Bloomberg Germany’s industrial southwest, Switzerland and parts of France face a dearth of fuel supplies in the coming weeks just as freezing temperatures threaten to lift demand for heating oil. A prolonged drought this summer has led to record-low water levels on the Rhine river, closing many parts of the key transport artery to barge traffic. With little relief in …

Bloomberg Embattled commodity trader Noble Group Ltd — which is pushing towards the final stages of a complex $3.5 billion debt-for-equity restructuring — reported another quarterly loss, with the result driven by costs from the revamp as well as getting caught out in the LNG market. The energy segment, which consists of liquefied natural gas, coal and oil liquids in …

Bloomberg Power plant developers in Britain are overestimating the need for natural gas-fired generation to back up intermittent renewable energy. The nation needs only 38 percent of the gas capacity it has now to keep the power on, according to a report by New Resource Partners, a consultancy that advises governments and investors on renewables. “Our modelling shows that the …

Bloomberg Porsche AG has an ambitious plan to improve operating profit by 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) over eight years by streamlining operations as the automaker spends more to develop and manufacture electric cars, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Porsche aims to increase earnings before interest and taxes by about 750 million euros annually over a timeframe …

Bloomberg iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd., a Chinese game distributor, has attracted Sony Corp. and JD.com Inc. as cornerstone investors for its planned Hong Kong initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Shenzhen-based company plans to start taking investor orders on Monday, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The firm …

Bloomberg The Philippines’ richest man Henry Sy will start rolling out robots next year to help customers navigate his massive shopping malls. Initially three androids will be deployed in the first quarter of 2019 in SM Megamall, the nation’s second-biggest shopping centre, said Steven Tan, chief operating officer for the shopping malls of SM Prime Holdings Inc. The talking bots …

Bloomberg GameStop Corp., the video-game retailer, agreed to sell its AT&T wireless stores to Prime Communications LP for $700 million, exiting a business that the company once viewed as a key source of future growth. The sale of Spring Mobile, with 1,289 stores, is expected to close by the end of January, Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop said. Proceeds from the sale …

Bloomberg Black Friday is increasingly an online shopping event, and that’s not necessarily a good thing for legacy retailers, some of which found themselves falling behind during America’s annual spending spree. Chains have decades of expertise filling stores with mountains of televisions and bathroom towels while coming up with doorbuster deals to lure the masses. But e-commerce isn’t yet the …

Bloomberg United Technologies Corp. secured approval in China for its $23 billion purchase of aerospace supplier Rockwell Collins Inc., clearing the final hurdle to complete a megadeal that was reached more than a year ago. Rockwell’s shares jumped as much as 9.4 percent, the most in 7 years, on Friday, and United Technologies gained 3 percent. The decision, posted on …

Bloomberg Airbus SE is hiring staff to help develop a proposed new narrow-body jet and a revamped version of its latest A350 wide-body, both due to be powered by a new generation of engine from the middle of next decade. The company is recruiting designers and engineers in Toulouse and Madrid to work on the short-haul model, as well as …