cost carrier estimated that it will fly less than 80 million passengers in fiscal 2021. Last week, Ryanair had given an estimate of 100 million passengers that was already ma...
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) has announced its tranche of startup investments: £108M ($132M) injected in 11 businesses. The deals speak to the venture capitalist’s commitment towards nurturing tech-based businesses including chip design, artificial intelligence, and autonomous computing. While Intel Capital tries to operate independently from its parent company, it has not shied away from using Intel’s muscle to leverage relationships and exp...
In the annual modern slavery statement, Tesco (LON: TSCO) said that it found evidence of abuse against migrant employees at its distribution centres and stores located in Thailand and Malaysia. Tesco conducted interviews with 187 foreign workers in Thailand and 168 in Malaysia. Based on the interviews, the company found substantial evidence that the workers were faced with an illegal reduction in their wages without explanation, passport retentio...
The U.S Commerce Department announced an adjustment to its export policy that strategically targeted China’s telecoms giant, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. The White House is exercising its authority on global chipmakers that use U.S technology to get a license to sell semiconductors to Huawei. As per the new rule, such companies are now banned from supplying semiconductor chips to Huawei. A senior official of the Commerce Department commented on th...
The U.S House of Representatives called on Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) CEO, Jeff Bezos, at the start of May to testify about allegations on the company regarding its use of 3rd party sellers’ data. In a blog post on Friday, Amazon highlighted that it will send an appropriate executive to testify to the Judiciary Committee. Shares of the company were reported a little over 25% up year to date in the stock market at the end of the regular trading sessi...
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been committed to expanding its presence in the virtual and augmented reality sector. In its announcement on Thursday, the company said that it is moving forward with its plans as it purchased the virtual reality (VR) startup, NextVR. The U.S tech giant seeks to add a new product category to its portfolio that will offer gadgets based on virtual and augmented reality technologies. Apart from AR (augmented reality) so...
London stocks were reported higher at the end of the trading session on Friday on an improvement in China’s monthly report on factory output that marked the first in 2020 and stirred optimism for resource companies. The rising Coronavirus uncertainty and the associated blow to the global economy, however, saw the benchmark indices closing lower on a weekly basis. According to TS Lombard’s head of strategy, Andrea Cicione: “We just can’t afford th...
Aurora Cannabis (TSE: ACB) said on Thursday that its loss contracted in the third quarter as compared to Q2 as consumers in Canada and the United States stockpiled cannabis before the start of the Coronavirus lockdown. Following the announcement, shares of the company were reported 13% up in the stock market in after-hours trading on Thursday. Analyst Owen Bennett of Jefferies currently has a “hold” rating on Aurora Cannabis’ stock. At the time o...
Mediaset (BIT: MS) reported a 47% decline in its operating profit in the first quarter on Friday. The company attributed the downbeat performance to the Coronavirus pandemic that weighed on its advertising revenue heavily in March. The country’s largest commercial broadcaster saw a significant hit to profit as the Italian government resorted to a nationwide lockdown to minimize the fast transmission of the flu-like virus. Consequently, businesses...
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought the global auto industry to a near halt. Car manufacturers from across the globe have reported COVID-19 to have weighed on performance in recent months. Despite challenges and delays in other projects due to the ongoing health crisis, however, Volkswagen (ETR: VOW) and Ford Motor (NYSE: F) announced on Friday that the companies plan on teaming up to build electric and autonomous vehicles. Volkswagen was report...
In an announcement on Friday, William Hill (LON: WMH) pulled its financial guidance citing the rising Coronavirus uncertainty. The company highlighted its revenue to have taken a significant hit as COVID-19 postponed sports events. The betting company also said on Friday that it plans on using a phased approach to resume operations in the United Kingdom in the 2nd half of 2020. The developments in its retail operations in the 9 states of the U.S,...
BT Group (LON: BT.A) said on Thursday that it is negotiating with infrastructure investors to sell its stake in Openreach. BT currently has a multi-billion-pound investment in the network subsidiary. The raised funds from the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary, the company added, will be used to expand its presence in the UK’s full-fibre broadband network. The announcement came on top of BT’s decision to suspend its dividend last week in a bid t...
The world’s most precious metal, gold, is an excellent way to hedge the tail risk from COVID-19, according to a research report by Matthew Miller, CFRA. Further, gold’s fundamentals have strengthened following the massive amount of quantitative easing unleashed across the globe to combat the economic damage from the pandemic. An investment in gold mining companies is a great way to ride an appreciating gold price because gold miners are lev...
