By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
LISBON, April 22 (Reuters) - Portugal’s ailing state-owned airline TAP on Thursday posted an annual loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.44 billion) as passenger numbers fell by almost three quarters last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global travel.
The airline received a 1.2 billion-euro rescue loan in 2020 from the state, which holds a 72.5% stake, allowing it to keep operating and end last year with a cash position of about 520 million euros, TAP said.
“Both the operation and the results in 2020 were severely impacted by the drop in activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with passenger numbers falling 72.7%, after growing for four consecutive years,” the company said.
By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
A man wearing a protective face mask walks outside a Shoprite store in Abuja, Nigeria August 3, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian property group Persianas is buying Shoprite’s Nigerian business after the South African retailer decided to retreat from other African markets, three banking sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Shoprite, with more than 2,300 stores across Africa, is awaiting regulatory approval on the sale of its Nigerian supermarket operation, though no further details about the deal have been disclosed.
Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alexis Akwagyiram and David Goodman
6 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - A multi-year boom in global house prices which even a pandemic has failed to halt is forcing central banks around the world to confront a knotty question - what, if anything, should they be doing about it?
FILE PHOTO: A real estate sign that reads For Sale and Sold Above Asking stands in front of housing in Vaughan, a suburb in Toronto, Canada, May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch
The surge in property values from Australia to Sweden is often viewed benignly by governments as creating wealth. But history also shows the risk of de-stabilising bubbles and the high social cost as millions find home ownership unaffordable.
Nigeria's biggest lender Access Bank has agreed to buy a majority stake in African Banking Corporation of Botswana for cash, a month after acquiring a South African bank.