International News

Bloomberg For the first time in almost 80 years, a private company has sunk a new offshore oil well in Mexican waters — the latest step in the country’s drive to allow foreign competitors back into its energy markets. A joint venture of London-based Premier Oil Plc, Houston’s Talos Energy LLC and Mexico’s Sierra Oil & Gas began drilling the ...

Bloomberg India’s biggest tax reform in history is also set to make its small-to-medium businesses more transparent. On July 1, as India rolls out its landmark national sales tax, businesses that make less than 100 million rupees — which the government refers to as micro, small and medium enterprises — will all have to digitize. The firms, often accused of ...

Bloomberg Japan’s wages may still be falling by some measures, but some analysts are so convinced that the country’s labor shortages are going to impose a cost shake-out for companies and markets that they’ve started making investment recommendations. “The labor shortage is becoming more acute,” with unemployment at just 2.8 percent, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts including strategist Shusuke ...

Bloomberg Earlier this month SoftBank led a $502 million investment in a London-based virtual reality startup called Improbable Worlds. Less than two years ago, the startup was worth about $100 million. Then SoftBank came along, and suddenly it was worth 10 times that. Overnight, Improbable Worlds had become a unicorn. In the months since Softbank Group Corp. unveiled plans for ...

Bloomberg Short-sellers crowding into Great Wall Motor Co. are being vindicated — and they’re lining up for more. Shares in China’s largest SUV maker have retreated 18 percent from a February peak in Hong Kong as sales of its aging Haval H6 model fell and the company reported a quarterly profit decline. Now bears are doubling down: short interest in ...

Bloomberg Singapore Exchange Ltd. is nearing a deal with the city’s technology regulator to develop a system designed to encourage local startups to list on the bourse, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the agreement, the bourse operator would help pair technology companies with investors with the aim of securing their listing in the city-state, the people said. ...

Bloomberg PPG Industries Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael McGarry is seeking to extend by two weeks a deadline to make a firm bid for Akzo Nobel NV and ruled out raising its latest $29.5 billion offer, the third to be rejected by the Dutch rival. The US paint maker will challenge a June 1 deadline imposed by the Dutch regulator ...

Bloomberg Britain recorded a larger-than-forecast budget deficit in the first month of the new fiscal year as accelerating inflation pushed up debt costs and depressed consumer spending. Net borrowing was 10.4 billion pounds ($13.5 billion) in April, the highest for the month since 2014 and up 1.2 billion pounds from a year earlier. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted an 8.7 ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank is finding out just how hard it might be to avoid the heat in its home country this summer. In the past few days, Germans have been told that their government will push for the nation to get the next ECB presidency and that monetary policy is the cause of a “too weak” euro. Fresh ...

Bloomberg China will carry out a nationwide poll next month to test the public’s acceptance of genetically-modified food, a technology the government says would boost yields and sustainable agriculture in a country that’s seen consumption soar. Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University and two other Chinese colleges will carry out the survey, said Jin Jianbin, a professor at Tsinghua’s School of Journalism ...