Category: Business

Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab has agreed to sell about $1.1 billion of credit card debt in the United States to Blackstone. Banks globally have been making greater use of credit risk transfers to shed risk from loan portfolios, Reuters has reported, with investors sharing the risk of losses. (See Corporate home buyouts: homelessness, mortgage & rent crisis rising) Barclays’ investment bank acted as an advisor to Blackstone on the transaction. (Reuters)  Blackstone’s investment has been made through insurance accounts managed…

The Pentagon’s inspector general said its criminal investigators have opened more than 50 cases related to aid provided to Ukraine, including some involving contractors, but have yet to firm up any allegations. The investigations, which are at different stages, are looking at issues including “procurement fraud, product substitution, theft, fraud or corruption, and diversion,” the inspector general, Robert Storch, said in a briefing Thursday. “We have not substantiated any such allegations, though that may well change in the future,” he…

ROME — Italy’s parliament has approved the planned acquisition of two new FREMM frigates with updated electronics and 132 combat-version Leopard tanks as well as 140 other tank versions. The new buys, approved Feb. 21 by the parliament’s defense commission, are part of a uptick in Italian military spending partly spurred by the Ukraine conflict. Italy has previously ordered 10 FREMM frigates; the latest orders, dubbed FREMM EVO, will take the fleet to 12. Italy has already taken delivery of…

  Thermal battery maker Antora Energy on Feb 22 said it has raised US$150 million (S$201.5 million) in a funding round led by a tie-up between the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock and Singapore state investment firm Temasek. The BlackRock-Temasek partnership, called, Decarbonization Partners, led an investor group including Emerson Collective, GS Futures, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and top global miner BHP’s venture capital unit. The fresh financing for the start-up will underpin an increase in…

ROME — Italy’s Fincantieri and UAE group EDGE have agreed to create a Abu Dhabi-based joint venture to build and sell naval vessels to non-NATO countries, the firms said Tuesday. The JV, which will be 51% owned by EDGE but run by Fincantieri managers, will aim to take advantage of the UAE’s relations with other states and the export credit financing it offers. The venture “will be awarded prime rights to non-NATO orders, especially leveraging on the attractiveness of UAE…

The Marine Corps now has its first F-35B squadron on the East Coast that has achieved initial operational capability. That is one of many steps in the Corps’ pursuit of a fully fielded and operational F-35 fleet of aircraft by 2030. Initial operational capability means that Marine Fighter Attack Squadron, VMFA 542, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, has enough operational F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, pilots, maintainers and equipment to…

PARIS: France said it would push to ease European Union environmental regulations on fallow farmland this week, as tractors blocked major highways out of Paris on Monday and nationwide farmers’ protests intensified. The French government on Friday dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised a reduction in red tape and an easing of environmental regulations, but farmers’ organisations said that was not enough and pledged to step up the pressure. The head of France’s biggest…

A Hong Kong court has ordered the liquidation of China Evergrande, the real estate firm with more than $300bn (£236.1bn) of debts, amid deepening fears for the territory’s wider corporate health. Justice Linda Chan ruled Evergrande had been unable to offer a concrete restructuring plan to creditors – more than two years after defaulting on a bond repayment and after several court hearings over the lack of a restructuring plan. “It is time for the court to say enough is…

Vancouver, British Columbia — An official commission is about to get underway in Ottawa as Canada tries to determine to what extent China and other countries interfered in its last two elections. The investigation also will examine whether Russia and India interfered as well. All three countries have denied the allegations. Former Conservative Member of Parliament Kenny Chiu (Canadian House of Commons) Justice Marie-Josee Hogue will oversee the commission, which is the latest attempt to find out how countries — predominately…

Morgan Stanley will pay $249 million to settle a criminal investigation, as well as a related Securities and Exchange Commission probe. The SEC said the bank generated more than $100 million in illicit profits as a result of misconduct by Pawan Passi, the bank’s former head of its US equity syndicate desk, and another employee.  Morgan Stanley has been under investigation by the SEC since 2019 over its handling of block trades (a business that the bank dominates), and the…

Perfectly timed to coincide with Anthony Fauci’s closed-door testimony before the US Congress, a recent bombshell report suggested, based on FOIA’d emails, that Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology met with Fauci at his National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), outside Washington, in June 2017.  According to the most popular version of the “lab-leak” theory, it is, of course, Shi’s research on coronaviruses in bats which is supposed to have given rise to the SARS-CoV-2 virus which…

Whatever the weather in Cuba this February, people may be feeling gloomy about the cost of living. The Cuban government is set to raise fuel prices fivefold at the start of next month. Havana says the move is a must, as it seeks funds to trim its deficit spending and buy needed goods from abroad. The change is not expected to have much of an immediate impact on the costs of vacation packages for Canadians looking to get away to the popular…

SEATTLE – When Microsoft opened an advanced research lab in Beijing in 1998, it was a time of optimism about technology and China. The company hired hundreds of researchers for the lab, which pioneered Microsoft’s work in speech, image and facial recognition and the kind of artificial intelligence that later gave rise to online chatbots such as ChatGPT. The Beijing operation eventually became one of the most important AI labs in the world. Mr Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, called it…

LONDON – Airbus set a sales record in 2023 by racking up more than 2,000 net orders, as airlines splashed out on purchases amid surging demand for fuel-efficient aircraft following the Covid-19 pandemic. The European plane-maker registered 2,094 net orders, driven largely by mega deals from India’s IndiGo and Air India, as well as a purchase by Turkish Airlines that was announced in December 2023. Airbus also beat its annual delivery target in 2023 by achieving 735 handovers. The goal…

WASHINGTON – Huawei Technologies, the Chinese wireless equipment maker that spent tens of millions of dollars trying to win over US policymakers only to eventually be blacklisted, has shuttered its in-house lobbying operations in Washington. Huawei’s last two registered lobbyists there – Jeff Hogg and Donald Morrissey – left in recent months, Bloomberg News found. Huawei filed its own notice that it was terminating lobbying efforts at the Capitol.  The lobbyists’ recent departures follow an exodus of staff from Huawei’s…

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo called for a “halt to the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines” in a press release and X thread. In a statement posted on X, Ladapo wrote, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have always played it fast and loose with COVID-19 safety, but their failure to test for DNA integration with the human genome – as their own guidelines dictate – when…