Deutsche Lufthansa AG repaid the last of its 9 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) bailout ahead of schedule, paving the way for the German government to sell its stake in the airline group for a significant profit, Bloomberg News reported. A recovery in international travel and successful refinancing measures allowed the airline to return the taxpayer cash, it said in a statement Friday. The state stands to net close to $1 billion in profit once it sells its 14% holding over the next two years. “It was good business for the treasury,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said in a statement.
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British private-sector employers expect to raise staff pay by an average of 2.5% over the next 12 months, well below the likely rate of inflation, according to a survey that could ease worries at the Bank of England about the risk of a wage-price spiral, Reuters reported. The quarterly figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) suggested that companies were taking only cautious steps to battle growing recruitment difficulties.
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Two accountants appointed to find a way forward through examinership for two insolvent building firms are to investigate a number of matters of concern, a judge has ruled. It is thought to be the first joint examinership in Ireland, the Irish Independent reported. Judge John O’Connor, after appointing chartered accountants Joe Walsh and John Healy as joint examiners to Trinity Homes Limited and a related company, Yeronga Ltd, noted they would review a dividend payment of almost €1m by Trinity Homes to a former director.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers' Greek affiliate has agreed to pay $14.9 million to settle with Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. shareholders who accused the auditor of failing to catch a $300 million fraud, Reuters reported. If approved by a federal judge in Manhattan, the deal proposed on Tuesday would end a Utah pension fund's claims that the auditor recklessly disregarded red flags when it audited the fuel transport company's financial statements in 2016. PwC Greece did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.
Credit Suisse’s legal charges started rising last year as it sought to clear civil cases in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Credit Suisse Group AG CS 0.40% is vowing to end reckless risk-taking at the bank. The cost of earlier misdeeds are likely to keep biting back for years, weighing on efforts to put the past behind it. The Swiss lender suffered twin disasters this year from the implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management and financing partner Greensill Capital’s bankruptcy.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has set aside a 15 billion-pound ($20 billion) fund that could be used for tax cuts before the next election if the pandemic is brought under control, analysis of U.K. budget figures shows, Bloomberg News reported. Sunak put the money aside in a reserve for unforeseen emergencies in a spending review published with the budget last month. While all chancellors maintain such a cushion in case spending overshoots, Sunak’s is multiples larger than that of his predecessors.
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Two Irish building companies involved in the construction of rural housing have been given the protection of the courts from their creditors, the Irish Times reported. Trinity Homes Ltd (THL), and a related company, Yeronga Ltd, are involved in the construction of new housing units primarily in rural parts of the State, including Wexford, Tipperary, Kerry and Meath. Many of the units have been built for local authorities. The companies have also constructed units for the housing charity Cluid.
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The Bank of England and the Treasury are to launch a formal consultation on a UK central bank digital currency, BBC.com reported. This evaluation of the design and possible benefits of a new kind of digital money is a further step towards its possible creation. The currency, for use by households and businesses, would sit alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them. No decision has been taken on whether to have such a currency in the UK.
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The number of the Irish citizens receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has fallen by over half million or 87 per cent since the peak of the crisis, the Irish Times reported. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show there were 77,806 workers in receipt of the payment at the end of last month, down from 605,671 in the first week of May last year. This corresponds to a fall of 527,865 or 87 per cent when compared to peak.
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Irish government ministers have met to dust off contingency plans in case disagreements between Britain and the European Union trigger major trade disruption, deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The European Union last week said that Britain had made no move to seek a compromise on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland and cautioned London against triggering emergency unilateral provisions Anger, tangle and trouble: Is another Brexit showdown looming? in the Brexit deal.
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