After years of delay, the French authorities have now approved a scheme to reopen an offramp on the A8 that will be welcomed by Monaco drivers.
Elisabeth Borne, France’s Minister for Energy Transition, said that “conditions are now ripe for several major project in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, as part of the Highway Investment Plan.”
Elisabeth Borne. Photo: Elisabeth Borne
The opening of the offramp, which has previously been used only for highway maintenance and emergency access, is likely to greatly reduce the incidence of traffic jams involving the two exits currently in use, direction France to Italy.
A Monaco-based hedge fund has offloaded its shares in “a half-a-billion dollar bet that went very wrong.” the Financial Times reported on Thursday, August 9.
Tyrus Capital, headed by Tony Chedraoui, had presented NXP Semiconductors at a charity event at the Monaco Yacht Club as an investment with a “very low” downside and a potential upside in double digits.
Photo: Monaco Life
When Mr Chedraoui spoke about the positive prospects for NXP, the company had agreed a takeover bid from the US semiconductor company Qualcomm, the financial daily wrote. In February 2018, Qualcomm had upped its offer to $44 billion. However, the Chinese government blocked the purchase in July amid President Trump’s trade war with China.
The FT said that several investors have told it that their funds were “blindsided” by the trade tensions. Although Tyrus had sold off its shareholding before the Chinese move, losses for the fund were “significant,” the newspaper said. Mr Chedraoui is a former director of mergers and acquisitions at Lehman Brothers.
Louis II Stadium pitch renovated, ready for action
Work started on May 13, after the last Ligue 1 football game played at home, to completely renew the grass pitch at Monaco’s Louis II Stadium.
This work was carried out in two phases in order not to interfere with the Herculis EBS international athletics meeting on July 20.
Initially, from May 13 to Friday, July 6, the organic substrate and the irrigation system were completely removed from the entire playing area in order to reach the underlying slab. A new drainage network was put in place together with an automatic watering system, plus a heating network to promote the growth of natural grass.
New turf has been placed on the field, and the pitch is now ready for the resumption of the Ligue 1 football championship, against Lille, on August 18.
Monte Carlo Casino Square goes traffic free, in part
A new traffic system will go into force for Place du Casino, from Thursday, August 9, 2018, in a bid to alleviate the uneasy coexistence of pedestrians and cars in one of Monaco’s tourism hotspots.
The plan includes a pedestrian zone directly in front of the Casino and the Cafe de Paris. Guests at the Hotel de Paris will be able to continue to access and deposit their luggage.
The new system is experimental, and a decision will be made at the end of the year about making it permanent.
Casino operator Société des Bains de Mer, the Public Security Department and the Urban Planning Department have all made their input into the scheme, which is intended to separate pedestrians and traffic.
Newcomer Aleksandr Golovin was injured in training with the AS Monaco squad on Wednesday, August 8, according to local French-language daily Monaco Matin.
Midfielder Golovin, 22, was signed by Monaco for nearly 30 million euros following a sterling performance on the Russian team during the recent World Cup competition.
According to the club, he suffered a sprained right ankle. Monaco’s first game in the new Ligue 1 season is on Saturday, August 11, away to Nantes, a match that the Russian is almost certain to miss. He may be out of action for several weeks, according to insiders.
The Force India Formula One team has been saved from creditors by an investment consortium headed by fashion entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll.
Stroll had the assistance of the F1 team’s chief operations officer, Otmar Szafnauer, and the team’s senior management in his bid to salvage Force India, motorsport.com reports.
Force India has been in administration since the Friday before the Hungarian Grand Prix as parties involved sought to protect it against the threat of a winding-up order over mounting debts.
Stroll’s fellow investors are Canadian entrepreneur Andre Desmarais, Jonathan Dudman of Monaco Sports and Management, fashion business leader John Idol, telecommunications investor John McCaw Jr, financial expert Michael de Picciotto, and Stroll’s business partner Silas Chou.
Force India’s creditors will be paid in full. All 405 jobs at the team have been saved and ongoing funding has been guaranteed.
The new set-up, which signed an exclusivity agreement on Tuesday, takes over ownership of the team from Vijay Mallya and Orange India Holdings Sarl.
The team is currently sixth in the constructors’ contest, seven points behind Haas and 23 behind fourth-placed Renault.
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