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Bloomberg The payday-loan business was in decline. Regulators were circling, storefronts were vanishing and investors were abandoning the industry’s biggest companies en masse. And yet today, just a few years later, many of the same subprime lenders that specialised in the debt are promoting an almost equally onerous type of credit. It’s called the online installment loan, a form of ...

Bloomberg Atlas Tower Pty Ltd is selling its South African tower portfolio to shareholder SBA Communications Corp for 2 billion rand ($140 million). The US company will dispose of more than 900 towers in Africa’s most industrialised economy to SBA, Atlas Chief Executive Officer Nathan Foster said in Johanesburg. The agreed price takes account of previous investments made by the ...

Bloomberg Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc need to continue to boost efforts to combat disinformation on their platforms, the European Union said, as it repeated warnings it could introduce legislation. The companies’ actions helped limit interference in the European Parliament elections in May and provided greater transparency around political ads, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body said. But ...

Bloomberg The co-founder of China’s SenseTime Group Ltd was visiting New York to encourage more collaboration with the US on artificial intelligence when he heard the news: The Trump administration had blacklisted his company. So much for more cooperation. Xu Bing, the 29-year-old co-founder, knew SenseTime was at risk given rising tensions between China and the US, but the timing ...

Bloomberg Pakistani traders and top opposition political parties are protesting separately against prime minister Imran Khan’s move to raise taxes, including by monitoring some transactions. Traders and retailers closed shops and businesses nationwide as part of the two-day strike, after talks with the federal authority over tax measures failed, local television channels reported. All businesses in port city of Karachi ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s exports dropped 0.8% in October compared to the prior year far below expectations for 10% growth in a Bloomberg survey of economists as shipments of phones, crude oil and coffee fell, according to data from the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. Overseas coffee sales in October were 100,000 tons, down 27% from a year ago, as farmers held ...

Bloomberg China’s third-quarter slowdown continued into October, with only a few signs of stabilisation evident amid the weakest pace of expansion in almost thirty years. Bloomberg Economics’ gauge aggregating the earliest available indicators from financial markets and businesses showed the economy cooling for a sixth month, with indicators for trade, factory prices, iron ore and copper all worsening. Easing tensions ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s resilient labour market is starting to come under strain as the trade-reliant economy struggles in the face of global pressures. Retrenchments are rising, companies are more cautious raising wages, and it’s getting harder for those who lose their jobs to find new work. While the central bank is optimistic of some recovery in the economy in upcoming quarters, ...

Bloomberg Canaan Inc, the world’s second-largest maker of Bitcoin mining machines, filed for a US initial public offering. The Hangzhou, China-based company listed its offering size as $400 million in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount is typically a placeholder that is likely to change. Canaan attempted a Hong Kong listing last year before letting ...

Bloomberg US index futures drifted lower and European stocks dropped as investors awaited a possible Federal Reserve interest-rate cut and some of the season’s biggest corporate earnings. Treasuries edged higher and most European bonds rose. Contracts on the S&P 500 nudged down a day after the US equity benchmark hit a record, and ahead of results from drug giants Pfizer ...