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Bloomberg Wealth-management group iFast Corp posted a 37.5 percent slide in profit before tax for the year as poor financial markets and investments for growth take their toll. Singapore-based iFast reported a $1.37 million profit, from S$2.99 million a year earlier, according to a company filing. The fintech company said it expects revenue and profitability to improve in the second ...

Bloomberg Barely three months into his tenure, Renault SA Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard plans to propose merging the French carmaker with alliance partner Nissan Motor Co under a holding-company framework, according to people familiar with the matter. Each company would own about a 50 percent stake in the holding company and have equal board representation, one of the people said, asking ...

Bloomberg Three months after groundbreaking, Tesla Inc is rushing to complete its multibillion-dollar factory on the outskirts of Shanghai to capitalise on growing demand in the world’s largest electric-car market. Foundations for the facility have been laid, and construction workers are erecting walls and other structures for the factory, which could eventually rival production from its US assembly plant. Tesla ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s cloud computing business fuelled quarterly sales and profit that topped analysts’ estimates, boosted by several new deals with large corporate clients. The company’s shares rose as much as 5.1 percent in New York, briefly pushing its valuation across $1 trillion before pulling back slightly. The move nosed the software maker ahead of Apple Inc. as the world’s ...

Bloomberg The shareholder rebellion at Bayer AG is poised to worsen after its supervisory board ignored an unprecedented no-confidence vote against the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann. Several top investors of the German chemicals and drugs giant are frustrated with directors’ decision to back Baumann and his strategy that led to the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto, according ...

Bloomberg Daimler AG said its financial targets have become harder to achieve after a tough start to the year, forcing the auto manufacturer to step up efforts to drive down costs. The Mercedes-Benz maker’s first-quarter profit slumped 16 percent after a decline in deliveries combined with the rising cost of developing new models. While earnings met analyst estimates, Chief Executive ...

Bloomberg Advertising giant WPP Plc reported a fall in first-quarter sales after its agencies in North America lost work with top clients, in another reminder of the challenge facing Chief Executive Officer Mark Read. Revenue less pass-through costs, WPP’s measure of organic sales growth, fell 2.8 percent, the London-based company said in a statement, in line with the average estimate ...

Bloomberg Oracle Corp. will continue to fight the terms of the Pentagon’s $10 billion winner-take-all cloud computing contract after being kicked out of the bidding process this month, according to the company’s chief lobbyist. Oracle Executive Vice President Kenneth Glueck, who leads the company’s Washington policy shop, said in an interview with Bloomberg News that the company will continue to ...

GENEVA / WAM Qatar has decided to withdraw its measures against the UAE in a significant concession aimed at averting the consequences of the UAE’s case in WTO against an illegal Qatari ban on UAE goods and services. During a session of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the WTO, on Saturday, to examine the UAE’s request to set up ...

Bloomberg Oil is on its longest bull run in 13 years. Hedge funds have increased bullish sentiment on US crude prices for the last nine weeks, the longest such run since 2006, according to data. Almost 14 times as many bets have been placed on prices going up as on a decline, as investors see supply threats multiplying around the ...