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  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund is stepping up lending in a region where economic reformers haven’t exactly had the most success. Hoping to restore the confidence of foreign investors, Egypt announced an initial agreement on Thursday to borrow $12 billion over three years from the IMF, joining Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan in taking money from the Washington-based fund. Egypt’s ...

  CAIRO/ Reuters Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of 13 people for 15 days pending an investigation into their role in a wheat procurement corruption scandal, judicial sources said. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, has been mired in controversy over its wheat supplies, with industry officials claiming that over 2 million tonnes of the 5 million tonnes ...

  AFP China’s recent economic stabilization faltered in July as factory output, retail sales and investment all slowed. Industrial production rose 6 percent from a year earlier in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. Retail sales climbed 10.2 percent last month, while fixed-asset investment increased 8.1 percent in the first seven months of the year. All three readings ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia is considering options for setting up tax-haven jurisdictions as it tries to lure back billions of dollars through its amnesty program to fund infrastructure projects and finance the widening budget deficit, Coordinating Maritime Minister Luhut Panjaitan said on Sunday. News of the haven plan follows an announcement by the government on Aug. 11 that it would allow ...

  Bloomberg The energy collapse continues to rack up victims in Singapore. This time it’s KrisEnergy Ltd., an oil and gas producer that said on Sunday it is exploring equity issuance, refinancing and asset sales to strengthen its capital structure as its debt covenants may come under stress. The announcement came just weeks after oil services firm Swiber Holdings Ltd. ...

  Bloomberg India is targeting a more than sevenfold expansion in its biofuels market over the next six years, stepping up the country’s efforts to cut its reliance on energy imports. Blending five percent of biodiesel with regular diesel and 10 percent ethanol with gasoline could boost the market to 500 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) by 2022, from about 65 ...

  Emirates Business Jet Airways Group announced its fifth successive profitable quarter for the period ending June 30 based on continuing improvement in aircraft utilization, increased efficiency and reduction in cost, including non-fuel expenses. Consistent financial performance has enabled Jet Airways to further reduce its debt by US$ 53m during Q1 of FY17. Cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) excluding ...

  Bloomberg State Grid Corp. of China reached a deal to gain control of Brazil’s CPFL Energia SA, after two major shareholders agreed to sell the Chinese company their stakes in the $7.3 billion utility, people with knowledge of the matter said. Bonaire Participacoes and Banco do Brasil SA’s pension fund, known as Previ, have given informal approval to sell ...

  Bloomberg Everbright Securities Co. raised $1.1 billion after pricing its Hong Kong first-time share sale above the midpoint of a marketed range. The Chinese brokerage sold 680 million shares at HK$12.68 each, after earlier offering them at HK$11.80 to HK$13.26 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg on Friday. The final price represents a 38 percent ...

  Bloomberg International Monetary Fund staff said that 19 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion) of Chinese “shadow” credit products are high-risk compared with corporate loans and highlighted the danger that defaults could lead to liquidity shocks. The investment products are structured by the likes of trust and securities companies and based on equities or on debt — typically loans — that ...