Etihad joins with the French railway SNCF

Etihad Airways has ome together with the French National Railway, SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), to provide passengers with connectivity beyond Paris.


The commercial agreement — Etihad's 32nd codeshare deal, which came into effect yesterday — between the two parties would allow Etihad passengers to book flights beyond Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), by connecting onward on SNCF's 2,000 km of high-speed TGV rail routes, and vice-versa, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier said yesterday in a statement.

It added that the seamless air-rail connections comprise 20 cities in France, among them Bordeaux, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes and Strasbourg.

Portugal's credit rating downgraded to junk status

In early May, I spoke about the Portugal bailout from the EU and IMF.

The credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Portugal's debt to junk status.

Moody's slashed Portugal's debt four notches to Ba2, saying that the country was likely to need a second bail-out before it could raise money in the capital markets.

Based on the conditions imposed on Greece, it was likely that "private sector participation would be required as a precondition" to a second cash injection, said Moody's.

Sale of npower 'threat to energy industry investment'

Gas and electricity giant Npower could be sold for up to £5bn after its German parent company RWE put its future under review.

RWE has hired investment bankers at Goldman Sachs to consider Npower’s future, according to reports, and the options on the table include putting the company up for auction.

Tim Yeo, the MP and chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, said the potential sale is "worrying". 

Greek rescue package will mean a default, warns S&P

Standard & Poor's has warned that current proposals for restructuring Greece's debt would effectively constitute a default.

French banks, which hold some of the biggest exposures to Greek government debt, want to allow the country to extend the maturity of its bonds, which S&P said could be defined as a "selective default".  

The euro fell against the dollar, losing around half a cent to $1.4513, after S&P released its analysis.

Nissan reveals 6 year plan

Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn said Monday the automaker aims to achieve a global market share of 8 percent by the business year ending in March 2017 by focusing on rapidly expanding emerging markets.

The figure shows that Nissan is taking a bullish stance on strong growth in emerging economies despite the negative impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Ghosn also said Nissan, which currently has a market share of about 5.8 percent, aims to increase its corporate operating profit to 8 percent from 6.1 percent by the 2016 business year.

LA Dodgers baseball team files for bankruptcy

The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club has filed for bankruptcy in a Delaware court, blaming Major League Baseball for not approving a television deal that could have kept the team secure.

Bankruptcy permits the Dodgers to use $150m (£94m) for daily operations and gives the team time to to seek a media deal, the club said in a statement.

The statement added that the team would not be disrupted by its financial woes.

But reports indicated the Dodgers could have trouble meeting its next payroll.

Rothschild, the investment bank, takes a bigger role in the European debt market

The bank is positioning itself for a major push into the collateralised loan obligation market, which has begun to show signs of recovery following its collapse during the credit crisis.

CLOs are a form of derivative product in which managers package different types of leveraged loans and sell them on to investors.

The market suffered significant losses in the financial crisis, following a significant boom in the heady days of the leveraged buy-out boom in the middle of the last decade, but has since begun to recover.