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Bloomberg Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital are investing in Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the world’s largest bitcoin mining organisation, according to people familiar with the matter. Bitmain is raising $50 million from several venture firms to boost its profile among mainstream investors, said one of the people, who asked not to be named. Sequoia and the other firms also plan ...

Bloomberg Asia’s messaging apps have a history of becoming huge in their home market before struggling to gain traction overseas. South Korea’s Kakao Corp. is counting on the Japanese love of manga comics to break that trend. Amassing 43 million users at home has driven Kakao’s market value to $7.2 billion but it’s little known outside Korea, a factor that’s ...

Bloomberg Hyundai Motor Co. appointed a new chief for its China operations after payment disputes with vendors resulted in temporary shutdowns last month at four of its factories in the automaker’s biggest market. Tao Hung Tan replaced Chang Won-shin as the chief executive officer of Beijing Hyundai Motor starting September 1, the Seoul-based company said, without elaborating on the reasons ...

Bloomberg India plans to finalise trading specifications for the country’s new spot gold exchange in November amid a push to improve transparency in the world’s second-biggest bullion market, people familiar with the matter said. A panel of finance ministry and trade ministry officials, as well as industry groups including refiners, jewelry associations and export and import firms, plan to have ...

Bloomberg McDonald’s Corp.’s South Korean unit is cooperating with government authorities investigating a possible food-contamination case that prompted the company to suspend sales of its bulgogi burger. South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has started a probe into the cause behind some customers taking ill after consuming food at a McDonald’s restaurant in Jeonju, located south of Seoul, ...

BEIJING / Reuters Independent oil refiners in China’s Shandong province are planning to form a consortium to integrate their production of oil products and petrochemicals, according to a planning document reviewed by Reuters. Since late 2015, China has allowed 31 mostly privately-owned oil refineries to import crude oil, the majority of them based in Shandong province. With a combined capacity ...

Bloomberg The UK North Sea is on track for the biggest year of oil and gas field startups in a decade, continuing the aging province’s surprising resilience to the crude-market slump. Fourteen projects with combined peak production of 230,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day will start in the region this year, according to data from consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. ...

Bloomberg Hurricane Harvey’s crushing blow to the US energy industry reveals just how dependent Mexico has become on natural gas from its northern neighbor. The storm’s wrath forced cross-border gas pipelines in Texas to shut and prevented tankers from loading cargoes of the fuel. Mexican consumers, who are burning record amounts of gas from America’s prolific shale basins, had no ...

Bloomberg Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is nearing a deal to acquire Cenovus Energy Inc.’s Pelican Lake oil asset for about C$1 billion ($807 million), according to people familiar with the matter. Canadian Natural advanced to the final round of bidding alongside Cona Resources Ltd. for the asset, which is located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Edmonton, said the ...

Bloomberg State-owned conglomerate China Merchants Group is exploring acquisitions of offshore rig operators, which have struggled to recover from a collapse in oil-industry spending, people with knowledge of the matter said. As part of this analysis, the Chinese firm has looked at various assets and companies including Seadrill Ltd. and Shelf Drilling Ltd., the people said, asking not to be ...