London / AFP China’s biggest bank ICBC has become the country’s first lender to buy a precious metals vault in Britain, cementing its role as a major player in the gold market. ICBC has bought the London vault, used to store also silver, platinum and palladium, from British bank Barclays, which is exiting the precious metals business as it looks ...

AP Builders ramped up construction of new homes in April, suggesting that the market remains solid despite sluggish economic growth at the beginning of the year. Housing starts climbed 6.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units, the Commerce Department said. The increase makes up for much of March’s 9.4 percent drop in starts, a decline ...

  Bloomberg The biotechnology industry’s growth is providing the chance to attain attractive returns on commercial property in markets from Boston to Munich to Shanghai, according to Taimur Hyat, chief strategy officer for PGIM, Prudential Financial Inc.’s $1 trillion asset-management arm. “Biotech is causing a revolutionary change in the type of real estate opportunities we are seeing,” he said in ...

  Bloomberg Ikea, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, plans to sell about €900 million ($1 billion) of European retail parks surrounding its stores, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Ikea has hired Cushman & Wakefield Inc. to help market the assets, two of the people said. Josefin Thorell, a spokeswoman for Ikea, confirmed that the company plans to ...

  Bloomberg Home prices rose in the most Chinese cities in more than two years in April, with gains in second-tier cities surpassing advances in larger hubs. New-home prices excluding government-subsidized housing climbed in 65 cities, compared with 62 in March, among the 70 cities tracked by the government, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That’s the most ...

  AFP Unions and employers in Germany’s construction industry on Wednesday agreed a pay hike of around five percent for some 750,000 workers in the sector. The employers’ federation, ZDB, and the union IG Bau said they have agreed a pay increase of 4.6 percent for workers in the west of the country in two stages over a period of ...

  Bloomberg The appetite for midcentury modern homes never seems to abate—at least not according to the real estate agents who sell them. “Midcentury modern was one of the biggest home design trends in 2015 but has only continued to pick up steam in 2016,” says Kerrie Kelly, Zillow Digs home design expert. According to a study, homes with “Midcentury” ...

  London / Bloomberg Burberry Group Plc unveiled a multi-year turnaround plan based on a narrower product range, its biggest cost purge in years and a sharper focus on bags and online sales, after lowering profit expectations for the second time in a month. Earnings for the year ending in March are likely to be near the bottom of the ...

  Doha / Bloomberg Qatar Airways Ltd. increased its stake in British Airways owner IAG SA for the second time in less than three weeks, as the Persian Gulf carrier seeks to benefit from closer ties with its European partner. The move lifts Qatar Airways’ holding in IAG to 15 percent from a stake of close to 12 percent, which ...

  London / Bloomberg Comair Ltd., the South African operator of British Airways flights, won a court ruling to continue flying in the country amid a legal investigation into whether the company breaches airline foreign-ownership limits. The High Court of Pretoria granted an interdict to the Johannesburg-based carrier that ensures its license won’t be withdrawn by the Air Services Licensing ...