International News

Bloomberg Novartis AG has dropped about a fifth of its research projects as the drugmaker narrows its focus on the most cutting-edge medicines. The pharmaceutical giant has reduced its drug programs to 340 from 430 after completing a review of its portfolio, Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, said in an interview. Among the resea-rch projects ...

Bloomberg Chinese firms combating tight funding conditions are bracing for the next shoe to drop: a record amount of perpetual bonds up for redemption. Some 48.9 billion yuan ($7 billion) of perpetual notes will have first call dates this quarter, which means they either have to repay the debt or be forced to increase interest rates by as much as ...

Bloomberg Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s second-biggest wireless carrier, is delaying a planned initial public offering of its Africa unit due to the turmoil in emerging-market stocks, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company, which was originally aiming to list the unit in London by March, has pushed back the share sale by about half a year, according to ...

Bloomberg Philippine authorities started to move people to safer grounds as Typhoon Yutu approaches, tracking a path similar to last month’s storm that devastated rice-producing provinces in the main island of Luzon. Yutu, which last week became the strongest storm since 1950 to hit the US territories in the Northern Mariana Islands, is now the equivalent of a Category 2 ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s new-home sales cooled, another sign of weakness in a property market that may be at risk of a correction. The transaction value so far in October is HK$11.2 billion ($1.4 billion), the lowest level in 16 months once holiday distortions are excluded. The number of transactions stood at 1,130, down by almost half from the total for ...

Bloomberg The world’s largest healthcare program in India is running up against a challenge: many of its 500 million beneficiaries don’t have a clue about it, as they didn’t have to enroll for it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s solution is to tackle the problem at its roots. He is writing letters to 100 million families educating them about the benefits ...

Bloomberg IBM’s $33 billion purchase of Red Hat Inc — the world’s second-largest technology deal ever — is aimed at catapulting the company into the ranks of the top cloud software competitors. The cash deal, IBM’s biggest by far, boosts the 107-year-old computer-services giant’s credentials overnight in the fast-growing and lucrative cloud market — and gives it much-needed potential for ...

Bloomberg Nokia Oyj has been identified as the biggest individual recipient of potentially illicit funds relating to money laundering allegations against Nordea Bank Abp, according to investor Bill Browder. As much as $97.2 million that may have been laundered ended up in Nokia’s accounts at Nordea, according to a document focussing on potentially illicit transactions in Finland and sent by ...

Bloomberg Quid Inc, a startup that helps companies analyse large volumes of text from news, social media and the web, raised $37.5 million in venture funding, the company plans to announce on Monday. The deal was led by REV Ventures, the investment arm of LexisNexis owner RELX Group Plc, which contributed about $10 million. Other investors include Julian Roberson, the ...

Bloomberg Mercedes-Benz USA is under investigation by US safety regulators who say the luxury-auto maker may be taking too long to send safety recall notices to car owners and inform the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the unit of Germany’s Daimler AG that it found numerous instances in which owners of recalled cars weren’t notified within the ...