March, 2016

• 28 March

  Fairfax to buy Bangalore Airport stake for $322mn

  New Delhi / Bloomberg Indian airport operator GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd. said it sold a stake in its Bengaluru aerodrome to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., helping cut debt. The shares rose. Fairfax will buy 33 percent of Bangalore International Airport Ltd. for 21.49 billion rupees ($322 million), GVK said in a statement to the Mumbai stock exchange on Monday. ...

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• 28 March

  Sri Lanka gets $400 million loan from Japan for airport expansion

  Colombo / AFP Japan has loaned $400 million to Sri Lanka to build a new terminal at the island’s main international airport which suffers congestion from growing tourism, it was announced on Monday. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said the second terminal would more than double capacity to 15 million passengers annually. The terminal, to be opened in 2020, ...

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• 28 March

  Malaysia palm production to worsen on El Nino

  

  Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg Malaysia’s palm oil production will slump more than previously forecast as the lingering effects of El Nino curb output in the world’s second-biggest producer, according to Godrej International Ltd.’s Dorab Mistry. Production will drop by 2 million metric tons in the year through September, Mistry said in remarks prepared for a conference on Monday in Beijing. ...

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• 28 March

  Moody’s lauds Philippine economy as stable

  Manila / DPA The Philippines’ stable macroeconomic profile would enable the country to withstand external shocks better than most of its neighbors could, debt watcher Moody’s Investors Service said. In a statement, the government’s Investor Relations Office (IRO) cited a recent Moody’s report which assessed the Philippines’ macroeconomic profile as “Moderate+,” better than the assessment of “Moderate” for China, India, ...

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• 28 March

  Indian Rupee rebounds from two-year low

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s foreign-exchange reserves climbed to a record as the rupee heads for its biggest monthly advance in two years. The currency stockpile rose by $2.54 billion in the week through March 18 to an unprecedented $355.95 billion, a Reserve Bank of India statement showed. That capped a third straight week of increases. The rupee has jumped ...

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• 28 March

  Debt reductions to be announced, say 1MDB

  Kuala Lumpur / DPA 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will make further announcements on debt reductions in the coming weeks. It has also fully settled a 700 million ringgit (US$173.57 million) loan based on the proceeds from the sale of Edra Global Energy Bhd. On Saturday, 1MDB president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy said the sale of Edra had ...

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• 28 March

  Pakistan vows to eliminate extremism after Easter carnage

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate radical ideologies from Pakistan after a Taliban suicide bomber targeted many women and children celebrating Easter on Sunday at a park in one of its biggest cities. “Our goal is not only to eliminate terror infrastructure but also the extremist mindset which is a threat to our way of life,” Sharif said ...

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• 28 March

  Israel drops controversial Brazil envoy pick

  Jerusalem / AFP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed down on Monday from his attempts to appoint a former settler leader as ambassador to Brazil, which has since August refused to accept the nomination. Netanyahu “decided to appoint Dani Dayan as consul general in New York. He will replace foreign ministry career official Ido Aharoni, who is completing his term,” ...

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• 28 March

  Seoul activists launch anti-Kim leaflets into N. Korea

  Seoul / AFP South Korean activists on Monday launched tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea for the second time in three days, amid heightened military tensions on the divided peninsula. The conservative activists, including many North Korean defectors, used gas-filled balloons to float 100,000 leaflets criticising North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un over the heavily militarised border. Some ...

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• 28 March

  Saudi, Yemen rebels exchange prisoners ahead of peace talks

  

  Bloomberg Rebels who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa have released nine Saudis in exchange for 109 Yemenis, the Riyadh-led coalition fighting them said on Monday, in the latest sign of tensions easing before peace talks. “Nine Saudi prisoners have been recovered and 109 Yemenis who were arrested in the military operations zone” near the border have been handed over, the ...

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