Category: 3. Business

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Transactions of $10bn or more have hit an all-time record in 2025 after Donald Trump’s deregulatory push unleashed Wall Street’s animal spirits and a blitz of global dealmaking.

Naver’s $10.3bn all-stock acquisition of South Korea’s biggest crypto exchange Upbit on Wednesday took this year’s megadeal total to 63, topping the 2015 record, according to LSEG data on transactions since 1988.

The frenzy comes despite a sluggish start to the year after the US president’s “liberation day” tariffs sparked weeks of market volatility and deep uncertainty about interest rates and the global economic outlook.

“Companies are taking advantage of this window to pursue the larger transactions that they’ve long wanted to do and have been expected by the market,” said Ivan Farman, global co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Bank of America.

“When you see big deals being struck in your industry, you don’t want to be left out when the chess pieces move.”

Deals roared back in the second half of 2025 as CEOs pounced on once-in-a-generation transactions, including Union Pacific’s $85bn bid for Norfolk Southern, the $55bn Saudi-backed take-private of Electronic Arts, Anglo American’s $50bn merger with Teck and Kimberly-Clark $49bn takeover of Tylenol maker Kenvue.

Edward Lee, a corporate partner at Kirkland & Ellis, said CEOs and boards now had the “confidence and visibility” to chase “big strategic moves that they postponed for two years because of interest-rate uncertainty, inflation and the election”.

The greater visibility would allow deals that were previously hitting regulatory roadblocks to finally get done, Lee added.

The second half of the year deal blitz comes after Trump pulled back from a full-blown trade war with China and choked back some of his most aggressive tariffs, all while doubling down on M&A-friendly measures, including relaxing antitrust rules.

“There’s a feeling right now in the current regulatory environment that there’s a chance to do larger-scale transactions that you may not have the opportunity to do again,” said Krishna Veeraraghavan, co-head of Paul Weiss’s M&A group.

The animal spirits have spread across sectors. Bank M&A surged as deals were approved at the fastest pace in more than three decades, while Big Pharma roared back, acquiring biotech assets to restock their drug pipelines. A boom in artificial intelligence spurred a wave of tech and data centre transactions.

“We’re seeing increased activity not just in tech, driven by a tsunami of money going into AI infrastructure, but also in healthcare, industrials, financial and other sectors,” said Drago Rajkovic, global co-head of M&A at Citigroup.

“Why are there so many large deals? There has been a lot of pent-up demand, a favourable regulatory environment and healthy balance sheets,” he added.

But M&A has been stronger among larger companies than smaller ones, a sign that deal activity remains uneven.

“Small deals are often harder to get done as they’re less interesting to buyers because they don’t move the needle. Fundamentally, smaller deals have lower returns, so there’s a trend towards our clients focusing on large transactions,” said Andrew Woeber, global head of M&A at Barclays.

As financial traders milled around 26 floors up in a tower in the Canary Wharf district of London, there was little sign of nerves ahead of Rachel Reeves’s second budget – until the surprise accidental early release of the government’s official economic analysis started to move markets.

Headline numbers from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) flashed through on banks of computer screens, followed shortly by the detailed analysis itself.

“Boom! There’s your 200-pager,” said Will Marsters, a sales trader at Saxo UK, a trading platform that hosted the Guardian for the announcement. The leak triggered a race across trading desks in the City of London to understand the implications of the leaked forecasts – and laughter at the hapless forecaster.

It was a chaotic start to the budget, but more important for financial investors and the Treasury was the reaction on currency and bond markets. The Labour government was desperate to avoid a repeat of the Liz Truss “mini-budget” debacle, when borrowing costs surged, eventually bringing about the downfall of the Conservative government.

The reaction on Wednesday was choppy, but not dramatic by the standards of the Truss government. The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt – a measure of the cost of government borrowing – dropped quickly from 4.5% to about 4.42%. A few minutes later it was back up above 4.52%.

