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PURCHASE, NY:

PepsiCo’s beverage sales are still struggling as the company tries to adjust to Americans’ changing drinking habits.

The maker of Gatorade, Mountain Dew and Tropicana said Tuesday that sales volume declined for its North American beverage unit in the second quarter. The dip came despite the company’s efforts in recent years to introduce new drinks that are in line with trends. Earlier this year, for instance, PepsiCo launched a sparkling, flavored water brand called Bubly, a nod to the success of drinks like La Croix.

Rival Coca-Cola has also been trying to update its lineup of drinks. It reports quarterly results later this month. (AP)

SINGAPORE:

Singapore investment giant Temasek Holdings said Tuesday the value of its global portfolio reached a record high last year but will temper investments this year owing to brewing trade and geopolitical tensions.

Net global holdings expanded to Sg$308 billion ($235 billion) in the financial year ended March 31, up 12 percent from the year before in local currency terms, the company said in its annual report.

Temasek, one of the city-state’s two main investment vehicles, said it invested Sg$29 billion over the past year and divested Sg$16 billion.

“This record net portfolio value... was up Sg$33 billion from last year, bolstered by good global economic momentum and buoyant equity markets,” chairman Lim Boon Heng said in the firm’s annual report. (AFP)

TOKYO:

Japanese internet company SoftBank Corp is investing about $2 billion to raise its stake in Yahoo Japan through an acquisition from US investment company Altaba Inc.

SoftBank has been boosting its collaboration with Yahoo Japan, a search-engine company, to strengthen its e-commerce, smartphone services and other businesses.

The deal, announced Tuesday in a statement from Softbank, will raise its stake in Yahoo Japan to 48 percent from about 43 percent. The three-way transaction between Altaba, SoftBank and Yahoo Japan will cut the stake of Altaba, which was formerly known as Yahoo, to 27 percent.

SoftBank, a leading Japanese telecommunications company, has financial-technology, ride-booking services, solar energy and the Pepper humanshaped companion robot among its widespread businesses. (AP)

MUMBAI:

India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported on Tuesday a 24 percent rise in quarterly earnings thanks to strong growth in its banking and financial services division.

TCS, a subsidiary of the Tata Group conglomerate, gets more than 80 percent of its revenue from the United States and Europe.

Net profit for the three months ending June rose to 73.40 billion rupees ($1.07 billion) from 59.5 billion rupees for the same period last year, the software giant said in its statement.

“We are starting the new financial year on a strong note, with the growth engine firing on all cylinders,” chief executive Rajesh Gopinathan said.

“With a good set of wins during the quarter, a robust deal pipeline and accelerating digital demand, we are positioned well for the future.”

Net profit, helped by a weaker rupee, narrowly beat estimates by analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

In January, TCS had announced securing its biggest deal yet valued at more than $2 billion from a US-based insurance company. (AFP)

NEW YORK:

It’s no secret that Twitter has been purging fake and malicious accounts in an attempt to make its platform more welcoming for real people.

But when a Washington Post report put an actual number on the effort — 70 million accounts deleted in May and June — the company’s shares tumbled. Investors worried that the removals could put a dent in the company’s reported user figures. As of the first three months of this year, Twitter had 336 million monthly users.

The San Francisco-based company’s stock plunged as much as 9 percent Monday before closing down $2.51, or 5.4 percent, at $44.14.

But Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal says most of the removed accounts haven’t been active for 30 days or more. As such, they don’t count in Twitter’s monthly user numbers. His comments helped the stock recover a bit midday Monday. (AP)

TOULOUSE, France:

Airbus unveiled a new identity for the 110130-seat CSeries passenger plane on Tuesday as it prepares to broaden its battle with Boeing to small passenger jets.

The European firm said it was rebranding the plane as the A220, slotting it just under its longstanding A300 portfolio which stretches from the 124-seat A319 to the 544-seat A380.

Airbus expects to sell a “doubledigit” number of the jets this year and sees demand for at least 3,000 of them over 20 years, said CSeries sales chief David Dufrenois.

The makeover seals the European takeover of one of Canada’s most visible industrial projects and ends Bombardier’s efforts to go it alone in the mainline jet market against larger rivals.

Airbus officials stressed it would be positive for jobs in Quebec where the lightweight jet is built.

The 110-seat and 130-seat models, previously known as CS100 and CS300, will be known as A220-100 and A220-300 respectively.

A deal for Airbus to take majority control of the loss-making Montrealbased aircraft programme with Bombardier and Quebec as minority partners officially closed on July 1. (RTRS)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI:

US carmaker Tesla Inc has hiked prices on its Model X and S cars by about 20 percent in China, becoming the first automaker to raise prices in the world’s largest automotive market in response to a US-China trade war.

The move is the first indication of how much higher Chinese tariffs on certain US imports will flow through to showroom floors, with other automakers likely to follow suit or shift a greater portion of production to China.

“It’s only chapter one of this story,” said James Chao, a Shanghai-based analyst at consultancy IHS Markit, who anticipates more companies from around the world to be affected by the trade skirmish. (RTRS)