International News

China bond buyers quiz taxi drivers on market

Bloomberg In China, taxi rides aren’t just a form of transportation any more. They’ve also become useful for bond buyers doing due diligence. Dining out at restaurants is also helpful. It’s all part of a boom in field trips by market participants coming to grips with a new reality in China: the potential for bond defaults. After decades when authorities ...

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India may block Fosun’s $1.3 bn gland acquisition

Bloomberg India is poised to reject Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion takeover of an Indian drugmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, scuppering the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition in the country. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to block the Chinese firm’s purchase of an 86 percent ...

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Macau luxury hotel misses its opening

Bloomberg 13 Holdings Ltd. missed a Monday deadline to open its luxury hotel in Macau, a condition of a HK$3 billion ($384 million) loan from Bank of Communications Co. for the gaming project just off the Cotai strip, according to people familiar with the matter. The $1.6 billion development, started by 13 Holdings co-chairman Stephen Hung, formerly co-head of Asia ...

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Amazon, Wal-Mart finally give hydrogen power a reason to be

Bloomberg Andy Marsh sees his future — and it’s forklifts. His tiny company, Plug Power Inc., makes hydrogen fuel cells, and for years he struggled to find customers. No longer. In April, Amazon.com Inc. agreed to try out the technology in forklift fleets at 10 of its warehouses. And in July, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. matched Amazon’s $600 million deal with ...

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UK customs checks to cost $1.3 billion a year post-Brexit

Bloomberg Customs checks at the border after the UK leaves the European Union could cost 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) a year and cause delays for goods being shipped in both directions, according to a report by Oxera, an economic consultancy. The estimate assumes low regulation but high levels of enforcement and is based on World Trade Organization data on ...

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Consumer borrowing cools post BOE action

Bloomberg Consumer credit growth slowed in June after the Bank of England officials took action to limit areas of risk from borrowing. Unsecured lending rose 10 percent from a year earlier, the least in more than a year, the UK central bank said on Monday. It grew 1.5 billion pounds on the month The BOE in June responded to the ...

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Corn clash pops up as US, Brazil farmers face off

Bloomberg The world’s biggest corn exporters are preparing for a showdown. Brazilian farmers are in the midst of collecting their biggest corn harvest ever and American supplies are also plentiful — setting the stage for a stiff battle to win world buyers in the second half of the year. It’s a turnaround from just a year ago when US exporters ...

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Spotify follows Apple with a new podcast initiative

Bloomberg Spotify Ltd. is tiptoeing into new businesses again. The No. 1 paid music streaming service has agreed to promote podcasts in its app and via ads on buses. In return, the hosts of “Reply All,” “Pod Save America” and “The Bill Simmons Podcast” agreed to talk up Spotify on social media and during their shows that cover topics ranging ...

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Tesla’s Model 3 arrives with a surprise 310-mile range

Bloomberg Three hundred ten. That’s the electric range of a $44,000 version of Tesla’s Model 3, unveiled in its final form on July 28 night. It’s a jaw-dropping new benchmark for cheap range in an electric car, and it’s just one of several surprises Tesla had in store as it handed over the keys to its first 30 customers. Tesla ...

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BT pitches $788-mn plan for faster rural broadband in UK

Bloomberg BT Group Plc is proposing a 600 million-pound ($788 million) plan to bring faster Internet coverage to the rural UK, to be paid for by charges to other broadband users. The former phone monopoly’s Openreach wholesale division by 2020 would build connections enabling broadband download speeds of at least 10 megabits per second for almost all of the remaining ...

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