Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo granted Total SA a one-year extension to a license allowing it to explore for oil along the Ugandan border. Total must meet objectives including developing a drilling program before the new permit expires January 26, 2019, Oil Minister Aime Ngoy Mukena said in a written response to questions. The company is also expected to ...

Bloomberg The recovery in India’s rural economy is likely to curb bad loans and boost profit at financial companies that specialise in credit to the country’s villages, according to one of the biggest such lenders. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd., which offers loans for equipment and vehicles in 330,000 of India’s roughly 600,000 villages, is seeing business growing and ...

Bloomberg China’s home prices rose in the fewest cities in five months in February, as the government’s almost two-year campaign to curb property speculation started to bite. New-home prices, excluding government-subsidised housing, gained in 44 of 70 cities tracked, compared with 52 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Prices fell in 16 cities from the previous month and ...

Bloomberg Toys ‘R’ Us Inc.’s creditors are pushing for a better deal for the Asian business. The unprofitable company, currently aiming to wind down its US operations, has asked for non-binding bids for its growing Asian unit by early April, according to people familiar with the matter. Toys ‘R’ Us is working with Lazard Ltd. on the sale process, seeking ...

Bloomberg Swire Properties Ltd. has signed an agreement with WeWork Cos. to lease four floors providing about 55,000 square feet in a commercial tower in Taikoo Shing, the first deal between the co-working space provider and a major listed Hong Kong developer. Swire didn’t disclose the rent to be paid by WeWork, but said it would pay the going market ...

Bloomberg Bangkok’s famed love affair with food is spilling over to meal-delivery apps, a fledgling sector that Delivery Hero AG’s Foodpanda projects will surge in 2018 as competition intensifies. Foodpanda, Line Corp.’s Line Man and Uber Technologies Inc.’s Uber Eats are using promotions, such as free delivery or discounts, to woo customers in a sector they see as underdeveloped compared ...

Bloomberg Billionaire Quek Leng Chan’s GuocoLand Ltd. and its joint venture partners are buying Pacific Mansion near Singapore’s business district for S$980 million ($743 million), the biggest purchase of a residential site for redevelopment in more than a decade. The price is also the highest in the current so-called en-bloc cycle, and only surpassed by the S$1.3 billion sale of ...

Bloomberg Government officials in the US and Europe are demanding answers from Facebook Inc. after reports that Cambridge Analytica, the advertising-data firm that helped Donald Trump win the US presidency, retained information on tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent. Entreaties for the social-media giant to take responsibility evolved into calls for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear in ...

Bloomberg London property asking prices slumped for a seventh straight month as sellers held off putting their homes on the market, according to Rightmove. The March report from the home-listing website shows that asking prices declined 0.6 percent from a year earlier in March, with the number of newly marketed properties falling 3 percent. Prices rose 0.6 percent from February, ...

Bloomberg GKN Plc’s rival suitors offered additional sweeteners to win over the UK aerospace supplier’s shareholders, who are set to decide next week which side to support. Dana Inc. pledged to trade its stock in London following the US company’s planned takeover of GKN’s automotive unit, it said. Melrose said separately that it would bolster GKN’s pension plan, while easing ...