Beijing / Bloomberg China plans to set up a commercial rocket-launch company in view of the market’s potential, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China Sanjiang Space Group Co. is preparing to enter the commercial-rocket business with a launch slated for 2017, Xinhua reported Tuesday, citing the company’s chief engineer Hu Shengyun. Some Internet companies have expressed interest in collaborating ...

Beijing / AP A Chinese company says it will resume construction work on a $1.5 billion port city project that was suspended for one year due to questions over environmental impact. CHEC Port City Colombo issued a statement Tuesday welcoming the Sri Lankan government’s decision to allow the project to resume. It said a supplementary environmental impact study was done ...

Manila / DPA The central banks of the Philippines and Malaysia have agreed to allow up to three so-called Qualified Asean Banks (QABs) from each country to operate in the other. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. had signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor Zeti ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s technology services sector is hiring more women but females still assume just a fraction of senior roles, according to a joint study by the industry’s trade group and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. About 51 percent of entry-level jobs went to women in 2015, according to the report on an industry dominated by companies like Infosys Ltd. and ...

Sydney / AFP Australian logistics giant Asciano said on Tuesday it was recommending a $6.8 billion takeover deal between two rival local and international suitors, breaking up the company’s ports and rail assets. The announcement ended a bidding war for Asciano, a major Australian rail, freight and ports operator, between a consortium led by Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Group and a ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG was sued for €3.3 billion ($3.7 billion) over how the company informed markets about devices used to hide pollution in diesel engines, its biggest legal challenge in Germany to date after a wave of lawsuits in the U.S. on the scandal. The case was filed on Monday in Braunschweig on behalf of 278 institutional investors from around ...

Bloomberg The risks are stacking up for the pound. Britain’s currency fell the most in three weeks versus the dollar as investors braced for a budget at which fiscal tightening is anticipated, a Bank of England statement that they’ll peruse for indications about the interest-rate path and a Federal Reserve gathering where, speculation is building, officials will signal a boost ...

Bloomberg Iran may join other oil suppliers in freezing production after restoring its own output to levels before sanctions were imposed, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said after meeting with the Persian Gulf nation’s oil minister. Iran has “reasonable arguments” not to be constrained by the freeze for now, Novak told reporters at the Russian embassy in Tehran. “Iran may ...

Bloomberg Portuguese bonds led a decline in the debt of Europe’s lower-rated nations, underperforming their German counterparts for the first time in five days as a slump in stocks reduced demand for higher-yielding assets. Spanish securities also fell amid the political turmoil facing the country. The bonds of the euro zone’s so-called peripheral members had been rallying since the European ...

Bloomberg Italy’s economy will keep recovering from recession slowly but surely and avoid a renewed slump this year and next, a Bloomberg survey of analysts showed. The euro region’s third-biggest economy will extend the expansion that started last year, said 19 of 25 respondents in the poll published on Tuesday. Still, the pace of growth in 2016 and 2017 will ...