Commercial news round-up: Davos, Airbus, Carillion, Sky, Canadian marijuana merger
updated on 25 January 2018
This week over 20,000 of the world’s most senior business and political leaders are gathering in the icy climes of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. With this year’s theme “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”, items on the agenda include financial stability, tax avoidance, gender equality, terrorism and climate change (little wonder there is also a calming half-hour meditation each morning). The BBC provides a useful 90-second summation of what goes on here. But that’s not all – there is also this carefully curated selection of business news to keep an eye on:
- Emirates has committed to buying up to 36 new Airbus A380s, which will help to keep the superjumbo manufacturer buoyant in the face of stiff competition from Boeing’s Dreamliner. Emirates is Airbus’ biggest customer.
- The Kier Group is set to take on a number of projects that were once on Carillion’s roster of work, following its liquidation last week. Kier will become responsible for the HS2 project and the Highways England smart motorway schemes, both of which it had been working on with Carillion.
- Sky is sufficiently concerned about the popularity of streaming services Netflix and Amazon Video to have launched its own low-cost plug-in service. Some commentators have suggested that this could herald the death of the satellite dish.
- With recreational marijuana use due to be legalised in Canada before July 2018, the proposed merger of two large Canadian cannabis growing companies is set to create a C$6 billion entity. The deal will create the world’s most valuable marijuana-growing company.
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