August, 2018

• 7 August

  India’s Ola takes on Uber in UK

  

  Bloomberg Ola, India’s dominant ride-hailing startup, announced its plans to enter the UK, opening yet another overseas front in a fight with global leader Uber Technologies Inc. Ola will initially side-step London, where Uber has just managed to garner a 15-month extension on its operating license, and will instead begin operations in South Wales and Greater Manchester, and is working ...

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• 7 August

  RCOM bonds drop to 2018 low after offer

  Bloomberg Bonds that Reliance Communications Ltd. defaulted on last year slumped to a seven-month low on Tuesday, after the Indian mobile operator controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani offered to repay holders at a discount to the principal value. The firm, which is set to meet with bondholders on August 10, has been trying to close a sale of wireless assets ...

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• 7 August

  ‘Google welcome in China if it obeys laws’

  Bloomberg Google, the world’s biggest search engine, is welcome to return to China as long as it complies with the nation’s laws and right to control the internet within its borders, the People’s Daily said. The opinion piece in the state-run newspaper said the Alphabet Inc. unit’s 2010 withdrawal from China, when it complained about hacking and censorship, was a ...

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• 7 August

  Japan college admits altering test scores to keep women out

  

  Bloomberg The Japanese university at the centre of a sexism scandal apologised for “systematic” manipulation of test scores aimed at keeping female students out, with top officials saying that discrimination against women should never be allowed. After media reports surfaced of the discrimination, Tokyo Medical University today released a report that concluded a written test for prospective students had “serious ...

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• 7 August

  UK sees ‘Brexit deal’ slipping to end-November

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is resisting the European Union’s timetable for Brexit talks and is calculating that US President Donald Trump might help her. While EU officials are signaling they want September to be a showdown moment in negotiations, the UK is aiming for a later deadline, according to a person familiar with the situation. May’s team thinks ...

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• 7 August

  Glencore’s poised for record profit despite bad year

  

  Bloomberg Glencore Plc may have had a nightmarish year so far, but the world’s top commodity trader is still raking in mountains of money. The company is facing a US corruption probe, got mired in a dispute with its billionaire former partner in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been caught in the fallout from new US sanctions on ...

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• 7 August

  Carmakers risk $16bn EU fines on emission breaches

  

  Bloomberg Automakers failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions risk writing a big check to the European Union. Manufacturers ranging from Renault SA to Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler AG are on the hook for total fines in excess of 14 billion euros ($16 billion), should they fail to comply with tighter emission regulation phased in from 2020 and in full force the ...

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• 7 August

  Daimler scraps Iran expansion plan due to US sanctions

  Bloomberg Daimler AG dropped plans to expand its business in Iran after the US renewed a host of sanctions and President Donald Trump threatened to penalise companies doing business in the country. The German carmaker has suspended its “limited” activities in Iran until further notice because of the trade curbs coming into effect on Tuesday, the Mercedes-Benz maker and biggest ...

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• 7 August

  Tariffs wreck boat-building industry in US

  

  Bloomberg They’re Donald Trump’s kind of business. They dominate the domestic market, rack up a trade surplus by selling to foreigners, and do a lot of their manufacturing in states that voted for him. But America’s recreational boat-builders are getting caught up in the president’s trade war. With every escalation, they’ve taken a fresh hit. The industry employs about 150,000 ...

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• 7 August

  Think again! Has there been productivity boom?

  

  Let’s travel back in time to 1995. Most Americans still remembered the calamitous inflation of the late 1970s (prices rose 13 percent in 1979). Many federal benefits, including Social Security, were (and are) tied to inflation. But was the inflation overstated, as many economists thought? If so, the economy might be doing better than repor-ted. To answer that question, the ...

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