Bloomberg A Chinese developer convicted of paying bribes to win backing for his plans to build a United Nations conference centre in Macau was sentenced to four years in prison. Billionaire Ng Lap Seng, 69, was convicted in July of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering, in the biggest UN corruption scandal since the oil-for-food programme in the early 2000s. Prosecutors ...

Bloomberg With one of the most tenacious activist investors breathing down his neck, Hyundai Motor Group’s crown prince is preparing to defend his family’s dominance of the world’s fifth-largest automotive empire by seeking to win over shareholders ahead of a looming showdown. After announcing about $1.5 billion in buybacks and stock cancellations in the past month, shareholder returns are “just ...

Bloomberg AT&T Inc. has few peers when it comes to corporate influence in Washington. But like the rest of the nation’s capital, it was caught on the outside looking in by Donald Trump’s election triumph. The Dallas-based telecom giant spent more than $350 million on advocacy in the past 20 years — including nearly $17 million last year alone. That ...

Bloomberg UK construction output plunged in March after heavy snow brought swathes of the country to a standstill. Work volumes in the building industry declined 2.3 percent from February, rounding off the weakest quarter in almost six years, the Office for National Statistics said. Separate figures showed manufacturing output declined 0.1 percent in March, a second month of contraction, though ...

Bloomberg Virgin Money Holdings UK Plc, soared after receiving a 1.6 billion-pound ($2.2 billion) preliminary offer from rival CYBG Plc, as potential consolidation among smaller banks accelerates. CYBG, which lends to consumers and small-medium enterprises, is eyeing the Richard Branson-backed bank to give it greater scale, potential cost savings and access to its presence on the high street. Virgin Money’s ...

Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc. unveiled a new plan to buy back $10 billion in stock, replacing an earlier repurchase program that was almost exhausted. The San Diego-based company, the world’s largest maker of mobile-phone chips, said the plan authorized by the board has no expiration date. The previous buyback was a $15 billion program that had $1.2 billion remaining, Qualcomm said ...

Bloomberg A Swiss wealth manager embroiled in an insider-trading case linked to Air Liquide SA’s $13.2 billion takeover of Airgas Inc. has lost his bid to avoid posting bail of 1 million euros ($1.2 million). A ruling from France’s top court revealed that a man identified as Thierry Z., working for wealth-management firm Stokors SA, was charged by criminal authorities ...

The world is not ready for another financial crisis, but another financial crisis may be ready for the world. OK, the odds of this are long. Still, they’re not nonexistent. The history of modern financial crises is that, originating in obscure corners of the financial system, they are initially ignored because they seem innocuous — and then wham! Think Thailand ...

Political turmoil is rarely a good backdrop for Italian bonds. This time seems different. An auction of government debt showed investors had little inclination to demand higher borrowing costs to offset the risks around the prospect of a populist, anti-immigration government of the Five Star Movement and the League. This shows the strength of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) firepower. ...

Citigroup Inc., soon after the financial crisis, split itself into two banks — a good one and a bad one. Citi said it was going to sell the latter, which included a subprime loan portfolio and other businesses that had gotten it into trouble. But it never did. Eventually CEO Michael Corbat did away with the charade and recombined them. ...