July, 2016

• 30 July

  Supercomputers deliver $500mn savings for BHP

  

    Bloomberg Supercomputers that create 3-D seismic maps of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s oil and gas assets are accelerating work to bring new fields into production and have already notched savings of $500 million in development costs at a project in the Caribbean. The computers are among initiatives aimed at using technology such as drones and robot drills to cut operating ...

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• 30 July

  Line posts profit as monthly active users go up

  

    Bloomberg Line Corp. posted a profit in its first earnings report since ushering in the year’s biggest technology debut, as monthly active users rose just 4 percent to 220 million. Japan’s largest mobile messaging service announced 2.56 billion yen ($24.3 million) of net income in the six months through June, from a loss of 5.3 billion yen a year ...

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• 30 July

  Chinese banks with global dreams eye ME mega bonds

  

    Bloomberg Bank of China Ltd. is heading down the old Silk Road marketing new goods: Debut bonds from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan. In its biggest-ever foray outside Asia, the state-controlled lender is said to have landed three mandates to co-manage emerging-market Eurobonds, including the Saudi government’s international sale. China’s fourth-largest lender is one of nine underwriters hired by the ...

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• 30 July

  Tata’s revenue drops amid commodity woes

  

    Bloomberg Tata Group, the coffee-to-cars conglomerate, said revenue slipped 4.6 percent for the year ended in March, hurt by global political uncertainty, a commodity price crash and volatility in currencies. Revenue at India’s biggest business house dropped to about $103 billion from $108 billion the previous year, according to a statement. The company draws 69 percent of its revenues ...

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• 30 July

  China’s Fosun to acquire Brazil investment firm

  

    Bloomberg China’s Fosun on Saturday signed an agreement to acquire Brazil-based investment management firm Rio Bravo, according to a statement, just a day after the Chinese conglomerate announced another massive overseas deal. Fosun, which has interests ranging from property to mining, said it will buy the controlling share of privately-owned Rio Bravo Investimentos, but did not give a value ...

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• 30 July

  Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical sees $725mn in costs from R&D revamp

  

    Bloomberg Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said efforts to revamp its research operations will cost 75 billion yen ($725 million) as it seeks to build a new pipeline of drugs and considers closing some R&D operations in the U.K. The Japanese company’s R&D activities will be concentrated in Japan and in the U.S., it said in a statement Friday. The number ...

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• 30 July

  ICICI Bank’s quarterly profit drops as loan provisions surge

  

    Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s largest private sector lender by assets, posted a 25 percent drop in first-quarter profit as provisions for bad debt rose. Net income fell to 22.3 billion rupees ($333 million), or 3.83 rupees a share, in the three months ended June 30, from 29.8 billion rupees, or 5.09 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based lender ...

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• 30 July

  Dozens of families leave Syria’s besieged Aleppo

  

    Beijing / AFP Dozens of civilians left the besieged and battered opposition-held east of Syria’s Aleppo city on Saturday through a “humanitarian corridor” to the government-held west, state media reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that “a number” of civilians had crossed into government territory. The crossings were the first major movement of people from ...

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• 30 July

  2 sisters shot dead in Pakistan ‘honour’ killings

    Lahore / AFP A man killed his two sisters on the eve of their weddings in Pakistan’s central Punjab province, police said on Saturday, in the latest case of so-called “honour” killings in the country. Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, aged 22 and 28, were shot dead by 35-year-old brother Nasir Hussain on Friday as they prepared to marry men they ...

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• 30 July

  China holds Japanese over ‘endangering’ national security

    Tokyo / AFP Beijing said it has detained and questioned a Japanese national working on cultural exchange projects for allegedly “endangering China’s national security”, Japanese newspapers reported on Saturday. The man, who has been missing since mid-July, was identified by the Nikkei business daily as the Japanese head of an organisation working to improve ties between the two rivals. China ...

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