Bloomberg Coca-Cola Co. is bringing in a Mexican partner to handle bottling in parts of the U.S. as the beverage giant boosts its reliance on franchise operators to make and distribute its drinks. Arca Continental SAB, Latin America’s second-biggest Coca-Cola bottler, will help oversee territories in Texas and parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas, the companies said in …

  Bloomberg After two notes sales this week left primary dealers with the fewest Treasuries on record, investors will get another chance to load up on U.S. government debt on Thursday as seven-year securities are auctioned. The Treasury is scheduled to sell $28 billion of seven-year notes, the last of three fixed-rate aussctions this week totaling $88 billion. A gauge …

  Rio De Janeiro, Brazil / AFP Thousands of Brazilians lined up on Wednesday at a Rio jobs fair, many of them so desperate to escape the country’s economic nosedive that they said they’d take anything on offer. In a symbol of Brazil’s precipitous slide into economic hardship, the almost stationary queue stretched right across a large central square. They were …

  Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank has the ‘highest hope’ of keeping its rate decisions to scheduled meetings, Governor Agustin Carstens said, quieting market speculation of another surprise increase in borrowing costs. One-year interest-rate swaps fell. The recent peso depreciation has been driven by fundamentals and not by an attack from speculators like the one that took place in February when …

  New YorK / AFP Citigroup and affiliates were fined $425 million over charges they attempted to manipulate Libor and other leading financial benchmarks, US regulators have announced. Citigroup, which was supposed to submit data on actual transactions to help set the internationally-used benchmarks, instead gave false information to benefit its trading positions, according to the cases. In one of …

  Reuters GFH Financial Group plans to list its Bahraini subsidiary Khaleeji Commercial Bank in Dubai and acquire a financial services company to increase shareholder value, GFH’s chief executive said. “We are hoping to list Khaleeji Commercial Bank on DFM (Dubai Financial Market), which will help increase the value of the bank, and to offer fee-based financial services, helping to …

  EMIRATES BUSINESS IDB Infrastructure Fund II, sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and other institutional investors, has joined hands with AVIVO Group, one of the largest healthcare networks in the GCC, with 32 healthcare facilities. The IDB Infrastructure Fund II, with commitments of $750 million, invests in infrastructure opportunities across Asia, Middle East and Africa and it has …

  Washington / AFP Struggling to make ends meet, millions of Americans resort to so-called payday loans whose costly charges can devastate personal finances. For the first time, the US government plans to implement a new rule that could limit the short-term, small-dollar loans that typically are due to be repaid on the borrower’s next payday. A proposed regulation is …

  AP Real estate agents are flummoxed by a housing market that’s still trying to recover a decade after its historic collapse. Agents are getting higher commissions as home prices rise, but have fewer houses to list because homeowners are reluctant to sell. Many owners don’t want to put their homes on the market until they have more equity to …

  Bloomberg Taiwan’s home prices, which have fallen in the past year ending a decade-long bull run, are poised to extend declines as the economy contracts and a new presidential administration focuses on equitable wealth distribution. Home values in Taiwan dropped 1.2 percent and transactions declined 15.5 percent since the first quarter of 2015, according to data from the Interior …