SBC, PBIT to increase mutual trade

LAHORE: The Swiss Business Council (SBC) and the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding to go for next steps for increasing mutual trade and further solidify the bond between the two entities.PBIT Chairman Abdul Basit said Swiss based multinational companies had invested billions of dollars in Pakistan in various sectors including food processing, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery, engineering and banking thus providing over 10,000 jobs.

SBC President Asif Ikram said recently both countries had stepped up efforts to increase bilateral trade and investment.—Staff Reporter

Cloud service provider opens data centre

LAHORE: RapidCompute, a local cloud service provider, opened its data centre here on Wednesday.

After setting up two centres in Karachi, the company gained a foothold in Lahore with hope to empower multiple industry verticals in Punjab.

The service offers an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud platform that combines enterprise class infrastructure with the expertise and support structure that is the hallmark of Cybernet’s product portfolio, said a press release.—Staff Reporter

Total CEO receives 3.05m-euro remuneration

LONDON: Total’s Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne received remuneration of 3 million euros in 2015, his first full year at the helm of the French oil and gas company, a filing to the stock exchange showed on Wednesday.

Pouyanne, who was appointed CEO in October 2014 following the death of his predecessor Christoph de Margerie in a plane crash in Russia, has had to battle a sharp drop in oil prices since mid-2014 and led Total through heavy spending cuts as profits plummeted.—Reuters

Largest US coal miner warns of bankruptcy

WASHINGTON: Peabody Energy, the largest US coal miner, warned on Wednesday that it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection after missing a key debt payment.

Just two months after the number-two miner Arch Coal fell into bankruptcy, Peabody said that due to operating losses and negative cash flows, it risked falling into default on its loans.The company said it had invoked a 30-day grace period on debt payments of $71 million due on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2016