Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Ola, an app-based cab service provider, poses in front of an Ola cab in Mumbai March 3, 2015. Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/Files MUMBAI Ola, India’s biggest taxi-hailing service, has raised 14.78 billion rupees ($222.5 million) in a fresh round of funding from investors led by New York-based Falcon Edge Capital, about six months after the company raised $400 million from investors led by […]
ABU DHABI // The capital of the UAE is a symbol of the future, the co-founder of a project to circumnavigate the world in a solar-powered aircraft told an audience on Monday. “Abu Dhabi is an oil producer that is diversifying to clean energy technologies and I think it is the perfect symbol,” said Bertrand Piccard, who was in the capital after being named the first Middle […]
Plans by Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) to raise a $750 million bond to boost the lender’s core capital reserves are off the table for the immediate future after shareholders rejected the proposal, a bank official said on Sunday. The rejection is a rare case of shareholder rebellion in the Gulf, where votes usually rubber-stamp decisions made by the board of directors and executive management. Last month, […]
HAJJA, Yemen — The airstrike slammed into Al-Sham water-bottling plant at the end of the night shift, killing 13 workers who were minutes away from heading home. Standing among the strewn bottles, smoldering boxes and pulverized machines a few days after the airstrike here, the owner, Ibrahim al-Razoom, searched in vain for any possible reason that warplanes from a Saudi-led military coalition would have attacked the place. […]
ABU DHABI // As Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed continued to meet the families of the 45 servicemen who were killed in Yemen one week ago, charitable organisations and leaders have offered to provide support to their families. Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, met bereaved families in Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. And, in the capital, Sheikh Rashid […]
In a move to compete against Apple Pay, Google is revamping its mobile payment system. The search engine giant is starting to roll out Android Pay, a “simple and secure” way to pay for goods with your Android mobile operating system-powered phone. In fact, consumers with Android Pay installed on their smartphones can pay for goods at over 1 million locations in the United States. Beyond making […]
Middle East Palestinian supporters of mourabitat demonstrated last week against Israeli plans to forbid the group to enter the compound in Jerusalem that Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, or Al Aqsa, and that Jews call the Temple Mount. By DIAA HADID September 9, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel on Monday officially outlawed an organization of Muslim women who chase and shout at Jewish visitors to a contested holy […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has today published a special report on the middle-income housing segment in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report highlights the social and economic impact of a marked shortfall in the required supply of middle-income housing, suggesting that significant efforts are needed to address the current imbalance. The report clearly outlines that this shortage […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Federal Reserve could well raise its overnight borrowing rate at the next FOMC monetary policy conclave on September 17. Though contagion from China’s 40% stock market meltdown has triggered bear markets from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and plunged Asian/emerging markets equities into ta ghastly replay of 1998’s epic meltdown (General Suharto’s overthrow, the Russian rouble default, Malaysia’s capital controls, the run on the […]
Saif Al Kaabi, Abdulaziz Al Bloushi and Abdulrahman Al Qaydi all survived the Houthi strike … and all are keen to return to their brothers on Yemen’s frontline to finish the job they started. ABU DHABI // Lying in his hospital bed, Saif Al Kaabi can only think about getting back to the front line. The 26-year-old from Hatta was one of dozens of soldiers injured in […]
An explosion in the number of new Internet addresses has created a wealth of opportunities for criminals exploiting shady domains such as .zip, .kim or .party, according to an industry study published on Tuesday. Attackers are constantly in search of new domains for links to lead users to download malware, divulge personal data or spam their friends, and a liberalization of the Web has expanded the number […]
Middle East By KAREEM FAHIM September 4, 2015 SANA, Yemen — The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that 45 of its soldiers were killed fighting the Houthi insurgents in a province east of Yemen’s capital, in a major setback for the coalition of Arab forces that have been trying for months to vanquish the rebels. The death total was the largest in a single day for the military […]
Middle East Refugees from Syria walked down the railway in Horgos, Serbia, on Sunday before crossing into Hungary. By ANNE BARNARD September 4, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Arresting images of desperation on the West’s doorstep have brought Syria, for the moment, back to worldwide attention: refugees cramming into train stations and climbing border fences; drowned Syrian toddlers washing up on beaches, a girl in polka dots, a boy in […]
SANA, Yemen — A suicide bomber and a subsequent car bomb killed at least 20 people on Wednesday at a mosque here in Yemen’s rebel-held capital amid the country’s raging civil war, officials said. The suicide bomber struck inside the mosque in Sana during the evening call to prayers, while the car bomb exploded outside an entrance, the authorities said. Medical officials said that wounded people were […]
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff gestures during news conference after an event at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil September 2, 2015. Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino BRASILIA Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff criticized ride-sharing software Uber on Wednesday for increasing unemployment, adding to a chorus of labour concerns about the world’s most valuable venture-backed start-up. Rousseff said local authorities must regulate the service, which has led conventional taxi drivers to stage […]
BAGHDAD — In the early morning darkness on Wednesday, masked gunmen in military uniforms rolled up in more than a dozen black sport utility vehicles to a construction site on the edge of Baghdad, subdued the guards and roused 17 Turkish workers and their Iraqi translator from sleep and kidnapped them. Iraqi security officials spent the day scrambling to find the men, who were building a soccer […]
People walk in front of the HCL Technologies Ltd office at Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi April 17, 2013. Reuters/Mansi Thapliyal/Files LONDON English Premier League club Manchester United said on Wednesday it had signed a partnership deal with IT firm HCL Technologies to improve its website and app as it gears up to launch a new digital media strategy. The 20-time league winners have struggled […]
|By Matein Khalid| Hong Kong now trades at 9.6 times earnings and 0.86 book value. Hang Seng valuations were gutted by the protest movements in Central and the Shanghai financial meltdown. The Hang Seng index is down 25% since late May and now trades at six times forward earnings, its post Lehman, post 2014 bottom. Hong Kong trades at its lowest price/book value since the Asian flu […]
UAE. With a 54% decline in the price of oil prices during the past 12 months the United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate market is now beginning to feel the effect with property transaction levels falling across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, according to the latest research from international real estate consultancy, Cluttons. Cluttons’ annual 2015 UAE Property Report reveals that the direct correlation between hydrocarbon revenues […]
UAE. Today, Phidar Advisory released its Q3 mid-quarter Dubai residential research note. The report shows that residential prices in the third quarter of 2015 continue to decline, compared to the previous quarter. However, the most significant finding was in a statistical analysis of the relationship between currencies and Dubai real estate prices. “Analysis reveals a significant relationship between three key foreign currencies and Dubai real estate prices,” said […]
Middle East Video Protesters took over the office of Lebanon’s environment minister in the capital on Tuesday, calling on him to resign for failing to find a solution to the garbage crisis. By ANNE BARNARD September 1, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Demonstrators from the “You Stink” movement, protesting a garbage pileup and political dysfunction, occupied the offices of Lebanon’s environment minister in downtown Beirut on Tuesday, declaring that they […]
INTERNATIONAL. The first Barclays UK Prosperity Map has revealed that booming house prices and returns in equity markets, in addition to higher wages and employment rates have resulted in every UK region becoming more affluent, and has driven a 41% increase in numbers of millionaires since 2010. Longer-term, growth in millionaires is expected to return to more normal levels, with a 9% increase in the UK expected […]
|By Matein Khalid| A month ago, I published a column predicting history’s first Made in China global recession. Wall Street finally agreed with me last week after we witnessed the most brutal crash in global equities since October 2008. I have predicated a 20% fall in US equities several times in the last three months and the 1000 point drop in the Dow last week only reinforces […]
