Financial Times postpones commodities summit over coronavirus

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - The Financial Times said on Wednesday it had postponed its Commodities Global Summit - due to take place in Lausanne, Switzerland later in March - by six months amid a rapid global spread of the coronavirus.

"We are very disappointed that this has proved necessary but with the rapid increase of the Covid-19 virus across Europe and globally, together with the many travel restrictions now in place for so many of our participants, we feel that it is in the interests of all our attendees to no longer proceed as planned on 23-25 March," the FT said.

Switzerland last month banned large events expected to draw more than 1,000 people in a drive to curb the coronavirus epidemic, prompting cancellation of high profile events like the Geneva car show.

The FT's summit will now be held at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne on September 28-30.

The event is one of the world's biggest gathering of executives from the commodities trading industry. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar. Editing by Jane Merriman)