NEW DELHI/BEIJING (Reuters) -China's naphtha imports will hit record levels this year as new plants and caution over U.S. propane and ethane purchases will drive demand and support refiners' margins for the petrochemical feedstock, analysts and traders said. Cracker operators in the world's largest petrochemical producer, which pivoted in recent years to cheaper U.S. propane and ethane feedstock, are switching...

* Citi to beef up regional investment banking team * Plans 10%-15% boost in Japan headcount, new hires in Australia * Greater uncertainty drives up cross-border, supply chain deals By Selena Li HONG KONG, July 16 (Reuters) - Citigroup ( C/PN ) plans to raise its investment banking headcount in Japan by 10% to 15% over the next year and...

SYDNEY, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Google agreed on Monday to pay a A$55 million ($35.8 million) fine in Australia after the consumer watchdog found it had hurt competition by paying the country's two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android phones, excluding rival search engines. The fine extends a bumpy period for the Alphabet-owned internet giant in Australia,...

BEIJING, July 16 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng's ( XPEV ) planned hires for this year have been revised up to 8,000 from 6,000, founder He Xiaopeng said in an internal speech. With the added openings, Xpeng's ( XPEV ) workforce will be nearing 30,000 within this year, He said, according to a transcript of the speech seen...