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BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq on Monday invited foreign companies to bid for contracts to explore and develop oil and natural gas reserves in nine new blocks as the OPEC nation seeks to boost its output capacity. “We invite all international companies to participate,” Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi told a news conference in Baghdad. “This new exploration bidding round aims to ...

DHAHRAN / Reuters More petrochemical projects will follow after Saudi Aramco agreed to join a $20 billion venture to convert crude oil to chemicals, the state oil company’s chief executive told Reuters. Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) signed a preliminary deal to build a petrochemicals complex with start-up seen in 2025. Aramco has been looking to develop its ...

Bloomberg GAIL India Ltd. received notification from Russia’s Gazprom PJSC that it plans to start deliveries of liquefied natural gas through a contract the Indian buyer is trying to renego- tiate, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The world’s largest gas producer wrote to GAIL this month saying it’s preparing to send cargoes from April under the 2.5 ...

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s rise into a $500 billion company was fuelled by a culture of internal competition, where teams raced against each other to make ideas work. To become an advertising powerhouse like Facebook Inc., the internal barriers are starting to come down. The seven main business units of China’s largest company are working to synchronise data and study ...

Bloomberg Huochebang and Yunmanman, China’s two biggest apps for Uber-like truck services, have agreed to merge, creating a company valued at more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Wang Gang, a backer of Yunmanman’s and an angel investor in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, will become the chief executive officer of the new entity, the people said, asking ...

Bloomberg Chinese industrial profits maintained their recent surge, underscoring resilience in the economy and strength in producer inflation. Industrial profits increased 25.1 percent in October from a year earlier, compared with a 27.7 percent pace a month earlier that was the highest in almost six years, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Profits in the first 10 months ...

Bloomberg Business Secretary Greg Clark said reviving Britain’s flagging productivity lies at the heart of the industrial strategy he was expected to unveil it on Monday to help chart the future of Britain’s economy as the country leaves the EU. While Britain would pursue the strategy “regardless” of Brexit, the plan will take the sting out of the uncertainty sparked ...

Bloomberg Women working in London are paid the least relative to their male counterparts in the whole of the UK. The gender pay gap in London is almost as big now as it was in 1997, meaning the UK capital has gone from having the narrowest divide to the widest in 20 years as other UK regions posted greater improvements, ...

Bloomberg Meredith Corp. agreed to acquire Time Inc. for $2.8 billion including debt, swallowing the once-mighty home of Fortune and Sports Illustrated after the internet age wreaked havoc on even the most prestigious magazine titles. The $18.50-a-share offer is an all-cash one, Meredith said in a statement. The deal gives Meredith, publisher of Better Homes & Gardens, a larger audience ...

Bloomberg Italian consumer confidence unexpectedly fell this month as shoppers start to plan their Christmas gift expenditures. The household sentiment dropped to 114.3 from a revised 116.0 in October, statistics agency Istat said Monday in Rome. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 12 analysts called for a November reading of 116.5. “It’s bad news ahead of Christmas,” said ...