Brazil's Petro Rio approves $250 mln follow-on offering

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The board of Petro Rio SA has approved a follow-on offering of approximately $250 million, the Rio de Janeiro-based oil company said in a Tuesday securities filing.

Petro Rio has made a number of significant acquisitions over the last two years, and is now Brazil’s largest oil company after state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

Google CEO reacts to growing calls to break up big tech (2019)

(CNN Business)Google suffered its second outage in as many days, with its email service Gmail going down on Tuesday for more than two hours.

Some Gmail users reported emails bouncing back and other error messages.
Google (GOOGL) initially said on its status page that it was aware of the outage around 4.30 p.m. ET. “The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior,” it added.

The issues were finally resolved shortly before 7 p.m. ET, the company said. At their peak, they affected nearly 18,000 users, according to monitoring site Downdetector.
“Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better,” Google said.

On Monday, several of Google’s services went down for about an hour, including Gmail, YouTube and Google Classroom.

Denver Broncos to wear Color Rush uniforms against Buffalo Bills in Week 15 – The Denver Post

Color Rush uniforms have returned!

The Denver Broncos are bringing back the classic Broncos “D” logo for Saturday’s home game.

Following the Broncos’ win over the Panthers on Sunday, Denver has its sights set on the Buffalo Bills in Week 15.

Denver (5-8) looks to ride Drew Lock and Co. to an upset win over the Bills (10-3). One thing is guaranteed, the Broncos will look stunning in their Color Rush uniforms.

The Broncos announced the update on Twitter Tuesday night.

Vossloh Sees Average Annual Sales Growth Of 4% – 5% In Medium Term

German rail technology company Vossloh (VOSSF.PK) expects to achieve average annual sales growth of 4 to 5 percent in the medium term. It is significantly higher than the average market growth anticipated by relevant market studies.

With regard to the operating result, EBIT or earnings before interest and taxes, the company aims for double-digit margins in all divisions of the Company in the medium term, Vossloh said at virtual Capital Markets Day.

For fiscal year 2021, the company currently anticipates group sales to be within a range of 850 million euros to 925 million euros compared to 870 million euros most recently projected for the current 2020 fiscal year.

With regard to EBIT and EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the company anticipates margins for 2021 of between 7 and 8 percent and between 13 and 14 percent, respectively.

European Economics Preview: Germany’s Foreign Trade Data Due

Foreign trade data from Germany is due on Wednesday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is scheduled to issue Germany’s foreign trade figures for October. Exports are forecast to climb 1.2 percent on month, slower than September’s 2.3 percent increase. Meanwhile, imports are expected to rise 1 percent, reversing a 0.1 percent fall.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain’s INE releases industrial production data for October. Economists expect the production to fall 2.6 percent on year, following a 3.4 percent decrease in September.

In the meantime, foreign trade from Austria, Slovakia and Hungary are due. Slovakia’s trade surplus is seen at EUR 724.8 million in October versus EUR 707.9 million a month ago.

DAX Rallies On Stimulus Hopes

German stocks rallied on Wednesday, with coronavirus vaccine optimism and U.S. stimulus hopes helping underpin investor sentiment.

Investors shrugged off official data showing that German exports growth slowed more-than-expected in October.

Exports increased 0.8 percent month-on-month in October, slower than the 2.3 percent increase seen in September. Shipments were forecast to climb 1.2 percent.

At the same time, imports gained 0.3 percent, following a 0.2 percent rise in September. This was also slower than the economists’ forecast of +1 percent.

The benchmark DAX climbed 148 points, or 1.1 percent, to 13,426 after finishing marginally higher the previous day.

Covestro AG, a manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials, jumped 3.5 percent after raising its full-year EBITDA outlook.

BayWa AG, an operator in the agriculture, building materials and energy sectors, rose over 2 percent after it agreed to sell a 49 percent stake in BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH to Energy Infrastructure Partners AG for 530 million euros.

Copper producer Aurubis AG dropped 1 percent despite reporting a rise in annual earnings.

Motorway mayhem: Crash on Northwestern Motorway in Auckland

A crash is blocking southbound lanes on the Northwestern Motorway in Auckland.

The incident took place just prior to the Great North Rd off-ramp, with motorists urged by NZTA to keep their eyes on the road.

Motorists should be prepared for delays as they travel in the area, NZTA says.

An image taken from an NZTA traffic camera shows a long queue of traffic stuck behind the crash.

Bunzl Sees 8% Rise In FY Group Revenue – Quick Facts

Distribution and outsourcing Group Bunzl plc (BZLFY.PK,BNZL.L) said that it expects group revenue for fiscal year 2020 to increase by about 8% at actual exchange rates and by approximately 9% at constant exchange rates, due to similar levels of growth from both the increase in organic revenue and the impact of acquisitions.

The company’s resilient business model is expected to deliver a strong performance in the year ending 31 December 2020, with continued growth in Covid-19 related orders during the fourth quarter of the year against the background of increased pandemic-driven restrictions in some markets.

The company expects the growth in Covid-19 related sales over the fourth quarter to be driven by the ongoing support of smaller orders, whilst larger orders will continue to slow. The decline in other product sales seen earlier in the year is expected to improve slightly despite the impact of recently strengthened pandemic-related restrictions in some markets.

At constant exchange rates the Group expects revenue in 2021 to be lower than the current year with minimal benefit from larger Covid-19 related orders which have strongly supported the performance in 2020.

The Group expects an underlying recovery in sales of other products to be broadly offset by a decline in smaller Covid-19 related orders, with acquisitions made during 2020 making a contribution to the Group’s performance in 2021. Group operating margins are expected to return to more historical levels.