Retail

  London / AFP Britain’s biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco, said it was selling its Turkish business as its international arm focuses on its operations in Central Europe and Southeast Asia. Tesco, which is slowly turning around its performance after a record annual loss in 2014/15, said in a statement it was offloading also its mainly British restaurant chain, Giraffe, ...

  Wellington / Bloomberg Vodafone Group Plc’s New Zealand business and the country’s largest pay-television provider, Sky Network Television Ltd., agreed to a NZ$3.44 billion ($2.4 billion) merger as they grapple with increasing competition. The global mobile-phone operator will own 51 percent of the combined entity, the companies said in a joint statement Thursday. Sky Network is issuing new stock ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos pledged to invest $3 billion in India, in a big bet on the growth of online shopping in the fast-growing South Asian economy. Speaking in Washington DC as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the United States, Bezos told a gathering of business leaders that he saw “huge potential” in India. ...

  Taipei / Bloomberg Apple Inc. sold $1.38 billion of dollar bonds in Taiwan while Canada’s Manulife Financial Corp. also priced $1 billion of securities, as such debt offerings in the jurisdiction jump amid demand from insurers. The sales bring issuance of such corporate securities to $23 billion for the year, up 53 percent from the same period in 2015, ...

  California / Bloomberg GE Ventures bought a stake in Germany’s Sonnen GmbH to boost its presence in the fast-growing market for battery systems built to store solar power. GE’s unit is paying a “mid double-digit million-euro” sum for a minority stake in the company, according to a statement by Wildpoldsried, Bavaria-based Sonnen. The company said other investors are considering ...

  Seoul / Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. is considering introducing two new smartphone models that will feature bendable screens, including a version that folds in half like a cosmetic compact, people familiar with the matter said. The devices using organic light-emitting diodes could be unveiled as soon as early 2017, the people said, asking not to be identified because the ...

  Switzerland / Bloomberg Nestle SA is banking on e-commerce sales to revive its struggling Chinese business, as the Swiss food company grapples with slowing growth and new shopping trends in the world’s largest consumer market. The maker of KitKat chocolates and Yinlu peanut milk began selling on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Tmall.com portal 67 brands it has never offered ...

  Pretoria / Bloomberg Telkom SA SOC Ltd. said full-year earnings gained 16 percent as South Africa’s biggest landline provider cut almost 4,000 jobs, raised the dividend and embarked on the last financial year of its turnaround plan. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was 11 billion rand ($729 million) in the year through March, compared with 9.4 billion ...

  Shanghai / bloomberg Billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Cinema Line Co., whose shares have been halted since late February, surged by the 10 percent daily limit after it resumed trading on Monday as the Chinese tycoon seeks to inject Legendary Entertainment and other film-related businesses into the company. The stock climbed to 88.33 yuan in Shenzhen, compared with its previous ...

  New York / Bloomberg Inside a 1.2 million-square-foot Wal-Mart Stores Inc. distribution center near its headquarters, a buzzing sound — like a swarm of bees — comes from an aisle of shelves laden with merchandise from diapers to microwaves. Flying up and down the seemingly endless aisle is a drone with a custom-built camera that takes 30 pictures a ...