International News

Bloomberg The so-called Snooper’s Charter, which allows the UK government to access data from emails and mobile phones, survived a court challenge from a privacy group. A pair of UK judges dismissed the lawsuit, saying they weren’t persuaded that the legislation is incompatible with European Union rules. Judge Rabinder Singh said the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act included several “safeguards against ...

Bloomberg Pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer Inc has transformed itself under new leadership through a series of spinouts and joint ventures, mitigating risk by placing some units at arm’s length while continuing to reap rewards from them. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla, 57, who took the helm in January after serving as the drugmaker’s operations chief, has rapidly transformed the company through ...

Bloomberg Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades. Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyses more than 3,000 variables, Ma’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 ...

Bloomberg Social unrest gripping Hong Kong has affected the city’s economy and businesses, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise from current levels, financial secretary Paul Chan said. In the Chinese-language post on his website, Chan said many local retail and catering businesses had experienced a “sharp decline” in business, and he warned that the longer the historic protests ...

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and BlackRock Inc increased their stakes in Weimob Inc through a share sale that’s said to have netted $180 million. Weimob, which has a market value of about $1.2 billion, will use the proceeds to bankroll technology development, it said in an emailed statement. The six-year-old company, which went public ...

Bloomberg It once looked like Anil Agarwal could shake up the mining industry by amassing the biggest stake in Anglo American Plc. But in the end the Indian tycoon’s lack of financial firepower forced him to unwind his investment. For two years, Agarwal kept insiders and Anglo executives guessing about why the billionaire decided to take a position in the ...

Bloomberg A unit of Reliance Communications (RCom) Ltd, tycoon Anil Ambani’s distressed telecom firm, is seeking an extension from holders of its dollar-denominated bonds maturing on August 1, the company’s spokesman said. Global Cloud Xchange is in discussions with holders of its 7 percent $350 million notes for a deal that would provide the issuer more time to discuss options ...

Bloomberg Pfizer Inc plans to combine its off-patent business, which includes Lipitor cholesterol pills and male-impotence drug Viagra, with Mylan NV and form a generic drug giant, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, if completed, could be announced as early as Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. Under ...

Bloomberg US soybean supplies to China, the world’s biggest market, slumped in the first half of 2019 to the lowest level in more than a decade as little progress was made on ending a trade war between the two countries. China imported 614,806 tons of soybeans from the US in June, according to customs data. That brought the total inbound ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc’s suppliers are preparing to produce components for up to 75 million new iPhones in 2019’s second half, roughly the same number as a year earlier, according to people familiar with the matter. The volumes planned for the next iPhone launch cycle would signal steady demand for the company’s most important product, despite US-China trade tensions and a ...