Airlines

U.S. airlines serve investors before passengers

22 Jul 2021

Southwest and American have stopped burning cash. Both carriers turned a profit too, even though revenue is below 2019’s levels, and they have cash in case conditions worsen again. The risk is that customers – who helped fund airline bailouts – have their patience tested.

European airlines’ CO2 pleas deserve cold shoulder

16 Jul 2021

Trade body IATA is moaning about EU plans to curb emissions by making jet fuel more expensive. Ideas that may add 3% to operating costs over several years aren’t a grounding order. And most of the changes would merely remove existing freebies to align aviation with other sectors.

Wizz Air CEO’s 100 mln pound bonus is aptly remote

6 Jul 2021

Jozsef Varadi’s payday could be even bigger than Michael O’Leary’s at rival Ryanair if his airline’s shares nearly treble. Linking such a big reward to stock performance looks crude but the target implies a fourfold revenue jump. Even Varadi can’t sustain that steep a climb.

American Airlines pulls a Wall Street stupidity

21 Jun 2021

As U.S. air travel booms again, the carrier is cutting flights party due to labor shortages, something taxpayer bailouts were meant to prevent. As Merrill Lynch and other investment banks learned during previous crises, pulling the trigger too quickly on firing is a bad move.

Capital Calls: JPMorgan, French SPAC, Jessica Alba

17 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: Jamie Dimon bulks up his nascent UK digital banking offer by buying Nutmeg; France boosts its lowly SPAC league-table position with two blank-cheque vehicles; the Hollywood star’s consumer packaged goods company Honest encounters growing pains.

Capital Calls: Platinum Equity, FTC chair, Tui

16 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: The buyout firm acquires textbook company McGraw Hill and the maker of Singer sewing machines; Joe Biden’s pick for the Federal Trade Commission brings swagger; and another capital hike will still leave the German holiday group heavily indebted.

Capital Calls: Corporate America blowback

15 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: An investor lawsuit against Trump-era rules on shareholders' proposals is the latest sign of the tables turning.

Capital Calls: Turkish gas, Generali, Garuda

4 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: President Erdogan’s “good news” on hydrocarbons smells off; the Italian insurer’s 1.5 bln euro bid for NN Group’s asset management unit may trigger a shootout; the Indonesian flag carrier’s long struggle to avoid bankruptcy is coming to a head.

Belarus plays airspace poker with a weak hand

25 May 2021

Irate western powers have banned flights over the Russian ally’s territory after it forced a Ryanair jet to land. Engaging in “air piracy” is easier for countries that can afford to lose overflight fees or are too big to fly around. Neither is obviously the case for Belarus.

Capital Calls: Apollo, Microsoft

20 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: The second of the asset manager’s three founders moves on; the software firm is pulling the plug on Internet Explorer.

Capital Calls: Retail sales’ wild ride

19 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: Some U.S. retailers are reporting better growth than others, but there’s still much to play for.

Capital Calls: AT&T’s bankers, Blackstone in Italy

17 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: The U.S. telecom giant’s unwinding of its purchase of Time Warner is a gift for advisers on Wall Street; a court rules that the U.S. private equity firm’s 2013 purchase of Corriere della Sera’s HQ was valid.

Capital Calls: Uber, Roblox

11 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: Free rides for Covid jabs won’t help the ride-hailing app’s labor battle with Washington; the online games platform’s year-on-year growth decelerated sharply in April.

Breakdown: Net zero goals demand zero tolerance

10 May 2021

Only a fifth of the world’s top public companies have promised to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Among those that have, promises are tricky to compare and rely on ambitious offset schemes. Breakingviews helps investors find the substance behind the hot air.

Capital Calls: Pfizer, ConocoPhillips

4 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: About $6 bln of additional earnings from Covid vaccines at the U.S. drug giant should mean more capital returned to investors; the independent oil group is offloading stock in Canada-based Cenovus it collected as part of a deal four years ago.

Capital Calls: Jerome Powell, Shopify

28 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The clock is ticking on the Fed boss’s taper timeline; the e-commerce firm grew even as it warns of a post-pandemic lull.

Capital Calls: Chubb and Hartford, Swimming pools

22 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The company led by Evan Greenberg twice raised its bid for its Connecticut rival, but so far to no avail; a blowout quarter for private-pool maker Pool Corp points to buoyant wealth and spending trends, but only for some.

Capital Calls: Goldman Sachs, U.S. currency report

16 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Wall Street bank’s communications veteran, Jake Siewert, goes back to the future, sort of; Taiwan is dubbed a forex interventionist but avoids manipulator label.

Capital Calls: Christine Lagarde, Bernie Madoff

14 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The European Central Bank president’s quest for inflation will take a while to achieve its goal; investor gullibility will live on after the death of the Ponzi schemer in a U.S. federal prison.

Capital Calls: Netflix, GameStop

9 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The video-streaming service sprays webs of money to secure movies; GameStop’s “Chewy of Gaming” strategy.