Headlines

A month after being dismissed on live television as chief executive officer of Portuguese airline TAP SA, Christine Ourmieres-Widener remains at the helm of the state-owned carrier, without any guidance from the government on how to run the company, Bloomberg reported. Portugal’s Finance Minister Fernando Medina sacked Ourmieres-Widener at a March 6 press conference broadcast on national television, following criticism about a severance payment of €500,000 ($547,000) to a departing executive board member.

The recent collapse of U.S. regional banks might not grow into a global financial crisis given their small scale and less complex assets, but more peers might turn into zombie banks if not properly regulated, the central bank said on Facebook, Taipei Times reported. Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) bankruptcy might not lead to a systemic crisis like Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S.

The FTSE 100 lost almost 40 points and ended lower on Tuesday at 7,634.52 points, TipRanks reported. The index opened on a stronger note after reaching a three-week high on Monday. However, towards the closing hours of trading, the stocks went down in sync with their U.S. counterparts. The U.S. equities felt pressure from higher oil prices and weaker employment data. The pound gained strength against the dollar and traded at its highest point above $1.25 since June 2022. This came as a blow to U.K. companies with greater exposure to international markets.

A judge ruled Wednesday that the Dutch government cannot order Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000, dealing a blow to efforts to cut emissions and noise pollution, the Associated Press reported. The ruling came in a summary case brought by airlines and civil aviation organizations led by Dutch carrier KLM that sought to halt the planned cuts unveiled last year.

A glut of cars on the market is to trigger a price war among manufacturers as demand fails to keep pace with supply, analysts have forecast, The Telegraph reported. UBS has estimated that global car production will exceed sales by 6pc this year, leaving an excess of five million vehicles that will require price cuts to shift. A brimming order book for most carmakers means that prices are likely to remain high for the first half of the year, analysts at the bank said.

Turns out, the biggest short in the banking industry anywhere in the world isn’t in Switzerland or Silicon Valley, but rather in the relatively tame financial center of Canada, Bloomberg reported. In recent weeks, short-sellers have upped their bearish bets against Toronto-Dominion Bank, and now have roughly $3.7 billion on the line vis-à-vis Canada’s second-largest lender, according to an analysis by S3 Partners. That’s the most among financial institutions globally and puts TD ahead of the likes of France’s BNP Paribas SA and Bank of America Corp.

Deutsche Telekom now holds a majority in T-Mobile U.S., the chief executive of the German telecoms company said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The company reached a majority stake in T-Mobile U.S late Tuesday, CEO Tim Höttges said at the company's annual general meeting. "We have the majority and are the largest shareholder of the world's most valuable telecommunications company - T-Mobile U.S.," he said. Since 2013, the value of T-Mobile U.S. has increased by 153 billion euros ($167.44 billion).

Iraq said on Tuesday it has agreed to a smaller 30% stake in TotalEnergies long-delayed $27 billion project, reviving a deal that Baghdad hopes could lure back foreign investment into the battered country which craves stability, Reuters reported. The deal was signed in 2021 for TotalEnergies to build four oil, gas and renewables projects with an initial investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years. But it has experienced several setbacks amid disputes between Iraqi politicians over terms.

Virgin Orbit, the rocket company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S., CNN reported. The California-based company said in a statement Monday that it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. “While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in the statement posted on its website.

Hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout at the company’s London offices on Tuesday, following a dispute over layoffs, Reuters reported. In January, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced it was laying off 12,000 employees worldwide, equivalent to 6% of its global workforce. The move came amid a wave of job cuts across corporate America, particularly in the tech sector, which has so far seen companies shed more than 290,000 workers since the start of the year, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi.