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AFC partners with regional and international lenders, including Citi, for Lobito Corridor
A senior official revealed that the Africa Finance Corporation, the lead developer of the U.S.-backed Lobito mineral transport corridor, is in discussions with at least 10 African and foreign financiers including Citigroup to raise $3-5 billion for this project. The AFC has begun preparing for the construction of a key transport project, which will combine existing and new railway lines to link copper and cobalt mining areas with?Angola’s Atlantic port of Lobito. The project is a part of Washington’s effort to curb Chinese influence and secure access to strategic metals, minerals, and coal in Africa. AFC is currently in discussions with commercial lenders, including South Africa's Standard Bank and Absa as well as pan-African lender Ecobank and Wall Street bank Citi. This was confirmed by Osaruyi Orobosa, the deputy director of the Lagos-based lender and head of project development and investments. The Export-Import Bank of the United States, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States are all bilateral institutions. He said that "the banks want to come... everyone wants to be here." Discussions are aimed at familiarising potential financiers in advance of a fundraising push later this year. He said that commercial banks will likely participate in the financing as arrangers and funders. Some of them could play a coordination role for export credit agencies involved. He said that development lenders might take on both equity and debt positions. AFC had previously disclosed that it was in discussions with governments and development banks about the Lobito Corridor. However, commercial lenders who were involved in these talks have never been publicly identified. (Reporting and editing by Karin Strohecker, with Duncan Miriri)
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Airline cancels flights due to Middle East conflict
Middle Eastern carriers increased capacity after the U.S. - Israel war against Iran caused severe disruption. Airlines outside the Gulf are continuing to reroute routes between Europe and Asia away from major hubs. The latest flight information is listed below alphabetically: AEGEAN AIRLINES On April 28, Greece's biggest carrier resumed flights from Athens to?Tel Aviv. Flights to Tel Aviv will also resume from Heraklion and Rhodes from May 21. Thessaloniki-Tel Aviv flights are cancelled until June 26. Flights to Beirut will resume on May 12, and flights to Riyadh, Amman and Amman are scheduled to resume on May 21. Dubai flights are cancelled until June 29. Erbil, Baghdad and Erbil flights will be suspended until July 2. AIRBALTIC Latvian airline airBaltic has announced that flights to Tel Aviv are cancelled until 28 June. Dubai flights are cancelled until 24 October. AIR CANADA The Canadian carrier has canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Dubai and Abu Dhabi until September 7. AIR EUROPA Spanish Airlines has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv till May 31. Air France-KLM Air France suspends its flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Dubai until May 10. KLM suspends flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Dubai until the 22nd of June. CATHAY PACIFIC Hong Kong Airlines has suspended its flights to Dubai, Riyadh and cargo freighter service to Dubai and Riyadh through June 30, and until May 31, respectively. In April, the airline will increase passenger flights from Hong Kong to London, Paris, and Zurich to meet the increased demand for travel to Europe. It intends to continue all scheduled flights past June. The U.S. carrier extended the suspension of service for Atlanta-Tel Aviv until November 30 and plans to resume New York JFK to Tel Aviv from September 6. The launch of the Boston-Tel Aviv service, originally planned for October, was delayed. EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES Israel's airline said that it will continue to expand its operations gradually, and from April 27, will be operating flights to around 40 active gateways. All flights to Dubai have been cancelled until May 31, EMIRATES The UAE airline announced that it will be operating a reduced schedule and flying to over 100 destinations. ETIHAD AERWAYS The United Arab Emirates carrier has announced that it operates a commercial flight schedule between Abu Dhabi, and about 80 destinations. FINNAIR The Finnish airline has cancelled all Doha flights up to July 2 and continues to avoid the airspaces of Iraq, Iran Syria, and Israel. The airline will only resume its?Dubai flight in October. British Airways, owned by IAG, will reduce flights to the Middle East once services resume. Jeddah, as a destination for all time, will be permanently dropped. Plans to reduce service to Dubai, Doha, and Tel Aviv from two daily flights to one daily flight by July? Riyadh service will be reduced from two to one daily flight from mid-May. The changes will apply until