News

  Bloomberg Sembcorp Industries Ltd. said recurring payment delays by Indian electricity retailers are piling on costs to operators and are bad for the renewable power business it wants to build. Payment delays risk “affecting development of the sector,” Sembcorp India Chief Executive Officer Vipul Tuli said in an interview in New Delhi. The local unit of the Singaporean conglomerate, ...

  Bloomberg A new estimate showing that 14 million Americans could lose health coverage by next year under the GOP Obamacare-replacement plan leaves House Republicans in a bind with its dire picture of the bill’s effects heading into the 2018 congressional elections. Even as the Trump administration challenged the estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, several Senate Republicans said the ...

  Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond scrapped a plan to increase tax on the self-employed, after a storm of criticism from legislators in his own ruling Conservative Party. Hammond was accused of breaking a manifesto pledge not to hike national insurance contributions, made by the Tories before they won the 2015 election, when he announced the proposal ...

  Bloomberg The UK jobless rate matched its lowest since 1975 in the three months through January but Britons are seeing their wages go nowhere. Unemployment unexpectedly declined to 4.7 percent, matching the rate it last reached in 2005, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The number of people in work rose by 92,000 to 31.9 million, the ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Americans spent only slightly more last month at retail stores compared with January, a sign of consumer caution despite rising optimism about the economy. The Commerce Department said Wednesday retail sales ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in February, after a much bigger gain of 0.6 percent the previous month. January’s gain was revised higher. ...

  Bloomberg After a decade-long hibernation following the dot-com crash, Canada’s Tucows Ltd. is roaring back to life with an acquisition and a deepening effort to win over disgruntled US mobile phone customers. The Toronto-based internet services provider is the largest re-seller and manager of domain names after Scottsdale, Arizona-based GoDaddy Inc. Its customers are firms like Squarespace Inc. and ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand was raided by German prosecutors as investigations into the manipulation of diesel engines continue to weigh on the automaker more than a year after revelations of emissions cheating. More than 100 police took part in searches Wednesday at the company’s main sites in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm as well as seven other locations across Germany. ...

  AP US homebuilders are feeling more optimistic about their sales prospects than they have been since the high-flying days of the housing boom. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Wednesday jumped to 71 this month. That’s up six points from 65 in February and the highest reading since June 2005. Readings above 50 indicate ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business SAP SE announced a five-year $200 million (AED 734 million) investment in the UAE, underpinning objectives outlined by the UAE Vision 2021 plan to create economic diversity and jobs for youth. Senior officials participated in the official ribbon-cutting VIP ceremony and inaugurated new SAP MENA headquarters in Dubai Internet City. Ammar Al Malik, Executive Director, ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM LEAD Development and Project Management Consultants (LEAD) and The National Investor (TNI) will build the first residential community of private ‘green’ villas and townhouses at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable urban development, it was announced. The project, which will also include apartments, is to be delivered over 250,000 sqm of gross floor area (GFA). ...