International News

  Bloomberg Japan’s tightest labor market in decades shows signs of reversing a long shift toward the hiring of temporary workers. The number of full-time, permanent workers is rising for the first time since the global financial crisis, outpacing growth in temporary jobs over the past two years. “The labor shortage has become so bad that companies can’t fill openings ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong will cut the size of returns its power utilities are allowed to make to 8 percent under a 15-year plan it hopes will help wean the city off coal while keeping electricity bills down. CLP Holdings Ltd. and HK Electric Investment Ltd. signed a new so-called Scheme of Control with the government after more than a ...

  Bloomberg At a garbage dump about 80 miles west of London, Adrian Griffiths is testing an invention he’s confident will save the world’s oceans from choking in plastic waste. And earn him millions. His machine, about the size of a tennis court, churns all sorts of petroleum-based products — cling wrap, polyester clothing, carpets, electronics — back into oil. ...

  Bloomberg Telia AB sold about $500 million worth of stock in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, making progress on a vow to focus on its home region as it reduces its holding in an investment tied up in a decade-long ownership feud. Stockholm-based Telia agreed to sell 155 million shares in Turkcell to institutional investors in an accelerated offering, the ...

  Bloomberg Competitors to BlackRock Inc. are trying to loosen the investing giant’s stranglehold on Europe’s $153 billion bond exchange-traded fund market. They’re struggling to make much headway. The company’s market share has increased in recent years to 67 percent, data from Morningstar Inc. show, even as competitors add new funds and offer low fees. Rivals are being stymied because ...

  Bloomberg It’s a Canadian stock market, but the TSX Venture Exchange wants Americans to help fuel its growth. Traditionally known as a place where Canadians can buy shares of local junior miners, the exchange is branching out to other industries including technology. That’s an obvious fit for the head of the business, Brady Fletcher, who ran a tech startup ...

  Bloomberg Two thirds of Indonesia’s major companies missed earnings estimates in the first quarter, but that’s done little to stop investors from pouring into this enduring emerging-market darling. Overseas funds pumped the most money into the market in April for any month since mid-2014, even as Indonesia’s capital region saw its business-friendly governor lose a re-election campaign. The Jakarta ...

  Bloomberg China’s Beijing WKW Automotive Parts Co. is betting on the future of electric mobility in Germany with a billion-euro factory nearby plants owned by Volkswagen AG and BMW AG. Beijing WKW will invest as much as 1.13 billion euros ($1.24 billion) on an electric car factory in the eastern state of Saxony that will create over 1,000 new ...

  Bloomberg India’s first bond-like securities giving investors exposure to the nation’s infrastructure projects received bids for 8.5 times the number of units offered. IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd., the Mumbai-based road operator, will list the hybrids known as infrastructure investment trusts on May 8. The IRB InvIT Fund’s initial public offering was fully subscribed on Friday, the last day of ...

  Bloomberg Warren Buffett is acknowledging what many investors have already realized: IBM’s long-promised reinvention is slow, painful and nowhere near close to the end. In an interview with CNBC, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed that he sold about a third of the firm’s investment in the computer-services giant during the first half ...