French football’s financial crisis: Why Ligue 1’s €3bn deal with Mediapro collapsed and what it means for the Premier League January 8, 2021 Lille OSC are flying high in Ligue 1, into the latter stages of the Europa League — and €125m in debt. This season, financial turmoil off the pitch is tainting the French football club’s on-field success. Last month, Lille’s major creditors JP Morgan and Elliott Management forced the club’s embattled owner Gerard Lopez to sell [...]
Meet the VN5, a London cab for packages, not people January 8, 2021 The LEVC VN5 is an efficient plug-in hybrid van based on the TX taxi. Tim Pitt puts it to work clearing his office.
Before the Bell: Bulls in control, calm restored to Capitol Hill January 7, 2021 The disturbance at Capitol Hill derailed the process of certifying the Biden electoral victory for a number of hours last night but was then resumed so the final confirmation of Biden’s win should be relatively straightforward. Moreover, the FTSE 100 had a stellar run yesterday as it closed up more than 3 per cent and [...]
Hong Kong police arrest 53 pro-democracy activists in dawn raids January 6, 2021 Hong Kong police have today arrested 53 pro-democracy activists in a series of dawn raids in Beijing’s biggest crackdown on the city-state since introducing controversial new security legislation last year. Almost 1,000 police officers were involved in raids on 72 premises across the city, which saw some of the former British province’s most prominent activists [...]
New York Stock Exchange scraps plans to delist Chinese telecoms firms January 5, 2021 The New York Stock Exchange has scrapped plans to delist three Chinese telecoms stocks in a shock U-turn. In a statement last night the exchange said it would no longer go ahead with plans to remove China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom Hong Kong from its index. It said the decision came “in light [...]
Before the Bell: Softer start expected amid tighter restrictions January 5, 2021 European stock markets closed higher yesterday as the sentiment was broadly bullish and the FTSE 100 gained the most ground by a long way. The UK market closed up 1.7 per cent, while the DAX 30 finished fractionally higher and CAC 40 posted a gain of almost 0.7 per cent. Yesterday marked the first day [...]
Where is Jack Ma? Chinese billionaire ‘missing’ after criticising Beijing January 4, 2021 Speculation has been mounting over the whereabouts of Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma, who has not been seen in public for two months. Ma, who founded ecommerce behemoth Alibaba, hit the headlines in October when he made a speech criticising China’s financial regulators and state banks. The tycoon was reprimanded by Beijing and the $34bn [...]
2021 the year for central bank issued digital currencies? January 4, 2021 The Bank of Japan is one of the latest institutions to make public its plans to experiment on how to operate its own digital currency, joining an expanding club of central banks, concerned with the rapid pace of private-sector innovation in the field of payments. Among its members, the club counts the central banks of [...]
EU and China sign investment pact after Merkel’s intervention December 30, 2020 The EU and China have concluded in principle negotiations on an investment deal, with Angela Merkel playing an “active role” in driving through the accord. The deal comes amid deep concerns about the Chinese government’s use of its economic clout to enmesh itself in western countries. A European Commission statement said the agreement is of [...]
EU and China on the brink of sealing historic trade pact December 29, 2020 The European Union and China are close to signing a trade and investment pact, according to multiple reports. The deal would be the first fissure in trade policy to develop post-Brexit between the UK and the continental trading bloc. The pact is said to open up China’s manufacturing and construction sectors to EU companies. Whilst [...]