SYRIA. Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday and overran Iraqi government defenses east of Ramadi, the provincial capital that they seized five days earlier. The twin successes not only pile pressure on Damascus and Baghdad but throw doubt on a U.S. strategy of relying almost exclusively on air strikes to support the fight against Islamic State. U.S. and […]
UAE. Landmark real estate regulatory changes including the UAE-wide Federal Mortgage Cap and Dubai’s doubling of Property Registration Fees last year, which was aimed at curbing speculative activity, have together gradually and successfully contained a market that was in danger of overheating with the level of transactional activity now dramatically reduced, according to latest research released by international real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Spring 2015 Dubai Residential […]
|By TAP Staff| The sale of residential properties in Dubai may continue to slide by one to five percent in the first half of this year, according to a report for Deloitte Financial Advisory. But the report forecasts a pickup in the second part of the year. It added that super prime malls will experience further growth in tourist numbers whilst residents will drive demand for convenience […]
|By TAP Staff| RP Global – part of RP Group of Companies, a global business conglomerate with an annual turnover of over US$4 billion – made its entry into the Dubai real estate market by breaking ground on its new multi-storey residential tower project RP Heights. RP Global will initially develop two prestigious projects in the heart of the city with a total development value of over […]
TOKYO—Japan’s Inpex Corp. has secured a 5% stake in Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, or ADCO, one of the Gulf nation’s biggest oil concessions, becoming the second foreign stakeholder after France’s Total SA . The move suggests that as part of Tokyo’s efforts to shore up its energy supplies, the partly state-owned Japanese energy company was prepared to pay a hefty signing-on fee that other […]
/Marshall Hargrave/investorsalley.com/The end of Google’s reign as the king of search is near. Competitors are eating away market share and growth is sputtering. Trying to cherry-pick the next winner in search, however, is akin to rolling dice at a casino. All luck. Where investors are going to make their millions is in this red hot sector that is on the vanguard of life-saving technology that will revolutionize […]
Dubai’s drive to develop its Islamic finance sector is fuelling growth of sharia-compliant banking but the benefits are unevenly distributed, with some lenders struggling to compete against burgeoning competition. In 2013, Dubai’s government announced plans to turn the emirate into a centre for an “Islamic economy” with sharia-compliant businesses ranging from banking to asset management, trade, food preparation and certification, fashion, education and tourism. This looked like […]
|By TAP Staff| Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) totaled 30.72 million barrels per day (b/d) in March, up 800,000 b/d from February, and the highest monthly volume since November 2012, according to the latest Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts. In November 2012, OPEC output was estimated at 31.08 million b/d. Saudi Arabia boosted production by 280,000 […]
As chairman of Emaar Properties, Mohamed Alabbar has shaped much of Dubai’s skyline, but rapid growth in his outside real estate interests is raising the possibility of a rarity in the Gulf – open shareholder dissent. Speculation persists that Alabbar and Emaar, the company he founded in 1997, could soon part ways despite a categorical denial from the firm last month. His involvement in other firms’ projects, […]
India has bought the first oil for its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), trade sources said on Monday, marking the start of a round of purchases by the world’s fourth-biggest oil consumer to build up emergency stockpiles. Oil prices have almost halved in the past year due to excess global production, leaving traders looking for any signs of new demand to help absorb the surplus. The sources said […]
The proposal by Dubai Municipality to introduce mandatory affordable housing quotas for all new residential developments in Dubai is long overdue and is expected to bring a wide range of benefits to the emirate, while driving further maturity in the market, according to leading international real estate consultants, Cluttons. With the residential market in Dubai now meandering through the second half of the current property cycle and […]
By Se Young Lee and Harro Ten Wolde SEOUL/BARCELONA Mon Mar 2, 2015 9:39am IST 1 of 5. A hostess displays the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 1, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea SEOUL/BARCELONA (Reuters) – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones, featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade […]
Gen Odierno said that British defence cuts are already jeopardising US-UK joint operations Photo: AP Ever since the Cold War ended more than two decades ago, America has never entertained any serious doubts about Britain’s ability to fulfil its commitment as a vital military ally when tackling threats to the Western alliance. Until now. For the dramatic cuts to Britain’s defence budget implemented since the Coalition took power […]
Lord Justice Munby curious puzzle has arisen following my piece a fortnight ago headed, “Why don’t the family courts obey the law?” I quoted a trenchant recent judgment in which Lord Justice Munby, the head of the family courts, went out of his way to emphasise that “one of the oldest principles of our law” is that “no one is to be condemned unheard” – and that […]
The tide may be turning in the retreat of the U.S. oil explorers. Rigs targeting oil fell by 33 to 986, the smallest decline since Jan. 2, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Energy rigs in the Permian Basin shale region dropped by seven to 355 after dropping by as much as 49 earlier in the month. The Eagle Ford in Texas lost three rigs. […]
RIYADH, 2 days ago Saudi Arabia’s Mobily on Wednesday said it swung to a full-year loss in 2014 after the telecommunications operator announced its audited results, also revealing it had breached loan covenants with various lenders. Mobily — formally called Etihad Etisalat — made a loss of SR913 million ($243.4 million) in 2014 after it took an additional charge of SR1.13 billion, it said in a statement […]
Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai’s largest publicly-traded real estate developer, plans to sell shares in its hotels unit in the second half and hired Rothschild as an adviser, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The offering is planned for later in the year because of conditions on the Dubai Financial Market, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. […]
Mobily chairman quits; new head named RIYADH, 8 hours, 43 minutes ago The chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has resigned with immediate effect, the kingdom’s No 2 telecommunications operator said on Tuesday. Abdulaziz Al-Saghyir quit due to health reasons, but will remain on Mobily’s board, the company said in a statement to Riyadh’s bourse. Mobily has appointed Suliman bin Abdulrahman Al-Gwaiz as chairman, effective February […]
I wonder: did Australian television broadcast Bagpuss to its younger viewers during the Seventies? I’m asking because the Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, grew up in New South Wales. Maybe she loved Bagpuss as much as I did; one story in particular: “Charliemouse then tells Bagpuss and Yaffle that the mill makes chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans. The mice run the Mill, and it does […]
|By A. Gary Shilling| At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why. U.S. economic growth has averaged 2.3 percent a year since the recovery started in mid-2009. That’s about half the rate you might expect in a rebound from the […]
|By Florence Tan and Henning Gloystein|Even as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies appear united in their refusal to cut output to boost global oil prices, they are becoming locked in an increasingly fierce battle to secure market share in Asia. Oil prices have slumped below $50 a barrel, the weakest since 2009, triggering a price war between producers to secure customers in Asia. And the […]
Op-Ed Contributor By MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER January 11, 2015 TEL AVIV — “WHAT are you,” he asked, “a leftist?” We were both wearing the surplus United States Marines uniforms given to prisoners at Israeli Military Jail No. 6. “It depends how you define ‘left,’ ” I said. “Don’t get clever with me. Why are you here?” “I didn’t want to be part of a system whose main task is the violent […]
If you don’t visit Facebook at least once a day, you’re in a dwindling minority. Facebook still remains the most popular social media site by far, according to a new survey by Pew Research. While its growth has slowed as other social sites continue to grow in popularity, the level of user engagement on Facebook has increased nonetheless. Facebook membership numbers since 2013 have been mostly static, […]
Dubai Islamic Bank will reopen the Gulf bond market next week with a capital-boosting sukuk, the region’s first debt offering in two months as financial markets there wobbled under the impact of falling oil prices. A successful offering would not just bolster reserves at DIB, the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates, but also pave the way for others who may have been waiting to […]
