News

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd. will expand its age-verification system to encompass its entire games line-up, an unprecedented undertaking in response to growing criticism it encourages addiction among youths. The Chinese social media and entertainment titan intends to check all gamers’ identities against police databases by 2019, extending a procedure it pioneered for the mobile phenomenon Honour of Kings. It will ...

Bloomberg BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, halted all train operations in Western Australia on Monday after it was forced to derail a runaway train in the Pilbara. The driver was inspecting an issue with the train when the locomotive ran away. While rail operations are suspended, mining operations continue, it said. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said ...

Bloomberg A range of European venture capital firms are seeking to raise more money in fewer funds as they ride a global trend towards larger investment vehicles. For five prominent firms in the region, sizes are expected to range from $100 million to $350 million each. Idinvest Partners SA, one of France’s largest VC firms, is targeting a $350 million ...

Bloomberg Advanced Micro Devices Inc ad-ded its name to a growing list of semiconductor companies that were battered with huge share declines after reporting disappointing results and forecasts. The stock slumped 20 percent. AMD’s results came on a day when investors were already pressing the sell button on a sector that many now fear is signaling a wider technology industry ...

Bloomberg The UK economy kicked off the fourth quarter on a disappointing note as Brexit concerns pushed growth in services to a seven-month low. IHS Markit’s index for the sector fell more than economists expected last month, recording the lowest reading since March when the nation was battered with bad weather. New business growth and optimism over the outlook were ...

Bloomberg Abbott Laboratories won US approval for its FreeStyle LibreLink diabetes-monitoring app, giving users a way to keep track of their glucose levels from their iPhones. The app works with Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre glucose sensors, which have rapidly become some of the top-selling medical devices in the US. It is likely to be a welcome addition for millions of customers ...

Bloomberg For nearly a decade, Trafigura Group Chairman Claude Dauphin coveted a zinc deal with Europe’s top smelter. The commodities trader finally got across the threshold in 2015, months after its co-founder’s sudden death. Just a few years later, it’s become one of Trafigura’s biggest headaches. Nyrstar NV shares have plu-nged to record lows as falling zinc prices squeeze profit ...

DUBAI / WAM Emaar Malls, the shopping malls and retail business majority-owned by Emaar Properties, has recorded a growth in net profit of 9 percent during the first nine months of the year to AED1.639 billion ($446 million), compared to the same period in 2017 at AED1.507 billion ($410 million). Revenue for the first nine months of the year was ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Non-resident deposits acr-oss UAE’s banking system reported solid growth during first nine months of ye-ar, with their growth outst- ripping retail loans provided to non-residents by AED63 billion by end of Q3. The expansion in banks’ holdings of deposits corroborates investor confidence in the UAE banking sector, reckoned the first in the region in terms of ...

Emirates Business Emirates NBD Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) — a composite indicator designed to give an accurate overview of operating conditions in the non-oil private sector economy — released its October data. Non-oil private sector companies in the UAE reported another sharp increase in new business during October. Anecdotal evidence suggested that promotional activity was partly linked to the improvement. ...