In a report on Thursday, 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) said that its sales in April were noted 11% down to £1.88 billion as the Coronavirus pandemic pushed its factories into a temporary shutdown. While COVID-19 fuelled demand for face masks, the company added, it weighed on the rest of its product line that includes items like industrial glues. 3M fell roughly 2.5% in the stock market on Thursday in the morning session but recovered almost all of the loss...
SmileDirectClub (NASDAQ: SDC) reported a broader quarterly loss on Wednesday than what the experts had forecast. The company said that the Coronavirus pandemic pushed it into closing the majority of its global SmileShops. Going forward, SmileDirectClub added, it will focus on its business for dental impression kits. The Nashville-headquartered company was reported 3.5% down in after-hours trading on Wednesday. SmileDirectClub’s performance...
In a joint statement on Thursday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (BIT: FCA) and Peugeot S.A (EPA: UG) announced to have suspended 2019’s ordinary dividend citing the Coronavirus pandemic that brought the global auto industry to a near halt. As per experts, the global auto industry has taken the worst hit due to COVID-19 since the market crash of 2008-09. As the primary markets including the U.S and Europe resorted to lockdowns to minimize the fast tra...
Deutsche Telekom (ETR: DTE) released its quarterly financial results on Thursday that posted upbeat revenue and profit for the first quarter. The company attributed its success to growth in both of its primary markets, Germany and the United States. The German company reported its net profit in Q1 at £810.65 million that came in stronger than £796.50 million in the same quarter last year. In terms of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depr...
Hargreaves Lansdown (LON: HL) reported an 8.1% decline in its total assets from January to April in 2020. The company’s statement on Thursday attributed the decline to a downbeat equity market due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The fund supermarket announced to have closed April with £96.7 billion worth of assets under management as compared to £105.2 billion at the start of the year. The decline in total assets, however, Hargreaves added, was offs...
In an announcement on Thursday, Persimmon (LON: PSN) said that it has resumed around 65% of construction work after a COVID-19 driven temporary halt on operations. On 15th May, the company added, it will also reopen sales offices with strict social distancing measures in place. In Scotland, however, Persimmon will keep all of its sites closed for now. The UK’s 2nd largest housebuilder also highlighted on Thursday to have completed 1,300 ho...
Latvian State real estate has now been permitted to expand the range of tenants supported under a recent government program meant to cushion tenants against the hard-economic times following the ongoing lockdown measures. Thanks to an amendment to the requirements to qualifications for beneficiaries of the program, Latvian State Real Estate (VNĪ) will now extend its rent exemption or reduction initiative to include not just business people but al...
WH Smith (LON: SMWH) said on Thursday that its pre-tax profit in the first half of the current fiscal year came in slightly lower despite an increase in revenue. The company also warned of a more pronounced hit to its financial performance in the second half of fiscal 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In the 6 months that ended on 29th February, the UK-based retailer of newspaper, books, and magazines reported a 3% decline in its pre-tax prof...
Just when you would think that firms are holding tightly onto capital owing to the impact of the pandemic, Dutch real estate firm Orange Capital has snapped up 173 new apartments in the Netherlands. According to sources, the units whose exact cost remains a closely guarded secret were acquired from a KKR and Round Hill Capital partnership. The apartments are part of a 2018 investment venture between KKR and Round Hill which saw the two...
Restrictions on Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) business in France are not yet set to ease as the U.S online retailer said on Wednesday that its French warehouses are likely to remain closed until May 18th. Amazon’s six warehouses in France were shut down on April 16th on a court’s ruling that directed the company to limit its deliveries to essential items only during the Coronavirus pandemic. According to Amazon’s statement: “Our fulfilment centres are...
In a statement on Wednesday, Intel Capital announced to have made investments in two Chinese semiconductor startups. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is currently struggling with the ongoing tensions between the U.S and China in the sector of chip manufacturing. As per the sources, Intel Capital made its first investment in Chinese ProPlus that makes EDA software. The tool is widely used by the global chipmakers to design products before m...
Ares Australia Management (“AAM”), a joint venture between Fidante Partners and Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) has launched its first product in Australia, the Ares Global Credit Income Fund. AAM developed the Fund owing to a growing demand for an investment approach that offers high-income generation while preserving capital especially during these uncertain times when many businesses continue to register low returns. Teiki Benveniste,...