By the late afternoon yields had fallen back once more, to 4.4%. The declining borrowing cost over the day will likely be a relief for Reeves – and a sign that markets do not think lending money to the UK has become more risky.

“The tempered growth didn’t seem too optimistic, which eroded some of the risk premium,” said Marsters.

Neil Wilson, an investor strategist at Saxo UK, said: “There’s no great stinging surprise that has upset markets. That has allowed it to be a bit of a relief.”

However, he wondered about the credibility of the forecasts: governments often promise to tighten budgets in later years in order to make the sums add up. With elections expected around the same time, he said the prospect of welfare cuts or tax rises in four years’ time was remote.

“You’re saying we’re going to buy fiscal restraint by the end of the parliament,” Wilson said. “‘Don’t worry about welfare – we’ll sort it out’.”

The value of the pound also jumped in initially volatile trading after the OBR leak. It then fell as low as $1.3124, before recovering by late afternoon to $1.3229 – an increase of 0.5% for the day.

Mike Owen, another sales trader, said: “Everyone was fearing the worst, so the price action is, ‘Phew’. It’s such a minefield to try to get through it.”

Nov 26 (Reuters) – A federal judge dealt a setback to customers suing Burger King over advertising for its Whopper sandwiches, saying their claims were too disparate to justify certifying a nationwide class action.

The lawsuit by 19 customers in 13 U.S. states accused Burger King of misleadingly and materially inflating the size of nearly all menu items online and on in-store ordering boards.

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These included Whoppers whose burgers allegedly appeared to “overflow” the buns and be 35% larger than they are, with more than double the meat.

But in a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman in Miami said the state consumer protection laws underlying the lawsuit had many differences. He also said individualized claims would predominate because the plaintiffs bought burgers in an “almost-infinite variety” of shapes and sizes.

“It may be that every single one of those burgers was smaller than every single menu-board item Burger King has ever produced. But that’s not the point,” Altman said. “Each putative class member will have seen a particular photo and received a specific burger.”

The judge also said Burger King’s prices have “undoubtedly waxed and waned” since April 1, 2018, the start of the proposed class period, and all class members would need to show when and where they bought burgers, and what they paid.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Burger King said it was satisfied with the decision. It repeated its May statement that the plaintiffs’ claims are false, and that “the flame-grilled beef patties portrayed in our advertising are the same patties used in the millions of burgers we serve to guests across the U.S.”

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Multiple operators made up the majority of pharmacy sales instructions in 2025, according to a report from pharmacy brokers Hutchings Consultants.

In its ‘England pharmacy market report 2025’, published on 25 November 2025, the pharmacy sales agency pointed out sales data showing that corporate and multiple operators made up 71% of all sales instructions in 2025 to date.

The agency described this as a “clear reversal of the 2024 landscape, when independent sellers held a comparable majority share”.

Independent pharmacy owners made up 19% of sales instructions in 2025, the report said, with “groups focused on divesting outlier branches” making up the remainder of the sales.

For sales, first-time buyers dominated demand, accounting for 76% of new registrations, followed by independent owners at 12%, investors at 8% and group owners, previous owners and multiples at 4%.

Expanding independent owners led completions at 44%, followed by first-time buyers at 29% and group owners at 27%.

“Hutchings has observed a modest downward trend in average pharmacy goodwill values achieved year to date compared with previous years,” the report said.

“This reflects a shift in market dynamics, as an increase in multiple and corporate disposal instructions has expanded the pool of available opportunities, in turn diluting buyer competition.

“Ongoing concerns surrounding business profitability and financial performance have also contributed to a cautious approach among buyers, echoing the sentiment and conditions seen in the sales market of the previous year.”

Pharmacy multiple Jhoots has sold off some of its branches this year, with Allied Pharmacies announcing it had acquired 60 Jhoots stores on 7 November 2025.

Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association, said that data showing “very large numbers of pharmacy owners are valuing or selling their businesses is clear evidence of the financial pressures in the market and the uncertainty regarding medicines supply”.

