Category: Business

|By Arabian Post Staff|Emaar Chairman Mohamed Alabbar said that the new digital marketplace Noon, founded by him, will be rollled out in Saudi Arabia before the end of this year. He was addressing a media briefing with Faraz Khalid, Chief Executive Officer of Noon, on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh. Headquartered in Riyadh, Noon is a joint venture with the Public Investment Fund and a group of prominent Gulf investors, with an initial

|By Arabian Post Staff|Saudi Arabia is holding one of its most important investment summits  ever, named the Future Investment Initiative (FII), considered to be game-changing forum  in Riyadh.  The landmark event is being attended by more than 2,500 delegates and internationally-renowned business and investment leaders from over 60 countries. The three-day event will explore new trends, opportunities, challenges and emerging industries that will shape the world economy and investment environment over the coming decades. The first day of the conference will begin with

|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced the establishment of the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) to improve the performance of the real estate market, increase its contribution to GDP, and raise the rate of homeownership among Saudis to 52% by the end of 2020. Demand for real estate financing in the Kingdom is expected to increase from SAR 280 billion in 2017 to SAR 500 billion in 2026. Launched in partnership with the Ministry

|By Arabian Post Staff| The combined value of the Expo 2020-related development projects has touched $33 billion (Dh121 billion) as the UAE begins the three-year countdown for the six-month-long mega global event that will kick-off on October 20, 2020, according to BNC Network, a project research and intelligence provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These projects include transport infrastructure, such as the expansion of the road networks, several highways, roundabouts, interchanges and Dubai Metro line to

|By Arabian Post Staff| Pay levels for management accountants are performing well against the backdrop of low global inflation. The latest annual salary survey from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants reveals average earnings for qualified Chartered Global Management Accountant designation-holders in the United Arab Emirates are AED 402,000, rising by an average of 8 per cent in the next 12 months. Pay prospects for CGMA trainees are even brighter, with students en route to full CGMA status believing their

|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s Al Ghurair Properties has announed a series of new devlopment projects worth AED 5 billion, which is expected to add new impetus to the Dubai property sector. The plan envisages the construction of 58 distinctive residential projects of new age homes with high quality infrastructure, the company said in a statement. The statement cited real estate agency, JLL MENA, findings that as a result of Dubai’s improving economy, the real estate sector is set for an

|By Arabian Post Staff| Consumer confidence in the UAE remained uncertain in 2016 resulting in the Dubai retail market experiencing further softening in Q1 2017, according to a latest report by Knight Frank. “Well-established malls with higher footfall continue to maintain healthy occupancy rates; however the delivery of additional retail supply is expected to put pressure on overall occupancy rates. UAE shopping malls are also expected to experience further competitive pressures from online rivals, as more consumers embrace e-shopping,” the report said. Knight

By Pete Schroeder | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers Thursday that the Trump administration does not actually support separating investment and commercial banks.The administration has previously expressed support for some return of the Glass-Steagall Act, which established a firewall between investment and commercial banking. But Mnuchin was explicit before the Senate Banking Committee that that vision did

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON The turmoil in Washington surrounding Donald Trump's presidency is rattling world markets, and the burst of volatility could force investors into a strategic or tactical rethink of how much risk they are happy to face.Increasingly damaging revelations about the Trump administration's and election team's dealings with Russia triggered the biggest fall on Wall Street on

CHICAGO Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly comparable sales on Thursday, helped by greater traffic at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores and a rise in online sales. Sales at U.S. stores open

MUMBAI Apple Inc has begun assembling its low-priced iPhone SE at its contract manufacturer's plant in the technology hub of Bengaluru in southern India, the company said in a statement. Cupertino, California-based Apple, is keen to boost its market share in one of the world's fastest growing mobile phone

By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks fell on Thursday and the dollar was stuck near six-month lows against a basket of currencies as uncertainty mounted over U.S. President Donald Trump's future following reports that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4 percent.Japan's Nikkei shed 1.5 percent, Australian

By Jonathan Barrett | SYDNEY SYDNEY Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has used laws designed to protect indigenous land rights to stop prospectors searching for minerals on his West Australian cattle farms, angering both traditional Aboriginal landowners and mining community members. While tensions between the competing interests of indigenous landholders, pastoral leaseholders and miners on government-controlled land are common,

By Foo Yun Chee | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS U.S. social network Facebook (FB.O) is set to be penalized by EU antitrust regulators for allegedly providing misleading data related to its WhatsApp acquisition three years ago, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.The move by the European Commission will come after a six-month investigation and is expected to be a stiff

By Yashaswini Swamynathan The S&P 500 and the Dow were headed for their worst day in more than eight months as reports of a leaked memo by former FBI chief James Comey spooked investors, raising questions about whether President Donald Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation.Trump asked Comey to end a probe into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's

Target Corp (TGT.N) reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly comparable sales on Wednesday, as sales picked up in March after a slow start to the quarter.Shares of the company rose 6 percent to $57.90 in premarket trading. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.3 percent, better

BEIJING Chinese state media on Wednesday criticized the United States for hindering efforts to stop global cyber threats in the wake of the WannaCry "ransomware" attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide in recent days.The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) should shoulder some blame for the attack, which targets vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) systems and has infected some 30,000 Chinese organizations as of Saturday, the China Daily said. "Concerted efforts to tackle cyber crimes have been hindered

TOKYO U.S. share futures and the dollar slipped in early Asian trade on Wednesday after reports that President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into his former security adviser.The reports raised questions about whether charges of obstruction of justice could be laid against Trump, weakening confidence in the U.S. president's ability to push through an aggressive stimulus program that investors had been banking on since his election last November.U.S. economic data published on Tuesday was

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON The global economic, financial and political landscape has never been shakier, but the world's rich are confident they can steer through the fog of uncertainty in the coming year "without so much as a dent in their finances", a survey showed on Wednesday.The findings of UBS Wealth Management's survey of more than 2,800 millionaires in

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it would refund some advertisers after finding a bug that wrongly attributed video carousel ad clicks as clicks to the advertisers' websites.When users tried to expand and watch the video carousel on the mobile web browser, the bug inadvertently directed the click to the advertiser's website, leading to incorrect billing, the company said in a blogpost on Tuesday. bit.ly/2rmYPg0.

