Headlines

Bidders for Sanofi’s consumer healthcare unit are revising their offers in part to address concerns around potential liabilities related to a brand that sold talcum powder, Bloomberg News reported. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had asked suitors to revise their proposals for the Opella business, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week. The new bids may exclude parts of the Gold Bond business, a brand that historically sold talc-based products, or seek to leave any future legal risks with Sanofi.

Munich-based flying taxi startup Lilium is facing mounting liquidity issues, according to its half year report published this week, Sifted.eu reported. The company says that it “immediately requires additional capital to continue to finance its ongoing operations” and will be forced to cut costs, reduce operations or file for insolvency if it cannot raise fresh funding. The stark warning comes just months after Lilium raised $114m from investors in May.

Ghana is close to receiving another $360 million disbursement from the International Monetary Fund as it reached a staff-level agreement with the Washington-based lender on the third review of an extended credit facility program, Bloomberg News reported. The final decision will be taken by the IMF Executive Board, the fund said in a statement on Friday. This would bring to $1.92 billion in total disbursements the West African nation has received since agreeing to a $3 billion bailout package with the fund in May 2023.

The European Union will move ahead with tariffs of up to 45% on electric vehicles made in China, defying pleas from some European auto executives who fear retaliation from Beijing and an escalating trade war, the Wall Street Journal reported. EU member states voted Friday to impose the new import fees that will apply for the next five years in a move aimed at protecting European carmakers amid rising competition from Chinese-made vehicles.

Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill warned against cutting interest rates “too far or too fast” as he set out his case for a “gradual withdrawal” of restrictive monetary policy over the coming months, Bloomberg News reported. Pill, one of the more hawkish members of the Monetary Policy Committee who opposed the quarter-point rate point cut to 5% in August but voted to hold in September, said he is concerned that inflation could prove “more lasting” than expected.

Czech central bank Governor Ales Michl reaffirmed his message of caution in monetary easing as he seeks to avoid a fresh wave of inflation, Bloomberg News reported. While consumer price growth has stabilized near the 2% target, policymakers are wary of continued increases in costs of services and of budget deficits, Michl said in an interview with Seznamzpravy.cz published on Friday. The Czech National Bank must proceed “very cautiously” with further interest-rate cuts, and it may halt them if those inflation risks grow, he said.

French manufacturing output grew more quickly than expected in August, a rare bright sign in a sector that has struggled to recover from recent shocks, the Wall Street Journal reported. Output from goods-producing industries was 1.6% higher over the month, according to figures set out Friday by France’s statistics agency. Production increased across various sectors, including pharmaceuticals, transportation and automotive. The uptick in factory production comes despite signs of continued slowdown in the sector, according to business surveys published last month.

Program talks between the International Monetary Fund and El Salvador focus on strengthening reforms, while addressing risks arising from the use of bitcoin remains a key element of the discussions, the IMF said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "What we have recommended is a narrowing of the scope of the bitcoin law, strengthening the regulatory framework and oversight of the bitcoin ecosystem, and limiting public sector exposure to bitcoin," IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said in a scheduled press conference.

Governor Tiff Macklem announced plans to reorganize the Bank of Canada’s governance structure by adding a second outsider to its main policy-making body, expanding the number of officials involved in setting interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. The Ottawa-based central bank plans to increase the size of its governing council to seven from six by creating another external deputy governor position. Nicolas Vincent — who was the first to take one of these part-time, shorter-duration contracts — will also have his term extended to March 2026.

U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports were reopened on Friday after dockworkers and port operators reached a wage deal to settle the industry's biggest work stoppage in nearly half a century, but clearing the cargo backlog will take time, Reuters reported. The strike ended sooner than investors had expected, weakening shipping stocks as freight rates were no longer expected to surge. "The port strike ended fairly quickly, removing any significant downside risk to the economy this quarter," said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.