By Dominique Vidalon PARIS (Reuters) – Heavily-indebted French retailer Casino said on Thursday sales growth slowed in the first quarter, fuelling further concerns over its ability to generate cash and sending its shares down as much as 15%. Casino, headed and controlled by veteran entrepreneur Jean-Charles Naouri, is striving to find a way out of…
By Helen Reid LONDON (Reuters) – Adidas is set to update investors on Friday about the unsold Yeezy shoes that have put the German sportswear giant in a predicament since it cut ties with Kanye West over his anti-Semitic comments late last year. Executives are expected to tackle the issue when the company reports first-quarter…
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Some South Africans are calling for Britain to return the world’s largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa, which is set in the royal sceptre that King Charles III will hold at his coronation on Saturday. The diamond, which weighs 530 carats, was discovered in South Africa in 1905 and presented…
By Giuseppe Fonte ROME (Reuters) – Italy should introduce a tax on banks to claw back extra profits made on the back of rising interest rates that have not been passed on to consumers, an adviser to the economy ministry told Reuters on Thursday. European lenders have consistently beaten expectations in recent quarters as higher…
MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit will use restructuring charges to help fund voluntary exits for some of the additional 1,000 employees who asked to leave under an early retirement scheme launched last year, two people close to the matter said. In reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly results, UniCredit on Wednesday raised its 2023 profit goal above 6.5 billion euros…
By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Amy-Jo Crowley and Andres Gonzalez LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. buyout house Blackstone is weighing options for Dutch merchant bank NIBC, including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The fund manager has been informally sounding out other banks and potential financial buyers to gauge their appetite, said the…
By Suban Abdulla LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s services sector kicked off the second quarter with its fastest growth in a year, boosted by new orders, but it passed the cost of rising wage bills on to consumers, adding pressure on the Bank of England to keep raising interest rates. The final S&P Global/CIPS UK Services Purchasing…
By Sinead Cruise, John O’Donnell and Tom Sims LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) – European savers are pulling more of their money from banks, looking for a better deal as lenders resist paying up to hold on to deposits some feel they can currently live without. The trend emerged as some of the region’s biggest lenders outlined a…
By Victoria Waldersee BERLIN (Reuters) -BMW will not cut electric vehicle (EV) prices in China and may raise some car prices at a global level, to help weather the higher input costs of EV production, it said on Thursday following first quarter results. The carmaker reported a higher earnings margin for its cars segment, at…
(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that it knew Pope Francis was thinking about ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that it was not aware of any detailed peace plans from the Vatican. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Francis has offered to act as a broker between Moscow and Kyiv…
