15 billion pound railway london

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's Queen Elizabeth, whose public engagements have been limited in recent months due to mobility issues, made a surprise appearance on Tuesday at a ceremony to mark the completion of a long-awaited London train line named in her honour. Elizabeth, wearing a bright yellow hat and coat and using a walking stick, was joined by her youngest son Edward and Prime Minister Boris Johnson as she unveiled a plaque at Paddington Station. It is the latest public outing for the 96-year-old monarch who, despite missing the opening of parliament for the first time in almost six decades last week due to what Buckingham Palace calls "episodic mobility issues", twice attended a horse show at her Windsor Castle residence in recent days. "In a happy development Her Majesty The Queen is attending today's event to mark the completion of the Elizabeth line," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said. The $24 billion rail project was originally due to be opened in December 2018, … [Read more...] about Britain’s Queen Elizabeth attends opening of London train line

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (May 17): Duopharma Biotech Bhd’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 (1QFY22) grew 15.2% to RM20.29 million from RM17.61 million in the same quarter last year, on the back of higher revenue due to increase in sales. The Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine distributor saw its revenue for the quarter under review rise 11.71% to RM185.94 million from RM166.45 million previously, bolstered by higher sales to the consumer healthcare and private ethical sectors. Earnings per share improved to 2.19 sen compared with 1.9 sen a year ago, according to Duopharma’s filing with Bursa Malaysia. Compared to the immediate preceding quarter, Duopharma’s net profit grew 29.11% quarter-on-quarter from RM15.72 million, as revenue went up by 27.84% from RM145.44 million in 4QFY21. In a separate statement, Duopharma Biotech group managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar said earnings in the upcoming quarters will be buoyed by the RM375 million … [Read more...] about Duopharma’s 1Q net profit rises 15% on higher revenue

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 9, 2022 - May 15, 2022. Izham: We remain bullish on MAG’s future [and] cautiously optimistic about the environment. (Photo by Suhaimi Yusuf/The Edge) - A + A MALAYSIA Aviation Group Bhd (MAG), which narrowed its full-year net loss for 2021 by 60% over the preceding year, remains on track to achieve break-even in 2023 as part of its Long Term Business Plan 2021-2025 (LTBP 2.0). However, group CEO Captain Izham Ismail warns of headwinds from fuel and foreign exchange (forex) volatility, which could affect the target. MAG, whose wholly-owned subsidiaries include Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB), MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd (MABkargo), FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd and MASwings Sdn Bhd, posted a net loss of RM1.65 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY2021), a significant improvement on the year-earlier RM4.1 billion net loss when it was dealing with the effects of a slowdown in the global economy and … [Read more...] about Malaysia Aviation Group on track to break even in 2023 but faces fuel, forex headwinds

The bottom fell out from one of crypto’s fastest growing blockchains, LUNA, which promised to succeed where bitcoin failed. Its predictable collapse reverberated across the entire crypto market and is forcing investors to pick up the pieces. C rypto’s history has been defined by five resets. The first came in 2014 when what was basically the only bitcoin exchange in the world, Mt. Gox, imploded following a nearly half-billion-dollar hack. The second, in 2016, was The DAO hack, when an attacker tricked a smart contract into giving away $60 million worth of ethereum, worth $8 billion today. The third, in January 2018, occurred when the ICO bubble popped, starting a year-long decline wiping out 60% of the crypto market or more than $700 million mostly in the form of worthless junk tokens. The fourth took place in March 2020 when crypto lost 40% of its value along with most other global financial markets. Each reset not only led to price-market capitalization increases, they … [Read more...] about Crypto’s Great Reset: How Digital Asset Investors Will Recover From The Market’s $1 Trillion Meltdown

An illustration picture taken in London on December 30, 2021, shows gold plated souvenir cryptocurrency coins arranged by a screen displaying a NFT (Non-Fungible Token) logo. [AFP/YONHAP] The possibility of earning non-fungible tokens (NFT) in virtual gaming worlds shook the market and led to a rapid increase in the stock prices of a number of companies, until it became apparent that NFTs may be stuck in these virtual worlds. NFTs are unique, irreplaceable and irreproducible digital objects that represent the digital ownership of assets. The tokens are backed by blockchain technology to give buyers proof of ownership. Since late last year, a number of game companies have been contemplating the addition of NFTs to their games. The tokens could be discovered during gameplay, or points won by players could be redeemed for the tokens. The innovation raised the possibility of a useful workaround to a Korean law that prevents gamers from turning points earned in the gaming world … [Read more...] about Korean law on gamers may make metaverse useless

