BEIRUTH / Reuters The only bidder in Lebanon’s first tender for five offshore energy blocks was a consortium made up of France’s Total, Italy’s ENI and Russia’s Novatek, Minister of Energy and Water Cesar Abi Khalil said. The consortium submitted two bids for block 4 and block 9, Abi Khalil said in a statement on Facebook. Lebanon sits on the …

Bloomberg Bharti Airtel Ltd. surged the most since in five months after it announced that it had agreed to absorb Tata Group’s mobile-phone business in a “cash-free” transaction shaking up one of the world’s most crowded wireless markets. The stock advanced 7.8 percent to 431.60 rupees, the most since May 10, after India’s largest mobile-phone operator said it will get …

Bloomberg Jollibee Foods Corp., the fast-food chain that controls more than half of the Philippines’ $4 billion market with its signature fried chicken, is looking for acquisitions to accelerate ambitious expansion plans in the US and China. The targets could be other fast-food chains as well as fast-casual restaurants like Smashburger, the US franchise in which Jollibee owns 40 percent, …