International News

  Bloomberg Foreign investors’ infatuation with Vietnam is waning. After pumping in $3.4 billion since 2006, overseas traders are set to be net sellers of assets traded on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange this year for the first time in a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the benchmark VN Index is near an eight-year high, MSCI ...

  Bloomberg China Evergrande Group’s debt-fueled expansion spree shows no signs of slowing down. Even as soaring interest payments and marketing costs ate into first-half profit, a top executive at the Chinese developer said late Tuesday that the company wants to acquire brokerage and trust companies as well as smaller rivals — deals that would add to about $6 billion ...

  Bloomberg Billionaire Guo Guangchang called China’s peer-to-peer lending industry “basically a scam,” arguing that players in the multi-billion dollar sector, troubled by collapses and frauds, lack the ability to price risk. Guo was responding to a question at a post-earnings briefing by his conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. in Hong Kong about any P2P investments by the firm. Chief Financial ...

  AFP France said on Tuesday it wanted to halt thorny EU-US trade talks as President Francois Hollande said there would be no deal at least until after President Barack Obama leaves office in January. Junior trade minister Matthias Fekl said there was “no more political support in France” for the talks because US negotiators were offering “nothing or just ...

  Bloomberg UK mortgage approvals slumped to an 18-month low in July and consumer borrowing slowed following the decision to leave the European Union. Banks and mutually owned lenders signed off on 60,912 home loans, the fewest since January 2015, the Bank of England said on Tuesday. Unsecured lending rose by 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), the least in almost ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller is pushing forward with a technological and organizational revamp of Europe’s largest carmaker despite internal opposition and expects his efforts to begin bearing fruit in two to three years. “Some believe this will pass eventually, that Mueller will only be there for five years, then there’s a new boss and when ...

  AFP US industrial snacks giant Mondelez International said Monday it had dropped plans to merge with chocolatier The Hershey Company. The announcement came nearly two months after Hershey, the maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses, rejected a $23 billion takeover offer from Mondelez. “Following additional discussions, and taking into account recent shareholder developments at Hershey, we ...

  AFP Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom was on Tuesday granted his wish to live-stream his bid to avoid extradition to the United States where he is wanted on online piracy charges. Attempts by the United States to block the live-streaming request were rejected by Judge Murray Gilbert in the Auckland High Court. Lawyers for the US argued live-streaming could pollute ...

  Bloomberg Dealmaking in Australia’s office market has plunged by the most since the global financial crisis as owners hang on to assets that are among the highest-yielding in the region. Commercial property transactions in Australia fell 57 percent to $7.5 billion in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, according to Real Capital Analytics, Inc. That’s ...

  Bloomberg China’s soybean imports are likely to rebound in the fourth quarter as seasonal demand rises and processors in the world’s biggest buyer look to replenish supplies after lower-than-expected sales from state stockpiles, according to industry analysts. Sales from state reserves have totaled just 1.1 million metric tons, compared with expectations for 3 million to 4 million tons, said ...