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Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is cutting its spending on travel and postponing some new hiring as China’s largest e-commerce company braces for a slowing economy, people familiar with the matter said. Some new hires were told they can’t start until the new fiscal year begins in April, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s resort island of Bali is set to impose a $10 levy on foreign tourists to preserve its environment and culture, The Jakarta Post reported, citing Governor Wayan Koster. The provincial government is deliberating whether the tax, which won’t be imposed on Indonesian citizens, will be collected as part of the airline ticket or at counters at the airport, ...

Bloomberg The European Union unveiled a blueprint for a free-trade deal with the US that would cut tariffs on a wide range of industrial goods including cars in a bid to heal commercial ties. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom asked EU governments in Brussels for the go-ahead to start negotiations on lowering trans-Atlantic commercial barriers, prodding US President Donald Trump ...

Bloomberg The European Commission is expected to block a plan by Siemens AG and Alstom SA to merge their rail units over concerns that the deal betw-een two rivals would stifle competition in the region’s train-equipment market, according to people familiar with the matter. Proposed concessions aimed at allaying EU objections — plus a last-minute lobbying campaign from politicians warning ...

Bloomberg A US privacy investigation of Facebook Inc, begun after a major data breach was exposed in March, is likely to result in a record fine against the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s chief privacy watchdog, is weighing a penalty against the social-media giant for violating a 2011 settlement with ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk is cutting Tesla Inc.’s workforce by 7 percent — or more than 3,000 jobs — warning that the “road ahead is very difficult” in making electric cars more affordable for the mass market. Tesla shares fell as much as 7.7 percent shortly after the start of regular trading. Musk wrote in a blog post that the Palo ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on Wednesday announced that it is now a ‘partner exchange’ of the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative, to promote sustainability and transparency in capital markets. The initiative is a peer-to-peer learning platform that enables exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators and companies, to enhance corporate transparency, environmental, social and ...

Bloomberg Emirates NBD PJSC reported a better-than-expected increase in full-year profit as lending rose and loan loss charges fell at Dubai’s biggest bank. The 2018 full-year net income reached AED10.04 billion ($2.73 billion), an increase of 20 percent from AED8.35 billion the previous year. The total income amounted to AED17.4 billion. The bank’s net interest income and the non-interest income ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Adnoc Logistics & Services (Adnoc L&S), the marine and logistics subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), announced that it has reduced fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 23% across a fleet of 27 vessels. The ‘Al Daffah Energy Efficiency Project’ is one of many ongoing initiatives by the shipping and logistics giant to ...

SHARJAH / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, stated that the ties between both the UAE and Kosovo are historically strong, which extend ba-ck to time of UAE’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He remarked that these ties grew into an integrated economic partnership, which resulted in ground-breaking agreements on the avoidance ...