HNA surpasses £32.bn in new acquisitions

China HNA Group, headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China, a large tourism and domestic airline operator chaired by Chen Feng,  has struck £32.4bn ($40bn) of deals in the last two years announcing plans to buy Singapore logistics provider CWT for $1bn. CWT provides warehousing and logistics services to the commodities industry. With the acquisition of CWT,…

Amazon India better watch out stiff competition ahead

India’s two biggest e-commerce groups Snapdeal and Flipkart are attempting a merger engineered by Japan’s Softbank, in a bid to compete with Amazon, which is planning spend over £4.05bn ($5bn) to become India’s dominant internet retailer. SoftBank owns a 35 per cent stake in Jasper Infotech, Snapdeal’s parent company, is also in advanced talks with…

Saturn closet to Earth

Jupiter is coming to its closet point to Earth today, and the point in its orbite where its directly opposite the Sun in our sky, just 416 million miles (670 million kilometres) away and as it is the furthest, it can be upwards of 620 million miles (1 billion kilometres) away. NASA’s Hubble telescope was…

Superfast ultimate nation: Modern India

Adam Roberts spent five years travelling from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Bengal to Gujarat and encountered power brokers, multi-billionaires farmers, tech innovators, prime ministers, travelling salesmen, pilgrims from the world’s largest democracy and he asked them how India can become a truly great economic power, more influential abroad and stable at home. Through his book he…

Shandong Gold buys 50 per cent stake in Barrick mine for $1bn

    The World’s largest precious metal producer, Barrick Gold, has agreed to sell a 50 per cent stake in one of its biggest mines to a state-backed Chinese company as part of a wider deal, for tapping material wealth elsewhere in South America. Shandong Gold will pay $1bn for half of the Veladero mine…

WhatsApp to launch digital payments in India

WhatsApp is entering India’s booming digital payments industry, after the demonetization in India and setting up a clash between the Facebook-owned mobile messaging app and Pay TM, the payment startup by Alibaba. WhatsApp’s website under the heading ” Digital transactions lead, India” announces the forthcoming digital payment service, collaborating with the banks and developing global support.…

JAB buys Panera for $7.5bn

German Billionaire Reimann family’s JAB, the Luxemburg-based investment company has bought US Bakery and Sandwich chain Panera Bread to its fast growing US food and beverage empire, for $7.5bn.  The $315 per share cash deal will be under the same roof as Keurig Green Mountain, Poet’s coffee, Caribou coffee,  Tea to Einstein Bros, Bagels and…

Detection of Atmosphere around planet GJ1132b

Scientists say they have discovered an atmosphere 39 light years away, around an Earth-like planet GJ 1132b, 1.4 times the size of our planet for the first time. In their hunt for life beyond our solar system, the study published in the Astronomical Journal suggest that the super-Earth is surrounded by a thick layer of…

£57m Pink Star diamond sold at auction

A oval shaped 59.6 carat flawless Pink Star diamond has been sold in Hong Kong for £57m ( $71m), setting a new world record for any gemstone at auction. The largest polished diamond in its class wen under the hammer, in the past it sold for $83m in Geneva in 2013, but the buyer defaulted.…

Black Swan moment for Imagination

Shares in Imagination Technology, a British Tech firm, plunged by 62 per cent, 103p, and its market capitalisation fell from £745m to £290m, after their largest customer Apple said it will no longer use its products. This is what we call a black swan movement for the company and investors in Imagination as there were…