Adriaane Pielou Holidaying on horseback is guaranteed to lift the spirits. The exhilaration you feel after spending time in the fresh air afforded by the countryside is enhanced by the fact that you can choose from a range of trips. Despite being a sporty kind of activity, a riding holiday can involve weeks crossing mountains and camping out each night. However, you can also choose undemanding meanders […]
The bagpiper striding across the bottle label wears flowing green tartan, a luxuriant black moustache — and a red turban. Bagpiper whisky, distilled by Diageo through its United Spirits subsidiary in India, is one of India’s most popular brands, available even in a tetra pak. But at Rs300 ($4.50) for a 750ml bottle, it is not a brand that will power a rapid return on Diageo’s £1.9bn […]
SEOUL South Korea’s family-run conglomerates are facing calls for a shakeup in their governance from a leading candidate in May’s presidential election, following the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal. The conglomerates known as chaebol have come under the reform buzz saw before, only to emerge bigger and stronger than ever. The country’s four biggest chaebol groups account for around half the […]
Dubai, UAE, 27th March 2017 Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (“du”) today held its General Meeting at Al Salam Tower, Dubai Media City, where the proposed final dividend of AED 0.21 per share for the 2nd half of the fiscal year ending 31 December 2016, was approved, bringing the annual dividend payment for 2016 to AED 0.34 per share. This includes an AED 0.13 per share interim […]
By Noel Randewich and Rishika Sadam Shares of Snap Inc jumped nearly 5 percent on Monday after several of the Snapchat owner’s IPO underwriters handed it badly needed “buy” ratings. Snap’s listing on March 1 was the largest by a technology firm in three years but trading has been volatile, with many investors critical of decelerating user growth. Snap has warned it may never become profitable. Analysts […]
By David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a U.S. think tank said on Monday. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the work […]
Colombia-based airline Avianca filed a counter lawsuit in New York on Monday in the latest round of a no-holds-barred legal battle between two Latin American tycoons over the strategic control of one of the region’s biggest carriers and its mooted alliance with United Airlines. Avianca and Gérman Efromovich, the carrier’s biggest shareholder, accused Kingsland Holdings, its second-biggest shareholder, of leaking boardroom secrets in an attempt to obstruct […]
Vocus Communications has announced selling its 16 percent stake in Macquarie Telecom, offloading 3,358,511 MAQ shares at a price of AU$12.20 per share for a total of around AU$41 million. Vocus sold 100 percent of its interest in Macquarie Telecom to both institutional and retail shareholders via a block trade, it announced to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday morning. According to Macquarie Telecom, the sale of […]
European governments and related organisations have ramped up their sales of new debt this year, in the latest sign of bond markets bracing for rises in interest rates and an increase in political risks. Overall borrowing from eurozone sovereigns, local authorities, agencies and supranationals such as the European Investment Bank is currently at €210bn — the highest year-to-date amount since 2012, Dealogic data show, and the second-highest […]
Want to beat Warren Buffett’s investment returns? Don’t want to spend a lot of time working at it? Bloomberg’s macro strategist Cameron Crise has just the investment process for you… Last week I wrote about a simple model that is surprisingly effective at profiting from the rebalancing tendencies of passive investors. This in turn brought to mind another well-known instance of behavioral herding that has led to […]
The location and energy potential, in terawatt hours, of eastern and southern African renewable resources (wind, solar photovoltaic and concentrating solar power). Credit: UC Berkeley As Africa gears up for a tripling of electricity demand by 2030, a new Berkeley study maps out a viable strategy for developing wind and solar power while simultaneously reducing the continent’s reliance on fossil fuels and lowering power plant construction costs. […]
March 27, 2017 by: Roger Blitz in London and Eric Platt and Robin Wigglesworth in New York Financial markets shuddered on Monday as investors absorbed the collapse of US healthcare reform last week, with some fearing pro-growth policies like tax reform could be stymied by government inaction and a Republican party in disarray. Global stocks retreated, US banks slid into correction and the dollar index fell to […]
