Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest manager of alternative assets, said first-quarter profit fell 77 percent as rocky markets curbed asset sales and new buyouts. Its real estate operation struck two massive deals: a $6.5 billion sale of Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. to China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co., which is expected to close later this year, and …

  Bloomberg Workers have almost completed mounting the copper paneling on the American Copper Buildings (née 626 First Avenue), the new tilting, two-towered development on Manhattan’s East Side, but their most striking feature—a three-story, 100-foot-long skybridge—is still open to the elements. A Bloomberg photographer (and a laughably heights-averse reporter) had the chance to take the construction elevator up to the …

  LONDON / Bloomberg UK retail sales fell for a second month in March as Britons bought less of everything from food to clothing. The volume of sales dropped 1.3 percent from February, far more than the 0.1 percent decline forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Sales excluding auto fuel fell 1.6 percent, the most since January 2014. The Office for …