HONG KONG, Aug 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Coupang’s shoppers may be used to ultra-fast shipping, but investors waiting for the company to deliver a profit seem to be disappointed. South Korea’s $59 billion e-commerce darling reported a blistering 71% year-on-year increase in second-quarter revenue, to $4.5 billion. Operating losses also quintupled, however, to $515 million.

A fire at one of Coupang’s fulfillment centers was mostly to blame. Even after stripping out one-off costs, though, its adjusted EBITDA margin worsened to negative 2.7%, from negative 2.2% over the same stretch in 2020.

Chief Executive Bom Kim, who has drawn glowing comparisons to Amazon (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, is splurging on groceries and food delivery. Investments in those two units alone accounted for almost the entire adjusted EBITDA loss. After an 8% fall on Thursday, Coupang shares are now trading below their $35 initial public offering price in March. Given the Amazon analogy, it’s...

MELBOURNE, Aug 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Australia has long defended its dependence on coal. The fossil fuel provides up to 70% of its power needs and is the country’s second-biggest export. So it’s progress when an establishment figure calls for a concerted effort to wean Down Under off the carbon-spewing black stuff. Trouble is, it’s coming from Graeme Hunt, chief executive of beleaguered, coal-dependent AGL Energy (AGL.AX), whose words could easily be read as a veiled pitch for a taxpayer bailout.

Hunt’s basic message makes sense. Moving Australia off coal and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions will require coordination between multiple stakeholders to ensure there’s enough renewable power to replace it. Employees and the regional economies that rely on the industry need to develop new sources of income, and then there has to be sufficient cash left over to clean up once the mines and power plants close.

The Australian state of Victoria in March struck a deal...

MELBOURNE, Aug 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Australia has long defended its dependence on coal. The fossil fuel provides up to 70% of its power needs and is the country’s second-biggest export. So it’s progress when an establishment figure calls for a concerted effort to wean Down Under off the carbon-spewing black stuff. Trouble is, it’s coming from Graeme Hunt, chief executive of beleaguered, coal-dependent AGL Energy (AGL.AX), whose words could easily be read as a veiled pitch for a taxpayer bailout.

Hunt’s basic message makes sense. Moving Australia off coal and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions will require coordination between multiple stakeholders to ensure there’s enough renewable power to replace it. Employees and the regional economies that rely on the industry need to develop new sources of income, and then there has to be sufficient cash left over to clean up once the mines and power plants close.

The Australian state of Victoria in March struck a deal...

Even though it isn’t obviously targeted in China’s tech crackdown, the web search company has lost half its market value since February. Quarterly results suggest boss Robin Li is making progress in cloud computing and AI. Policy initiatives should actually help the momentum.

Even though it isn’t obviously targeted in China’s tech crackdown, the web search company has lost half its market value since February. Quarterly results suggest boss Robin Li is making progress in cloud computing and AI. Policy initiatives should actually help the momentum.

The $91 bln online vacation-booking platform has regained pre-pandemic levels of bookings and revenue as well as turning an adjusted EBITDA profit in the second quarter. The coronavirus remains a risk, but it’s also the reason Airbnb is now looking vigorous.

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Scarlett Johansson’s fight with Disney is showing the old ways of paying talent are coming unspooled in the age of streaming. Jennifer Saba explains there is an alternate way to compensate Hollywood actors that aligns the interests of media company shareholders with the stars'.

The $91 bln online vacation-booking platform has regained pre-pandemic levels of bookings and revenue as well as turning an adjusted EBITDA profit in the second quarter. The coronavirus remains a risk, but it’s also the reason Airbnb is now looking vigorous.

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Authentic Brands may have found treasure in Adidas’s (ADSGn.DE) bargain bin. The owner of the rights to Elvis Presley and Brooks Brothers is buying sportswear retailer Reebok read more from the German maker of Crazy Hustle sports shoes for up to 2.1 billion euros. It looks like a relative steal.

While the headline valuation is higher than many analysts expected , it still reflects the decline of Reebok since Adidas paid 3.1 billion euros for it 15 years ago – even after allowing for the earlier sale of some brands for 400 million euros. Moreover, the price tag is around 1.5 times Reebok's 2020 sales, while Adidas as a whole is valued at over 3 times its trailing revenue.