the end of the summer season on October 24. One Dubai service will restart on October 16. Iberia Express, the Spanish low-cost carrier of IAG, has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until May 31. JAPAN AIRLINES Japan Airlines has suspended its scheduled Tokyo-Doha and Doha-Tokyo flight until May 31, and Doha-Tokyo until June 1. The Polish airline has suspended flights to Tel Aviv till May 31. The airline also cancelled flights from March 31 until May 30 to Beirut and Riyadh. The airline will operate its winter route from?Dubai to?Riyadh in October. LUFTHANSA GROUP Lufthansa and other airlines, including Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, have suspended flights from Dubai and Tel Aviv to Dubai until May 31. Flights to Abu Dhabi and Amman, Beirut Dammam, Riyadh Erbil Muscat Tehran, Riyadh Erbil, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Edelweiss have been suspended until May 31. Eurowings, a low-cost carrier, has suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Beirut until May 11 and Erbil to Erbil until may 14. It also suspends flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi until October 24, and Amman to Dubai and Abu Dhabi until November 24. ITA Airways has extended the suspension of flights from Tel Aviv, Riyadh, and Dubai to May 31. MALAYSIA AIRLINES Malaysian Airlines has suspended all flights to Doha through June 14. NORWEGIAN AIR Low-cost carrier has delayed the planned launch of Tel Aviv and Beirut flights until June 15. PEGASUS Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's national airline, has cancelled all flights to Iran, Iraq, Amman Beirut, Kuwait Bahrain Doha Dammam Riyadh Dubai Abu Dhabi Sharjah and Abu Dhabi until June 1. QANTAS Australia's national carrier has added flights to Rome, Paris and other European destinations to meet the increased demand. The number of flights to Paris will rise from three to five weekly return flights, and the Perth to Singapore service will go from daily to ten flights per week. A new schedule will be implemented gradually for flights starting in mid-April, and running until late July. QATAR AIRWAYS Qatar Airways has announced that it will resume daily flights from May 1 to Damascus and Bahrain, as well as Kozhikode. From June 16, the airline will expand its international flight network by over 150 destinations. ROYAL MAROC The Moroccan carrier announced that flights to Doha and Dubai were cancelled until 30 June. SINGAPORE Airlines In response to increased demand, the carrier has extended its Singapore-Dubai suspension flight until May 31 and added?services along the Singapore-London Gatwick route from late March until 24 October. TURKISH AIRLINES SunExpress - Turkish Airlines' joint venture Lufthansa has cancelled flights from Dubai to May 21. WIZZ AIR Low-cost carrier suspends flights from Europe to Amman, Dubai and Abu Dhabi until mid-September. All flights to Medina are suspended indefinitely. (Compiled by Josephine Mason and Jamie Freed. Elviira luoma, Tiago brandao, Agnieszka olenska, Bernadette hogg, Boleslaw lasocki, Romolo tosiani. Rod Nickel, Lisa Shumaker Jonathan Ananda, Matt Scuffham and Rod Nickel edited the book.
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Netomi, a startup that provides AI-based customer service, raises $110 Million
The chief executive of technology startup Netomi revealed this week that the company has raised $110 million through a Series C funding round led by Accenture. Netomi, founded a decade or so ago, uses artificial intelligence for customer service at companies such as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and DraftKings. CEO Puneet mehta spoke on the sidelines on Tuesday of the Momentum AI Summit in New York. Recent improvements in large language models, such as those that run?ChatGPT, have raised expectations about how well bots can resolve customer issues without the need for a human representative. Mehta stated that Netomi, a California-based company, uses AI models from OpenAI's Anthropic, Alphabet Google and OpenAI. Netomi was able to answer questions more precisely via the United Airlines mobile app, for example, "Can I?sit with my dog on the exit row?" he explained. Mehta stated that customers "don't go there for items of low complexity," Mehta. "We are focusing on items of at least medium complexity," Mehta said. Netomi’s valuation was not determined after the funding round. Justin Wexler, general partner of WndrCo, stated that the company had raised over $160 million in funding since its foundation. Jeffrey Katzenberg, WndrCo managing partner and media entrepreneur, has joined the startup's board as part of its Series C round. Accenture also has a partnership in place with Netomi. Wexler stated that hundreds of 'Accenture' employees will be trained to use Netomi's technology in order to help customers implement improved AI service agents. Wexler said that Adobe Ventures has also invested in the Series C. Adobe and Netomi are working together to add AI to the websites running on Netomi's platform. Mehta stated that Netomi employs about 170 employees and will use the extra capital to invest both in research and in deployments for customers. He said the company hopes to deploy AI-based agents that take proactive actions and preemptively resolve customer issues. (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Juby Babu, Jeffrey Dastin)
