International News

Bloomberg The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should be completed in the second half of next year, despite the US sanctions that prompted one of the companies involved to halt operations, although costs will rise, a senior German official said. Switzerland’s AllSeas Group SA removed vessels that were laying the last section of the pipeline connecting Russia with Germany, which ...

Bloomberg Sundar Pichai is getting a hefty pay raise. The new Alphabet Inc. chief executive officer (CEO) will receive $240 million in stock awards over the next three years if he hits all of his performance targets, as well as a $2 million annual salary beginning in 2020, the firm said in a filing. If Alphabet shares outperform the S&P ...

Bloomberg The UK’s dismal productivity performance since the financial crisis has been named the country’s “statistics of the decade” by the Royal Statistical Society. The society chose “0.3%” — the estimated average annual increase in productivity in the past 10 years. That compares with the 2% average increase in hourly output in the years before 2008. The performance, the worst ...

Bloomberg The personal data of about 100,000 Singapore defence personnel may have been leaked in yet another cyberattack in the city-state. Sensitive information held by two security force vendors, including full names, identification details, and a combination of contact numbers, email and residential addresses could be included in the potential data exposure, according to a statement published on the ministry’s ...

Bloomberg Mazda Motor Corp is shifting some production of cars destined for the Australian market from Thailand to Japan, citing the adverse impact of a stronger Thai baht, according to the Nikkei newspaper. Assembly of CX-3 sports utility vehicles will be moved to its Yamaguchi factory in southwest Japan this year, the report said, without citing anyone. Mazda has the ...

Bloomberg Kansai Electric Power Co, one of Japan’s regional power utilities, will halt two reactors at its Takahama nuclear power plant north of Osaka because they’re unlikely to meet the government’s anti-terrorism requirements, according to the Mainichi newspaper. Reactors No. 3 and No. 4 will stop operating from next summer, as it has become clear that construction of security measures ...

Bloomberg India expects its oil consumption to expand at the slowest pace in six years as the economy sputters. The nation’s consumption of petroleum products in the financial year to March 2020 is expected to rise by 1.3% to 216 million tons, the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said in its estimates. That’s the slowest since the 0.9% ...

Bloomberg Masan Group plans to issue up to 10 trillion dong ($431.5 million) of bonds next year to expand its business, lend to units and repay a loan. The bonds will be issued in local currency at 100% of face value with a maximum term of 36 months, according to a statement on the company’s website. They will be non-convertible, ...

Bloomberg Coco Healthcare Products Co, a Chinese diaper manufacturer, is exploring a sale that could fetch about $200 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Hangzhou-based company, which counts CLSA Capital Partners among its shareholders, is working with an adviser on the potential sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc bucked the downturn in the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market last month as its new-car registrations in China soared 14-fold, giving the Model 3 maker some momentum as it prepares to begin deliveries from its Shanghai factory. Registrations of Tesla vehicles climbed to a five-month high of 5,597 in November, compared with 393 a year earlier, according to ...