BEIJING / Bloomberg The Chinese economy is pock-marked with companies that can’t pay their bills and survive only with government help. Jiangshi, the Chinese call them — ‘vampire companies’ or ‘zombies’. These ghoulish companies and their debts are hindering the world’s second-biggest economy and will likely do so for years. Companies that miss debt payments inflict losses on banks, which then ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley, poised to announce the fate of the lender’s African business, must convince investors he can improve the investment bank’s profits just as slumping trading revenue batters the industry. Staley is leaning toward maintaining the securities unit without pursuing a major restructuring or spinning off the business, according to people familiar with the ...

Bloomberg China Zheshang Bank Co. postponed gauging demand for a $1 billion Hong Kong initial public offering, after stock buyers reported difficulty transferring money out of mainland China, people familiar with the matter said. Potential cornerstone investors from China told deal arrangers they couldn’t get timely regulatory approval to send money across the border, according to the people, who asked ...

BLOOMBERG For the next three days,European Central Bank (ECB) officials will walk a communications tightrope. With the latest inflation figures showing the return of price declines, the window of opportunity is closing for the ECB to signal any stimulus intentions for its March 10 decision before a self-imposed quiet period starts on Thursday. Executive Board member Benoit Coeure, the architect ...

SYDNEY / Bloomberg The $5.3-trillion currency market is getting harder for traders to make money in as price changes that once took months or weeks now happen more quickly, says Hugh Killen, Westpac Banking Corp.’s head of trading for foreign exchange, fixed income and commodities. Liquidity is drying up because investors and banks are shying away from taking risk, and ...

PARIS / Bloomberg A partnership led by by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co. plans to invest more than €3 billion in a retail and leisure development project outside of Paris, taking on Walt Disney Co. in the euro area’s second-largest economy. EuropaCity will be built 10 kilometers northeast of Paris. It will be the biggest single investment ...

NEW YORK / Bloomberg At the very top of his newly constructed condo tower in SoHo, developer Kevin Maloney saw a problem: a triplex penthouse priced at $45 million that he knew wouldn’t sell in a Manhattan market where luxury deals are slowing. So he ripped up the floor plan and chopped the apartment with about 8,400 square feet of ...

Tokyo / AFP Japan has posted its first factory output expansion in three months, official data showed, offering some rare good news after a string of weak figures threw cold water on recovery hopes. The upbeat figures — a 3.7 percent rise on-month in January — comes as investors look for clues about the state of the world’s number three ...

Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg Low-cost carriers AirAsia Bhd. and AirAsia X Bhd. surged in Kuala Lumpur trading after cheaper fuel and a weaker ringgit helped the airlines return to profit in the fourth quarter. Long-haul carrier AirAsia X rose 11 percent to 25.5 sen, after advancing as much as 13 percent, its largest gain on record. AirAsia, Southeast Asia’s biggest ...

TRENTON / AP The average cost for a year’s supply of a prescription drug doubled in just seven years to more than $11,000 — about three-quarters of the average annual Social Security benefit. That’s according to the latest study of price trends for widely-used drugs conducted by AARP, the senior citizens advocacy group. It finds prices for existing drugs, driven ...