International News

  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund scrapped its forecast for a pickup in global growth this year, citing Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and warned the damage could worsen if confidence falters among investors and companies. The IMF sees global gross domestic product rising 3.1 percent this year, down from April’s 3.2 percent projection and equal to growth ...

  Bloomberg Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, said Bayer AG’s latest $55 billion takeover offer is “financially inadequate” and doesn’t ensure a deal would be completed. Monsanto also said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s still open to further “constructive conversations” with the German company and other parties about a deal. Bayer said on Thursday it upped ...

  Bloomberg Volvo AB cut its outlook for the North American truck market for the third time this year after stagnant freight volumes and excess inventory drove orders in the region down by nearly one-third in the second quarter. Truck orders in North America fell 29 percent, and manufacturers as a whole will probably sell about 240,000 vehicles there this ...

  Bloomberg If there’s one industry where all of Brazil’s political and economic upheavals come together, it’s shipbuilding. A Rio de Janeiro shipyard, where suspended president Dilma Rousseff once promised to employ an army of welders, electricians and engineers to make offshore oil platforms, is all but shut. Every other day, 50 workers on average hand in their helmets and ...

  Bloomberg UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest U.S. health insurer, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, driven by growth at its Optum technology and consulting unit. Optum, whose businesses range from data analysis to running clinics, has accounted for an increasing chunk of UnitedHealth’s profit. That helped cushion an additional $200 million loss from sales of Affordable Care Act ...

  Bloomberg Growing demand from oil refiners and the continued filling of strategic crude reserves in the face of domestic production declines will support crude buying by the world’s second-largest consumer, according to analysts from Energy Aspects Ltd. and ICIS China. Coal imports will continue to rise to help fill a supply gap left by a mining slowdown. “Crude buying ...

  AFP The EU’s 28 member states agreed on Monday to launch free trade talks with Indonesia, despite growing public doubts in Europe about two major transatlantic deals. The deal with Indonesia will build on pacts with other Asian powers such as Singapore and Vietnam. “The EU and Indonesia represent a huge market of 750 million consumers. These negotiations are ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia’s second-largest pension fund plans to buy more bonds with maturities of 10 years and above to hedge against another interest-rate cut as it moves further toward becoming a full-fledged Islamic entity. Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), which manages about 120 billion ringgit (US$30 billion), is considering lowering its 5 percent minimum return target because of the uncertainty in ...

  Bloomberg Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s plan to begin mobile services at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd by August has caused incumbent operators led by Bharti Airtel Ltd to cut data tariffs to stem defections. Airtel will offer prepaid customers as much as 67 percent more data for the same fees, according to a statement from India’s largest mobile company Sunday. Idea, ...

  Bloomberg Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte is considering a buyout offer for SMRT Corp, the city-state’s biggest subway operator, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Temasek is weighing an offer to buy all the shares it doesn’t already own in SMRT, according to the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is ...