Bloomberg Prudential Plc soared on plans to split the firm by spinning off its UK operations, a move that will create an insurance business focussed on faster-growth markets in Asia, Africa and the US. Investors will receive shares in M&G Prudential, formed in 2017 through the combination of its UK asset-management business with European insurance assets. Both firms are likely ...

Bloomberg The Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA reached a preliminary agreement with Real Madrid Chairman Florentino Perez’s ACS to jointly buy Abertis Infraestructuras SA, ending an eight-month battle for control of the Spanish toll-road operator. The accord was expected to be discussed at a board meeting on Wednesday, Rome-based Atlantia said in a statement, without giving any details. Shares in Abertis ...

Bloomberg The European Union failed to water down proposals for the Irish border that Theresa May said no prime minister could ever accept in the first revision of the draft Brexit treaty. Revising the first draft of the document published by the European Commission two weeks ago, diplomats from the 27 remaining EU countries retained the focus on keeping Northern ...

Bloomberg Stephen Hawking, the British physicist and black-hole theorist who brought science to a mass audience with the best-selling book “A Brief History of Time,” has died. He was 76. Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in England on March 14, a spokesman for his family said. “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” ...

Bloomberg Denmark is edging closer to a public sector strike that has the potential of wiping out most of the country’s economic growth. Employers have already warned some 450,000 employees—more than half of the total—not to turn up for work on April 10 unless a protracted dispute over pay is resolved. Helge Pedersen, chief economist at Nordea, the Nordic’s largest ...

Bloomberg Broadcom Ltd formally abandoned its attempt to acquire rival chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. after US President Donald Trump blocked the deal citing national security risks. “Although we are disappointed with this outcome, Broadcom will comply,” the company said, bringing to an official end to a months-long battle to land the tech industry’s biggest ever deal. Singapore-based Broadcom said it will ...

MOSCOW / Reuters Russia said it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack. Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta ...

Bloomberg The Japanese government is exploring the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Japanese media reported. Japan is considering a new way of dealing with Pyongyang after US President Donald Trump’s decision to meet Kim, Kyodo News said, citing unidentified government officials. The surprise move by Trump, which followed a ...

Bloomberg South African lawmakers said they will summon the Gupta family and the son of former President Jacob Zuma to appear before an inquiry that is investigating the mismanagement of public funds at state-owned enterprises. The former chairwoman of South African Airways, Dudu Myeni, will also be subpoenaed after failing to heed two invitations to give testimony at the hearings ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel was formally elected to a fourth term in a parliamentary vote, extending her 12 years in office at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy. Merkel, 63, was backed by a majority of 364 lawmakers in the 709-member lower house on the strength of a coalition deal between her Christian Democratic-led bloc and the Social Democrats, ...