Finance
Canada will be the headquarters for a future NATO-linked financial institution, official says
TORONTO (AP) — Canada has been selected as the headquarters for a new, financial institution led by NATO and designed to reduce borrowing costs for members of the alliance, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
According to the official, the decision was reached after negotiations hosted by Canada involving nearly 20 founding members of NATO’s proposed Defense, Security and Resilience Bank, or DSRB.
The financial institution is meant to help NATO members and partner countries meet their defense spending commitments and reduce borrowing costs for military spending by pooling credit strength.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak ahead of an official announcement. The official said they did not know which city in Canada would be the institution’s headquarters.
Earlier, Ontario Premier Doug Ford cited a report about Canada being selected as the headquarters and pitched in a post on social media that it be in Toronto, saying it’s “an opportunity to put Canada” at the center of global defense finance and manufacturing.
“As our nation’s financial capital, with a skilled workforce and unparalleled global connectivity, there’s no better place for the bank to be headquartered than Toronto,” Ford said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has said it will meet NATO’s military spending guideline.
NATO countries, including Canada, have pledged to spend 5% of their national GDP on defense. Carney said last year the government would meet the earlier 2% target this year, then later the same month committed Canada to reaching 5% by 2035.
European allies and Canada have already been investing heavily in their armed forces, as well as weapons and ammunition, since Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously complained that Canada doesn’t spend enough on its military.
When Anthony Nappa started selling hair products out of the corner of his parents’ warehouse as a teen, he never could have imagined what the side hustle would become. The business has grown from a small eBay store to a multi-million dollar beauty empire that is rapidly expanding its physical presence across Australia.
Founded as a side project in 2012 when Nappa was 19 years old, Oz Hair & Beauty posted $100 million in revenue in the past financial year and now employs more than 500 staff across the country. It has opened 30 new stores in the past three years, with the aim of expanding to 50 stores by the end of the next financial year.
Nappa, now 33, told Yahoo Finance it was a far cry from his original plan when he was a teenager. Back then, he was working part-time as a labourer while studying Commerce at university.
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“My plan was to live at home, study at uni, while I’m studying, save as much money as possible and by the time I graduate, put a down payment on a house and have a graduate job,” he said.
But when his labouring boss suddenly left the country, Nappa found himself out of a job. His parents, Elio and Venessa Nappa, owned a number of Oz Hair hairdressing salons in Sydney, so he decided to start selling the salon’s hair products on eBay.
Nappa invested $10,000 of his savings into the business and saw sales start picking up when he migrated from an eBay store to a proper website and later Shopify.
“Long story short, it really took off. I was working at the back of the warehouse, and then I had to lease the whole warehouse,” he said.
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Growing bricks and mortar presence
It was during the pandemic that business really “boomed”, Nappa said. In 2019, annual revenue sat at about $24 million, but by 2021, turnover had reached $40 million.
In 2021, Oz Hair & Beauty received backing from billionaire Brett Blundy’s BBRC and Daniel Agostinelli, CEO of Accent Group, which runs shoe retail chains like Platypus and Hype.
Nappa said part of the deal included buying his parents’ store in the QVB, which was then rejigged in 2022 into a fully fledged retail store.
“That increased sales by nearly double. So we thought we’ve got something here now,” Nappa said.
At a time when many discretionary retailers are reducing their physical footprints, Oz Hair & Beauty has taken the opposite approach.
The Catalytic Climate Finance Facility (CC Facility), a program jointly managed by Climate Policy Initiative and Convergence, along with the Government of Canada, is hosting an event during London Climate Action Week focused on Scaling Climate Investments in Emerging Markets Using Blended Finance.
The event will explore opportunities and challenges in mobilizing private capital for climate action in emerging markets, including the role of catalytic capital instruments such as grants and technical assistance in scaling innovative blended climate finance solutions. Discussions will draw on practical insights from actual blended climate finance transactions and also highlight key lessons emerging from programs such as the CC Facility, which leverages these instruments to accelerate and scale such solutions. The event will bring together investors, government funders, DFIs and MDBs, philanthropies, climate finance practitioners, and ecosystem partners, and will provide an opportunity to network with key stakeholders across the blended and climate finance ecosystem over drinks.
Due to limited capacity, this is an invite-only event. If you are interested in attending, please register your interest here.
MAGNOLIA, Duplin County — The Town of Magnolia will hold a special meeting next week to swear in two town officials.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, at 5:45 p.m. at Magnolia Town Hall on East Carroll Street.
Town officials said the meeting will focus on the swearing-in of the town’s finance officer and town clerk.
According to the town’s website, the town clerk supports the mayor, town manager and Board of Commissioners by preparing meeting materials, keeping public records and helping with official town documents.
The finance officer is responsible for the town’s financial operations, including budget oversight, financial records, payroll, audits and regular reports to commissioners.
Magnolia Town Hall is located at 110 East Carroll Street.
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