The industry in Spain is “slowly recovering” – in fact it is sinking with a slower pace – from the severe blows from the corona crisis as lockdown measures in the country are gradually eased. According to Markit, the contraction of Spanish industrial activity last month was somewhat less than before. The purchasing manager index for industry in Spain was 38.3 in May...
France has to postpone the auction of 5G frequencies until the end of the year due to the current high pressure on the telecom networks due to the corona crisis. That is the opinion of the boss of the French telecom company Bouygues Telecom, Didier Casas. According to Calas, industry colleague Orange also believes that postponing the auction is the best option at the moment. Other competitors...
Volkswagen’s top managers have settled in a German lawsuit over the automaker’s diesel scandal. CEO Herbert Diess and chairman of the supervisory board Hans Dieter Pötsch each pay 4.5 million euros to avoid prosecution for deceiving shareholders. Prosecutors in Germany accused the two drivers of informing investors too late about a US investigation into tampering with diesel car...
Chipmaker Infineon is significantly gloomier over the rest of its broken fiscal year. The car industry is an important market for the German group, which is severely affected by the corona crisis. For the full fiscal year, Infineon now expects a 5 percent drop in sales if the recent acquisition of Cypress is not included. Initially, the company aimed at an increase in revenue of 5 percent. The...
The Saudi petrochemical group Sabic suffered from a low demand for chemicals last quarter. The group warned in January that demand will be weak all year. Since then, the situation only got worse because of lockdowns to bring the coronavirus under control. As a result, Sabic recorded a loss. The Saudi group, which has its European headquarters in the Netherlands, sells many chemicals that follow...
The American technology group IBM continued to grow with its cloud division in the past quarter. Under pressure from the corona crisis, however, results across the board declined. The company has also withdrawn its financial forecast for the whole of 2020 due to the great uncertainty in the market. International Business Machines, as IBM is called in full, saw cloud revenue grow 19 percent to $ 5...
Inflation in China was lower in March than in February, due to weak demand caused by the lockdown against the new corona virus. Inflation was 4.3 percent year-on-year, from 5.2 percent in February. That is the lowest level since October. Economists had generally expected a stronger price increase. Demand for goods remained weak despite easing government restrictions against the lung virus. As a...
Real estate fund Atrium is struggling with stricter rules in Poland and Russia to curb the spread of the new corona virus, which means that shops must keep their doors closed. In Poland, Atrium is obliged to cut rents, while in Russia the store closings will take longer. The Polish government has adopted legislation that allows companies to temporarily impose lower rents on retail units in...
Heineken has invested millions in its Brazilian beer factory. The brewer puts out 865 million real, equivalent to 161 million euros, in the course of this and the coming year. The factory named Ponta Grossa is the third largest factory in Parana. According to experts, Brazil is an even more important market for Heineken’s turnover than Europe or the United States. The investment of Heineken...
ING is considering selling its Turkish activities. The Bloomberg news agency reports it based on the insider information. The bank is said to have had exploratory talks with advisors about the divestment of its Turkish part. The bank also approached a Turkish counterpart at the end of last year to gauge the interest in a takeover. Sources emphasize to Bloomberg that no final decisions have yet...