- Luxembourg’s all-cargo airline posted profits of $5.5m in 2016, down from $43.9m the year before, but still up from $2.8m in 2014. Cargolux said it carried 964,131 tonnes of freight last year, an increase of 8.4% over 2015. This summer the company is expected to unveil its new business strategy, “Cargolux2025”, which will focus on digitalisation, cost controls and fleet flexibility.
- “350 people have been made redundant over the past six months” in credit institutions, according to Laurent Mertz of the Aleba trade union. That is a figure he considered “quite sizeable especially in a context of [economic] recovery”. In current contract talks with bank bosses, the unions that represent workers in the sector--Aleba, LCGB-SESF and OGBL-SBA--have asked for pay rises of 1.5% in 2017 and 2018, and 2% in 2019. Mertz also said at a press conference that Aleba opposes bill 7024--a draft law that would allow the outsourcing of data processing currently before parliament--which could potentially lead to 3,000 to 4,000 job losses in Luxembourg.
- Private equity is no longer a niche market in the global funds industry, Jérôme Wittamer said at the “LPEA Insights” conference. Wittamer is chairman of the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA) and a founder of Expon Capital. Luxembourg’s PE sector has grown, over the past 12 years, from roughly zero to roughly €400m in assets under management.
- Yves Jeanbaptiste has been named managing director of Propper. Michel Greco, a parcel delivery outfit, recently took over Propper, a cleaning and maintenance provider, and plans to grow the business. Jeanbaptiste previously was an executive at Unifiedpost, the Faber printing group and Canon Luxembourg.
- “It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to redesign the skyline of the gateway to one of the city’s most important districts.” So said Olivier Bastin, CEO of Immobel, a property developer, in an interview. Ground will be broken Thursday on the firm’s “Infinity” project, a 25-level tower next to the Philharmonie, in Kirchberg.