the bottomline

DUBAI:

Emirates has no plans at this time to purchase additional Airbus A380s, the airline told Reuters in a statement on Wednesday.

“We regularly engage with aircraft manufacturers for product updates and enhancement of current and future aircraft,” the airline said in the statement.

Bloomberg reported earlier that the airline was in talks over a deal for 20 Airbus superjumbo aircraft. (RTRS)

DETROIT:

Ford Motor Co will operate its Kentucky SUV plant for an extra week this summer to meet demand for the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC.

Ford’s North American plants normally have a two-week shutdown in July, but the Louisville Assembly Plant will take only one week. It will build more than 8,500 vehicles during that extra week.

US sales of the Escape were up 3 percent through May, while MKC sales were up 10 percent. Overall industry sales are down 2 percent, according to Autodata Corp. (AP)

NEW YORK:

One of the nation’s biggest health insurers says it will not return to Ohio’s public insurance exchanges next year, a decision that could open more holes in the Affordable Care Act’s increasingly thin system for helping people buy coverage.

The move announced Tuesday by Anthem Inc could leave shoppers in 20 counties without an option for buying individual coverage on the exchange unless another insurer steps in, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere. (AP)

NEW YORK:

Macy’s has warned investors that its profit margins would keep shrinking this year, sending shares in the chain tumbling more than 8 percent and affecting other department store stocks.

Randal J. Konik, a stock analyst at Jefferies, said the struggling department store chain told analysts at an investor meeting Tuesday that its gross profit margin could be 0.6 percent to 0.8 percent lower than last year.

Konik said in a note that Macy’s is expecting its gross profit margins in the second quarter to be down 1 percent from a year ago. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Vivendi, the parent company of Universal Music Group and Canal Plus Group, has acquired a 60% stake in Havas, a leading advertising and communication group, from Bollore Group for an estimated 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion).

The deal valued Havas, which is listed on the Paris stock market and is believed to be the world’s sixth biggest advertising and communication group, at a premium 9.25 euros a share.

Havas is currently under the leadership of chief executive Yannick Bollore, who is the son of Vincent Bollore, the chairman and dominant shareholder of Vivendi. Vincent and Yannick Bollore are also together at the helm of Bollore Group as president/CEO and vice chairman, respectively. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Honest Co, the shopping website co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, has reached a $1.55 million settlement of US consumer litigation claiming it sold laundry detergent, dish soap and a surface cleaner that contained a harsh chemical it pledged to avoid.

The preliminary accord resolves nationwide litigation accusing Honest of misleading consumers by claiming that its products did not contain the skin irritant sodium lauryl sulfate, when in fact it was a component of a “gentler” ingredient, sodium coco sulfate, that Honest acknowledged using.

According to court papers filed on Monday in Los Angeles federal court, Honest agreed to reformulate its products without either ingredient.

Consumers will be able to seek refunds, or credits on Honest’s website, for up to $50 without proofs of purchase and larger amounts with receipts, the papers show. (RTRS)

LONDON:

A London High Court judge on Wednesday called off a trial due to begin on Wednesday in a drawn-out investor lawsuit against Royal Bank of Scotland over its 2008 rights issue that would have called disgraced former CEO Fred Goodwin to testify.

Judge Robert Hildyard said the minority of rebel shareholders, who have not wanted to accept an out-ofcourt settlement, could apply for the trial to resume if they could prove they had sufficient funding by the end of July. (RTRS)

LONDON:

British packaging company RPC Group Plc reported a 67 percent rise in its full-year revenue, helped partly by acquisitions, and said it had started the financial year in line with management’s expectations.

The company said adjusted operating profit rose 76.8 percent as it recognised better cost savings from its acquisition of Letica Corporation Inc, British Polythene Industries and Global Closure Systems during the year.

RPC Group reported adjusted operating profit of 308.2 million pounds ($397.82 million) for the full-year ended March 31, on revenue of 2.75 billion pounds. (RTRS)

LONDON:

A top British supermarket has pulled one of its corned beef brands off the shelves after a newspaper investigation found it might contain meat linked to slave labour on a farm in Brazil.

The Guardian newspaper said meat processing company JBS, which supplies beef to several leading UK food stores, had previously bought cattle from a farm in northern Brazil which is being investigated for using workers as modern-day slaves. (RTRS)

MOSCOW:

Any suggestions that Russia could “eventually” buy back the stake in its flagship oil producer Rosneft which it had sold to Qatar are “not possible and incorrect”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

The Qatar Investment Authority and Swiss-based commodities trading firm Glencore bought a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft for more than 10 billion euros ($11.22 billion) last December. (RTRS)