Barclays Bank on Monday launched the first exchange traded fund in east Africa when it listed the Barclays NewGold ETF on the Nairobi stock exchange. The product is a cross-listing of the $1.4bn NewGold ETF that sits on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2004 and is also publicly traded on five other African markets. Its initial size in Kenya will be Ks500m ($4.8m) with capacity for expanding […]
Kuwait is seeking to follow its Gulf neighbours in its bid to gain emerging-market status. The nation’s Capital Markets Authority plans to extend its settlement cycle for stock trades by the end of April to three days from two for foreigners and zero for local traders, Vice-Chairman Mishaal Al-Usaimi said at a conference in Kuwait City. The regulators are also planning to introduce short-selling and derivative products […]
MANILA: The Philippines Monday (Mar 27) took delivery of two Japanese military surveillance aircraft to help it patrol vital sea lanes in the South China Sea, despite Manila’s increasingly conciliatory stance to Beijing’s claims over the disputed waters. Japan will lease a total of five surplus Beechcraft TC-90 planes to the Philippines, according to Manila’s defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana. Philippine military chief General Eduardo Ano said the […]
A Beijing court has overturned a ruling that Apple’s iPhone 6 violated a patent owned by local manufacturer Shenzhen Baili, the South China Morning Post has reported. The Beijing Intellectual Property Office ruled last May that the tech giant violated design patents of the local device with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and as a result was ordered to cease selling the smartphone in Beijing. […]
Transport The transport company Uber has suspended tests of its self-driving cars after a vehicle was involved in a crash in the US state of Arizona. Uber has been dogged by problems in recent weeks, including the sudden, unexplained resignation of company President Jeff Jones, allegations of sexual harassment, and a lawsuit filed by Google alleging Uber stole trade secrets. (Source: Al Jazeera English YouTube channel) Source […]
In July 2011 an unusual fascination had gripped some members of New York’s financial community. Walk into a Manhattan office expecting to discuss the US stock market with an investor who exclusively backed equity hedge funds, and they instead had Italian government debt on the brain. Selling short bonds of the eurozone’s third-largest economy had become so popular that non-debt specialists had started to notice, and rising […]
China has eclipsed Singapore as the biggest source of investment in Malaysian real estate, as soaring domestic property prices push mainland investors to hunt for bargains abroad. Chinese groups have invested more than $2.1bn in Malaysian real estate over the past three years, compared with $985m invested by Singaporean companies between 2014 and 2016, according to figures from Real Capital Analytics based on completed transactions of $10m […]
The federal government has tasked Innovation and Science Australia (ISA) with developing a plan that will put Australia in a position as a leading “innovation nation” by 2030. In its 2030 Strategic Plan Issues paper, the independent body charged with researching, planning, and advising the government on all science, research, and innovation matters highlighted six challenges it sees as central to shaping the strategy, with one placing […]
Last week saw the largest drop in aggregate Treasury short positions since Brexit. Ironicaly, while bond bears felt the squeeze, traders piled into Eurodollar shorts (increased rate-hike bets) sending the short-end’s positioning to record highs. Across the entire Treasury bond futures complex, shorts covered over 200,000 10-year-equivalent contracts (around $20 billion notional), but as is clear below, the net short – while the smallest since December 2nd […]
The Australian government has signed a formal “Dialogue on Innovation” agreement with China that will see both countries exchange ideas between government representatives, business, and the research sector. Under the arrangement, both countries will contribute up to AU$6 million over three years to the next round of the Joint Research Centres, under the Australia-China Science and Research Fund (ACSRF), which supports strategic science, technology, and innovation collaboration […]
A Beijing court has overturned a ruling that Apple’s iPhone 6 violated a Chinese manufacturer’s patent which saw the US tech giant ordered to cease selling the smartphone in China. In May last year the Beijing intellectual property bureau had ruled that Apple violated design patents of Chinese maker Shenzhen Baili with its iPhone6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and would be barred from selling those models. […]
Ras Al Khaimah – UAE, 26 March 2017 Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, and in the presence of His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Humaid Al Qasimi, Managing Director of RAK Free Trade Zone, Managing Director of the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority, His Excellency Mohammed Ahmed Al Kait, Advisor […]
