Page 5 - Views Flash News Today

If President Vladimir Putin invades, the United States has vowed to punish the country’s lenders. Sberbank and VTB don’t need foreign funding and can count on state support. Yet tumbling stocks this year show that shareholders can still get crushed by diplomatic failure.

U.S. giants have launched $82 bln worth of deals in a week. Creators like Ubisoft and CD Projekt may not fit Take-Two’s mobile-at-all-costs model. But Microsoft’s tilt at Activision awards bonus points to cloud gaming and original content. That plays into European gamers’ hands.

Europe’s green taxonomy is meant to direct billions of euros towards clean energy so a post-virus continent can “build back better”. Yet political fudges mean gas and nuclear count as sustainable. Worse, the tool’s new draft contains loopholes that could make it dirtier still.

After deals in Nigeria and Kenya, $50 bln U.S. operator Digital Realty is buying most of South African rival Teraco. The $3.5 bln price tag is eye-catching given the risky location. But the continent’s growing population and rising data demand make the long-term numbers add up.

Aker BP is acquiring Lundin Energy’s fossil fuel assets using cash and stock. Both sides emerge with a stake in a low-cost big hitter, better able to negotiate oil’s decline. The billionaire Lundin brothers get a smoother path out of the sector, and arguably a small premium.

After an awful lead-in, expectations for soccer’s showcase event in 2022 are low. Even so, the tiny emirate’s status will likely benefit. Provided Covid-19 is under control, the jamboree should also boost a regional economic recovery that has lagged other parts of the globe.

Lifestyle reasons mean bosses have long preferred Dubai to the Saudi capital as a Gulf HQ. A mix of the kingdom’s financial promise and government strong-arming means that could start to change. The city’s social scene is already slowly making it less of a punishment posting.

Referendums on a nuclear power plant and a fossil-gas terminal spotlight the island’s 20% renewables target. Bureaucracy and red tape, though, have held up wind and solar projects. The local chipmaking champion’s voracious appetite for cleaner power offers a much-needed spark.

After years of intervening to curb franc strength, the central bank has amassed $1 trillion in foreign currency investments. A group of academics suggests converting this into a sovereign wealth fund but that would bring its own worries. Wisely investing so much money isn’t easy.

The $105 bln miner has offered to write off a $2.3 bln loan to Ulaanbaatar linked to the Oyu Tolgoi copper project. Boss Jakob Stausholm is giving up billions of dollars in interest. But holding firm risked the company being chucked off a project that could bring in a lot more.