International News

Bloomberg Britain was in surplus on its day-to-day budget for the first full fiscal year since the early 2000s, a milestone that is almost certain to revive calls for an end to austerity. Revenue exceeded spending by 112 million pounds ($156 million) in the 12 months through March, meaning Britain is now borrowing only to finance capital investment, figures from ...

Bloomberg After two weeks of convulsions caused by US sanctions against United .Co. Rusal, the metals market was braced for more mayhem: many traders were betting the Russian aluminum giant was just days away from having to shut plants from Sweden to Jamaica. Then, the US Treasury threw a potential lifeline by making clear it’s not pushing for the company’s ...

Bloomberg A smartphone in India cost more than $200 just two years ago. Now you can get a decent phone for nothing but a refundable deposit of $23. Data packages are cheap, and a startup company even throws in free voice calls for life. For this, consumers can thank Mukesh Ambani, a 61-year-old petrochemicals titan who is the country’s richest ...

Bloomberg UD Trucks, a Japanese subsidiary of Swedish truckmaker Volvo AB, plans to introduce electric and autonomous trucks within the next two years, joining global rivals in developing driverless technologies to ease a labour shortage. The Japanese company will display autonomous and electric-drive prototypes this year, targeting field and customer trials ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show in 2019, UD ...

Bloomberg Elliott Management Corp., which earlier this month announced it bought about $1 billion in shares of units of Hyundai Motor Group, stepped up its pressure on the South Korean conglomerate by making demands ranging from higher dividends to restructuring the group under a holding company. Elliott’s proposals, which include combining Hyundai Motor Co. with Hyundai Mobis Co. and raising ...

Bloomberg Toshiba Corp. is all but guaranteed to miss a May 1 deadline to sell its memory chips business to a Bain Capital-led group, people familiar with the matter said, raising the chances it may consider other options that could yield billions of additional dollars for the unit. Chinese regulators are now conducting a third review of the deal, which ...

Bloomberg China’s tropical island of Hainan is basking in the glow of a raft of favorable economic policies, some unveiled by none other than President Xi Jinping. But, now, it’s also notable for something else: China’s first province-wide home-buying restrictions, after previous curbs were expanded in an announcement. To get a sense of the scale, that’s an area a bit ...

Bloomberg President Xi Jinping’s big push to curb pollution and excess capacity in steel and other industries is also consolidating his government’s control over them. Just last year, the state’s share of steel capacity increased to 67 percent from 60 percent while aluminum smelting saw about an equal increase, J Capital Research Ltd. estimates. In coal, which began consolidating years ...

Bloomberg The Department of Justice opened another front in its scrutiny of the US telecom industry, signaling it’s set on maintaining a deeply competitive environment in a market where four major carriers are jostling for new subscribers. Antitrust officials are investigating whether AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. colluded to make it tougher for consumers to change wireless carriers, people ...

Bloomberg Akorn Inc. shares lost about a third of their value after Fresenius SE walked away from a pending $4.3 billion acquisition of the US maker of generic cancer drugs in response to a probe that found problems with its product-development practices. The German company said its outside experts found “material breaches” of US Food and Drug Administration standards while ...