Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. scored a victory over Sony Corp. after a major Chinese customer declared it was going with the Korean company’s camera sensors in future smartphones. On Wednesday, Xiaomi Corp. said it will turn to Samsung for a future line of its mainstream Redmi smartphones with an impressive 64-megapixel camera. That’s part of a strategic alliance under which ...
Read More »India proposes user safeguard rules for e-commerce platforms
Bloomberg India is proposing a series of consumer safeguards that forbid e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart Online Services Pvt. from influencing pricing, adopting unfair promotion methods or misrepresenting the quality of goods and services. E-commerce companies must self-declare compliance and also provide a way for customers to contact them directly, said the proposed e-Commerce Guidelines ...
Read More »S’pore to step up oversight on Grab, Gojek
Bloomberg Singapore will tighten regulations on ride-hailing operators such as Grab and Gojek, bringing safety-related rules for the services in line with taxi operators to better protect commuters and drivers. Senior Minister for Transport Janil Puthucheary outlined a new bill governing the ride-hailing industry in the country’s parliament. He said ride-hailing operators with at least 800 vehicles will be licensed. ...
Read More »As trade war runs hot, China scoops up more gold for its reserves
Bloomberg There’s a powerful constant amid the to-and-fro of the US-China trade war as currency policy gets dragged into the standoff between the world’s two top economies: Beijing wants more gold in its reserves. China’s central bank expanded gold reserves again in July, pressing on with a run that stretches back to December. The People’s Bank of China raised holdings ...
Read More »SoftBank’s Son to remove a big cloud on his investment empire
Bloomberg Masayoshi Son can’t wait to wash his hands of Sprint Corp. SoftBank Group Corp. will stop consolidating the US carrier in its results starting next earnings report, anticipating a successful merger with T-Mobile USA Inc. despite questions over the deal’s eventual closing. That accounting change will slash SoftBank’s debt load and help it shed its image as a staid ...
Read More »Key gauge of Japan’s economy falls to lowest since early 2010
Bloomberg A key measure of Japan’s economy fell to a level not seen since the wake of the financial crisis, adding to concerns about the economy ahead of an October sales-tax hike. The leading coincident index dropped to 93.3 in June, the lowest since February 2010, the Cabinet Office said. The index is one of Japan’s broadest indicators of current ...
Read More »Oil plummets as central banks cut interest rates
Bloomberg Oil plunged, re-entering bear-market territory, as central banks cut interest rates around the world, feeding into an increasingly dismal economic view. Futures in New York fell as much as 4.2% on Wednesday to the lowest in almost two months. Crude was swept up in a global meltdown of stock and commodity markets after rate cuts in New Zealand, India ...
Read More »India’s Sterlite sees $35 billion energy storage opportunity
Bloomberg Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd., one of India’s biggest private transmission companies, sees a $35 billion investment opportunity into grid-connected energy storage projects in the country over the next decade to support government renewables targets. Chief Executive Officer Pratik Agarwal said he expects central and state governments to issue battery tenders totaling several gigawatts of capacity by no later ...
Read More »Glencore halts cobalt mine as profit plunges
Bloomberg Glencore Plc reported the weakest profit in three years and announced plans to halt about a fifth of the world’s cobalt production after prices for the battery metal plunged. Glencore will shutter Mutanda project in the Democratic Republic of Congo for about two years in a move to put a floor under cobalt market, which has seen prices fall ...
Read More »Pension fund of UK railworkers on track for private debt push
Bloomberg One of the UK’s largest pension funds, which oversees the retirement assets of 350,000 British railworkers, is betting on private credit to help preserve returns during the next downturn. RPMI Railpen aims to boost its exposure to private debt to as much as 40% within a private investment strategy totaling 4.5 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) across two funds. While ...
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