Bloomberg Qudian Inc., a Chinese online loan provider, jumped in its trading debut after pricing the fourth-biggest US initial public offering this year. Qudian rose as much as 48 percent and was up 32 percent to $31.60 at 11:50 am on Wednesday in New York. The company raised $900 million, selling 37.5 million American depositary shares for $24 apiece, according ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is still aiming to complete both international and domestic portions of the initial public offering of its state oil company in 2018, Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih said. Asked whether both parts of the IPO will happen next year, Al-Falih said: “Yes of course; it is on track.” He declined to answer questions on whether Chinese investors were ...

Bloomberg Egypt’s fledgling solar industry attracted $1.8 billion of investment, largely from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. The EBRD is backing 16 photovoltaic projects, and the IFC is financing 13 in the sunny North African nation with a combined capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. They are writing loans for $380 million and ...

DHAKA / Reuters Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) is set to sign a 15-year deal with Indian oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) to import gasoil to meet the country’s energy demand, two company officials with the direct knowledge of the matter said. The sales and purchase agreement is expected to be signed on October 22 during Indian Foreign Minister ...

OSLO / Reuters Norway’s Saga Energy has signed a 2.5 billion-euro ($2.94 billion) deal to build solar power plants in Iran, the company said, just days after US President Donald Trump unveiled a more confrontational policy toward Teheran. Saga’s preliminary agreement with Iran’s state-owned Amin Energy Developers was the latest in a flurry of deals by foreign companies since the ...

Bloomberg Oil extended gains as signs of declining US stockpiles pointed to healthy demand while investors weighed potential disruptions to supply because of global geopolitical tensions. Futures in New York rose as much as 0.6 percent after adding 2.5 percent in the past three sessions. An industry report showed US inventories fell last week, with government data forecast to show ...

Bloomberg India’s biggest gas utility plans to use some of the liquefied natural gas it gets from the US to restart three idled fertilizer plants, according to people with knowledge of the matter. State-run GAIL India Ltd. plans to supply the factories in eastern India with more than a third of the LNG it’s contracted to buy from the US, ...

Bloomberg Enel SpA is seeking acquisitions in the energy storage business, as developments in battery technology are set to play a key role for the wider adoption of renewable sources. Europe’s biggest utility by market capitalization sees the US, Europe and Latin America as the markets with the most potential, Chief Executive Officer Francesco Starace said in an interview. “Technologies ...

Bloomberg UK unemployment held at a 42-year low in the three months through August and the number of people in work approached a record high, according the figures published. The latest snapshot of the labour market from the Office for National Statistics may help to explain why the Bank of England appears to be edging towards its first interest-rate increase ...

Bloomberg The days when Venmo was just known as the app for splitting dinner bills with friends are over. PayPal Inc.’s peer-to-peer payments service can now be used to make mobile purchases at more than 2 million US retailers, an effort to broaden Venmo’s appeal and bring in more money. The announcement significantly expands the app’s reach in stores, up ...