International News

Bloomberg Hitachi Ltd. is seeking to buy Polish leasing and vehicle-fleet operator Prime Car Management SA, potentially setting up a bidding war between the country’s largest lender and the Japanese manufacturing conglomerate. A local leasing and fleet-management unit of Hitachi offered to acquire all shares of Gdansk-based Prime Car at 12.09 zloty each, according to a filing. That would value ...

Bloomberg The daughters of Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, indicted on suspicion of violating Japan’s financial reporting laws, believe the accusations are part of an internal revolt within the carmaker to prevent a merger with Renault, the New York Times reports. His eldest daughter, Caroline Ghosn, said when she saw Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa’s televised news ...

Bloomberg China’s red-hot bond rally is ending the year on a high note. The nation’s 10-year government bond futures surged as much as 0.49 percent in intraday trading, the most since November 14, and the yield on the notes fell in the cash bond market. This came as the PBOC net injected $32 billion into the financial system through open-market ...

Bloomberg China’s Ministry of Education has asked universities to inspect all research work on gene editing and submit a report to the government by year end showing that the work doesn’t breach ethical boundaries. The order comes a month after Shenzhen-based researcher He Jiankui shocked the world by claiming he had edited the genes of a pair of twin baby ...

Bloomberg The cost of pollution in the European Union’s cap-and-trade system is likely to surge again next year, contributing to rising electricity costs that are already uncomfortable for industry. Carbon futures, reflecting the price factories and utilities pay for their emissions, tripled in 2018, making it the best performing major commodity of the year. Those contracts may surge again in ...

Bloomberg The UK has awarded contracts worth 108 million pounds ($137.2 million) to charter extra ferries for freight shipments between southern England and the rest of Europe in the event that a no-deal Brexit creates bottlenecks at Dover’s port, the BBC said. Department for Transport officials hired Brittany Ferries of France, Danish shipping firm DFDS and UK-based Seaborne Freight for ...

Bloomberg As Canadian grain companies spend millions to upgrade and build new export terminals in Vancouver, a new problem is threatening to cause transportation bottlenecks at the nation’s largest port: vessels can’t load grain in the rain. And it rains a lot in Vancouver. In Canada’s wettest major city, the practice of loading ocean-bound vessels with grain in rainy weather ...

Bloomberg The Mount Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia has shrunk to a third after a series of eruptions and a flank that collapsed triggered a tsunami a week ago that killed more than 400 people and injured several thousands. The height of the more than 90-year-old volcano has been reduced to about 110 metres from 338 metres after eruptions intensified ...

Bloomberg India will likely cut import duties on palm oil from next year in a boost to top growers in Indonesia and Malaysia, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Crude palm oil duties for Malaysia will be cut to 40 percent from 44 percent from January 1, while a levy on the refined variety will be reduced to ...

Bloomberg China is pushing ahead with a campaign to slash generic drug prices that has wiped out $46 billion in value from pharmaceutical companies since it was launched earlier this month. The government will expand a central procurement programme to more regions and more drugs, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said at a meeting of the National People’s Congress standing committee, ...