COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Telegram raises US$1 billion

Telegram has raised over US$1 billion through bond sales to multiple investors, the messaging app's founder Pavel Durov said on Tuesday.

The funding round included a combined US$150 million investment by Mubadala Investment Co and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, which is part-owned by the Abu Dhabi state fund.

Although the company did not provide any details about its other investors, Durov said they included "some of the largest and most knowledgeable investors from all over the world."

The funds would be used to help roll out expansion plans as well as drive its monetization strategy, which includes premium plans for business users, Durov said.

"Telegram's user base has reached a critical mass that places it amongst global tech giants," Mubadala executive Faris Sohail Faris al-Mazrui said in a statement.

Telegram, along with messaging app Signal, have seen an increase in users this year amid privacy concerns with larger rival Facebook-owned WhatsApp. It currently has 500 million monthly active users. - Nampa/Reuters

Kenya Airways bets on cargo

Kenya Airways is doubling down on cargo as it does not expect its passenger business to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic until 2024, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

The airline, whose joint venture with Air France KLM will expire this September, said its peak summer travel season was almost wiped out after Kenya closed its airspace and losses tripled last year to US$333 million.

"We expect the passenger business to normalise by 2024. It is a volatile situation dependent on very many things," Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka told Reuters after an investor briefing.

To blunt the impact, Kenya Airways plans to boost its share of the outbound cargo market to 35% by 2025 from 10%, he said.

The airline is converting a second passenger Boeing 787 plane into a freighter to haul cargo from Europe, Asia and the Americas, having converted a similar plane earlier this year. - Nampa/Reuters

GameStop revenue shy of estimates

GameStop Corp, the video game retailer at the centre of this year's Reddit-driven trading frenzy, fell short of holiday-quarter revenue estimates on Tuesday, squeezed by pandemic-led store closures and as more gamers drifted to online purchases.

Adjusted net income rose to US$90.7 million, or US$1.34 per share from US$83.8 million, or US$1.27 per share, a year earlier.

GameStop's shares have skyrocketed this year as amateur traders bet against Wall Street hedge funds that had shorted its shares, driving the company's valuation to as high as US$33.68 billion, more than Best Buy. The stock has become one of the hottest and most visible "meme stocks" followed on social media.

The results come as top shareholder Ryan Cohen, the billionaire co-founder of online pet supplies retailer Chewy, tries to transition the company into an ecommerce business that can take on big-box retailers such as Target and Walmart, as well as technology firms such as Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp.

GameStop said it would spend 2021 improving the speed of its delivery services, expanding its product offering and hiring people experienced in e-commerce. - Nampa/Reuters

IAG secures US$1.76 bln credit line

British Airways owner IAG said on Tuesday it had secured a US$1.76 billion credit facility from a group of banks that would be available to its coronavirus-hit airlines Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia.

The travel sector was dealt a fresh blow this week when Britons were warned not to book summer holidays abroad, deepening fears of a second straight lost summer as Europe's slow and chaotic vaccine rollout undermines expectations of a rebound.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday that the three airlines would have a separate borrowing limit within the overall three-year facility.

"Amounts drawn would be secured against eligible unencumbered aircraft assets and take-off and landing rights at both London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports," it said.

IAG also said that British Airways had simultaneously cancelled its US dollar facility, which had $786 million available at December-end and was due to expire on June 23.- Nampa/Reuters

Mega insurance merger derailed

Property and casualty insurer Hartford rejected a US$23.24 billion takeover offer from larger rival Chubb Ltd on Tuesday, derailing what would have been the largest deal in the property and casualty insurance sector since 2016.

Hartford said its board had determined that entering into talks about a deal would not be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

Chubb had made a US$65 per share offer for the insurer on March 18, a premium of about 13% to Hartford's closing stock price a day earlier.

A deal between Hartford and Chubb would be the biggest in the sector since Aon Plc's US$30 billion bid to buy Willis Towers Watson last year, and the largest in the US P&C insurance space since Chubb was created in its current form in January 2016.

Chubb's bid for Hartford has come after its chief executive officer, Evan Greenberg, warned in April that the pandemic would likely spur the single-largest loss in the industry's history. - Nampa/Reuters