Author: Arabian Media staff

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.RTL has agreed to buy Sky’s German business, reviving the European broadcaster’s attempts to pursue TV consolidation to fend off the threat posed by US streaming giants such as Netflix.RTL said the acquisition, if approved by EU regulators, would enable it to leapfrog Disney to become the third-biggest provider of streaming services in Germany after Netflix and Amazon Prime.RTL chief executive Thomas Rabe said the deal would help it to fend off the threat it faces. “I’ve always been convinced that intra-European consolidation…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Major Chinese industrial companies’ profits fell last month by the most since October, according to official data, in the latest sign of economic stress to emerge amid trade tensions with the US.Profits across companies with revenues of more than Rmb20mn ($2.8mn) dropped 9.1 per cent in May on the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday.The reading showed a steady 1.4 per cent cumulative profit growth from January to April swinging to a 1.1 per cent decline…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Xiaomi’s shares hit a record high after the Beijing-based smartphone maker said it received 200,000 pre-orders for its latest electric vehicle in three minutes, threatening the positions of BYD, Tesla and other carmakers competing in China’s cut-throat market.The Chinese group’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 8 per cent after the market opened on Friday to an all-time high of HK$61.45 (US$7.83) before paring gains to trade up 3 per cent.The jump came after Xiaomi, which started as a smartphone maker but has since…

Asset managers have it easy. The parties, the access, the spreadsheets. And the money isn’t bad. However, to keep the show on the road, there is the minor detail of winning and retaining clients. But what if you just bought them?While this isn’t exactly what private equity firms have done, neither is it completely not what they’ve done. As the Bank of England wrote in its latest Financial Stability Report:Historically, PE business models have relied on PE firms or financial sponsors (general partners) raising funding at arm’s length from investors (limited partners) such as insurers, pension schemes, and family offices.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The number of UK investment trusts has fallen by nearly a fifth over the past four years as the industry comes under pressure from cheap index-tracking funds, higher interest rates and takeovers.Investment trusts are companies whose shares trade on the London Stock Exchange. They pool investors’ money into one pot to buy and sell stakes in assets ranging from equities to infrastructure. However, the number of trusts has fallen from 337 in 2021 to 275, according to the Association of Investment Companies,…

This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Donald Trump is reportedly considering naming a shadow chair of the Federal Reserve, in a bid to undermine Jay Powell and push him and the Fed to cut interest rates. That would be a dumb thing to do. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail. Email us: unhedged@ft.com.Friday Interview: Enrico Letta Enrico Letta is the dean of IE School of Politics and president of the Jacques…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brazil’s supreme court has ruled that social media platforms can be held legally responsible for users’ posts, in a decision that tightens regulation on technology giants in the country.Companies such as Facebook, TikTok and X will have to act immediately to remove material such as hate speech, incitement to violence or “anti-democratic acts”, even without a prior judicial takedown order, as a result of the decision in Latin America’s largest nation late on Thursday.The move follows rising concerns in Brazil about harmful…

Zara’s owner insists it can stay youthful into middle age as the world’s biggest fashion brand reaches half a century in business grappling with slowing sales growth, trade battles and all-out wars.Despite market doubts that have knocked almost €40bn off its market capitalisation since December, Óscar García Maceiras, Inditex chief executive, told the Financial Times the company could keep growing through Zara’s “selective” approach to store expansion.“We’ve never gone for the dynamic of announcing plans to triple the number of shops in X number of years or to double the balance sheet,” he said. “It’s project by project.”Inditex chief Óscar…

This article is an on-site version of our Europe Express newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday and fortnightly on Saturday morning. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Last night as EU leaders mulled how to react to Donald Trump’s trade war, Ursula von der Leyen floated the idea of founding a rival to the World Trade Organization: my colleagues explain her thinking. And our Budapest correspondent reports on the plans by EU politicians to defy a ban on the Hungarian capital’s Pride march tomorrow.Have a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Centrica is set to take a 15 per cent stake in the UK’s Sizewell C nuclear project after years of delay and months of drawn out negotiations.All sides are keen to reach a final investment decision on the project before parliament’s recess on July 21, according to people familiar with the discussions. The final cost of Sizewell — set to be only the second new nuclear plant built in a generation in Britain — could be close to £40bn, the Financial Times…