From Breakingviews: Many pandemic-scarred locales would gladly roll back the calendar, but Brazil’s Sao Paulo is looking to move it forward — by moving up holidays. The idea is symbolic of the country’s haphazard COVID-19 response
A flare burns excess natural gas in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, U.S. November 23, 2019. REUTERS/Angus MordantGAS BUBBLES. Natural-gas businesses are enjoying a renaissance. Stocks of big producers have risen during global lockdowns even as electricity demand has been falling. Shares in U.S. outfit EQT have more than doubled since mid-March. Antero Resources is up about 150%.
The curveball is Disney+. Kevin Mayer, who led the critical video-streaming service, is decamping to serve as CEO of ByteDance’s TikTok. Chapek tapped a theme-park colleague to fill Mayer’s spot too. Rebecca Campbell, another veteran, most recently president of Disneyland Resort, will chair the direct-to-consumer business. She has media experience including time with Disney+ in Europe and running TV stations.
FLYING PHISH. At last, an airline with a reason to be grateful for the coronavirus. UK budget carrier easyJet admitted “highly sophisticated” cyber attackers had accessed the personal details of nine million of its customers from January. Even though easyJet said there was no evidence of any information misuse, it could still be fined up to 4% of turnover. Due to Covid-19, that’s a lot less than normal.
Travel isn’t likely to return in full force any time soon, though. It took nearly two years for North American flight demand to return following the 9/11 attacks. Even when people start getting out and about, travelers are likely to stay close to home, according to Breakingviews analysis. After all, full body suits and masks aren’t exactly vacation-ready attire.COVID-19 SWEETENER. UniCredit is feeling generous.
The deal’s size was encouraging. It’s the largest of a new breed of equity capital raisings that allow UK companies to avoid offering investors pre-emption rights. Chief Executive Dominic Blakemore softened the 6% discount to Friday’s undisturbed share price by allowing retail investors to participate. UK recruiter Hays’ deal came at a 13% discount. It may be that investors liked seeing Blakemore paying down some of the company’s 4.9 billion pounds of debt.
HOME INVASION. It was a rough quarter for Chinese search engine operator Baidu, whose advertising revenue slumped by nearly a fifth from a year earlier, to $2 billion. Investments in artificial intelligence got a Covid-19 lift, however. DuerOS, the company’s answer to Amazon’s smart-speaker assistant Alexa, received 6.5 billion voice queries in March alone, as trapped users asked for the latest pandemic update or ordered food.
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