Bloomberg Oriental Energy Co, China’s biggest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is considering an initial public offering (IPO) of its trading and logistics unit on the Singapore stock exchange. The company is in discussions with the exchange and the city-state’s government about the share sale for its subsidiary Oriental Energy (Singapore) International Trading Pte, according to an official at ...

Bloomberg One of Germany’s most storied industrial icons just became more Chinese. Daimler AG’s Chinese partner, state-backed Beijing Automotive Group Co (BAIC), is buying a 5 percent stake in the Mercedes-Benz maker, cementing a more than decade-long alliance of the auto manufacturers. Together with Daimler’s top shareholder — Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co’s billionaire owner Li Shufu — the transaction ...

Bloomberg The liquidity crunch facing property firms and their lenders in India may deepen after the National Housing Bank restricted certain mortgage-payment plans that developers typically use to push sales. The nation’s housing regulator advised home financiers to cease offering advances for so-called subvention plans. Such plans are staggered or back-end payment contracts where the builder pays the interest on ...

Bloomberg India should ease norms for hiring and firing workers to make it easier for companies to do business in the country, according to an ex-adviser to PM Narendra Modi’s government. Easing the rules are crucial for employers, as their primary aim is not to fire workers, Arvind Panagariya, the head of government think-tank NITI Aayog, said in New Delhi. ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co quickened revenue growth to roughly 30 percent in the first half after select teams secured critical supplies to keep production going despite US technology export restrictions, people familiar with the matter said. Two months into a Trump-administration ban that cut Huawei off from American suppliers, China’s largest technology company is starting to feel the pinch. Still, ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc set records for lobbying in the second quarter as Washington ramped up scrutiny of big technology companies, while Google’s spending dipped as it continued to reshuffle its influence operations. The world’s largest social media site spent more than $4.1 million on lobbying, the most among big internet platforms, an increase from its previous high ...

Bloomberg The US and France agreed to push ahead with creating a global digital tax system at a Group of Seven meeting, papering over a feud on the matter that still has Washington dangling threats of tariffs. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Europe had won a concession from the US that changes to tax rules should address “highly ...

Bloomberg Standard Life Assurance Ltd. was fined 30.8 million pounds ($38 million) by UK regulators over how it handled sales of some pension products. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group Holdings Plc, offered employees “large financial incentives to sell annuities, which encouraged them to place their own financial interests ahead of their customers.” ...

Bloomberg UK manufacturers are more pessimistic than at any time in the past three years after order books shrank at a pace last exceeded during the financial crisis a decade ago, according to the Confederation of British Industry. The gloomy assessment adds to evidence that the economy suffered a Brexit hangover in the last quarter after orders were brought forward ...

Bloomberg A union at AT&T Inc is accusing the company of reneging on a labour agreement that helped gain the support of worker groups for last year’s $85 billion takeover of Time Warner. As part of a deal renewed in 2017, the Communications Workers of America pledged to support expansion efforts by AT&T and the company agreed to terms for ...