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Royal Caribbean reduces its annual profit forecast and sees higher fuel prices
Royal Caribbean cut its annual profit forecast for the year on Thursday, citing soaring fuel costs linked to the ongoing Middle East tensions as a factor affecting the cruise operator's margins. As a result of the stalled U.S. - Iran negotiations, cruise operators are now facing a more difficult?environment. This is because they are heavily reliant on fuel oil...and marine gas oil. Royal Caribbean stated that fuel?costs based on the current pump rates, net of hedging, will be approximately $1.3 billion or $0.62 per share higher than their previous forecast. However, the company's shares still rose by about 5% in premarket trading after exceeding quarterly profit expectations. The company's?profit forecast for fiscal 2026 is expected to be in a range of $17.10 to 17.5 per share. This compares to its previous forecast?of $17.70 - $18.10. According to data compiled and analyzed by LSEG, it posted an 'adjusted profits of $3.60 per shares for the first quarter compared with analysts average?estimate? of $3.19. Reporting by Anuja Mistry, Bengaluru. Editing by Shilpa Majumdar
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MARA buys Ohio gas plant operator Long Ridge at $1.5 billion to expand beyond bitcoin
MARA Holdings announced on Thursday that it would 'buy Long Ridge Energy & Power for $1.5 billion, including debt. This is a major step in the bitcoin mining company's efforts to reposition itself as a digital energy and infrastructure company. It is one of the biggest companies in the world that mines and holds bitcoins. Now, as AI advances and demand increases, it has shifted its focus to digital infrastructure. MARA's previous focus on cryptocurrency is complementary to its revised strategy. However, it is looking more to energy assets in order to have enough power to develop data centers. IDEAL ASSETS FOR NEW STRATEGIES This evolution has been accelerated by the acquisition of Long Ridge Energy. The company said that Long 'Ridge owned a 505 megawatt natural gas combined cycle power plant in Hannibal Ohio as well as 1,600 acres of contiguous land on which MARA planned to build a data centre powered by the plant. Fred Thiel, MARA's Chief executive officer, said that the campus "has all the components we need for an ideal data center campus". He noted that the data center was a highly efficient facility due to the fact that it was built in 2021. The land had already been approved for industrial use. Thiel stated that MARA has already received interest from several?potential tenants. These include hyperscalers, firms which provide massive cloud computing capacity. He said that the company anticipates having a tenant lined up around the time of the closing. The closing of the acquisition is anticipated to be later in 2026 depending on regulatory approvals, including those from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Assets that provide instant cash The $1.5 billion transaction includes an assumption of existing debt of $785 million and the Long Ridge assets generate annualized earnings of $144 million. MARA will have cash in hand before the project's contributions. Thiel stated that MARA's ownership of Long Ridge would not affect the amount of power Long Ridge provides to retail customers. There are growing concerns in the United States over the impact of data centers on the grid. The PJM transmission area, where the plant is situated, is considered to be the most vulnerable.
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India's Adani Enterprises reports a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by the depreciation on some assets
India's Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of Gautam Adani, a billionaire who leads the conglomerate, announced a?fourth-quarter loss? on Thursday. The depreciation in some of its newly commissioned assets was the main cause. The company reported a net loss of $23.27 million in the quarter ended March 31. This compares to a profit last year of 38.45 billion rupees. The company stated in its filing that the fourth-quarter results had been impacted by depreciation of recently commissioned assets at the copper and 'Navi Mumbai' plant. Adani Enterprises fourth-quarter EBITDA (a measure of operating profit) rose by?3% year-on-year, to 43.46 trillion rupees. Revenue from operations increased by?20.3%, to 324.39 trillion rupees. The firm's earnings were boosted by a one-time influx of 39.46 billion rupees in the previous quarter? from the sale of a stake it held in a consumer goods venture with Singapore's Wilmar.
