Bloomberg Walmart Inc plans to take Massmart Holdings Ltd. private and will promote the unit’s chief operating officer to head of the company as it prepares to renew its focus on South Africa. The global retail giant plans to buy all of the shares it doesn’t already own of Massmart for 62 rand ($3.65) apiece, a 53% premium to …

  Bloomberg Australian retailers powered further ahead in July, suggesting cashed-up households are coping well with rapid interest-rate increases. Sales advanced 1.3%, easily exceeding economists’ forecasts for a 0.3% gain, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Monday. The gain was the largest in four months. “Turnover rose in five of the six retail industries,” said Ben …

  Bloomberg WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Meta Platforms Inc., is rolling out a shopping product in India, the first time users will be able to browse and purchase groceries and other household products without leaving the app. WhatsApp unveiled the new tool alongside JioMart, part of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jio Platforms, an Indian tech company that Meta …

Bloomberg Nasa delayed the debut launch of its new massive rocket due to an issue with one of its engines, dealing a temporary blow to the space agency’s plan to return to the lunar surface. With Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and a global audience watching online, the uncrewed Artemis I mission was called …

  Bloomberg Two Air France pilots were suspended after coming to blows in the cockpit of an Airbus jetliner during a flight between Geneva and Paris, latest safety issue to plague the airline. The mid-air dispute occurred in June, according to a spokeswoman for the carrier, who confirmed a report by La Tribune newspaper. The incident was resolved quickly, and …

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is prepared to at least repeat the half-point increase in interest rates it delivered last month, with an even bigger move not to be excluded as inflation nears yet another record. That’s the message from ECB officials who joined the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, which wrapped up Saturday. Fed Chair Jerome …

  Bloomberg Agricultural Bank of China Ltd, the nation’s third-largest bank by assets, said it’s facing 1.23 billion yuan ($178 million) in overdue loans, nearly double a previous estimate, from a mortgage boycott on unfinished projects that has swept the country. After reporting a small gain in earnings on Monday, the Beijing-based lender revealed that the overdue loans are linked …

  Bloomberg IDBI Bank Ltd’s chief executive officer (CEO) said the lender is likely to recoup 195 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) on soured debt in his pitch to potential buyers amid India’s planned auction of the firm. “We are sitting on about 780 billion rupees of fully provided for bad loans, including written-off loans, and around 25% is likely to …

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley’s stock short selling practices are being inspected by South Korea as part of a broader effort by the nation’s financial watchdog to clamp down on bets against equities. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) also plans to examine Bank of America Merrill Lynch over how it conducts stock short sales. Morgan Stanley was picked due to the …

  Bloomberg The bolivar is plummeting, breaking a rare stretch of stability for Venezuela’s battered currency. It has lost a third of its value so far this month, hitting 9.08 bolivars per US dollar on the parallel exchange market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the steepest monthly decline since January 2021. Controlling the exchange rate has been a …