THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thechikkottukavu Ramachandran’s take-home salary would be the envy of many investment bankers. With his majestic ten-and-a-half-foot frame, the elegant Kerala resident is said to earn Rs 1 crore by working just seven months a year. Little wonder then that he’s a Facebook star. Except that the 48-year-old Ramachandran is a large elephant, and a wildly popular fixture in most ceremonial temple processions in the state. His […]
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), owner of U.S.-based engine repair and maintenance business StandardAero, is in talks to merge parts of its business with British aircraft services firm BBA Aviation , it said on Monday. Dubai government-owned DAE said the talks were at a preliminary stage and gave no further details. Its statement came after the Sunday Times newspaper reported BBA was holding talks with StandardAero over a […]
President Barack Obama and his top military and national security advisers hashed out options on Saturday for responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria amid “increasing signs” that the government used poison gas against civilians. Obama spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron, a top U.S. ally, and agreed that chemical weapon use by Syrian President Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces would merit a […]
Iran is raising its exports of iron ore and iron products to China and India in an attempt to replace at least a small part of the massive revenue that has been lost due to sanctions on its oil sales. While Iran’s oil exports have halved in the last few years due to western sanctions over the country’s disputed nuclear program, iron ore exports have grown by […]
Contractors working in the Saudi market claim that public sector projects in Saudi Arabia are monopolized because of contractors’ classification rules currently in use. They said monopoly causes high project costs and delays. “The method of putting up projects for tender hasn’t been modernized in 30 years, which benefited a limited number of companies that monopolized Saudi projects,” said Mansour Al Areefi, general director of a company […]
A long-awaited opening of Saudi Arabia’s stock market to direct foreign investment appears near, industry executives and fund managers say – a reform that could give equity investment in the Gulf its biggest boost for years. Hopes have been raised and dashed several times over the last few years. While the Saudi government has long considered the reform and has been making technical preparations, it has never […]
At least two major global investment banks are maintaining that the beleaguered Indian rupee, which is already down about 15 per cent since the beginning of 2013, could see a further deterioration of about 10.5 per cent in the near future and slump to Rs70 against the US dollar. That would equate to a level of Rs19 against the UAE dirham, and if attained, this exchange rate […]
A climate of fear that kept Egyptians compliant during the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak is creeping back into daily life, less than three years after the revolt that toppled him. Ordinary people like Mohamed, who runs a tiny Cairo shop selling mobile phone accessories, now lower their voices if they oppose the army’s overthrow last month of their first freely-elected president, Mohamed Mursi. “It is about […]
Asian markets were under the cosh on Thursday as a spike in U.S. bond yields drove up borrowing costs globally, and even surprisingly strong data from China couldn’t completely staunch the bleeding. Emerging markets again bore the brunt of the selling as many have come to rely on cheap dollars to underpin domestic demand and fund current account deficits. The currencies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all […]
The Dubai Economic Council (DEC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Deloitte Corporate Finance Limited for mutual cooperation. Hani Al Hamli, Secretary General DEC; and Humphry Hatton, Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte Corporate Finance, signed the MoU in the presence of the executive teams of both sides. Al Hamli stated, “We’re proud to have Deloitte Corporate Finance Limited as our partner, which comes in our […]
A Pakistani court indicted Pervez Musharraf in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, escalating legal challenges to the ex-military dictator since he ended his self-exile in March. A judge read out charges that Musharraf was complicit in Bhutto’s killing as he failed to provide adequate security at a political rally she was attending, state-run Pakistan Television reported, citing court proceedings. Six other people were […]
(Reuters) – India’s currency cartwheeled to historic lows on Monday while markets in Indonesia took a spill, evidence of how rising U.S. yields are making it harder for emerging nations to fund their current account deficits. The turbulence heightened investor caution ahead of Wednesday’s minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting, with many fearing they might only add to the confusion about when it might scale […]
Gold rose to the highest in almost two months and silver capped the biggest weekly rally since 2008 on signs of higher physical demand for precious metals. Global bar and coin purchases reached a record last quarter and jewelry usage rose to the most since 2008, World Gold Council figures showed this week. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the metal to rise next week, four were […]
The domestic banking system in Saudi Arabia relative to many of the global peers, developed or developing, had maintained its inherent strengths that emanate from greater reliance on core banking activities, lower non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio, little recourse to wholesale funding and ample liquidity. During the last two years, Saudi banks have returned to a higher growth trajectory after a lackluster performance in 2009 that saw total […]
The commodities sector looks set for a relatively benign near-term future according to Saxo Bank, the multi-asset trading and investment specialist. Gold and silver should see a mild recovery over the next quarter and oil looks set to remain at current levels, struggling to push past previous highs. Any expectation that WTI crude will re-establish its historical premium over Brent looks improbable. Saxo Bank believes that changing […]
Global investors have become significantly more confident in the outlook for growth, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for August. A net 72 percent of respondents now expect the world’s economy to pick up over the next 12 months – the survey’s strongest reading on this measure in nearly four years and a striking rise from July’s net 52 percent. Investors remain concerned over […]
The UAE executive spearheading efforts to develop a series of eye-catching ‘underwater hotels’ at locations around the world has revealed the project has attracted ‘huge’ interest, including an offer to develop several properties for the Chinese market. Khamis Juma Buamim, chairman of Dubai industrial giant Drydocks World and Maritime World, says the collaboration between his firm and European company Deep Ocean Technology on new properties dubbed ‘water […]
NEW DELHI – India, the world’s biggest buyer of gold, raised duties Tuesday on bullion imports for the third time this year as it battles to narrow a record trade gap and stabilize the rupee. The government increased the customs duty on gold to a record 10 percent from eight percent as it strives to break the country’s love affair with the precious metal. The announcement boosted […]
DUBAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. U.S. dollar bond issuance in the Gulf, conventional and sukuk, stands at about $17.3 billion year-to-date, up from $11.4 billion in the same period a year […]