“These reports tell us little about the prices pharmacy businesses are fetching, nor their short- and medium-term financial stability,” he added.

“We hope that optimism about the growth in services is borne out in government policy and investment.”

A spokesperson for the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) commented: “We assume the sample size Hutchings are quoting relate to just them; therefore, a relatively small sample size.

“From what we have seen from IPA members, they can grow fairly quickly with multiple acquisitions in a short space of time.”

The Coin Laundry, the latest investigation from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, brought together journalists from more than 35 countries to expose dirty money flowing into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. From Canada to France, Uruguay, Malaysia and beyond, the investigation shed light on this growing shadow economy.

Reporting by ICIJ’s 37 media partners examined scams around the world and found a troubling global pattern: regulators are struggling to keep pace with evolving technology and the savvy criminals who exploit it.

ICIJ and its partners also explored a surge in services where criminals can covertly cash out huge sums of cryptocurrency without ever touching the mainstream banking system.

Here are some of the stories journalists uncovered as part of The Coin Laundry.

Canadian crypto-to-cash services

In Canada, a new way to launder money has emerged. Shopfronts where people can convert cryptocurrency into cash have been cropping up in urban centers across the country. These businesses offer exchange services, often without asking customers to disclose their identities or the origin of their funds.

ICIJ media partners CBC/Radio Canada, the Toronto Star and La Presse collaborated on an investigation into these crypto-to-cash operations. The three outlets conducted a test transaction at one of the businesses, Ukraine-based 001k.exchange, which offers services in several major cities in North America.

Using a Telegram account, an undercover Toronto Star journalist posed as a prospective 001k customer and organized a transaction of 2,000 USDT, a cryptocurrency called tether that’s pegged to the U.S. dollar, to see how the process worked. 001k then provided a cryptocurrency address, which the reporter transferred the USDT to.

To pick up her cash, the reporter entered a midtown Toronto storefront and requested the payout without being asked to show any kind of identification — a violation of Canadian anti-money laundering laws, according to the outlets. Instead, she was asked to share the serial number on a Canadian $5 bill, which would be used to verify which customer she was.

In a video of the handover, the Toronto Star journalist can be seen entering a business offering remittance services on a busy street in Canada’s largest city by population. After examining the serial number on the bill, the teller is shown handing over a stack of cash without checking ID or asking questions.

The remittance business told CBC/Radio Canada, the Toronto Star and La Presse the employee in the video was conducting “his own business under the table.” 001k did not respond to questions from the outlets.

Binance curbs cooperation in Europe

The Coin Laundry examined how law enforcement and regulators have often had to rely on the cooperation of major cryptocurrency trading platforms known as exchanges to trace criminal proceeds on their platforms.

In Belgium, ICIJ media partners De Tijd and Knack found that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and a central subject of ICIJ’s reporting, has stopped cooperating with the Belgian police and judicial authorities in criminal investigations.

In order to identify and freeze illicit transactions on their platforms, exchanges are generally expected to collaborate with law enforcement and take action when requested. A 2023 Europol report that detailed certain exchanges’ level of cooperation with European law enforcement agencies found that Binance was one of the most willing, ICIJ’s partners found.

But since April, Binance’s cooperation has faltered, De Tijd and Knack reported. According to several law enforcement sources in Belgium and other members of the European Union, Binance has stopped responding to all requests from police, public prosecutors and investigating judges when data is sought related to suspicious accounts.

“Binance has always cooperated well with the Belgian police. But suddenly, at a certain point, it refused to cooperate with the police,” Kevin Wiliquet, a crypto specialist with the Belgian federal police in Brussels, told De Tijd and Knack. “That’s really quite recent.”

Binance decided to transfer its Belgian customers to its Polish division in 2023 following heightened scrutiny from the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority, the outlets reported. Since the spring, the crypto behemoth has spread its data across numerous international jurisdictions — including in the Seychelles, a well-known secrecy haven — complicating Belgian law enforcement’s requests for user data.

