1.VISA : Visa Inc said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy British cross-border payments provider Currencycloud at a valuation of 700 million pounds ($962.01 million).
Visa has been a Currencycloud shareholder since 2020, and the financial consideration will be reduced by the equity that the card network company already owns in the startup, the company said.
Launched in 2012, Currencycloud facilitates cross-border payments for nearly 500 banking and technology companies, including well-known European fintechs Klarna, Monzo, Starling and Revolut. Since its launch it has moved more than $75 billion in payments to over 180 countries.
The deal comes less than a month after Visa announced it had agreed a 1.8 billion euro ($2.2 billion) takeover of European open banking platform Tink.
The aggressive acquisition strategy is part of Visa’s push to diversify revenues beyond credit card payments, where it is one of the world’s dominant players. Card companies have been facing increased pressure from regulators on fees, especially in Europe.
“The acquisition of Currency Cloud is another example of Visa executing on our network of networks strategy to facilitate global money movement,” Colleen Ostrowski, Visa’s Global Treasurer, said in a statement.
2.VOLKSWAGEN:- Volkswagen expects sales of its ID series of electric vehicles in China — the world’s largest car market — to pick up significantly in the second half of the year, Chief Executive Herbert Diess said on Thursday.
By the end of the year, Volkswagen wants to sell between 80,000 and 100,000 of the series in China, Diess said, adding sales were expected to double to 6,000 in July from 3,000 in June.
In the first half, deliveries of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in China more than doubled to 18,285, but accounted for just 10.7% of global BEV deliveries.
3.AMAZON:- India’s antitrust regulator has accused Amazon.com Inc of concealing facts and making false submissions when it sought approval for a 2019 investment in a Future Group unit, a letter to the U.S. e-commerce giant seen by Reuters showed.
The letter complicates Amazon’s bitter legal battle with Future Group over the Indian’s firm’s decision to sell its retail assets to Reliance Industries – a matter that is now before India’s Supreme Court.
Amazon has argued that terms agreed upon in its 2019 deal to pay $192 million for a 49% stake in Future’s gift voucher unit prevent its parent, Future Group, from selling its Future Retail Ltd business to Reliance.
In the letter dated June 4, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said Amazon hid factual aspects of the transaction by not revealing its strategic interest in Future Retail when it sought approval for the 2019 deal.
“The representations and conduct of Amazon before the Commission amounts to misrepresentation, making false statement and suppression or/and concealment of material facts,” the letter said. It also noted that its review of the submissions made had been prompted by a complaint from Future Group.
4.HYUNDAI:– South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co turned in its best quarterly profit in about six years on Thursday, helped by solid demand for its high-margin sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and its premium Genesis cars.
Hyundai, which together with affiliate Kia Corp is among the world’s 10 biggest automakers by sales, reported net profit of 1.8 trillion won ($1.57 billion) for April-June versus 227 billion won in the same period a year earlier.
That compared with an average analyst forecast of 1.6 trillion won compiled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate.
“Sales of SUV models and Genesis luxury brand models drove the momentum in sales volume, and declining incentives helped lift revenue and profitability in the second quarter as the ongoing recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic spurred automotive demand,” Hyundai said in a statement.
The strong result was also backed by Hyundai’s conservative supply chain management, which has helped it navigate a global chip shortage better than many other automakers, analysts said.
.5.TESLA –Electric-car maker Tesla Inc will most likely restart accepting bitcoin as payments once it conducts due diligence on the amount of renewable energy used to mine the currency, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said at a conference on Wednesday.
Bitcoin was up 8% at $32,160.16, while ether surged 11.6% to $1,993.36. Tesla’s shares were down 0.8% at $655.30 in extended trading.
Musk’s comments at the B Word conference come after Tesla said in May it would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases, less than two months after the company began accepting the world’s biggest digital currency for payment.
“I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50%, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin” Musk said.
“Most likely the answer is that Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin.”
The use of bitcoin to buy Tesla’s electric vehicles had highlighted a dichotomy between Musk’s reputation as an environmentalist and the use of his popularity and stature as one of the world’s richest people to back cryptocurrencies.
