Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
Noble Group Holdings Ltd., the commodity trader shrunken by years of losses and a multibillion dollar restructuring, has paid $20 million to former Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Leiman. The payment to Leiman, who left the company in 2011 -- several years before its 2018 restructuring was disclosed in a presentation accompanying Noble’s third-quarter results on Friday. It followed a long legal battle concluded in May, when Singapore’s Court of Appeal ruled that Noble had deprived Leiman of entitlements including the right to exercise share options when he left.
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
Richard Branson, the thrill-seeking British billionaire, founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 on the promise that a privately developed spacecraft would make it possible for hundreds of people to become astronauts, no NASA training required. And if a 2,500-mile-per-hour ride to the edge of space sounded off-putting, Branson also pledged to take the journey himself before letting paying customers on board. Branson is the only one among the group of the so-called space barons, the group of space-loving billionaires that includes Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who has publicly pledged to take a ride in the near future aboard a spacecraft he has bankrolled. Bezos' company, Blue Origin, is working on a competing suborbital space tourism rocket. Musk's SpaceX, however, is focused on transporting astronauts and perhaps one day tourists on days-long missions to Earth's orbit.
Source:https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/06/tech/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-scn/index.html
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
Luxury carmaker Bentley has unveiled plans to go fully electric by 2030.Before then, the brand will be switching its model range to offer only plug-in hybrid or battery electric cars by 2026. Volkswagen-owned Bentley also aims to be completely carbon neutral across its manufacturing within a decade. Electric cars are growing in popularity and sales have tripled in the UK so far this year. "Within a decade, Bentley will transform from a 100-year-old luxury car company to a new, sustainable, wholly ethical role model for luxury," said Adrian Hallmark, Bentley's chief
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
US retailer Gap could close all of its own UK stores, putting thousands of jobs at risk, as it mulls shifting its operations to franchise-only in Europe. Shops in the UK, France, Ireland and Italy could shut next summer, along with its UK-based European distribution centre, the retailer said. Gap would not disclose the number of UK stores it has, nor the size of its workforce. Falling sales in recent years have been exacerbated by coronavirus disruption. The retailer reported a £740m loss in the three months to May. Instead of operating its own stores, Gap said it was looking at whether to move to a franchise model. The retailer had 129 Gap-branded stores in Europe at the end of July, and about 400 franchise stores.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54635810
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
Coca-Cola is saying goodbye to 200 brands, or half of its portfolio. The beverage giant had already announced that it will discontinue some beloved, if outdated, drinks, like Tab, Zico and Odwalla. Thursday was the first time the company said it would get rid of 200 of them. Reducing the portfolio will allow Coca-Cola to focus on its most profitable offerings, the company explained. Those include its core products like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar as well as brands that fit into trendy new categories, like Topo Chico hard seltzer and AHA, a caffeinated seltzer the company launched last year. CEO James Quincey said during an analyst call that the company has finalized which brands will remain in the portfolio. He didn't give specific names that will get axed, but said that the "hydration" category, with Dasani, Powerade, Vitamin Water and Zico, and other brands, will likely see more cuts.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/22/business/coke-zico-tab/index.html
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
The mammoth dual listing for Chinese biotech giant Ant Group will be the world’s biggest, according to a pricing determined on Friday night, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said on Saturday. “It’s the first time that the pricing of such a big listing — the largest in human history — has been determined outside New York City” he told the Bund Summit in the eastern financial hub of Shanghai. “We didn’t dare to think about it five years ago, or even three years ago. But a miracle just occurred,” he told the audience, which included officials from China’s regulators. He did not give exact details of the pricing which is expected to be officially announced next week. Backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant plans to list simultaneously in Hong Kong and on Shanghai’s STAR Market in the coming weeks.
Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753611/business-economy
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the chemical maker in which Saudi Aramco holds a majority stake, returned to profit in the third quarter amid signs of a recovery in demand from impact of the coronavirus. The company, known as Sabic, said third-quarter profit was 1.09 billion riyals ($290 million) compared with 740 million riyals in the same period last year. Profit was higher mainly due to the reversal of 690 million riyals of impairments associated with Clariant AG, in which Sabic holds a 31.5% stake. Revenue in the three months to the end of September fell 11% to 29.3 billion.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-25/saudi-chemicals-maker-sabic-returns-to-profit-as-demand-recovers?srnd=premium-middle-east
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai tweeted on Saturday that the UAE had merged the Insurance Authority with the Central Bank of UAE. He added that the new economic organization in the country aims at raising the efficiency of the insurance sector and raising the efficiency and competitiveness of UAE's local financial markets while giving them greater flexibility in their business. The decision also transfers all operational and executive powers of the Securities and Commodities Authority to the local stock markets, while the SCA maintains regulation and oversight of the local financial markets, Sheikh Mohammed said in a tweet.
Source: https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/uae-merges-insurance-authority-with-the-central-bank-of-uae-1.1603526863187
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
The UAE’s largest telco Etisalat has been recognized as the world’s fastest mobile network operator in Q2-Q3 2020 in a new ranking from Speed test by Ookla. The ranking is based on analysis by Ookla of millions of tests actively initiated by customers across every network to check internet speeds using various web and mobile platforms. The Speed test awards for top network providers are determined using a ‘Speed Score’ that measures a provider’s network speeds (download and upload) to rank network speed performance. Etisalat registered a download speed of 115.89 Mbps and an overall ranking in the ‘Speed Score’ at 98.78 Mbps, It is the only operator globally to rank higher than 90 according to the Ookla Speed test data, reported news agency WAM.
Source: https://gulfbusiness.com/uaes-etisalat-recognised-as-worlds-fastest-mobile-network/
Dr. Ajith Kumar V.V
The pandemic has wiped out millions of mostly low-income jobs in hotels, restaurants, retail and other hard-hit corners of the economy. Now, the pink slips are spreading to higher-paid office workers. In the last few days, ExxonMobil, Chevron (CVX), Charles Schwab and Raytheon have announced plans to cut thousands of white-collar jobs. That's on top of major layoffs already announced or reported in the press at Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce (CRM), Allstate (ALL) and CNN owner Warner Media. Corporate America's belt-tightening provides more evidence of the fragile and uneven nature of the economic recovery from the pandemic. Just as laid-off Americans in some parts of the economy are returning to work, others are filing for unemployment.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/30/business/jobs-white-collar-layoffs/index.html