AFP Russia’s largest lender Sberbank on Thursday announced it almost tripled its profits in the second quarter and predicted further stabilisation of the economy this year despite credit growth slowing. The majority state-controlled bank made a net profit of 145.4 billion rubles ($2.23 billion, 1.98 billion euros) in the second quarter, up 166.3 percent on the same period last ...

  Sydney / AFP Australian supermarket giant Woolworths on Thursday reported a large annual net loss of Aus$1.23 billion (US$940 million), its first since listing more than two decades ago, following a failed push into hardware and a slump in food sales. Woolworths, Australia’s largest retailer and one of the two dominant supermarket chains in the country, recorded the sharp ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG flight attendants approved a three-year contract to end one of the airline’s long-running disputes over pay and pensions that have led to strikes. The accord with the cabin-crew union UFO will lead to savings in the mid-double-digit millions of euros in labor costs and reduce pension commitments by a high triple-digit million-euro amount, Lufthansa said ...

  Emirates Business ANA Holdings Inc., the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co.’s Dreamliner jet, will halt some services using the 787 saying it found an issue with the plane’s engines. Japan’s biggest airline will stop some services starting on Friday, Wataru Yoshioka, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company said on Thursday. The airline’s fleet of 50 787s are all ...

  Bloomberg Li & Fung Ltd., the world’s largest supplier of clothes and toys to retailers, reported a 14 percent fall in first-half core operating profit as concerns about the US presidential election, Brexit impact and terrorism hurt sales. Core operating profit dropped to $156 million for the six months ended June from a year earlier, the Hong Kong-based supplier ...

  Bloomberg Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, the bottling joint venture between the U.S. soft-drink maker and brewer SABMiller Plc, may close South African plants and see profit in the country more than halve if the government pushes ahead with a proposed sugar tax. South Africa’s National Treasury last month recommended a levy on sugar-sweetened beverages that would generate almost 11 billion ...

  AP The world’s first self-driving taxis began picking up passengers in Singapore starting Thursday. Select members of the public can hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. While multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy says is the ...

  Bloomberg Aussies are buying Bentleys, BMWs and Mercedes in record numbers even as living standards fall in a sign that rising inequality seen in the developed world is spreading Down Under. Top-end car sales surged to a record 104,277 in the 12 months through July, a 15.7 percent increase on the same period a year earlier, according to an ...

  Bloomberg Steel production in China, the world’s biggest supplier, will probably contract this year and shrink further in 2017 as local demand slows, hurting the outlook for iron ore, according to Li Xinchuang, a vice chairman at the China Iron & Steel Association. “There will be significant declines in the next three months,” said Li, who’s also dean of ...

  Bloomberg India’s ample coal stockpiles may blunt the power of unions planning a strike at Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest miner of the fuel. Labor groups including All India Coal Workers’ Federation are demanding the company start early wage talks and begin recruiting to fill vacancies, as well as calling on the government to stop selling its shares ...