Hyatt to sell real estate portfolio of Playa Hotels
Bengaluru — Hyatt said on Monday that it would sell the entirety of Playa Hotels’ owned real estate portfolio to Tortuga Resorts for $2bn.
Hyatt had bought Playa, which operates 24 high-end, all-inclusive resorts across Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, for $2.6bn including debt in February.
After the real estate portfolio sale, which includes 15 resort assets, Hyatt’s net purchase price for the remaining of Playa’s business is about $555m, the company said. Reuters
EU’s Big Tech rules ‘not part of US trade talks’
Brussels — The EU’s landmark rules reining in the power of Big Tech and requiring them to do more to police the internet are not part of trade talks with the US, a European Commission spokesperson said on Monday.
“The legislations will not be changed. The DMA (Digital Markets Act) and the DSA (Digital Services Act) are not on the table in the trade negotiations with the US,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier told a daily news conference. Reuters
Portugal consumer prices head higher, institute says
Gdansk — Portuguese consumer prices rose 2.4% year on year in June, in a slight acceleration after a 2.3% increase in the previous month, flash data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Monday.
Core inflation, that strips out volatile food and energy prices and is seen as a better gauge of the underlying trend, was also at 2.4%. On a monthly basis, the INE said that overall consumer prices increased 0.1% in June, at a slower pace than May’s 0.4%. Reuters
Banca CF+ makes takeover bid for Banca Sistema
Milan — Elliott-backed Italian speciality lender Banca CF+ on Monday announced a takeover bid for rival Banca Sistema, saying the consolidation wave sweeping the sector made it imperative to build scale.
CF+ said it had struck an agreement with Gianluca Garbi — founder, CEO and leading shareholder of Banca Sistema — who had committed to tendering his 24.9% stake in the lender.
CF+ priced its cash-and-share offer at a discount to Sistema’s closing price on Friday of €1.96 a share. Sistema shares plunged 10.8% on Monday, prompting an automatic trading halt. Banca CF+ is offering €1.8 a share, of which €1.382 in cash and €0.418 in shares of Kruso Kapital, a Banca Sistema unit active in the pawn business. Reuters
Moderna influenza vaccine ‘shows superior efficacy’
Bengaluru — Moderna said its experimental influenza vaccine showed superior efficacy compared with a licensed standard-dose seasonal flu shot in adults aged 50 years and older in a late-stage study.
Shares of the company were up 2.3% in premarket trading after the results.
Moderna said it plans to engage with regulators on filing submissions for the vaccine candidate, mRNA-1010. Reuters
HK property developer New World nears $11bn lifeline
Bengaluru — Hong Kong builder New World Development said on Monday it had received commitments for a HK$88.2bn ($11.24bn) loan refinancing package, as the property developer finalises a crucial lifeline in a struggling market.
The refinancing, poised to be one of the largest ever seen in Hong Kong, concludes months of negotiations over a debt package designed to steer the company away from the brink of default. New World said it had refinanced portions of its existing offshore unsecured debt, including bank loans, through a new facility and had also aligned the terms of its remaining loan agreements.
The new facility consists of multiple tranches of bank loans with different maturities, with the earliest being June 30 2028. Reuters
OSL Group soars after acquisition of Banxa
Shanghai/Hong Kong — Hong Kong-listed shares of OSL Group jumped 10% to their highest in almost four years on Monday after the digital asset trading platform said it had acquired Canadian-based crypto infrastructure provider Banxa.
The Banxa deal announced late on Friday is the latest in a string of overseas asset purchases over the past year. OSL finance chief said it would accelerate global expansion plans to tap into growing interest in cryptocurrencies.
“We will continue global expansion through both acquisitions and licence applications,” Ivan Wong said on Monday. Reuters
Watchdog mulls Boeing’s Spirit Aerosystems deal
Bengaluru — Britain’s competition regulator said on Monday it has started a phase 1 investigation into Boeing’s planned acquisition of Spirit Aerosystems, setting a deadline of August 28 for a decision.
Boeing and Spirit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Boeing agreed to buy back Spirit in a $4.7bn all-stock deal to streamline its operations and improve quality control, years after spinning off the supplier.
In April, Airbus finalised a deal to buy several of Spirit’s facilities tied to its aircraft programmes. Reuters
Spanish police help dismantle crypto fraud ring
Paris — A cryptocurrency investment fraud ring that investigators said laundered €460m using a worldwide network of accomplices has been dismantled in Spain, European police body Europol said on Monday.
Europol said Spanish police led the operation against the criminal network, and that law enforcement agencies from France, Estonia and the US were also involved.
Five people were arrested as a result of the operation, with three arrested on the Canary Islands and two in Madrid. Reuters
Thames Water requests funding terms amendment
Bengaluru — Britain’s Thames Water on Monday launched a third set of consent requests seeking super senior creditor approval to extend key deadlines and amend funding terms to allow the struggling utility to draw a further £157m from its loan facility.
It has drawn £715m so far from the initial £1.5bn available under the group’s super senior liquidity facility. Reuters
Japan fund INCJ made ¥1-trillion return on closure
Tokyo — Japanese fund The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) generated a total investment return of more than ¥1-trillion when it ended 16 years of operations in March, it said in a presentation on Monday.
The fund was launched in 2009 as a temporary scheme to promote new industries and take on risky, long-term investments with funding from the Japanese government and private companies.
Over its lifetime, the fund made 144 investments, of which about 80% were venture investments including in early-stage start-ups, INCJ said. Reuters
UBS to launch $2bn share buyback programme
Zurich — UBS is starting a share buyback programme for up to $2bn in shares, in line with a plan approved at its AGM in April, the Swiss bank said on Monday.
The buyback programme is due to start on July 1. UBS said it intends to repurchase up to $2bn in shares during the second half of this year, as previously announced.
UBS said in a statement that it would set out its 2026 capital return ambitions with its fourth quarter and full-year 2025 financial results early next year. Reuters
Prax Group files for insolvency amid refinery loss
Bengaluru — British energy firm Prax Group has filed for insolvency amid mounting losses at its Lindsey oil refinery, Sky News reported on Monday, citing oil industry sources.
Prax Group’s parent company, State Oil, was forced to call in administrators, putting hundreds of jobs at its struggling Lindsey refinery at risk, the report added.
Prax owns and operates various assets and businesses across the oil and energy sector and is owned by its founders — CEO Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai and executive board member Arani Kumar Soosaipillai — and their family trusts. It agreed to buy Shell’s 37.5% stake in the PCK Schwedt oil refinery in December 2023. Reuters
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