August 17, 2020 -Biz in 60

Turkey's residential property sales hit record high in July Turkey's property sales more than doubled in July to reach a record high of nearly 230-thousand units. That follows a 210-percent jump the previous month, after public lenders began offering loans at low rates to ease the economic fallout from the pandemic. Istanbul took the lion's share of property sales with 40-thousand units, followed by Ankara and Izmir. Sanofi to buy Principia Biopharma for $3.7B Sanofi has agreed to buy US biotech firm, Principia Biopharma, for around 3-point-7 billion dollars. The French drugmaker says it will offer 100-dollars per share to Principia's shareholders, representing a premium of 10-percent on its closing price on Friday. The acquisition is part of Sanofi's efforts to focus on specialty therapies for rare diseases China's JD.com reports rise in Q2 profits as lockdowns eased JD.com has reported better than expected second-quarter results as the pandemic pushed more shoppers online. Revenue at China's second largest e-commerce firm rose 34-percent from a year ago to 29-billion-dollars. Meanwhile, JD's health unit raised around 850-million- dollars from investment firm, Hillhouse, to strengthen its pharmacy supply chain.