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Low industry activity in India has led to a fall in truck rentals
The Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training said that truck rentals in India fell by 4% to 5% in April, after a 9% - 10% decline in March due to the Iran war and a lack of supplies in the main manufacturing hub. * The IFTRT reported a drop of between?15 to 20% of the cargoes that are sent from manufacturing hubs. This is especially true for?small and mid-sized enterprises, which?accounts for?70% or more of intra and interstate cargoes It said that increased arrivals of summer fruits, vegetables, and pulses boosted the agri-logistics market by 20 % - 25 %, leading to capacity shifting to wholesale markets to offset industrial freight losses. * IFTRT stated that although local diesel prices?have not been raised, truck?tyres have increased by 4%-5%?in the past 4 to 6 weeks?,?increasing the operational expenses of fleet owners? (Reporting and Editing by Louise Heavens, Nidhi verma)
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Bangladesh to switch from Airbus to Boeing for jets
Bangladesh is set to sign an agreement?on Thursday?to buy 14 'aircraft?from U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing, according to officials. This marks a departure from Europe's Airbus due to trade pressure from Washington. Officials have not disclosed the value of the agreement, which will provide Biman Bangladesh Airlines with a mixture of narrow-body and large-body aircraft as it looks to expand its capacity and modernise their fleet to meet the rising demand. An official of the aviation ministry, and a representative from Biman have confirmed that an agreement will be signed in Dhaka on Thursday night. The officials spoke under condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media. The aircraft will be delivered in phases. However, more technical and financial details have not been disclosed. Boeing did not respond immediately to a comment request outside of its normal business hours. The agreement brings to an end a long-running contest between Boeing's and Airbus's bids for Biman’s next big order. Both manufacturers were vying for greater presence on the growing South Asian aviation market. Bangladesh approved plans under the former government of Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina to purchase 10 aircraft from Airbus, even though no agreement was signed. After the fall of her government during the mass uprising in 2024, the interim administration changed its course to favour?Boeing. Officials stated that the decision was based on both fleet needs and larger trade considerations. Bangladesh is trying to reduce the pressure of a $6 billion trade deficit with the United States, and avoid tariff increases which could hurt its export-driven economy. The expansion of the fleet coincides with broader upgrades in Bangladesh's aviation industry, including a brand new terminal at Dhaka Airport, to handle the increasing passenger traffic, driven by a growing middle-class and a large number of overseas workers. Biman, a 54-year old company, has more than 20 aircraft in its fleet, mostly Boeings. More than half are wide-body planes. The company also owns a number Dash-8 turboprops.
Vale, a Brazilian miner, will more than double its fleet of iron ore carriers equipped with sails
Vale intends to more than double its fleet of iron ore carriers equipped with a'sail'. The technology will be expanded to at least twenty vessels in the next three-year period, which will reduce the Brazilian miner’s exposure to the volatility of marine fuel prices.
According to Vale's General Manager for Shipping, Rafael Fischer, the spinning cylindrical sails can save up to 10% on fuel depending on the vessel.
The mining industry has seen a significant increase in freight costs during the war with Iran.
Fischer said aboard one of the vessels equipped with sails, docked at the Tubarao Port in Espirito Santo.
Vale has eight vessels equipped with sails. This is the result of Vale's decade-long focus on reducing emissions and improving efficiency, which has helped the company to be somewhat protected as the Middle East conflict has driven up the price of oil products.
Vale is concerned about fuel costs, since it ships iron ore primarily to China where Australian suppliers compete with it.
Fischer explained that "we have a geographical disadvantage in comparison to our competitors. We are using innovation as a tool to mitigate this effect."
ETHANOL-POWERED SHIPS
Fischer said that Vale is not only adding sails to its vessels, but also allowing them to be fuel flexible.
It announced earlier this month a 25-year contract with China's?Shandong Shipping Corporation for the construction and operation of two of the first transoceanic vessels powered by ethanol.
The ships can also run on conventional bunker fuel or methanol, with future conversion options including liquefied?gas and ahmonia.
Fischer said, "In the future we will be able to choose from at least five different fuels. This gives us flexibility to adapt to changing situations and market conditions." (Reporting and writing by Fabio Teixeira, Editing by Joe Bavier.)
(source: Reuters)