Business

BLOOMBERG Sea Ltd has made the changes it needs to deliver profits over the long haul, billionaire founder Forrest Li said in a memo to staff, assuring workers who had survived months of steep job cuts that the worst is over. The Asian internet giant’s first-ever quarterly net profit marks a turning point for the company, the chief executive officer …

BLOOMBERG Takeda Pharmaceutical’s newly purchased oral psoriasis drug was safe and effective in a mid-stage study, highlighting its potential for treating the painful, incurable skin condition. Patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who received TAK-279 had significantly clearer skin after three months than those given placebo, according to the study presented at the American Academy of Dermatology’s annual meeting. Skin damage …

BLOOMBERG As concerns mount over soaring temperatures in India and the impact on growth, a key adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the economy can withstand any potential weather shock. The nation’s weather bureau predicted hotter temperatures over the coming months, stoking worries about a repeat of the devastating heat last year that damaged crops, raised food inflation and …

BLOOMBERG China saw its biggest gain in imports in a year last month, while a slide in exports decelerated, adding to evidence that the world’s second-largest economy is recovering from the impact of pandemic lockdowns. Imports rose 4.2% from a year ago to $197 billion in February, following a slump of 21.4% in January and snapping four months of decline, …

BLOOMBERG Shares of Korean electronics makers surged after Japan said it’ll roll back export restrictions of key semiconductor materials, laying to rest concern about the fragility of an important link in the tech supply chain. SK Hynix Inc jumped as much as 7.3%, the biggest intraday rise in more than two months. Samsung Electronics Co rose more than 2% and …

BLOOMBERG The UK government offered a 5% pay rise to nurses, midwives and ambulance workers in England for the next financial year, in a bid to end months of strikes. The proposal for National Health Service (NHS) workers includes a one-time bonus worth 2% of salary for 2022-23, along with an “NHS backlog bonus” worth at least £1,250 per person, …

BLOOMBERG The US has told the Chinese owners of the video-sharing app TikTok that they must sell their shares or risk the app being banned in the US, people familiar with the matter said. The Treasury Department is leading the discussion though the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, and made the demand recently to Tiktok’s owner, …

BLOOMBERG China property bulls are looking past what’s likely another disastrous earnings season for the nation’s embattled developers, betting on a recovery as green shoots emerge in sales. Sixteen of Hong Kong-listed Chinese real estate firms have so far flagged profit slumps for 2022 with the number expected to grow, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The wave of warnings, …

BLOOMBERG Sri Lanka’s economic contraction probably worsened last quarter as borrowing costs at a two-decade high to quell Asia’s fastest inflation took its toll on a nation chasing a $2.9 billion bailout. Gross domestic product fell 13.4% in the three months to December from a year ago, according to a median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey. That would …

BLOOMBERG Hon Hai Precision Industry Co said it expects to multiply its sales of electric vehicle components this year while weathering cooler consumer spending on technology. The Taiwanese Apple Inc assembler offered a forecast of slumping consumer electronics demand this year offset by an uptick in sales of cloud and networking products, PCs and especially EV hardware, which it sees …