Bloomberg Billionaire Mike Ashley made a fresh bid to prevent a wipeout of his equity in Debenhams Plc, offering to underwrite the issuance of 150 million pounds ($196 million) in new shares. The chief executive officer of Sports Direct International Plc said his support for the shareholder rights issue is conditional on him being named CEO of the department-store chain, …

Bloomberg A $2.5 billion spending spree involving more than two dozen deals provides some insight into how Mukesh Ambani is piecing together a strategy to take on Amazon.com in India. Asia’s richest man is sharpening his focus on e-commerce with a string of tiny acquisitions and stake purchases to face the world’s largest online retailer, after shaking up India’s telecommunications …

Bloomberg Selling “a rich man’s sauce at a poor man’s price” has made David Tran a very wealthy man. The 73-year-old Vietnamese refugee is responsible for bringing Sriracha to American consumers. After settling in Los Angeles in 1979, Tran founded Huy Fong Foods Inc, named for the Huey Fong boat that brought him to the US, and started making hot …

Bloomberg Just hours after Ethiopia demanded Boeing Co fix flight controls blamed for the crash of a 737 Max 8 jet last month, the parents of an American victim sued the company, and her grand-uncle, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, called for a boycott and recall of the plane. The flurry of new legal woes came as Boeing Chief Executive Officer …

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE government, in cooperation with the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), has become first signatory to the ‘Scale 360’ initiative, which aims at moving towards a more circular economy while using less natural resources and reducing pollution to tackle climate change. This step reaffirms the UAE’s position as …

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates Islamic announced the launch of chat banking services for customers via WhatsApp, marking a global first in the Islamic banking sector. The bank’s customers will now able to conduct daily banking activities via WhatsApp in a seamless and hassle-free manner. The Chat Banking solution, supported by Infobip, further enhances Emirates Islamic’s suite of digital banking …

Bloomberg Etihad Airways PJSC is seeking a loan of about $600 million to help make initial payments for planes, according to people familiar with the matter. Abu Dhabi’s state-owned carrier is arranging the loan on its own and has reached out to banks that may be willing to provide the unsecured facility with maturity of one or two years, said …

Bloomberg Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest Islamic lender, is considering buying Noor Bank PJSC, people with knowledge of the talks said. The bank has held preliminary discussions with Dubai-based Noor Bank’s shareho- lders, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Discussions are at an early stage and may not lead …

Bloomberg Technology stocks have reclaimed record highs, making them one of the first groups to put last year’s carnage behind them. But everywhere else you look in the industry, bad news is overwhelming the good. Profits are shrinking at an alarming pace, valuations are reflating and politicians want to break the companies up. Semiconductor orders have slumped, and spending on …

Bloomberg The omens are looking bad for the yen. Traders have boosted short positions on Japan’s currency for six straight weeks as signs that economic growth is slowing make it more likely the central bank will maintain its record monetary stimulus. At the same time, global risk sentiment is improving as the US and China near a deal to resolve …