Citigroup hires bankers amid European expansion
Bengaluru — Citigroup has hired Tobias Akermark from Barclays and Kasper Dichow from Nordea to jointly lead its Nordic investment banking franchise, the US bank said on Monday, as it expands its European operations.
Akermark, most recently Barclays’ country CEO for Sweden and head of Nordic banking, would be based in Stockholm and join later this year.
Dichow, who led Finland-based lender Nordea’s Nordic corporate finance and equity capital markets team, would work from Copenhagen, starting early 2026.
The bankers each have nearly two decades of investment banking experience. Before Barclays, Akermark had worked for 15 years at Morgan Stanley, including as the head of Nordic mergers & acquisitions. Dichow was leading Credit Suisse’s Nordic investment banking business before joining Nordea in 2015. Reuters
Qualtrics to acquire Press Ganey Forsta for $6.7bn
Bengaluru — Customer survey software maker Qualtrics, owned by private equity firm Silver Lake, has agreed to buy healthcare market research company Press Ganey Forsta for $6.75bn, including debt, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The companies are betting that the combination of Qualtrics’ AI technologies with Press Ganey’s reach in the healthcare industry will give rise to new AI-powered tools and services, the report said, adding the deal was set to be announced later on Monday.
The merger is also meant to bolster Press Ganey’s technology offerings as large tech giants such as Palantir and Oracle expand into healthcare, the report said, citing a person briefed on the matter.
US-based Qualtrics provides tools for measuring and analysing customer, employee, product and brand experiences. It serves large enterprises, governments and universities, with clients including Microsoft, BMW and the US department of homeland security. Reuters
US bank Fifth Third to buy regional lender Comerica
Bengaluru — US bank Fifth Third said on Monday it will buy regional lender Comerica in an all-stock deal valued at $10.9bn.
The deal will create a lender with combined assets of about $288bn, making it the ninth-largest US bank.
A wave of consolidation is sweeping through the banking industry as lenders seek scale, diversify revenue streams and prepare for lighter regulation under the Trump administration.
Comerica shares jumped 12% before the bell on the news, while Fifth Third fell 2.6%. Reuters
Aerospace firms in talks to manufacture satellites
Rome/Paris — A framework agreement between France’s Airbus and Thales and Italy’s Leonardo to create a new European satellite manufacturer will still require some weeks, a source told Reuters on Monday.
The person familiar with the matter said details remain under discussion and that the boards of the three companies are working to reach a unified position.
Talks between the aerospace companies encountered a setback after existing partners Thales and Leonardo asked for more time, French daily La Tribune reported.
Leonardo declined to comment. Thales did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Reuters
EssilorLuxottica gets nod to raise Nikon stake
Tokyo — French-Italian eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica has secured permission to raise its stake in Japan’s Nikon to as much as 20% under Japan’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, Nikon said on Monday.
The maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses has also raised its holding in Nikon to 10.8% from 9.6% to become the largest shareholder, Nikon said in a release.
Nikon makes cameras, lenses and lithography equipment used in chipmaking. The company classifies itself as “core” to national security in a Japanese finance ministry list.
EssilorLuxottica CEO said earlier this year that he was considering acquisitions. The company declined to comment. Reuters
Germany expects unemployment to decline
Berlin — Germany’s unemployment level is expected to fall in the two next years as the long-awaited recovery of Europe’s biggest economy gathers pace, a source told Reuters on Monday, citing government forecasts.
The forecasts, first published by Reuters on Saturday, will be presented by the economy minister on Wednesday.
According to the new government projections, unemployment will edge down from 6.3% this year to 6.2% in 2026 before easing to 6.0% in 2027.
The number of unemployed people in Germany topped 3-million for the first time in a decade in August as Germany has struggled with a persistently weak economy since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to the government’s projections, the number of unemployed is not expected to fall to an annual average of about 2.8 million until 2027.
Germany’s economy ministry revised its growth forecast for this year up to 0.2% from an earlier forecast of zero, the source said on Saturday. Reuters
Ivory Coast cocoa farmers see strong main crop
Abidjan — Below-average rains mixed with sunny spells across Ivory Coast’s main cocoa regions last week are expected to improve the size and quality of the October-to-March main crop by maintaining good moisture, farmers said on Monday.
Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season, which runs officially from April to mid-November, when showers are abundant and often heavy.
Cocoa farmers across key growing regions said harvesting is picking up after the government set an early-October farmgate price of 2,800 CFA francs ($5.04) per kg, up from 2,200 CFA francs for the mid-crop.
They said weather conditions bode well for yields at least through December and reported the first beans are of good quality and size. Reuters
Court rejects SAP bid to escape Teradata lawsuit
Washington — The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by Europe’s largest software maker, SAP, to avoid a lawsuit by US data technology company Teradata that accused it of violating American antitrust law.
The justices turned away SAP’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that let Teradata pursue claims that its larger German rival violated US antitrust law by tying sales of business-planning applications to the purchase of a key SAP database that can perform transactional and analytical functions. San Diego-based Teradata makes a rival analytics database.
Teradata filed its lawsuit against SAP in federal court in California in 2018. SAP has denied any wrongdoing. A judge has scheduled an April 2026 trial on Teradata’s claims, as well as on a counterclaim that SAP lodged against Teradata accusing it of patent infringement. Reuters
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