Business

HSBC plans to speed up job cuts after interim profits plunged and the bank said bad loans linked to the coronavirus could reach $13bn (£9.8bn). HSBC boss Noel Quinn said it will “accelerate” an earlier restructuring plan which included axing 35,000 jobs. “Our operating environment has changed significantly since the start of the year,” he said. Mr Quinn also said ...

Jet2 has announced it will refund customers on holiday in Spain who have been asked to fly back to the UK early. On Thursday, the airline cancelled flights back to the UK for hundreds of passengers. The carrier told the BBC it is operating empty flights to pick up passengers from Spanish destinations up to and including 3 August. Jet2holidays ...

GE on Friday announced that it will provide its advanced gas turbine technology upgrade Advanced Gas Path (AGP) for the upcoming Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power Ltd.’s 718-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant in Meghnaghat, Bangladesh. Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power Ltd. is a joint venture between India’s Reliance Power and Japan’s JERA. Built by Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) ...

British car retail giant Pendragon will axe 1,800 jobs as it grapples with the coronavirus-induced downturn, it said Thursday, while sector data showed vehicle output languishing at a 1954 low. Pendragon said in a statement that it would shut 15 dealerships with the loss of 400 employees, and will shed another 1,400 posts to streamline the business. The broad restructuring ...

UK-based bank Standard Chartered has seen its profits slump as it was hit by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Underlying pre-tax profit fell 25% to $1.95bn (£1.5bn) for the first half of the year as economic weakness drove up the number of bad loans on its books. The bank’s outlook was also clouded by political unrest in Hong Kong, ...

Nissan’s shares have plunged by 10% in Tokyo trading after warning that it would see a record annual loss. Japan’s second largest carmaker said it expects a $4.5bn (£3.5bn) operating loss this year as the coronavirus hinders its turnaround efforts. The worse-than-expected forecast came as the company predicted its sales will be the lowest in a decade, BBC reported. It’s ...

The Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP), announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 for Jammu and Kashmir, has proved to be a breather for the farmers in the Union Territory as the horticulture department has set up apple orchards in Anantnag district to help increase the apple production. The department has lent a helping hand to an apple grower ...

German business confidence rose for the third month in a row in July, a key survey said Monday, as Europe’s top economy bounced back from coronavirus lockdowns. The Ifo institute’s monthly barometer rose to 90.5 points, up from 86.3 in June, beating analyst expectations. “The German economy is recovering step by step,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said. The index plunged ...

The Trump administration in recent weeks appears only to be fixated on precisely two Chinese firms — TikTok and Huawei, said a Washington-based think tank while suggesting that the United States should be focused more on the expansive operations of Chinese state-owned enterprises that are quietly dominating the sectors of infrastructure, telecommunications, transportation, energy, and financial services globally. China is ...

The US government on Friday announced updated export restrictions on unmanned aerial systems (UAS), a move long sought by the country’s defense industries. “The President has decided to invoke our national discretion to treat a carefully selected subset of MTCR Category I UAS, which cannot travel faster than 800 kilometers per hour, as Category II,” said the White House in ...