Bloomberg Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. is considering buying Prudential Plc’s Asia business, people familiar with the matter said, a deal that would reshape Asia’s booming insurance industry and mark the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition. Ping An has sounded out the Chinese government about whether it would be supportive of a deal, according to one of the people. The Shenzhen-based insurer ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it won’t use the yuan as a tool to cope with trade tensions and other external issues, and that it won’t conduct any “strong” economic stimulus. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) won’t implement stimulus in “flood-irrigation” style, according to the quarterly monetary policy report released in Beijing. Prudent monetary policy should maintain neutrality and ...

Bloomberg Greek lenders face higher financing costs after the European Central Bank said it will stop accepting the country’s government debt as collateral from August 21, the day after the nation’s bailout programme ends. The ECB will remove a waiver exempting Greek bonds from a rule that all collateral must be investment grade. The exemption was conditional on Greece being ...

Bloomberg The list of perks at Deutsche Bank AG is shrinking fast. Investment bankers at Germany’s largest lender have been told to travel coach class on trains; fewer are able to attend conferences and some former employees said severance pay was less generous than previous handouts. Even small treats like the daily fruit bowls are disappearing. The frugal ethos described ...

Bloomberg India is arguably the world’s toughest smartphone market — just ask Apple. Yet Chinese manufacturer OnePlus has found a path to success in the country of 1.3 billion. As Pete Lau, OnePlus’s co-founder and chief executive officer, describes it, OnePlus targeted younger users with stylish and affordable Android-based phones. Rather than plastering shops with ads, student ambassadors promote the ...

Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc., the smartphone chipmaker fighting regulatory actions and lawsuits threatening its most profitable business, has reached a settlement with Taiwan’s antitrust regulators that reverses most of a $773 million fine. As part of an agreement announced by the Fair Trade Commission, the company will invest $700 million over the next five years and boost research activities in Taiwan, ...

Bloomberg Asian borrowers faced with rising refinancing needs are expected to actively engage bondholders ahead of debt maturities as they look to stave off default risks. That means getting investors to agree to discounted buybacks and maturity extensions, so-called liability management deals that can help firms cut funding costs. More issuers are in talks with their legal advisers to reassess ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. will build more models using a new type of steel that combines high tensile strength with a previously unachievable degree of formability, resulting in lighter vehicles that can help lower emissions while protecting occupants. Nissan is the world’s first carmaker to use the high-formability steel, with a tensile strength of 980 megapascals, ...

Bloomberg China Tower Corp., the company behind the world’s largest initial public offering in two years, averted a repeat of smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp.’s disappointing coming-out party last month and eased concerns about future IPO prospects. Shares of the state-run company, which operates almost all of China’s mobile-phone towers, closed unchanged from its IPO price of HK$1.26 in Hong Kong. ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and advisers are seeking a wide pool of investors to back a potential take-private of the automaker to avoid concentrating ownership among a few new large holders, according to people familiar with the matter. Tesla is holding early discussions with banks about the feasibility and structure of a possible deal, the people ...