International News

Bloomberg Chinese suppliers flooded the US solar market with panels at the end of last year, as customers sought to avoid paying President Donald Trump’s 30 percent import tariff. Fourth-quarter deliveries from China were almost 11 times higher than in the first nine months of 2017, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Manufacturers also hauled panels and ...

Bloomberg Bangkok, the metropolis of gastronomic delights, infamous nightlife and swarming tourists, now has another sobriquet: it’s one of Asia’s most polluted cities, at least in the past couple of weeks. Concentrations of tiny, airborne PM2.5 particles that damage health on some days topped levels in New Delhi and Beijing, the more traditional poster-cities for the perils of smog. The ...

Bloomberg Indian online shopping site Paytm Mall is opening a New Delhi store, taking a page out of backer Alibaba’s playbook in exploring ways to use physical retail to boost its online business. The country’s newest online retailer, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt and backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is introducing a brick-and-mortar store co-branded with Red Tape shoes. ...

Bloomberg The US sounds confident that proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum won’t break global trade rules, despite warnings from other countries that such a move could trigger a flurry of retaliation. It’s up to the president to decide if that’s a risk he’s willing to take. The Commerce Department laid out a range of options for President Donald Trump ...

Bloomberg Coca-Cola Co.’s push to diversify its drinks and spin off company-owned bottlers is bearing fruit. The company posted sales that beat analysts’ estimates in the fourth quarter, helped by its growing beverage portfolio and reformulations. Profit also topped projections. Coke’s results validate its strategy of become a marketing and drink-formulation company — rather than a bottler. The Atlanta-based company ...

Bloomberg The US Justice Department is fighting AT&T Inc.’s search for evidence that President Donald Trump is behind the agency’s antitrust challenge to the takeover of Time Warner Inc. Trump’s criticism of Time Warner’s CNN doesn’t justify AT&T’s “fishing expedition” for communications between the White House and the Justice Department, government lawyer Craig Conrath told US District Court Judge Richard ...

Bloomberg Airbnb Inc. cafeteria workers are joining the United Auto Workers, a new twist in the home-rental company’s troubled relationship with organised labour. The United Auto Workers won a union contract covering nearly 150 cafeteria workers at four Airbnb facilities. It’s the latest development in a unionization trend among tech companies’ sub-contracted staff. “Every worker should be treated with dignity ...

Bloomberg Get ready for what could be another record year for corporate borrowing. The US tax overhaul is freeing up cash for companies and the Federal Reserve is hiking rates, but chief financial officers are still eager to borrow, UBS strategists wrote. The Swiss bank and Wells Fargo both expect businesses to sell as much US investment-grade and junk bond ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allowed India’s subsidy bill to balloon in the lead up to crucial elections, at the risk of breaching his budget deficit goals. Although Modi has a reputation for reducing India’s huge subsidy expenditure, data shows he’s missed the chance to rein it in. And as he prepares for state and national elections, subsidy reforms ...

Bloomberg Hillhouse Capital Management, the Chinese investment firm that last year helped lead Asia’s biggest-ever buyout deal, is targeting to raise about $6 billion in a new private equity fund, people with knowledge of the matter said. Hillhouse has started gauging interest from potential investors, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. ...