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Bloomberg WPP Plc shares had their biggest drop in 17 years after the world’s largest advertising company cut its full-year revenue forecast amid lower spending by customers, in particular consumer-goods manufacturers. The stock fell as much as 13 percent after WPP said like-for-like revenue growth is expected to be between zero and 1 percent in 2017. That’s down from an ...

Bloomberg Surging demand for ‘Made in the Euro Area’ goods is feeding an economy that is creating jobs and finally also seeing price growth accelerate. A Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing rose to 57.4 in August from 56.6 in July, according to IHS Markit. That’s the highest reading in two months and compares with a median estimate for a slowdown ...

Bloomberg Oil pared gains after the American Petroleum Institute unexpectedly reported higher inventories of US gasoline and diesel last week, even as crude supplies declined. The API estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose 1.4 million barrels last week and diesel expanded 2.05 million, according to people familiar with the data, which is only disclosed to members. That would be a ...

KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Aramco has received bids from international engineering companies to build gas booster compressor stations at Haradh and Hawiyah, industry sources said, as the country plans to diversify its energy mix. The contracts are part of a $4 billion scheme to increase gas production in the country for domestic consumption. Saudi Arabia’s domestic gas demand has been ...

BEIJING / Reuters Russia held its spot as China’s top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54 percent over a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday. Russian shipments last month came in at 4.97 million tonnes, or about 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd), the General Administration of Customs said in ...

KHOBAR / Reuters State-run Bahrain Petroleum Co (Bapco) will meet a consortium led by France’s Technip for further talks over the planned expansion of Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sources close to the matter told Reuters. Bahrain has long been planning to expand the Sitra refinery and industry sources told Reuters in April that all bidders for the work had been ...

Bloomberg Overseas fund managers and companies are tracking India’s efforts to force its biggest defaulters into insolvency proceedings as interest in buying distressed assets grows, according to investment bank Moelis & Co. A dozen companies in sectors including steel, power and construction may become buyout targets after the Reserve Bank of India ordered lenders to take them to insolvency court ...

Bloomberg China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. will raise as much as HK$88.1 billion ($11.3 billion) by selling new shares to its parent as part of a government-led ownership overhaul of the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier. Unicom plans to sell as many as 6.65 billion new shares to unlisted China Unicom (BVI) Ltd. at HK$13.24 apiece, or 10 percent higher than ...

Bloomberg VIPKid, an online education company that matches Chinese students with North American teachers, was valued at more than $1.5 billion in a round of funding from investors including Sequoia Capital China and Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter. The Beijing-based company said on Wednesday it had raised $200 million to expand into new markets and ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Emirate of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil trade with four GCC states hit AED11.33 billion ($3bn) during the first five months of the year, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia coming on top of the emirate’s Gulf trade partners. According to the Statistics Centre- Abu Dhabi, the four countries, which include Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of ...