Belgian magistrates have argued that Binance’s blockchain is borderless, according to De Tijd and Knack, meaning that requests for assistance or access to data should not need to be sent abroad and that Belgian law applies regardless of jurisdiction. But according to Wiliquet, Binance has simply stopped complying with information requests in Belgium and other EU member states.

De Tijd and Knack found that Binance was not alone — other major exchanges were also creating barriers when requests come from European law enforcement, their reporting showed.

In a statement to De Tijd and Knack, Binance said it “regularly cooperates with law enforcement agencies globally, including in Belgium, to support investigations and combat financial crime.”

South America scams

In Ecuador and Colombia, ICIJ partner CONNECTAS, along with Vistazo and El Espectador, detailed a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency investment scheme involving a former television actress, a Christian church and an allegedly fraudulent online business school that promoted easy money for investors. Instead, thousands of people were reportedly saddled with debt.

The ADN Business School promised to help participants earn money quickly with questionable business tactics such as foreign exchange trading, sports betting and buying up cryptocurrency tokens, according to the outlets.

CONNECTAS and Vistazo determined that $176 million in at least 36 different cryptocurrencies was lost before prosecutors could freeze and seize them. The prosecutor’s office in Ecuador confirmed that it had successfully traced those losses to Binance, where the accused masterminds of the ADN Business School scheme had registered several wallets.

In the end, the alleged criminals moved the funds before prosecutors could take action, and only $500 worth of cryptocurrency has so far been recovered for the victims. Officials told the outlets that two major obstacles allowed the funds to slip out of reach: the lack of an institutional wallet address and the inability to move quickly to seize assets

In Uruguay, ICIJ media partner Búsqueda examined a separate criminal complaint against a former rugby player-turned-accused crypto fraudster who fled the country after allegedly stealing millions of dollars from wealthy investors.

The player, Gonzalo Campomar, and his alleged accomplice, Martín Cajal, were both charged with orchestrating the investment scheme that touted lucrative returns — 2% a month — from cryptocurrency investments, according to Búsqueda. Camponar left Uruguay in October 2024, shortly after the first legal complaints  from disgruntled investors started to appear.

Búsquedas could not determine the total number of victims or the amount of money Campomar and Cajal allegedly stole but at least one law firm in a suburb of Montevideo reportedly received complaints from victims who ultimately did not pursue legal action due to the murky origin of some of their lost funds.

Cajal did not respond to Búsqueda’s request for comment. Campomar declined to comment. He told the news outlet that, when ready, he will give his version of events in court.

BROOKFIELD, News, Nov. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (TSX: BIP.UN; NYSE: BIP) today announced that it intends to redeem all of its outstanding Cumulative Class A Preferred Limited Partnership Units, Series 3 (the “Series 3 Preferred Units”) (TSX: BIP.PR.B) for cash on December 31, 2025. The redemption price for each Series 3 Preferred Unit will be C$25.00. Holders of Series 3 Preferred Units of record as of November 28, 2025 will receive the previously declared final quarterly distribution of C$0.34375 per Series 3 Preferred Unit, payable on December 31, 2025.

About Brookfield Infrastructure

Brookfield Infrastructure is a leading global infrastructure company that owns and operates high-quality, long-life assets in the utilities, transport, midstream and data sectors across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. We are focused on assets that have contracted and regulated revenues that generate predictable and stable cash flows. Investors can access its portfolio either through Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE: BIP; TSX: BIP.UN), a Bermuda-based limited partnership, or Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BIPC), a Canadian corporation. Further information is available at https://bip.brookfield.com.

Brookfield Infrastructure is the flagship listed infrastructure company of Brookfield Asset Management, a global alternative asset manager, headquartered in New York with over $1 trillion of assets under management. For more information, go to https://brookfield.com.

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Source: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP