Company debts hit $8.3 trillion; Volkswagen tops list
Janus Henderson Investors announced on Monday the results of its first annual Corporate Debt Index survey, saying company net borrowings around the world surged to…
Bulgaria and Croatia take vital step to joining euro
The European Central Bank and the European Commission said on Friday that Bulgaria and Croatia have been accepted into the Exchange Rate Mechanism, known as…
Deutsche Post DHL expects full-year profit up to €3.8bn
Shares of Deutsche Post DHL edged higher on Wednesday after it said on Tuesday its quarterly operating profit (EBIT) rose 16% to around €890 million,…
Global mergers fall 53% to $902bn in first half
Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volume fell 32% to 10,155 transactions and deal values declined 52.7% to $901.6 billion in the first half of 2020…
EU opens first call in €10bn clean technology drive
The European Commission has launched the €1 billion first call for proposals under its Innovation Fund, one of the world’s largest programmes for innovative low-carbon technologies….
EU economy set for ‘deeper’ recession says Commission
The European Commission forecast on Tuesday that the EU economy will experience a “deep recession” this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, suffering an economic…
Deutsche Bank fined $150m for Jeffrey Epstein ‘failures’
By Mark McSherry New York State’s Superintendent of Financial Services Linda Lacewell said on Tuesday that Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $150 million in…
Commerzbank CEO & chairman quit in Cerberus row
The chief executive and chairman of Commerzbank stepped down on Friday following demands from its second-biggest shareholder Cerberus that the German bank change its strategy…
Euro exchanges reject UK plan for shorter day
Some of Europe’s biggest stock exchanges on Wednesday returned a negative response to UK proposals to shorten the trading day, delivering a blow to the…
EU’s Barnier rejects UK’s post-Brexit banking plan
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michael Barnier has rejected the UK’s proposal to give London’s financial district access to the European Union as “unacceptable”…
UK Govt to sell record £275bn debt for April-August
The UK said on Monday it plans to sell a record £275 billion of government debt between April and August to pay for the massive…
EU budget falls 10% to €167bn as UK leaves
The European Commission has proposed an EU budget of €166.7 billion in commitments for 2021, down 9.7% on 2020. This would be the first budget…
EU approves Germany’s €6bn to recapitalise Lufthansa
The European Commission said on Thursday it has approved German plans to contribute €6 billion to the recapitalisation of Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLH), the parent…
Wirecard files for insolvency; shares fall 80%
Troubled German payments firm Wirecard filed for insolvency at a Munich court on Thursday, becoming the first sitting member of Germany’s leading share index DAX…
Bayer pays up to $10.9bn to settle cancer lawsuits
German drugs and pesticides giant Bayer AG agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to settle almost 100,000 US lawsuits claiming that its weedkiller…
EU holds in-depth probe of $27bn LSE bid for Refinitiv
The European Commission said on Monday it has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv by the London Stock…
ING names Steven van Rijswijk as new CEO
Dutch banking giant ING Groep NV said on Friday its chief risk officer Steven van Rijswijk will succeed Ralph Hamers as chief executive officer and…
Wirecard seeks finance plan after downgrade to junk
Troubled German payments firm Wirecard said at the weekend it has hired US investment bank Houlihan Lokey to “develop a plan for the sustainable financing…
Sweden’s EQT sells €4bn credit unit to Bridgepoint
Swedish private equity firm EQT this week agreed to sell its €4 billion credit business to European buyout fund Bridgepoint. “The acquisition will be combined…
KKR buys Dutch holiday park firm Roompot in €1bn deal
US private equity firm KKR this week agreed to buy Dutch vacation parks firm Roompot from French private equity firm PAI Partners in a deal…
EIB in €100m support for BioNTech’s Covid-19 tests
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and German biotech firm BioNTech said they concluded a €100 million debt financing agreement for the EIB to support the development…
European football generates record €29bn revenue
The European football market as a whole generated record revenues of €28.9 billion (£25.5 billion) for the year covering the 2018-19 season. That’s according to…
IMF says $10 trillion spent on pandemic, more needed
Governments around the world have spent $10 trillion in fiscal actions to respond to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the head of…
OECD: second wave could wipe 11% off Euro area GDP
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned on Wednesday that if a second major outbreak of Covid-19 occurs later this year and triggers…
Euro unchallenged as No 2 currency; leads green bonds
The euro has remained unchallenged as the second most used currency globally after the US dollar since its introduction 20 years ago, but its usage…
ECB stimulus lifts bond purchases to €1.35 trillion
The European Central Bank on Thursday announced a bigger-than-expected expansion of its stimulus package to support an economy plunged into recession by the coronavirus pandemic….
EU leaders want to borrow €750bn for recovery plan
The European Commission on Wednesday put forward a plan to borrow on the markets and then distribute €750 billion in grants and loans to EU…
ECB in €750bn emergency bond buying programme
The European Central Bank launched a €750 billion emergency bond purchase programme late on Wednesday in a huge effort to push down borrowing costs as…
Global debt-to-GDP ratio at new high of 322%
The global debt-to-GDP ratio hit a new all-time high of over 322% in the third quarter of 2019 with total debt reaching close to $253…
Sanofi to buy Synthorx in $2.5bn deal
French biopharmaceutical company Sanofi has agreed to buy California-headquartered biotechnology firm Synthorx in a cash deal worth about $2.5 billion. Sanofi said the deal would…
APG buys majority stake in Merkur Offshore
Dutch pension investor APG announced the acquisition of a 64% stake in Merkur Offshore, a large wind farm in the German North Sea. The acquisition…
Cboe Global Markets buys EuroCCP clearing house
Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets said on Tuesday it would take full control of Amsterdam-based EuroCCP, Europe’s largest clearing house for stock trades. The move will…
EU derivatives markets valued at €735 trillion
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities regulator, said it has published its second annual statistical report analysing the European Union’s (EU)…
Number of millionaires set to rise to 63 million
Global wealth grew 2.6% in the past year to $360 trillion and wealth per adult reached a record high of $70,850, according to the tenth…
Global debt to hit $255 trillion in 2019 says IIF
Global debt surged by $7.5 trillion in the first half of 2019, hitting a new record of over $250 trillion, said a new report from…
Euronext ready for deals as it looks to new markets
Stock markets operator Euronext said on Thursday it was open to transformational deals in a bid to boost its dominance in the European capital markets…
Hong Kong scraps $39bn London Stock Exchange bid
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has abandoned its unsolicited $39 billion approach for London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) after failing to convince LSE shareholders…
Bond issuance soars to $4.6 trillion through August
Global new bond issuance through August 2019 totalled $4.6 trillion, up 11.8% on the same stage of 2018, according the the latest data from S&P…
German banks Helaba, Deka consider merger – report
German public-sector banks Helaba and Deka will consider a merger, a spokeswoman for Germany’s savings banks association said on Tuesday, according to a Reuters report….
Spain’s Cellnex to buy Arqiva’s $2.5bn telecoms unit
Barcelona-based Cellnex said on Tuesday it agreed to buy the telecoms division of Britain’s Arqiva for about $2.5 billion in a move that expands the…