Major Moves The majority of the stocks in the S&P 500 lost ground today as traders attempted to quantify and make adjustments for the uncertain risk they face with the Trump administration's tariff deadline looming at 12:01 a.m. Friday morning. The risk is uncertain because nobody knows if the Trump administration is going to go through with tariff increase. The U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office filed paperwork on Wednesday to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, but that doesn't mean the administration has to pull the trigger. However, the S&P 500 component that lost the most ground today didn't drop because of uncertain tariff risks. It fell because it faces easily quantifiable risks – 38 billion of them to be precise. Until today, Occidental Petroleum Corporation ( OXY ) had been in a bidding war with Chevron Corporation ( CVX ) for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation ( APC ). Chevron originally bid $33 billion for Anadarko, … [Read more...] about Occidental Petroleum Stock Plunges, but S&P 500 Rallies Into Close

“Whilst Thailand is often nicknamed the ‘land of a thousand 7-elevens’, with a convenience store on just about every corner, there are very few of these in Vietnam, for now.” With the Thai Baht on a high at the moment, along with stricter enforcement of visa rules, some expats say they’ve had enough and are heading to Vietnam, or some other south east Asian country, where they might improve their personal situation. For example, an expat pensioner, on a fixed income, from a country where the Thai baht has risen against your currency, Thailand has become a more expensive option – perhaps impossible to make ends meet anymore with your old pension. The British pound, as just one currency, has gone from around 55 baht to the pound four years ago, to now around 39 baht, a big loss in value. Meanwhile the cost of living in Thailand has risen over the last decade. But Vietnam has its own challenges and, whilst being an amazing place to explore as a tourist, may not be to everyone’s … [Read more...] about So you want to move to Vietnam?

MANILA, Philippines—Ahead of the May 9 presidential elections, pledges from foreign investors who wanted to avail themselves of tax and other perks for their forthcoming projects fell 54.1 percent year-on-year to P8.9 billion during the first quarter–also the lowest quarterly haul since the global financial crisis 13 years ago. The latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data on Tuesday (May 17) showed that commitments approved by the country’s seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from January to March dropped from P19.6 billion in the first three months of last year. IPAs give away fiscal incentives to qualified projects. Historical PSA data showed that the first-quarter 2022 foreign investment pledges were the lowest since the P3.9-billion worth generated during the first quarter of 2009, at the height of the 2008-2009 global economic downturn. The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last year … [Read more...] about Q1 foreign investment pledges fall to lowest since 2009

- A + A DUBAI/LONDON (May 17): Saudi Aramco is considering an initial public offering (IPO) of its trading arm amid a boom in oil prices in what could be one of the world's biggest listings this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The state-controlled oil major is working with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Morgan Stanley as it studies a potential listing of Aramco Trading Co, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public. The trading unit could fetch a valuation of tens of billions of dollars, the people said, with two of them saying it could be potentially worth more than US$30 billion. Aramco, which recently became the world's most valuable company, could sell a 30% stake in the division, two of the people said, which would make it one of the world's biggest IPOs this year. South Korea's LG Energy Solution raised about US$10.8 billion in January. Other major oil … [Read more...] about Saudi Aramco said to weigh IPO of trading unit amid oil boom

Razorpay Founders Shashank Kumar & Harshil Mathur B2B payments and neobanking platform Razorpay is looking to get new investors on board through a share sale of $75 million by its employees, the company said on May 10. The purchase will be led by Lightspeed Venture Partners along with participation from Moore Strategic Ventures who will subsequently join the company’s cap table. This will also be Razorpay’s fourth and largest Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) buyback till date, and the second largest in the startup space after Flipkart’s Rs 600 crore buyback in July 2021. 650 of the startup’s existing and former employees will be eligible for this across roles including software engineers, product managers, customer experience agents, sales, and administrative staff. In December 2021, Razorpay’s valuation had jumped from $1 billion to $7.5 billion after the startup raised $375 million in its largest round. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Razorpay’s founder and … [Read more...] about Lightspeed and Moore Strategic Ventures become investors in Razorpay by buying employee shares worth $75 mn