By Yashaswini Swamynathan The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq drifted higher to hit record intraday levels on Tuesday, supported by gains in technology and consumer staple stocks.As the first-quarter earnings season wraps up, investors' attention will turn to developments in Washington that could overshadow Republican legislative priorities such as tax reform, healthcare and simpler regulations.Investors were wary after reports that President

Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it would buy back $3 billion of its common shares, ahead of the company's pending deal with Verizon Communications Inc.Shares in Yahoo, which has a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, were up 0.6 percent at $50.15 in premarket trading.

By Ami Miyazaki and Taiga Uranaka | TOKYO TOKYO Japan's government said on Tuesday it wanted Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and partner Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) to cooperate, expressing concern about an escalating dispute between the two that threatens to upend the sale of Toshiba's chip unit.Western Digital sought international arbitration this week to stop Toshiba from selling the unit without its

By David Shepardson and Nick Carey | WASHINGTON/DETROIT WASHINGTON/DETROIT Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to shrink its salaried workforce in North America and Asia by about 10 percent as it works to boost profits and its sliding stock price, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Monday.A person briefed on the plan said Ford plans to offer generous early

By Jonathan Stempel | NEW YORK NEW YORK Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) on Monday said it added to its sizable investments in American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N), and shed its stake in Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O).In a regulatory filing, Berkshire said that in the first quarter its American stake grew 8 percent to

By Guy Faulconbridge and Dustin Volz | LONDON/WASHINGTON LONDON/WASHINGTON The global WannaCry "ransomware" cyber attack spread more slowly on Monday with no major infections reported, as attention shifted to investment and government policy implications of lax cyber security.There were 213,000 infected machines in 112 countries as of 1000 GMT on Monday, according to Czech security firm Avast, making it one of

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday as a rise in oil prices boosted energy stocks, soothing some nerves following a massive cyber attack that locked up 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries.Oil hit a three-week high after top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia said supply cuts needed to last into 2018, a step toward extending an OPEC-led deal to support prices for longer than originally agreed. Shares of oil majors Exxon (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) rose in early trading."On

By Conor Humphries | DUBLIN DUBLIN JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has agreed to buy a Dublin building with room for 1,000 staff in the first sign of a financial services company expanding significantly in Ireland since the government began a major campaign to attract firms in the wake of Brexit.The U.S. investment bank will acquire a 130,000 square foot (12,000 square meter)

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices jumped 1.5 percent on Monday after the energy ministers of the world's two biggest producers Saudi Arabia and Russia jointly said that a crude production cut would be extended from the middle of this year until March 2018.Brent crude was at $51.58 per barrel at 0621 GMT, up 74 cents, or 1.46 percent,

SYDNEY U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital Management on Monday raised its cash bid for Fairfax Media Ltd (FXJ.AX), offering A$2.76 billion ($2.04 billion) for the struggling Australian publisher and sending its shares to a six-year high.The fresh offer from TPG [TPG.UL] and partner Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPP) would allow shareholders to cash out completely rather than leaving them with scrip in a piecemeal collection of small assets including radio, regional newspapers and television streaming."It’s better to have a

TOKYO Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) has sought international arbitration to stop partner Toshiba Corp (6502.T) from selling its chips arm without its consent, potentially derailing a much-needed capital injection for the Japanese conglomerate.California-based Western Digital is a long-standing joint venture partner and runs Toshiba's main semiconductor plant in Japan. It has sought to bid for the Toshiba chips business, but is not seen as the front-runner, given its bid has been trumped by Taiwan's Foxconn (2317.TW) and U.S. chipmaker Broadcom

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) may have opened as many as 3.5 million unauthorized customer accounts, far more than previously estimated, according to lawyers seeking approval of a $142 million settlement over the practice.The new estimate was provided in a filing late Thursday night in the federal court in San Francisco, and is 1.4 million accounts higher than previously reported by federal regulators, in what became a national scandal.Keller Rohrback, a law firm for the plaintiff customers, said the higher

By Ayesha Rascoe and Michael Martina | WASHINGTON/BEIJING WASHINGTON/BEIJING The United States and China have agreed to take action by mid-July to increase access for U.S. financial firms and expand trade in beef and chicken among other steps as part of Washington's drive to cut its trade deficit with Beijing.The deals are the first results of 100 days of trade talks

(This version of the story corrects paragraph 10 to show quote was by Interim CFO Bob Blowes, not Robert Morton as previously stated)By Matt ScuffhamTORONTO Home Capital Group Inc (HCG.TO) confirmed on Friday it is considering asset disposals to enable it to refinance more quickly and pay off an emergency loan provided by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.Shares in Canada's biggest non-bank lender fell by as much as 20 percent in early trading on Friday before paring losses