Dubai’s Union Properties said its board of directors had recommended increasing the cap on how much foreign investors can own in the developer to 25 percent. The firm did not say from what level it was raising the limit in its statement to the Dubai stock exchange. Foreigners currently own 4.35 percent of the company, according to bourse data. It is the latest move by companies in […]
Opposition leader Narendra Modi has widened his lead as candidate to become India’s prime minister and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to emerge as the single largest party in coming elections, according to a new opinion poll. The BJP also picked up support in Uttar Pradesh and is set to get half the seats in the heartland state which sends the largest number of […]
BuzzFeed has come a long way from cat lists. This month one of its journalists was on the ground in Kiev reporting on the crisis in Ukraine, and last December it published an in-depth article on a Chinese dissident living in Harlem, New York. The kittens haven’t disappeared, but these days there is serious journalism as well. When Facebook Inc tweaked its News Feed filters in December […]
|By Kalyani Shankar| With the arrival of the AAP party chief Arvind Kejriwal in the national scene, after he quit his post as Delhi chief minister, the ensuing Lok Sabha elections seem to be interesting with one more player added to the confusing poll scene. The AAP is planning to contest more than 350 of the 542 seats. Don’t think Kejrwal is acting impulsively. He has taken […]
|By Ole Hansen| Commodities showing strong gains for a third week with positive performances seen across all sectors, not least agriculture where coffee and sugar were strong performers followed by precious metals. Growth-dependent commodities such as energy and industrial metals also showed a positive return but were held back by another decline to a seven-month low in Chinese manufacturing confidence. Adverse weather across the Americas continues to […]
Only a thin blue hoarding separates the busy shopping district of Downtown Dubai from the new waterside office and residential area of Business Bay – yet the two locations feel worlds apart. Turn right along a narrow road from The Dubai Mall and you are suddenly faced with piles of sand and heaps of junk. Shiny green glass buildings stand next to half-finished structures of grey skeletal […]
A sprawling forested estate of graceful waterways and summer houses – half the size of Monaco but just one hour’s drive from Kiev – stands as a symbol of the folly of Ukraine’s fugitive president. Even the most cynical Ukrainians, who on Saturday streamed to see Viktor Yanukovich’s luxury estate, rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they were confronted by the scale of the opulence he built […]
Microsoft is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers and tablets as they try to fend off cheaper rivals like Google Inc’s Chromebooks, people familiar with the program said. Manufacturers will be charged $15 to license Windows 8.1 and preinstall it on devices that retail for less than $250, instead of the usual fee of $50, said the people, who […]
HSBC will announce staff bonuses totaling just under 2.4 billion pounds ($4 billion) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website on Saturday without citing its sources. Referring to an unnamed source close to the bank, Sky also said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver will receive a 1.8 million pound bonus as part of an overall […]
Heavy morning fog and zero visibility driver alerts notwithstanding, hundreds of investors descended at Emaar Properties’ Downtown sales office early on Saturday to buy townhouses in Mira Oasis in the Reem master development. But as the numbers swelled, Dubai’s largest developer cancelled the first-come first-served approach and adopted an “online registration”system in order to manage the crowd. “There was a huge rush at the Emaar sales office… […]
Rating agency Fitch sees the spillover from the strengthening Dubai economy, among other factors, to keep Abu Dhabi growth at 4-5 percent over the next two years. The other factors include high government spending and fruition of several major projects. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Abu Dhabi’s Long-term foreign and local currency IDRs at ‘AA’ with Stable Outlooks. The issue ratings on Abu Dhabi’s senior unsecured foreign and […]
India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is planning to sell its stakes in the Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange (DGCX) to raise resources, the Economic Times reported. MCX currently holds 3.4% in DGCX, currently valued at $1. The Indian exchange had held 10 per cent stake in DGCX when it began operations in 2005, but it was later reduced to 5 per cent. In October last year, this […]
BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc (BRFI), a $297 million fund run by the world’s biggest asset manager, said it “substantially” reduced United Arab Emirates holdings last month on concern stocks rallied too much. “While the U.A.E. economy in general is performing well and Dubai is booming, we are increasingly concerned about the level of speculation in the market,” investment managers Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher in London […]
Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock in a landmark deal that places the world’s largest social network closer to the heart of mobile communications and may bring younger users into the fold. The transaction involves $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stock and $3 billion in restricted stock that vests over several years. The WhatsApp deal is […]
Zimbabwe plans to sell diamonds from its eastern Marange fields in Dubai and Shanghai starting in March as it expands a marketing push for the stones following the removal of European Union sanctions. “The intention is not to sell only in Antwerp, the next sale will be in Dubai and we intend to go to Dubai in March,” Mines Minister Walter Chidakwa told reporters in the capital, […]
Technology will cause disruption and create opportunity at an accelerating pace, placing unprecedented pressure on ‘society’, China will move towards a half-way house of democracy, USA will become the Disunited States of America while India will be burdened with 150 billion people below the poverty line by 2050, according to the conclusions of a think-tank. The report is produced by Tangent Link, investment analysts and fund managers with a focus […]
TASWEEK Real Estate Development and Marketing PJSC – an advisor and solutions provider serving the real estate markets, has adopted a new organizational structure to manage the positive growth in the UAE real estate sector, driven by the increasing confidence and heightened optimism among the investors and buyers in the country. The restructuring in its organizational structure comes amidst the TASWEEK study which revealed that the real […]
The Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler will once again seek to set rules that make sure broadband providers do not discriminate or block any content on the Internet, a senior FCC official said on Wednesday. The FCC will not appeal a U.S. court decision last month that rejected a previous version of these rules because of the way the FCC had classified broadband providers, the official […]
For years, Abu Dhabi’s real estate market has paled next to its more dynamic, glamorous rival in neighbouring Dubai. But that may be changing as Abu Dhabi engineers a market recovery that could attract billions of dollars of fresh foreign investment. Real estate prices in Dubai jumped over 20 percent last year, analysts estimate, as the emirate rebounded from a crash in 2008-2010 which slashed prices by […]
Robocoin said on Tuesday that later this month it will install the first automated teller machines in the United States that let users buy and sell bitcoin, the latest step into the mainstream for the digital currency. The kiosks, to be installed in Seattle, and Austin, Texas, are similar to ATMs but have scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver’s license or a passport to […]
DUBAI is poised to roll over a vital $10 billion debt facility with the central bank of the United Arab Emirates at a lower rate of interest, UK’s Telegraph newspaper revealed. Rolling over the debt, which is due at the end of this week, will soothe lingering concerns over the emirate’s ability to service its immediate debts as it prepares to embark on another burst of infrastructure […]
A subsidiary of Dubai-based builder Arabtec Holding has won a 1 billion dirham ($272 million) contract in Kazakhstan, Arabtec said on Wednesday. The subsidiary, EFECO, will carry out mechanical, electrical and plumbing work at the Abu Dhabi Plaza development in the Kazakh capital Astana. The development is under construction by a joint venture of Arabtec and Consolidated Contractors Co, under a 4 billion dirham contract with Abu […]
It is only a matter of time before the stock market plunges by 50% or more, according to several reputable experts. “We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash,” explains Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager who is notorious for his hugely profitable billion-dollar bet on the 2008 crisis. “In fact, we must absolutely expect it.” Unfortunately Spitznagel isn’t alone. […]
Du, the United Arab Emirates’ second biggest telecoms operator, expects further growth in the business due to a buoyant local economy, its chief executive said after reporting a rise in revenue and a better than expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday. Du expanded rapidly after ending Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007 to claim 46.4 percent of mobile subscribers as of Sept. 30, the most recently available data. However, […]
