Bloomberg Shares of SoftBank Group Corp.’s domestic telecom business had one of the worst first-day declines ever in Japan after Masayoshi Son raised $23.6 billion in an initial public offering. SoftBank Corp., the new entity trading under ticker 9434 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, declined 14.5 percent to 1,282 yen in Tokyo. That’s the biggest decline for a major IPO ...

Bloomberg Japan’s export growth slowed again in November, with shipments eking out a tiny gain, as weakening demand in China and trade-war risks cloud the outlook. The value of exports rose 0.1 percent from a year earlier, broadly in line with a median forecast for a 1.2 percent gain, according to the finance ministry. With the exception of a decline ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s government is set to sell its first batch of cheap homes under a new programme to help people get on the property ladder in the world’s least affordable housing market. The “starter homes” in Kowloon, across the harbour from Hong Kong Island, will be priced at about 38 percent below market levels — or around HK$13,000 ($1,662) ...

Bloomberg China is blowing through regulatory milestones as it completes an astonishing transformation from a market where basic Western drugs were once scarce to one where life-saving treatments are available ahead of the US — all in less than a year. The latest announcement that China has approved an anemia treatment from AstraZeneca Plc and FibroGen Inc. ahead of the ...

Bloomberg An eastern Chinese city announced rule changes making it easier for people to sell homes, a move local media has called the first easing of such housing curbs nationwide in more than two years. Heze, a city of about 9 million, in 2017 began requiring individuals to own their homes for at least two years before putting them on ...

Bloomberg The Big Four accounting firms may have to split their operations into separate UK business units as part of a sweeping overhaul of the industry proposed by regulators that stopped short of the measures sought by some critics. The Competition and Markets Authority said audit work should be split from the much larger consulting business at an operational level, ...

Bloomberg The warning signs of 2019 are lighting up for the UK economy as Brexit comes to a head. Retailers are complaining about an abysmal holiday season, house prices are weakening, businesses are holding back investment and the swooning pound is fuelling inflation. With just a few months until the March 29 deadline to exit the world’s biggest trading bloc, ...

Bloomberg General Electric Co (GE) has filed confidentially for an initial public offering of its health-care unit, according to people familiar with the matter, moving ahead with plans to spin off its second most profitable business line. The industrial conglomerate is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley ...

Bloomberg Sentiment among US homebuilders fell in December to the lowest level since 2015, missing all forecasts and signaling that the industry’s struggles are intensifying amid elevated prices and higher borrowing costs. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped to 56 from 60 in the prior month amid broad-based declines across sales, expectations and buyer traffic, ...

Bloomberg German business sentiment deteriorated further to its lowest level in more than two years as trade tensions and the rising risk of a no-deal Brexit threaten to hamper a meaningful economic rebound from a summer lull. The Ifo Institute’s gauge of corporate confidence in Europe’s largest economy fell to 101.0 in December from 102.0 in November. The fourth straight ...