Trading in shares of embattled Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings have been suspended on the Hong Kong stock exchange, prompting fresh nerves about the financial stability of the country’s massive property sector. The suspension on Wednesday comes after Kaisa was reportedly unlikely to meet a dollar bond repayment of $400m (£301m) by the deadline of Tuesday night in the US, Reuters said, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. – Guardian
Volkswagen is still considering a stock market listing of its luxury sports car brand Porsche, according to reports, as it looks to raise capital for a costly shift towards electric vehicles. Estimates for what Porsche could be worth as a standalone company range between €45bn and €90bn (£38bn and £77bn). – Guardian
British financial services exports to the US outstripped those to the European Union in 2020 for the first time since the Brexit vote as the City shifts its focus away from the Continent. Around 34pc of exports by banks and finance companies went to America in 2020, according to research by the banking lobby group TheCityUK, compared to 30pc to the EU. The US was in pole position for the first time since it started collecting data in 2016. – Telegraph
Gatwick was once the bright and shining future for British Airways. Robert Ayling, the airline’s chief executive in the late 1990s and the man who brought us both the London Eye and the 02 Centre, had no doubt about it. “BA now firmly believes that Gatwick is at last one of the best transfer hubs in the world and is determined to be at the forefront of its future,” he said in 1997. The airline boasted of the “hub without the hubbub” in an advert filmed in a full-scale replica of a Gatwick terminal built at Pinewood Studios. Ayling’s big push was the culmination of much head-scratching at BA – not only on what to do with Gatwick, a potentially weak southern flank to its fortress at Heathrow – but also the bigger quandary of how to grow. – The Times
Zopa is to exit the peer-to-peer lending market that it pioneered, in the latest sign of the decline of the once promising industry. Jaidev Janardana, chief executive, said that it would close its peer-to-peer book in January after concluding it was no longer “commercially viable”. – The Times
