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Bloomberg Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades. Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyses more than 3,000 variables, Ma’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 ...

Bloomberg Social unrest gripping Hong Kong has affected the city’s economy and businesses, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise from current levels, financial secretary Paul Chan said. In the Chinese-language post on his website, Chan said many local retail and catering businesses had experienced a “sharp decline” in business, and he warned that the longer the historic protests ...

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and BlackRock Inc increased their stakes in Weimob Inc through a share sale that’s said to have netted $180 million. Weimob, which has a market value of about $1.2 billion, will use the proceeds to bankroll technology development, it said in an emailed statement. The six-year-old company, which went public ...

Bloomberg It once looked like Anil Agarwal could shake up the mining industry by amassing the biggest stake in Anglo American Plc. But in the end the Indian tycoon’s lack of financial firepower forced him to unwind his investment. For two years, Agarwal kept insiders and Anglo executives guessing about why the billionaire decided to take a position in the ...

Bloomberg A unit of Reliance Communications (RCom) Ltd, tycoon Anil Ambani’s distressed telecom firm, is seeking an extension from holders of its dollar-denominated bonds maturing on August 1, the company’s spokesman said. Global Cloud Xchange is in discussions with holders of its 7 percent $350 million notes for a deal that would provide the issuer more time to discuss options ...

Bloomberg Pfizer Inc plans to combine its off-patent business, which includes Lipitor cholesterol pills and male-impotence drug Viagra, with Mylan NV and form a generic drug giant, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, if completed, could be announced as early as Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. Under ...

Bloomberg US soybean supplies to China, the world’s biggest market, slumped in the first half of 2019 to the lowest level in more than a decade as little progress was made on ending a trade war between the two countries. China imported 614,806 tons of soybeans from the US in June, according to customs data. That brought the total inbound ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc’s suppliers are preparing to produce components for up to 75 million new iPhones in 2019’s second half, roughly the same number as a year earlier, according to people familiar with the matter. The volumes planned for the next iPhone launch cycle would signal steady demand for the company’s most important product, despite US-China trade tensions and a ...

Bloomberg Some of Switzerland’s top university hospitals are teaming up to take on the soaring cost of cancer cell therapy offered by big pharma. The hospitals are hoping to offer the treatment for between 150,000 Swiss francs ($151,026) and 200,000 francs. That’s about one-third cheaper than the commercialised process offered by the pharmaceutical industry. “We are convinced that such cancer ...

Bloomberg The ability to stream YouTube and Netflix when a Tesla vehicle is not moving is coming soon, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. The change may come in August but wouldn’t take “more than a few months,” Musk said while responding to a Twitter user. Tesla owners will be able to stream while the car is moving once ...