COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Britain wants Brexit deal to include financial services

Britain wants to include financial services in a trade deal with the European Union which covers a full sweep of economic areas, Brexit Minister David Davis said on Tuesday.

Davis said that any deal that left finance out would be "cherry picking", after the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier cast doubt on the inclusion of financial services in a free-trade deal.

"We are looking at the full sweep of economic cooperation that currently exists and determining how that can be maintained with the minimum additional barriers or friction," Davis wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

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Steinhoff to restate 2015 results

Steinhoff said on Tuesday its 2015 results would have to restated, underscoring the extent of an accounting scandal that has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the South African retailer.

Steinhoff has delayed its 2017 annual results and said its 2016 results could no longer be relied upon after discovering what it called accounting irregularities.

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Sudan passes 2018 budget

Sudan's parliament passed its 2018 budget on Sunday and projected a budget deficit of 2.4% of GDP, state minister for finance Abdel-Rahman Dirar told Reuters.

The 2018 budget puts total revenues at 116.9 billion Sudanese pounds ($16.70 billion) and total expenditures at 127.2 billion Sudanese pounds ($18.18 billion).

The budget is calculated on the basis of a devalued Sudanese pound. The official rate will be set at 18 to the dollar from Monday - still far below the black market rate - compared to 6.7 now.

The budget projects economic growth of 4% in 2018, the cabinet said after approving the bill. The IMF expects growth for 2017 to come in at 3.25%.

NAMPA/REUTERS

Tunisia raises fuel prices to stem deficit

Tunisia announced on Sunday the second increase in fuel prices in six months, raising the price of petrol by 2.85% as the government tries to rein in the budget deficit.

The price of a litre of gasoline will rise from 1.75 dinars to 1.8 dinars from Monday, the ministry of energy, mines and renewable energy said in a statement.

The price of diesel will also increase by 0.05 dinars, to 1.56 dinars a litre for low sulphur diesel and 1.28 for regular diesel, the ministry said. The price of a canister of domestic cooking and heating gas will rise from 7.4 to 7.7 dinars, the first rise in price for seven years.

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EU opposes Lufthansa’s planned Niki purchase

The German government will probably lose a €150 million government-backed loan to insolvent Air Berlin because the European Union opposed Lufthansa's purchase of Air Berlin's Austrian unit, Niki, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said on Sunday.

British Airways owner IAG said on Friday that it would buy Niki for 20 million euros and provide additional liquidity to the company of up to €16.5 million, closing the final chapter in the demise of Air Berlin. Air Berlin filed for insolvency earlier this year.

"The damages will be borne by creditors and German taxpayers, who will see nothing of the Air Berlin bridging loan in the amount of 150 million euros," said Hans Michelbach, deputy leader of the Bavarian CSU party in parliament and financial spokesman for the conservative bloc.

NAMPA/REUTERS