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RIYADH / Reuters Russia is seeking to finalise multi-million-dollar investment deals with Saudi Arabia in the next three months including partnerships with state oil giant Aramco, Russia’s top state investment officer said on Wednesday. Russian banks and a Russian-Chinese investment fund are also keen to take part in Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), the head of the Russian Direct Investment ...

LONDON / Reuters As OPEC watches a near 15 percent drop in the oil price in three weeks, important indicators in the physical crude market are flashing signals that the decline might be far from over. The warnings come not from the heavily traded futures market, but from less transparent trading activity in crude oil and products markets, where key ...

ZURICH / Reuters Clariant Chief Executive Hariolf Kottmann told investors he would update them on the Swiss speciality chemicals maker’s tie-up with new shareholder Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) by July as he seeks a recovery from a turbulent 2017. Full-year net profit in 2017 rose 9.5 percent, short of analyst estimates, as the group was hit by one-time costs ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia will restrain its oil exports in March despite lower domestic need for crude as OPEC’s leader is pushing to eliminate fully the global oil glut and combat worries about a new cycle of oil price weakness. The kingdom will keep its crude exports below 7 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, despite a maintenance ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allowed India’s subsidy bill to balloon in the lead up to crucial elections, at the risk of breaching his budget deficit goals. Although Modi has a reputation for reducing India’s huge subsidy expenditure, data shows he’s missed the chance to rein it in. And as he prepares for state and national elections, subsidy reforms ...

Bloomberg Hillhouse Capital Management, the Chinese investment firm that last year helped lead Asia’s biggest-ever buyout deal, is targeting to raise about $6 billion in a new private equity fund, people with knowledge of the matter said. Hillhouse has started gauging interest from potential investors, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s economic growth is set to moderate this year from a three-year high in 2017, but still post a solid performance on the back of strong domestic demand. Gross domestic product rose 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the central bank said on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, slightly above the median estimate of 5.8 percent ...

Bloomberg Toshiba Corp. is bringing in an outsider to lead the Japanese electronics maker battered by accounting scandals, record losses and divestment of businesses. Nobuaki Kurumatani, 60, representative director of CVC Capital Partners Ltd. in Japan and former vice president at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., will become chief executive officer and chairman of Toshiba Corp., the Tokyo-based manufacturer said in ...

Bloomberg The surprise jailing of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin on bribery charges has thrown one of South Korea’s biggest chaebols into further disarray. Now up in the air: a planned initial public offering for Lotte’s hotel unit; its hope of selling its network of stores in China; a restructuring plan for the group; and the family feud between Shin ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s economy lost some of its momentum in the fourth quarter and the government sees growth moderating slightly this year as an export boom in 2017 eases. Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 2.1 percent from prior three months, trade ministry said on Wednesday; Bloomberg survey median was 2 percent, while government’s previous projection ...