Walmart takes on Amazon in battle for Indian Flipkart with $15bn bid May 7, 2018 Walmart is set to take on Amazon to buy a stake in India’s biggest online retailer Flipkart, in a deal worth $15bn (£11.06bn). Reports today say that the American retailer will buy three-quarters of Flipkart’s shares at a valuation of just under $20bn. Sources close to the deal told the Financial Times that Walmart boss [...]
Russian president Vladamir Putin was inaugurated for his fourth term today amid mass protests and arrests May 7, 2018 Russian president Vladamir Putin was just sworn in at the Kremlin’s for his fourth term as the head of state. The ceremony happened in Andreevsky Hall, which acted as the throne room during Imperial Russia, and several thousand guests attended the inauguration formalities. Putin, 65, received 76.7 per cent of the votes during the March [...]
FTSE roundup: Pearson pushes the blue chip index up as sterling shows signs of weakness May 4, 2018 The FTSE 100 index ended this week up 0.86 per cent on last Friday’s close, though it lost some of the gains made at Wednesday’s peak. Recovering publisher Pearson seemed to close the chapter on its all-too-regular profit warnings, saying at had seen a “good start” to the year. It led the blue chip index, [...]
Oleg Deripaska among Russian oligarchs slapped with new US sanctions May 3, 2018 The US has imposed sweeping sanctions against Russian oligarchs, as the Trump administration continues its assault against friends of President Vladimir Putin. Billionaires Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, Suleiman Kerimov and Kirill Shamalov, who the US said is married to one of Putin’s daughters, are on the hit list revealed by the US Treasury this afternoon. [...]
MPs should know better than to smear Legatum May 3, 2018 Something is rotten in Britain’s parliament when MPs play fast and loose with parliamentary privilege, which exists for the very serious purpose of protecting the country’s national security. This week in parliament, four MPs publicly attacked Christopher Chandler, founder and partner of Legatum, as “an object of interest to French intelligence”, with a string of [...]
MP claims Legatum founder Christopher Chandler was named “an object of interest” in France over links to Russia May 1, 2018 An MP has used parliamentary privilege to claim that Legatum Institute founder Christopher Chandler has been named as a person of interest by the French authorities, because of links to Russia. Conservative Bob Seely told MPs that he and some others had been shown documents relating to national security and money laundering, from Monaco’s security [...]
BP expected to record a surge in first quarter profits on back of rising oil prices April 29, 2018 BP is expected to be the latest beneficiary of the surge in oil prices, with City analysts expecting first quarter profits to show a healthy year-on-year increase. The oil giant’s full-year results released earlier this year showed the company was already in a strong position, with profits coming in at $6.2bn (£4.4bn). Boss Bob Dudley [...]
Russian embassy not happy with MPs’ new defence group April 23, 2018 The Russian Embassy in the UK has hit out at a move by high-profile backbencher Tom Tugendhat to set up a new group to discuss defence in Parliament, describing it as “purely unconstructive”. The Russian Coordination Group, announced last week, will be chaired by Foreign Affairs Committee head Tugendhat, Tory colleague Nicky Morgan, who heads [...]
Aluminium price and nickel price continue to surge on Russia sanction fears April 19, 2018 Metals markets have rallied today as pressure from US sanctions on Russia and rising oil prices boost commodities to multi-year highs. Aluminium giant Rusal continues to feel the heat from sanctions issued earlier this month to target Russian oligarchs and the companies they control. The metal rose to highs not seen since 2011 today while [...]
Aluminium price climbs to near seven-year high on fears over Rusal supplies April 17, 2018 Aluminium rose to nearly a seven-year high this morning as the fallout of US sanctions against Russia’s Rusal continue to fuel fears of tightening supply. Benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) climbed to a high of $2,435 a tonne, a more than two per cent rise and its highest price since September 2011. [...]