Headlines

Global M&A activity broke records for a second consecutive quarter this year as companies continued to borrow cheaply and spend their cash reserves on transformative deals to reposition themselves for the post-COVID world, Reuters reported. Deals worth $1.5 trillion were announced in the three months to June 30, more than any second quarter on record and up 13% from the record first quarter of the year despite activity among blank-check firms slowed down.

The state energy company of Qatar wrapped up the biggest emerging-market bond sale this year, selling $12.5 billion of dollar bonds as it seeks to raise output of liquefied natural gas and cement its domination of the market, Bloomberg reported. The producer sold a four-part deal with tranches maturing in five, 10, 20 and 30 years, with the longest portion yielding 3.3%. The company’s last dollar sale was in 2006, when it raised $650 million. Investors placed around $40 billion of orders.

Britain is set to secure an exemption for financial services from a new global tax system which was agreed by the Group of Seven economies to squeeze more money out of multinationals like Google, the Financial Times said, Reuters reported. Earlier this month, British finance minister Rishi Sunak was pushing for financial service firms to be exempt to help protect the City of London’s largest banks from paying more tax.

Gap will close all its 81 stores in Britain and Ireland by the end of September as it increases its focus on online shopping, The New York Times reported. The retailer also plans to shed its 32 locations in France and Italy. “The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping,” Gap said in a statement. The company is in negotiations with Hermione People and Brands, the retail branch of FIB Group, to take over Gap stores in France, while a buyer for the Italy locations is still not certain.

The number of people registered as sex workers with German authorities declined sharply last year as coronavirus restrictions shut brothels for months, official data showed Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Legislation in 2002 legalized and regulated prostitution in Germany, giving sex workers social benefits, and they are now obliged to register. But brothels have been closed for much of the time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 as part of wider lockdowns.

Euro zone manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest pace on record in June, according to a survey that also showed factories faced the steepest rise in raw materials costs in well over two decades, Reuters reported. The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments to shutter much of the 19-country bloc's dominant services industry, ravaging the economy, but factories have largely remained open and the lifting of some restrictions has boosted demand.