Ikea is buying the former flagship central London store of Topshop for £378m following the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire. The Swedish giant will turn several floors of the huge Oxford Street site into a furniture store as part of a strategy to open inner-city outlets. The 239,000 sq ft retail and office space, on seven floors, houses NikeTown and Vans, who stay as tenants. Ikea said despite the growth of online sales, bricks and mortar remained key. Peter Jelkeby, retail manager of Ikea UK & Ireland, said societies were seeing big changes in the way people live … Continue reading Ikea buys landmark Topshop building in London

Twitter lost more than half a billion dollars in the three months to September after it paid $809.5m (£588m) to settle a long-running lawsuit. The social media giant was accused of misleading investors over user engagement in 2015. However despite this one-off charge, its quarterly revenue grew 37% as it managed to shrug off the impact from Apple’s privacy changes which hit rivals such as Snap and Facebook. This sent Twitters shares up 3%. In September Twitter agreed to settle a class action with their shareholders dating back to 2016. The suit claimed Twitter misled investors about how many users … Continue reading Twitter profits slump after settling long-running lawsuit

The rental car company Hertz said on Monday that it would buy 100,000 vehicles from Tesla, sending the electric vehicle company’s stock surging and boosting founder and chief executive Elon Musk’s fortunes by billions.Tesla chief executive Elon Musk dances onstage during a delivery event for Tesla China-made Model 3 cars in Shanghai in January 2020. The order, which Hertz said it would complete by the end of 2022, is part of its “significant investment to offer the largest EV (electric vehicle) rental fleet in North America,” the company said in a statement. Tesla shares rose by more than 12 percent after … Continue reading Tesla passes $1 trillion in market value after Hertz orders 100,000 of its vehicles

UBS Group has agreed to sell its Spanish wealth management business to Madrid-based Singular Bank, the Swiss bank said on Monday, its second exit from a European market in the past 12 months. UBS said it was selling UBS Gestion to Singular for an undisclosed sum. German newspaper Handelsblatt said Singular Bank will pay UBS between 200 million and 250 million euros ($291 million) for the subsidiary. The deal follows UBS’s exit from Austria last December, when it sold its operation catering for wealthy clients to Liechenstein-based private bank LGT. UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager with more than $3 … Continue reading UBS sells Spanish wealth management business to Singular Bank

Facebook has posted better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter, as it continues to face bad press over leaked internal documents. The social media giant made $9bn (£6.5bn) of profit in the three months to September, up from $7.8bn last year. However, it was hit by a new privacy update to Apple’s iOS 14 operating system, which made it harder for brands to target ads at specific users. It comes amid fresh claims of unethical behaviour made by a former employee. Frances Haugen has released a cache of internal documents to the press, alleging that Facebook put profit before user safety. … Continue reading Facebook earns $9bn despite whistleblower scandal

Australian telco Telstra has partnered with the Australian government in a $1.6 billion deal to buy the South Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal that would prevent a key part of the region’s telecommunications infrastructure falling into Chinese hands. Telstra, the nation’s largest telco, said in a statement on Monday it would contribute $270 million to the deal and hold 100% of the equity in Digicel Pacific. The terms of the sale were agreed on and would be completed within six months, Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn said. “Digicel Pacific is a commercially attractive asset and critical to telecommunications … Continue reading Australia invests in $1.6 billion South Pacific telco deal

There are still three more weeks to go China’s annual mega shopping event on November 11, but one of China’s top live-streamers has already sold some $1.7 billion worth of goods in a promotion to usher in the event. In a 12-hour-livestream on Wednesday kicking off Alibaba’s Singles Day Shopping Festival on its Taobao app, Austin Li Jiaqi- widely known as “lipstick king” – moved 10.6 billion Chinese yuan ($1.7 billion) worth of products reported China’s Economic Daily newspaper. Alibaba does not typically release sales numbers, but CED cited data from third-party data analysis company Hongren Dianji. Products sold range from Shiseido skincare … Continue reading Amazing: China’s Lipstick King sold an astonishing $1.7 billion in goods in 12 hours

Shares in embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande opened up 6% in Hong Kong after Chinese media reported it had made an interest payment before a crucial deadline. The company missed an $83.5m (£61m) payment last month, triggering a 30-day grace period set to expire on Saturday. The company wired the funds on Friday, a source told newswire Reuters. Had the deadline been missed, Evergrande would have plunged into formal default. News of the payment saw Evergrande’s shares bounce back from a sharp fall the previous day, following news that a deal to sell part of its property services unit had fallen … Continue reading Update: Evergrande shares rise on report of bond interest payment

PayPal Holdings Inc has offered to buy digital pinboard site Pinterest Inc for $45bn, people familiar with the matter said, a combination that could herald more tie-ups between financial technology and social media companies in e-commerce. The deal talks revealed on Wednesday come as internet shoppers increasingly buy items they see on social media, often following “influencers” on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Buying Pinterest would allow PayPal to capture more of that e-commerce growth and diversify its income through advertising revenue. PayPal has offered $70 per share, mostly in stock, for Pinterest, one of the sources said. The … Continue reading PayPal wants to buy pinboard site Pinterest for $45bn?

Headquarters of China Evergrande Group in Shenzhen, China Shares of China Evergrande Group slid as much as 14% on Thursday after a deal to sell a $2.6 billion stake in its property services unit fell through, in the latest blow to the developer whose massive debt woes have rattled global markets. Evergrande said on Wednesday it had scrapped a deal to sell a 50.1% stake in Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd to Hopson Development Holdings Ltd as the smaller rival had not met the “prerequisite to make a general offer”. Both sides appeared to trade blame for the setback, with … Continue reading China Evergrande shares fall in resumed trade after $2.6 billion deal collapses

HT Aero, the flying car company backed by Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng Inc. and its founder, raised more than $500 million from outside investors. The money will be put toward research and development and rolling out a new model that has the ability to operate in the air and on roads. Zhao Deli, founder and president of HT Aero, said in a press release that the company’s next-generation model will be a “fully integrated flying vehicle and automobile, designed for both low-altitude air travel and road driving.” The company is planning for an official roll-out of the new vehicle in … Continue reading Chinese EV maker Xpeng’s flying car company raises over $500 million as it aims to roll out in 2024

The family office for Nicky Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan has set up an outpost in Singapore to boost its Asia exposure and partner with the region’s wealthy.Singapore Skyline Edoardo Collevecchio, the former chief of staff for Oppenheimer Generations, is moving from London to build and lead its team in Singapore, while Yi Ling Ong joins from Temasek as head of investment for the Asia unit, the company said in a statement. The investment firm, which represents a branch of the dynasty that founded mining giant Anglo American and turned De Beers into the world’s largest diamond producer, said it … Continue reading Family who exited De Beers for $5 billion seeks out Asia’s rich