Category: Business

Volkswagen is bringing forward the development of a small electric car for the mass market in anticipation of tougher climate regulations, as it seeks to boost sales in a new green era. Under the project dubbed “Small BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)”, engineers are racing to develop a purely-battery powered car around the size of a […]

Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency is readying to launch as early as January, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing three unidentified people involved in the project. The Geneva-based Libra Association that will issue and govern Libra plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar, the FT said, citing one of the people. The […]

Japan’s biggest airline ANA Holdings said on Friday it will issue new shares to raise $3.2 billion, much of which will be used to fund its orders of fuel-efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets. Like other big global airlines ANA has been making cost cuts, including pay reductions, to cope with a coronavirus-driven travel slump. But […]

Activist investor Gianluca Ferrari, who has led campaigns against a string of mid-cap firms, is setting up a fund targeting companies lagging on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Ferrari, who made his name pushing for change at companies including EDP Renovaveis and Retelit as part of Frankfurt-based Shareholder Value Management, said his firm, Clearway […]

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd have each held separate talks with Baidu Inc to acquire a controlling stake in video streaming service iQIYI Inc, people with knowledge of the matter said. But the discussions have stalled with little hope of recommencing soon as they balk at a valuation of around $20 billion […]

British housing minister Robert Jenrick said there was no reason for anyone to be concerned about the data behind the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine and said the independent regulator would work to assess it. “I don’t think there is any reason to be unduly concerned,” he told Sky News. “We have now written to the […]

German consumers remain gloomy ahead of the traditionally big-spending Christmas season and a temporary reduction in sales tax worth up to 20 billion euros has failed to get them into shops or online — even when companies have passed it on. The six-month cut in value-added tax from 19% to 16% was the centrepiece of […]