Handelsbanken closes half its branches, cuts 1,000 jobs
Handelsbanken said on Wednesday it will close almost half of its branches in Sweden and cut about 1,000 jobs over the next two years and…
Julius Baer in talks to settle FIFA corruption allegations
Swiss bank Julius Baer said on Wednesday it is in “advanced discussions” with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) about reaching a resolution over allegations…
Sweden’s Klarna valued at $10.6bn in latest funding
Sweden’s “buy now and pay later” payments firm Klarna said on Tuesday it has raised $650 million of equity from investors led by Silver Lake…
EY chairman: we should have caught Wirecard sooner
The global chairman of accounting giant EY has told clients the audit firm regretted not detecting fraud sooner than it did at German payments company…
UBS ‘explores potential merger with Credit Suisse’
The chairmen of UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG are exploring a potential merger, according to reports by the blog Inside Paradeplatz and…
VW’s Traton ups bid for rest of Navistar to $3.6bn
Volkswagen’s Traton commercial truck unit said on Thursday it increased its offer for all outstanding shares of Illinois-based Navistar International Corporation not already owned by Traton…
Norway’s Equinor sells $1.1bn offshore wind stake to BP
Norway’s Equinor said on Thursday it agreed to sell 50% non-operated interests in the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind offshore wind developments on the US east coast to BP…
Sweden’s EQT buys Idealista property site for €1.3bn
Swedish private equity firm EQT said on Thursday it agreed to acquire Madrid-based online real estate classifieds platform Idealista for a transaction price of €1.3…
Google pulls out of mega Dublin office deal
Alphabet Inc’s Google has walked away from a plan to rent space in Dublin for as many 2,000 workers, abandoning one of the city’s biggest…
Ryanair €850m bond sale attracts €4.4bn orders
Ryanair said on Tuesday it issued a five- year €850 million Eurobond at a fixed coupon of 2.875%. The bond sale was multiple times oversubscribed…
Ireland’s GDP suffers largest quarterly fall on record
Ireland’s GDP fell by 6.1% quarter-on-quarter from April to June this year — the largest quarterly fall on record. However, the GDP decline was not…
Spain’s Caixabank and Bankia in €14bn merger talks
Spanish banks Caixabank and Bankia are in talks about a merger to create the biggest domestic lender in Spain with more than €650 billion in assets….
Euronext’s Oslo Børs grows to 253 companies
The number of companies listed on or traded at Euronext’s Oslo Børs has reached its highest level since the financial crisis. Two new companies were…
Amazon orders 1,800 electric Mercedes-Benz vans
By Mark McSherry Amazon announced it has ordered more than 1,800 electric vehicles from Mercedes-Benz Vans to expand its delivery fleet in Europe this year….
EU trade chief Hogan quits over Ireland Covid row
Ireland’s Phil Hogan resigned as the EU’s Trade Commissioner on Wednesday over allegations that he breached Covid-19 guidelines during a recent 20-day trip to his…
Germany on ‘road to recovery’ as morale improves
The Ifo Institute said on Tuesday that German business morale improved more than expected in August as both manufacturing and services picked up steam. “Sentiment…
Company dividends fell 45% to $83bn in second quarter
European company dividends (ex-UK) fell 45% in the second quarter of 2020 — down by an “astonishing” $66.9 billion to $83.4 billion — according to…
EU in J&J talks for 200m doses of COVID-19 vaccine
The European Commission said on Thursday it concluded exploratory talks with Johnson & Johnson to purchase a potential vaccine against COVID-19. “This is following the…
Bayer buys women’s health firm KaNDy in $875m deal
German drugs and pesticides giant Bayer AG said on Tuesday it will acquire UK-based KaNDy Therapeutics Ltd to expand its drug development pipeline in women’s…
Development banks’ climate finance tops $61bn
Climate financing by seven of the world’s largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) accounted for $61.6 billion in 2019, according to the 2019 Joint Report on…
ECB helps corporate bond sales hit €213bn in Q2
The European Central Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme helped companies raise €213 billion via bond sales in the second quarter of 2020, up from €210…
EU opens probe into Google acquisition of Fitbit
The European Commission said on Tuesday it has opened an in-depth investigation under the EU Merger Regulation to assess the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by…
Eurozone GDP drops 12.1% in second quarter
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 12.1% in the euro area and declined 11.9% in the EU in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the previous quarter, according…
German GDP fell 10% in second quarter
Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 10.1% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter, the largest decline since the beginning of…
VW’s Traton signs €3.75bn debut syndicated loan
Volkswagen’s Traton commercial truck unit said on Wednesday it signed its inaugural syndicated revolving credit facility for a total amount of €3.75 billion. “The facility…
Gucci owner Kering sees Q2 revenue fall 43.7%
French luxury goods group Kering said on Tuesday its consolidated revenue in the second quarter fell 43.7% to €2.17 billion on a comparable basis as…
ECB extends ban on bank dividends, buybacks
The European Central Bank (ECB) on Tuesday extended a recommendation to banks in the euro zone not to pay dividends and not to buy back…
Deutsche Bank to exit coal mining business by 2025
Deutsche Bank said on Monday it will end its global business activities in coal mining by 2025 at the latest. The German bank also said…
Ireland to borrow up to €24bn this year
Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said on Friday it is now guiding that total bond funding activity this year “will be at the upper…
S&P cuts securitization forecast 25% to $830bn
S&P Global Ratings said global securitization issuance volume for the first half of 2020 fell about 20% to roughly $420 billion equivalent compared to the…
€750bn EU fund a breakthrough for countries’ ratings
Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings said in a new report that the €750 billion EU Recovery Fund and “the establishment of a shared fiscal mechanism”…
eBay sells $9bn classifieds to Adevinta, gets 44% stake
San Jose-based eBay has agreed to sell its classified ads business to Norway’s Adevinta in a cash and stock deal worth $9.2 billion that will…
EU agrees historic €750bn mutual bond stimulus
European Union leaders finally agreed a stimulus package worth €750 billion early on Tuesday — with the money to come from bonds sold on behalf…
GlaxoSmithKline buys stake in Germany’s CureVac
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world’s largest vaccine-maker, is to buy a 10% stake in German biotech company CureVac for £130 million. The price of the stake…
Vestager vows ‘aggressive’ tax moves despite Apple loss
EU antitrust boss Margrethe Vestager has vowed to continue her fight against tax measures used by multinational companies despite the huge setback delivered by Europe’s…
Global debt at record $258 trillion – 331% of GDP
The Institute for International Finance (IIF) said on Thursday that global debt surged to a record $258 trillion in the first quarter of 2020 as…
UK borrows record £385bn in first eight months of year
The UK Government said on Thursday it would seek to borrow another £110 billion from the bond market between September and November. The move will take the…
30% of EU €750bn recovery fund may be green bonds
By Mark McSherry S&P Global Ratings said in a new report that the EU could become the main liquidity provider for a “green safe asset”…
S&P lowers ratings on European airport operators
S&P Global Ratings has lowered its ratings on four European airports and associated companies “due to a slower expected recovery in passenger traffic” than it…
EU fines firms €260m in ethylene cartel settlement
The European Commission said on Tuesday it has fined Orbia of Mexico, Clariant of Switzerland and Celanese of the US a total of €260 million…