Elon Musk’s SpaceX wins Nasa commercial flight contract September 17, 2014 It’s a good day for PayPal founder Elon Musk; his SpaceX corporation has been selected by Nasa as one of the two firms to design crew capsules for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Commercial Crew Development programme has awarded SpaceX and Boeing a combined sum of $6.2bn to develop the capsules. [...]
Boeing and SpaceX will share a $6.8bn space taxi Nasa contract September 16, 2014 NASA yesterday revealed Boeing and SpaceX will share a $6.8bn (£4.2bn) contract to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Massive aerospace and defence company Boeing will get $4.2bn from Nasa to use its CST-100 capsule to ferry astronauts to the ISS. Meanwhile SpaceX, founded in 2002 by former Paypal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors [...]
Petropavlovsk share price tanks 15 per cent on rights issue to pay bonds September 16, 2014 Shares in Russia-focused gold mining company Petropavlovsk plummeted 15 per cent yesterday on news the indebted miner was seeking a rights issue to placate its senior lender banks and bond holders. A decline in the price of gold in recent years has hit the London-listed miner, which had net debt of $924m (£568m) as of [...]
Mail.ru share price up as Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov takes full stake in “Russian Facebook” VKontakte for $1.47 billion September 16, 2014 Moscow-based internet company Mail.ru has bought a remaining 48 per cent stake in the social network VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, for $1.47bn (£909m) taking full ownership of the business. Mail.ru said in addition to the sale, all legal action among itself, United Capital Partners which sold the stake and VK founder Pavel Durov had [...]
Rouble falls to record low against the dollar on ceasefire worries September 15, 2014 Scottish independence may be hitting the headlines over here, but morning trading showed markets' main concerns are still over the situation in Ukraine and the associated sanctions hitting Russian businesses. While the pound fell slightly against the dollar – 0.02 per cent – on jitters over what will happen north of the border on Thursday, [...]
Who have the US and EU put on their Russian sanctions hit lists (and why)? September 12, 2014 Further sanctions against Russia came in today, and it's safe to say that if you are in President Putin's inner circle you've probably been affected. A number of companies – including Gazprom – have also been targeted by the punitive measures for the first time. Here is our round up of who the [...]
Russia’s counter-sanctions: Used cars and clothes September 12, 2014 The new EU sanctions to be levelled at Russia from this morning will be harsh. They will further restrict Russian oil firms such as Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom from borrowing or raising capital on the EU markets. This is a big deal for the Russian companies, with Rosneft already having gone cap in hand to the [...]
Russia sanctions: Private flights to Nice down 5pc as jets grounded September 12, 2014 Western sanctions are grounding private jets and disrupting the holiday plans of wealthy Russians, according to Bloomberg. The measures are aimed at restricting travel for leading Russian business people and the article quotes Umberto Vallino, head of business aviation development for Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez airports, as confirming a first drop in private air traffic [...]
EU leaders give green light to Russia sanctions September 11, 2014 EUROPEAN leaders have agreed a plan to enact tough new sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. The decision was made yesterday morning and the sanctions, which are expected to further restrict the import of dual-use goods, restrict bank loans and make it harder for Russia to do business with the EU on oil [...]
Ukraine conflict casts a chill on Gazprom as profits fall sharply September 11, 2014 GAZPROM took a huge blow to its profits in the first three months of 2014, as the conflict in Ukraine and a weaker rouble took their toll on the massive Russian gas supplier. Net profits at Gazprom, Russia’s largest company, fell 41 per cent in the first half of 2014 compared with a year before, [...]