News

Bloomberg Billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and Jack Ma’s Ant Financial unit will form a joint venture to offer a digital wallet service in Hong Kong. The wallet will come under the AlipayHK brand which was already launched in May, CK Hutchison said. The mobile app will allow users to make in-store payments in 4,000 retail outlets and ...

Bloomberg Nike Inc.’s US business continued to sputter last quarter, putting more pressure on its operations in Asia and Latin America to pick up the slack. The world’s biggest sportswear maker relied on strong overseas growth—especially in China—to overcome a weakening US business and help it post first-quarter profit that topped estimates. The company also cited a move to streamline ...

­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg Alstom SA’s merger with the train-making arm of Siemens AG will mark the end of a bitter rivalry as the European rail industry’s biggest adversaries unite in an effort to fend off the challenge from China and Japan. The ill-tempered contest between Alstom and Siemens has been a feature of the sector for decades and reached boiling point in ...

Bloomberg A federal agency that regulates apples wants to make regulations on Apple Inc. a little easier. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees new drugs, medical devices and much of the US food supply, said that it had selected nine major tech companies for a pilot programme that may let them avoid some regulations that have tied up developers ...

Bloomberg Uber is testing out a new conciliatory tone in London, where officials said they wouldn’t renew the ride-hailing service’s operating license. It’s going to have ample opportunity to see if that approach will work in the US. San Francisco’s city attorney is investigating whether Uber Technologies Inc. is a public nuisance. In New York, officials are mulling ways to ...

Bloomberg Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of computer networking equipment, said it will cut about 310 jobs at its headquarters in San Jose, California. Cisco is trying to shift from a reliance on revenue from high-cost proprietary equipment, which some customers are turning away from, to software and services. The company has more than 73,000 employees, according Bloomberg data. ...

Bloomberg Twitter Inc., struggling to attract new users, will lift its 140-character limit on tweets in an experiment with a small group that may expand to the entire social media platform. The test will let users send tweets with as many as 280 characters. Lengthening the character limit may result in more engaging conversation on the platform, helping its bid ...

Bloomberg One year after designer Maria Grazia Chiuri showed her first collection for Christian Dior Couture, Chief Executive Officer Sidney Toledano says customers are responding to her creative changes. Chiuri, who was formerly co-creative director of closely-held Valentino SpA, is the first woman to lead Dior since it was founded in 1946. “She is totally excited—obsessed—to understand what is the ...

Dubai / WAM The fertiliser production capacity in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has reached 42.3 million tonnes per annum in 2017, increasing by 12 per cent over the previous year, according to a new report of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA). According to the report entitled, ‘2016 GCC Fertiliser Industry Indicators’, the industry expanded at the ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Economy achieved a milestone in its accelerators initiative by establishing a partnership to facilitate financial transactions through contactless payment. The partnership brings Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy, and the UK-based Object Tech Group Ltd together under the Dubai Economy Accelerators umbrella to develop and implement emCash, an encrypted digital currency, which people can use to ...