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Shares in Sainsbury’s jump to seven-year high on report of buyer interest By Reuters

(Reuters) -Shares in Sainsbury's jumped as much as 13% to a more than seven-year high on Monday after a report said private equity firms could launch bids worth more than 7 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) for Britain's second-largest supermarket. Private equity firms, including New York-based Apollo Global Management, were circling Sainsbury's, the Sunday Times newspaper reported https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bidders-train-guns-on-sainsburys-sh8228nst. The report comes as Morrisons, Britain's fourth-largest grocer, is the subject of the most high-profile deal in Britain. Takeovers of British firms, led by U.S. firms, have hit a 14-year high by value in the first seven months...

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China halts over 40 IPOs amid regulatory probe By Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese bourses have halted more than 40 initial public offerings (IPOs) in Shanghai and Shenzhen amid a regulatory probe into several intermediaries in the deals, according to official exchange disclosures. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange suspended more than 30 IPOs, including public share sale plans by BYD Co's chip unit, on Aug. 18, according exchange filings. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has pressed the pause button on eight IPOs targeting the city's tech-focused STAR Market since Aug. 19. The companies attribute the IPOs' halt to an investigation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) into...

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UK’s Johnson to push Biden for Afghan deadline extension By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask U.S. President Joe Biden to extend the evacuation deadline from Afghanistan when Group of Seven leaders discuss the crisis on Tuesday, two UK ministers said. James Heappey, minister for the armed forces, and James Cleverly, a foreign office minister, said Britain was pushing for the deadline to be pushed beyond Aug. 31 to increase the number of people it can help who want to flee the Taliban. Heappey told Sky News around 4,000 people who were eligible to come to the United Kingdom were...

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Global dividends to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021 -report By Reuters

By Stefano Rebaudo MILAN (Reuters) - Global dividends are forecast to rise to $1.39 trillion this year, up slightly from a previous estimate to reflect a stronger than expected recovery in the company payouts, Janus Henderson said in a report published on Monday. Its latest estimate, up 2.2 percentage points from an earlier one, is just 3% below the pre-pandemic peak. Dividends, a company payout to shareholders, slumped last year against the backdrop of the COVID-crisis as regulatory constraints and government pressures to restrict payments weighed. But a strong recovery is currently under way,...

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Australia’s Ampol Offers $1.4 Bln for New Zealand’s Z Energy By Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Australian fuel retailer and distributor Ampol Ltd. made a $1.4 billion takeover offer for New Zealand counterpart Z Energy Ltd.  The non-binding indicative proposal is pitched at NZ$3.78 a share, Wellington-based Z Energy said Monday, valuing the company at NZ$1.97 billion. Z Energy shares surged as much as 19%. Confirmation of the offer follows a Bloomberg News report Sunday that the companies were in advanced talks. Ampol, which recently re-branded from the name Caltex, would be adding New Zealand’s biggest fuel retailer. Z Energy was formed by local investors to buy Royal Dutch Shell...

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Hong Kong Bourse Jumps on China A Share Index Futures Launch By Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. rallied by the most since January after receiving clearance to offer long awaited A share index futures contracts, giving global investors a new tool to hedge China risk.  The bourse on Friday signed an agreement with MSCI Inc. to launch futures contract based on the MSCI China A 50 Connect Index, tracking performance of 50 Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks that are traded via a link to Hong Kong. The futures will start trading on Oct. 18, according to a statement.  HKEX shares rose as much as 6.6%...

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China eyes pushing U.S. IPO-bound firms to hand over data control -sources By Reuters

By Julie Zhu and Scott Murdoch HONG KONG (Reuters) -Chinese regulators are considering pressing data-rich companies to hand over management and supervision of their data to third-party firms if they want U.S. stock listings, sources said, as part of Beijing's unprecedented scrutiny of private sector firms. The regulators believe bringing in third-party information security firms, ideally state-backed, to manage and monitor IPO hopefuls' data could effectively limit their ability to transfer Chinese onshore data overseas, one of the people said. That would help ease Beijing's growing concerns that a foreign listing might force such...

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Asia stocks fragile amid growth worries, dollar in demand By Reuters

By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets were trying to pick up the pieces on Monday following last week's thrashing as coronavirus concerns showed little sign of abating, while safe-haven flows benefited the dollar ahead of a key update on U.S. monetary policy. A raft of "flash" manufacturing surveys for August out on Monday will offer an early indication of how global growth is faring in the face of the Delta variant, with analysts expecting some slippage and especially in Asia. Concerns over China's economy have only intensified in recent weeks, while Beijing's regulatory...

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U.S. recruits commercial airlines to help move Afghanistan evacuees By Reuters

By Idrees Ali and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has enlisted the help of six commercial airlines to help transport people after their evacuation from Afghanistan as Washington seeks to step up the pace of departures of Americans and at-risk Afghans from Kabul. The Pentagon said on Sunday it called up 18 civilian aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta Air and others to carry people from temporary locations after they landed on flights from Afghanistan, leaning on the industry it last called on during the Iraq War in 2003. The move...

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U.S. lends support to Lithuania against China pressure By Reuters

By Andrius Sytas VILNIUS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Lithuania's foreign minister on Saturday and agreed on "bilateral coordinated action" to help the country withstand pressure from China over its decision to develop ties with Taiwan, Lithuania said. China on Aug. 10 demanded that Lithuania withdraw its ambassador in Beijing and said it would recall China's envoy to Vilnius in a row over the Baltic state allowing Chinese-claimed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy there using its own name. Blinken and Gabrielius Landsbergis agreed "China's unilateral aggressive actions and political...

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