International News

Bloomberg Just 16 months after demonetisation forever changed the way Indians pay for things, WhatsApp is set to disrupt the market yet again. With more than 200 million Indians already using its messaging, WhatsApp is piloting a payment service that lets them transfer money to each other. The well-timed move has riled rivals, who say the Facebook Inc unit hasn’t ...

Bloomberg China Investment Corp. has sold its stake in Blackstone Group LP, ending an investment stretching back to before the US firm’s 2007 IPO. The sale, disclosed in Blackstone’s annual report released earlier this month, marks the end of CIC’s more than decade-long ownership of the firm’s shares, a partnership that was noted as an early example of China’s growing ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s economy will grow faster this year than in 2017 and will see only a “minor” impact from President Trump’s trade tariffs, according to a senior government official. The Southeast Asian nation’s government hopes to discuss “some sort of trade agreement” with the US—its biggest export market—to ease any barriers, said Truong Van Phuoc, head of the National Financial ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co. is doubling down on its push in China, naming one of its top executives to head operations in a market the carmaker expects to be its biggest growth driver over the next five years. Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz, promoted to his current role more than a year ago, will take on added responsibility as head ...

Bloomberg Adidas sent a message to investors who had feared a hard landing for the company’s growth story: There’s plenty of life left in those old sneakers. Revenue at the German company jumped 12 percent in the fourth quarter, led by China and North America. The rebound comes after a slowdown in the third quarter, which sparked concerns and weighed ...

Bloomberg Just when you thought Hong Kong’s IPO market couldn’t get any frothier, a bubble tea maker just surged 298 percent in its debut. Shares of B & S International Holdings Ltd., known for a famous franchise called TenRen, staged the strongest mainboard debut in two years, closing at HK$3.98, after selling initial shares at HK$1. With orders for 2,601 ...

Bloomberg Prudential Plc soared on plans to split the firm by spinning off its UK operations, a move that will create an insurance business focussed on faster-growth markets in Asia, Africa and the US. Investors will receive shares in M&G Prudential, formed in 2017 through the combination of its UK asset-management business with European insurance assets. Both firms are likely ...

Bloomberg The Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA reached a preliminary agreement with Real Madrid Chairman Florentino Perez’s ACS to jointly buy Abertis Infraestructuras SA, ending an eight-month battle for control of the Spanish toll-road operator. The accord was expected to be discussed at a board meeting on Wednesday, Rome-based Atlantia said in a statement, without giving any details. Shares in Abertis ...

Bloomberg The European Union failed to water down proposals for the Irish border that Theresa May said no prime minister could ever accept in the first revision of the draft Brexit treaty. Revising the first draft of the document published by the European Commission two weeks ago, diplomats from the 27 remaining EU countries retained the focus on keeping Northern ...

Bloomberg Stephen Hawking, the British physicist and black-hole theorist who brought science to a mass audience with the best-selling book “A Brief History of Time,” has died. He was 76. Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in England on March 14, a spokesman for his family said. “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” ...