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Bloomberg Online insurance platform Policybazaar aims to go public in 2021 at a valuation north of $3.5 billion, potentially becoming the first of India’s mega-startups to debut as its digital economy booms. The startup plans to secure about $250 million in a round of financing at a $2 billion-plus valuation before a September 2021 initial public offering, co-founder Yashish Dahiya ...

Bloomberg CanSino Biologics Inc’s experimental coronavirus vaccine showed promising results in a mid-stage clinical study, paving the way for the next phase of tests as the Chinese company jostles with Western pharma giants to deliver one of the first pandemic vaccines. The shot was shown to be safe and induced an immune response, according to a study released in the ...

Bloomberg Taiwan’s top financial regulator said global banks are looking to expand on the island after China’s passage of a controversial security law in Hong Kong prompted some firms to rethink their Asian strategies. Some US securities firms are considering an expansion in Taiwan while other international banks plan to start new operations, said Huang Tien-mu, chairperson of Taiwan’s Financial ...

Bloomberg Japan’s government will start subsidising some companies to invest in factories in Japan and South-East Asia as part of efforts to reduce reliance on manufacturing in China. Fifty-seven companies including privately-held facemask-maker Iris Ohyama or Sharp will receive a total of 57.4 billion yen ($536 million) in subsidies from the government to invest in production in Japan, the Ministry ...

Bloomberg Chinese chipmakers have surged in the past year, boosted by Beijing’s support for self-sufficiency in semiconductors and as adoption of 5G and artificial intelligence prove resilient amid the pandemic. There’s no sign that rally is about to slow even as their stocks looks increasingly expensive. Cambricon Technologies, a developer of AI chips, rose 34%, extending its first-day surge of ...

Bloomberg Of all the ways our lives have changed during the coronavirus pandemic, few are as obvious as how, and where, we eat. With restaurants either shuttered or reopening with vastly reduced capacity, and people staying home as second-wave outbreaks erupt, demand for food-delivery services has exploded. Now Kishin RK, the 36-year-old heir to a multi-billion dollar Singapore property empire, ...

Bloomberg The UK government borrowed over twice as much last quarter than it did in the whole of the previous fiscal year, amid the towering cost of supporting the economy through the coronavirus crisis. The budget deficit stood at 35.5 billion pounds ($45 billion) in June, taking borrowing in the first three months of the fiscal year to a record ...

Bloomberg EBay Inc. agreed to sell its online classifieds business to Norway’s Adevinta ASA for $9.2 billion, ending one of the largest auctions of the year. Under the deal, EBay will get $2.5 billion of cash and 540 million shares in the Norwegian firm, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Shares in Adevinta rose as much as 39%. ...

Bloomberg Novartis AG trimmed its sales forecast for the year as pandemic hit demand for eye drug Lucentis and other medicines. Sales are expected to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage, the Swiss drugmaker said Tuesday, narrowing an April forecast that ranged up to the high-single digits. Earnings excluding some items will likely increase by a low-double-digit percentage, according to a ...

Bloomberg Sales of Renault SA’s all-electric Zoe car jumped 38% in the first half, a rare bright spot amid the grim fallout of the coronavirus pandemic Most of the deliveries were made in Europe, where the Zoe became the best-selling electric car thanks in part to generous government incentives, the French automaker said in a statement. Renault’s overall sales in ...