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EU extends time to Portuguese airlines for meeting state aid conditions
The European Commission extended the deadline for SATA and TAP to complete divesting assets in order to qualify for the state aid provided by the Portuguese government. Portugal's government restarted its long-delayed plan to privatise the flag carrier?TAP in 2013, stating that it would sell a 49.9% stake of the company within one year. The European Commission announced on Monday that it had extended 'until the end of December 2026 the deadline for SATA to sell a majority stake of 51% in Azores Airlines. The deadline for divesting TAP's shares in the service units SPdH & Cateringpor was also extended to June 30th this year. The divestments had to be approved before Portugal could approve the restructuring aid granted to TAP by December 2021. In a press release, the Commission said that Portugal had offered to reduce its aid and prolong the measures to ensure competition up until the complete divestment. (Reporting and editing by Benoit van Overstraeten, Barbara Lewis, and Sudip Kar Gupta)
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QXO boosts its war chest with Apollo-led investors as the building-products deals heat up
QXO announced on Monday that Apollo Global Management, along with a number of other investors, had agreed to invest $1.2 Billion in the firm headed by Brad Jacobs. This investment will be used to support its acquisition efforts. The shares of the distributor of building products were up by more than 8% on premarket trading. QXO must use financing to fund at least one acquisition by July 15?, the companies stated. The building products industry in the United States has seen a?sharp increase in dealmaking as companies look to scale and local supply chain to offset tariffs. Demand is driven by non-residential, new housing and repair and renovation. Last year, Commercial Metals announced that it would purchase concrete supplier Foley Products for $1.84 billion, while roofing material firm TopBuild purchased rival SPI for $1 Billion in cash. QXO has raised funding through a new convertible perpetual preferred stock with a conversion price of approximately 18% higher than its Friday close. Brad Jacobs is often hailed as a M&A expert, having built multi-billion dollar firms in waste management, logistics and equipment rental. Last year, the roofing, 'waterproofing, and complementary building product distributor attempted to buy peer GMS at $5 billion, in an aggressive?bid. This was ultimately sold to Home Depot. QXO closed the $11 billion Beacon Roofing Supply deal in April last year. Jacobs stepped down from his position as chairman of XPO and GXO Logistics at the end of December. (Reporting from AnshumanTripathy in Bengaluru; additional reporting by ArasuKanagiBasil; editing by Vijay Kishore).
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Snow halts air, rail and road traffic in Netherlands
Snowfall in the Netherlands on Monday disrupted air and train traffic, and all trains in and around Amsterdam were stopped. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest hubs cancelled almost 500 flights on Monday morning, and expects that number to rise throughout the day. Snow and freezing temperatures had forced the airport to cancel hundreds of flights every day since Friday. Snowfall in large parts of The Netherlands on Monday morning caused major traffic problems. No trains ran in the area around Amsterdam, and public transport was affected in many areas. Even though the authorities advised that people should stay home whenever possible, ice and snow led to many accidents and delays on the road. The Netherlands is likely to experience snowfall throughout the week. (Reporting and editing by Kirt Donovan, Emelia Sithole Matarise, and Bart Meijer)
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Kodiak AI and Bosch team up to develop hardware for self-driving vehicles
Kodiak AI announced on Monday that it had partnered with Bosch in order to increase production of autonomous trucking sensors and hardware. The?self driving truck company is looking to move away from pilot deployments to large-scale commercial roll-outs. Investors are increasing pressure on self-driving tech developers to show viable business models. This is after years of spending a lot and generating little revenue. Many players in the industry are now turning to freight because it is more predictable and provides a clearer path to profitability. The companies announced at the CES trade show that Bosch would supply Kodiak a wide range of automotive components. These include?sensors, vehicle actuation technologies such as steering technology, and?sensors. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Bosch and Kodiak will work together to create a redundant, production-grade autonomous platform. This platform will integrate hardware, firmware, and software interfaces required to install Kodiak's AI driver into trucks on production lines, or retrofitted. Kodiak has established itself as one the few autonomous trucking firms to operate vehicles in commercial service without a safety driver. The company claims to have already deployed driverless trucks owned by customers, a milestone that many of its rivals are yet to achieve. Bosch, the world's biggest automotive supplier in terms of revenue, is expanding its presence in autonomous mobility by providing sensors, compute, and vehicle control systems for carmakers and tech firms. (Reporting from Akash Sriram and Abhirup in San Francisco, Editing by Shilpa Majumdar and Krishna Chandra Eluri.)
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Police in Latvia say they found no evidence that a vessel docked at Liepaja Port was responsible for cable damage.
Police in Latvia said that investigators had 'found no evidence connecting a ship docked a the port of Liepaja 'to the damage done to a underwater cable last week. Investigators said on Sunday that they boarded the ship and started criminal proceedings after the cable outage took place?on Friday?near the Latvian port. They did not identify the vessel. The Baltic Sea region is a popular tourist destination. High alert After?a?string of?power cables, Telelink Gas pipeline failures since In 2022, Russia will invade Ukraine NATO has a military alliance. The presence of the company was boosted With frigates, drones and aircraft. In a press release, Latvia's National Police said that the information gathered in the criminal case did not show a connection between the ship and the damage to the optical cable. MarineTraffic data shows four ships crossing the Lithuanian-Latvia cable On January 2, when the damage was discovered for the first time. On Monday morning, three of these ships remained in Liepaja. (Reporting and editing by Terje Solsvik, Anna Ringstrom and Nerijus Adomiaitis)
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Tankertrackers.com reports that about a dozen oil tankers loaded with crude left Venezuela in darkness mode.
