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Bloomberg Russia, one of the world’s top three crude producers, is preparing the most radical shakeup of its oil-tax system since 1999. The changes, which will allow the nation’s producers to export crude and oil products duty-free while raising their costs at the wellhead, is set to get the go-ahead from President Vladimir Putin by year-end, bringing in much-needed funds ...

Bloomberg On a hot sunny day in July, Europe’s largest port is busy loading super-chilled liquefied natural gas onto a tanker, creating snow flurries during a heat wave. The cargo loaded at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam, which was built to import the fuel. Around the same time, a vessel from the Russian Arctic region arrived with another batch of ...

Bloomberg Shares of California utility owners PG&E Corp, Edison International and Sempra Energy climbed after Governor Jerry Brown indicated that utilities shouldn’t be responsible for future wildfire damages without considering whether they acted “reasonably.” The proposal wouldn’t affect the billions of dollars in potential liabilities PG&E and Edison face for blazes in 2017, Brown said. But it’s a win for ...

Bloomberg Fosun International Ltd., the Chinese group backed by billionaire Guo Guangchang, is considering an offer for all or parts of Belgian insurer Ageas in what could be its boldest move to expand its international footprint, people familiar with the matter said. Shanghai-based Fosun is talking to advisers about alternatives including teaming up with a partner to split the Brussels-based ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s apps and websites are still blocked in China, but that’s not stopping the social media giant from trying to open a center in the country to support local startups. Facebook set up a Chinese subsidiary, Facebook Technology (Hang Zhou) Ltd., earlier this month, according to a filing with the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The subsidiary, ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. plans to announce within days that it will start a mobile digital payments service in Japan by the end of 2018 as billionaire founder Masayoshi Son seeks to expand in the sector, people familiar with the matter said. The service, a collaboration with Indian startup Paytm, will make extensive use of artificial intelligence for mobile payments ...

Bloomberg As investors sell Chinese health-care stocks in the wake of a vaccine scandal, one top-performing fund manager sees a chance to buy more. The broad selloff in the sector will likely be temporary as investors overreacted and “wrongly implicated” many stocks, said Wang Chaowei, who manages 866 million yuan ($127 million) for CPIC Fund Management Co. One of his ...

Bloomberg China pledged to invest $14.7 billion in South Africa and grant loans to its state power utility and logistics company as the two nations seek to strengthen economic ties and increase trade. The rand gained. The commitment follows similar promises from Saudi Arabia and the UAE and bolsters President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign to lure $100 billion in investment to ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that the US and the European Union (EU) should eliminate all tariffs, barriers and subsidies, with the bloc’s trade chiefs set to present him with proposals in that direction in a crunch meeting at the White House. “I have an idea for them. Both the US and the EU drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!” ...

Bloomberg High-level talks for a new North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) are picking up again this week following two months of limited negotiations that were instead marred by tit-for-tat tariff battles and diplomatic fallout. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday when she meets in Mexico City with officials from ...