That's just as well for Authentic Brands Chief Executive Jamie Salter. He has his work cut out rejuvenating Reebok and a host of other has-been labels including Aeropostale, Juicy Couture and Forever 21 read more . The company recently filed to go public...

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Scarlett Johansson’s fight with Disney is showing the old ways of paying talent are coming unspooled in the age of streaming. Jennifer Saba explains there is an alternate way to compensate Hollywood actors that aligns the interests of media company shareholders with the stars'.

AppHarvest, a greenhouse grower that completed a SPAC merger earlier this year, cut its 2021 sales forecast by nearly two-thirds. Revenue-free firms float on five-year projections, but a series of early stumbles show most long-term forecasts are practically a stab in the dark.

Scarlett Johansson’s fight with Disney shows the old model of paying stars based on the box office doesn’t work in an age of streaming. Netflix has its own radical alternative, but there’s another way, too: Align stars’ pay more closely with numbers shareholders care about.

AppHarvest, a greenhouse grower that completed a SPAC merger earlier this year, cut its 2021 sales forecast by nearly two-thirds. Revenue-free firms float on five-year projections, but a series of early stumbles show most long-term forecasts are practically a stab in the dark.

Scarlett Johansson’s fight with Disney shows the old model of paying stars based on the box office doesn’t work in an age of streaming. Netflix has its own radical alternative, but there’s another way, too: Align stars’ pay more closely with numbers shareholders care about.

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Tough talk in Chinese state newspapers is wrecking share values as investors try to get out of the way of President Xi Jinping’s next industry crackdown. But Pete Sweeney cautions that not all editorials represent policy, even in government publications.

U.S. internet security firm NortonLifeLock has snapped up London-listed Avast for up to 6.2 billion pounds. The premium looks measly and cost savings meaty. But what appears to be a treasure trove for Norton CEO Vincent Pilette comes with long-term competitive threats.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Investors are giving Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO) the benefit of the doubt. Shares in the $39 billion Danish turbine manufacturer fell about 1% on Wednesday even though rising costs and supply constraints forced Chief Executive Henrik Andersen to cut this year’s profit outlook. The company has got off lightly compared with Spanish-German rival Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGREN.MC), whose stock fell 17% last month after its own cost-related profit warning.

Taking the mid-point of its revised 2021 forecasts, Vestas should produce 960 million euros of operating profit this year, 10% less than analysts had previously expected. That would normally trigger a more dramatic share reaction, had Vestas not already been pegged back by Siemens Gamesa’s bad news in July. And the Copenhagen-based firm is still far and away the healthiest contender in what remains a red-hot sector: Siemens Gamesa is likely to report an operating loss this...

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Lionel Messi’s transfer is a symptom of soccer’s dire financial straits. The 34-year-old Argentinian star on Tuesday signed for Paris Saint-Germain after failing to agree a new deal with Barcelona, where he had spent his entire career read more . The pair parted company after the impact of Covid-19, combined with poor results and failed signings, left the Spanish club in danger of breaching domestic financial rules.

For PSG, the two-year deal worth a reported 35 million euros a year represents a lower risk than previous landmark transfers. In 2017 the French club paid Barcelona 222 million euros for Neymar da Silva Santos Junior. A year later Juventus (JUVE.MI) spent 100 million euros to lure Messi’s arch-rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, who was then 33, from Real Madrid. Still, despite the backing of its Qatari owners, PSG does not have endless resources: its revenue fell 15% to 541 million euros in the 2019/2020 season, according to...

A bumper first-half profit thanks to record trading volumes and an IPO flood help justify the $84 bln group’s premium over rival exchanges, at 41 times forecast earnings. But such optimism won’t survive more regulatory mood swings, and HKEX has no way to hedge them.

Commonwealth Bank is hiking its dividend and buying back a record A$6 bln in stock. Yet expenses are growing faster than revenue, and almost all of its 20% profit jump was due to fewer bad loans, a trend which may reverse. Even so, it still has deep enough pockets to be generous.