Monitoring service TankerTrackers.com reported that about a dozen oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude or?fuel left the country's waterways in the dark mode. This was despite the strict U.S. blockade, which had been imposed after intense pressure grew until the capture and deposition of Nicolas Maduro. All of the vessels identified as departing are subject to U.S. Sanctions. Separately, a group of ships also subject to'sanctions' left the country empty in recent days after completing domestic transportation or discharging imported goods. The departures may be a relief to Venezuela's PDVSA state-owned oil company, which had built up a large stock of floating storage during the U.S. Blockade that began last month and brought the country's exports to a halt. Venezuela's primary source of revenue is oil exports. The interim government led by vice president Delcy Rodriquez, who is also the oil minister, will need to use the revenue to finance expenditures and ensure domestic stability. After identifying the vessels using satellite images, TankerTrackers.com reported that at least four of these departed oil tankers had?left Venezuelan water through a northerly route after stopping briefly near the country's border. Sources with a knowledge of the paperwork for departures said that four supertankers were cleared to leave Venezuelan waters in dark mode by Venezuelan authorities in recent days. It wasn't immediately clear if these departures were in defiance of the U.S. sanctions. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that an "oil boycott" was in place against Venezuela, but that it would continue to be enforced under a transition. Reporting by
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Sri Lanka aims to attract 3 million tourists in order to help with cyclone recovery
Sri Lanka aims to have 3 million tourists arrive in 2026. This is after the record 2,36?million arrivals last year. The country is aiming to boost revenues and help recover from Cyclone Ditwah. Sri Lanka is the second largest foreign exchange earner in 2025, with revenues of $3.2 billion. Vijitha Herath is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism. She said that the ambitious target for tourist arrivals, a 27% increase from the previous year, would help Sri Lankans recover after Cyclone Ditwah hit the island nation in November, killing 645 people. World Bank estimates that torrential rains and hundreds?landslides caused damage to over?110,000 homes, as well as important roads, railroads, bridges and other infrastructure. The damages totaled $4.1 billion. The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) December report reduced the growth projection for 2026 from 3.1% to 2.9%. This month, an IMF delegation will be in Colombo to conduct the 5th review of a $2.9 billion program with Sri Lanka. "We are proud of Sri Lanka for achieving the highest ever tourism figures. Herath, a reporter, said that he was hopeful for the future of tourism revenue. Sri Lanka also hopes to attract $500 million of investment in tourism in 2026, after attracting $329 millions from 126 projects in 2018, said Buddhika Shewawasam. Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
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Ryanair and Wizz Air passenger numbers surge in December amid holiday demand
Budget airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air reported strong passenger growth in December compared to the previous year, reflecting the robust demand for holiday travel among budget-conscious 'holidaymakers. According to data collected by the airlines, Ryanair is Europe's biggest budget airline, measured in passenger numbers. It carried 14.5 million passengers, an increase of 7% from December 2024. Wizz Air, on the other hand, flew 5.85 millions passengers, an increase of 15.5% from year-to-year. The continued popularity of budget travel is evident as European holidaymakers seek out affordable flight options during the Christmas period despite economic uncertainty. Ryanair reported that it operated 82,000 flights during December and had a load-factor of 92% for the month. This was unchanged from year to year. The load factor is a measure of how efficiently an airline fills its seats. In November, the Dublin-based carrier said it would fly 207 millions passengers by the end of March, which was one million more than it had predicted earlier. This is because improved Boeing deliveries allowed it to increase capacity in both the first and third quarters. Wizz Air Hungary, on the contrary, actively manages operational?challenges. It has closed bases in Abu Dhabi, Vienna and delayed 88 Airbus deliveries to offset capacity constraints, cost pressures and ongoing issues with its Pratt & Whitney engine. Wizz has reported a slight decrease in its load factors to 85.9%, while increasing capacity by 16.3%. (Reporting from Nithyashree B. and Yadarisa. Shabong, in Bengaluru. Editing by Janane. Venkatraman.)
Wall Street Journal, December 16,
These are the most popular stories from the Wall Street Journal. These?stories have not been verified and we cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Ford Motor announced Monday that it expects to incur charges of about $19.5 billion, mostly related to its electric vehicle business.
Donald Trump, the U.S. president, sued 'the BBC for defamation on Monday. His lawsuit claims that the BBC defamed Trump and violated Florida law which prohibits deceptive or unfair trade practices. He wants $5?billion for each count of the lawsuit.
PayPal has filed to create a bank that offers business loans and savings account.
Frontier Group Holdings has named James Dempsey as interim chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Barry Biffle, who was with the company for eleven years and had served as CEO since 2016.
Stellantis has added more than 1,000 new employees to its Windsor, Ontario assembly plant in just two months.
Luminar Technologies filed for bankruptcy following the loss of a contract to supply Volvo Cars.
(source: Reuters)