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Bloomberg Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella told employees his leadership team is fully behind the sale of software to the US Defense Department, after the company won a $10 billion Pentagon contract that some workers have opposed. Addressing staff at a regular internal town-hall meeting, Nadella said he respects differing opinions on the issue, according to a person ...

Bloomberg Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian venture, reeling under $14 billion of net debt, mounting losses and dwindling subscribers, has approached creditors for better payment terms to revive the sinking carrier, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Vodafone Idea Ltd, formed by last year’s merger of the British telecommunications firm’s local unit with billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Idea Cellular ...

Bloomberg India, the world’s biggest buyer of palm oil, is considering a proposal to further increase import taxes on the refined variety to boost local processing and cut dependence on overseas purchases, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The government is discussing a proposal to impose a new levy in addition to the existing import duty and raise ...

Bloomberg When Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc delivered positive earnings few saw coming last quarter, China’s top electric carmakers were weathering a historical contraction in demand. Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co, the country’s biggest maker of new energy vehicles — all-electric, fuel-cell and plugin hybrid cars — just reported an 89% slump in third-quarter earnings and warned profit could fall as much ...

Bloomberg Honda Motor Co and Hitachi Ltd agreed to merge four of their car parts businesses to create a components supplier with almost $17 billion in sales, joining a wave of partnerships sweeping the global auto industry. Honda, Japan’s second-biggest carmaker, and Hitachi, one of the country’s biggest industrial conglomerates, said they will combine Hitachi Automotive Systems and Honda affiliates ...

Bloomberg Soho China Ltd is considering selling a majority of its commercial property holdings in deals that may fetch as much as $8 billion, people familiar with the matter said, sending the shares up the most on record. At least eight office towers in Beijing and Shanghai are being discussed as part of the planned sales, the people said, asking ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz said his country is ready to make deeper cuts in oil output than it agreed to with other global producers, according to Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva. “He assured me that they are very ready to even cut deeper,” Sylva told Bloomberg TV in Riyadh. The Opec minister said ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The investment portfolio of UAE-based banks amounted to AED64 billion ($17.42b) in the first nine months of 2019, hitting a total record of AED397.3 billion by the end of September, according to figures revealed by the central bank of the UAE. The growth trajectory is driven by a 19.4 percent jump in banks’ investments in securities ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai mutual trade with Brazil in 2018 made around AED5.6 billion, with AED5.2 billion in imports, AED136 million in exports and AED234 million in re-exports. According to statistics released by Dubai Customs in conjunction with the visit of the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro to the UAE, trade with Brazil touched AED3.6 billion in the first half of ...

AL KHOBAR / WAM First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), has expanded its operations in Saudi Arabia with the opening of a branch in Al Khobar. The new branch joins one already operating in Riyadh. Abdulhamid Saeed, Group CEO of FAB, said, “It gives me great pleasure to open our second branch in Saudi Arabia. We look forward to providing the ...