Luxury brands are stepping up the battle for travelling shoppers with more outlets at airports and on cruise ships, tapping into one of the fastest growing sections of the market that looks set to keep booming thanks to soaring numbers of Asian tourists. Revenues from travel retail, which also includes sales on airplanes, rose 9.4 percent in 2012 to $55.8 billion, according to a market study by […]
The Index tower on Dubai’s answer to Wall Street has 23 floors of empty offices out of the 25 it opened in 2011. A few hundred feet away, buildings controlled by the Dubai International Financial Centre are almost full. The difference is ownership. The office space in the Index on Sheikh Zayed Road was sold in pieces to nine different investors under a system known as strata […]
Surging vegetable prices led wholesale price inflation to a 14-month high in November, reinforcing expectations Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to raise interest rates again this week at a time the country’s economy is flagging. Policymakers have been grappling with high prices for food staples such as onions and potatoes even after the RBI raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point in each of […]
Booming housing markets in emerging Asia have pushed global residential property prices to a new peak, according to a report on Friday. Consultancy Knight Frank’s global house price index rose 4.6 percent over the 12 months to the end of September, taking it 4 percent higher than its previous peak in the second quarter of 2008. “The index’s strong performance has been assisted not just by headline […]
The giant inflatable duck that appeared on Dubai Creek this week has caused a stir after it emerged it is not a piece of art that has toured the world – but is in fact a replica bought in China. 7DAYS reported on Monday how people went quackers for the 18m rubber bird that was launched on the creek on Sunday. It was part of a campaign […]
Emerging Asian currencies took a battering and regional shares tumbled to six-week lows on Wednesday as mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials raised fresh concerns about an imminent rollback of the U.S. central bank’s asset-buying stimulus. The dour mood looked set to carry over into Europe, where financial spread betters predicted Britain’s FTSE 100 to fall as much as 0.7 percent, Germany’s DAX off 0.4 percent and […]
Doubts are growing over the viability of Dubai’s recently announced plan to build a new oil refinery in the emirate with China Sonangol. The region’s top financial hub last month signed a memorandum of understanding with China Sonangol International, a joint venture between Angola’s state-owned oil company, Sonangol and Hong Kong-based New Bright International Development, to build what will be its second oil refinery. The hope is […]
Hong Kong restaurant owner Hudson Chang says he can’t lower the bar much further for hiring staff. He warns his employees repeatedly about sending messages on their iPhones during work hours. He pleads with them to be more pleasant to customers. Still, he can’t afford to fire anyone: He can’t be sure of finding a replacement. “We don’t really have much choice,” said Chang, 39, owner of […]
Barclays completed its 5.8 billion pound ($9.4 billion) fundraising on Friday to meet a capital shortfall identified by its regulator, after almost 95 percent of the British bank’s investors stumped up more cash. Barclays launched its rights issue three weeks ago, prompted by the British regulator’s demand that it improve its leverage ratio – a measure of its capital to assets – to 3 percent by mid-2014. […]
The dollar held near a 7-1/2 month low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday as much of the U.S. government began to shut down after Congress failed to agree a compromise bill to fund government operations. Competing spending measures flew back and forth between Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-led Senate late into Monday night in Washington but Congress deadlocked over efforts by some Republicans to […]
Apple Inc. is poised to announce record opening-weekend sales as throngs of excited customers waited through long lines in Sydney, Tokyo, London and San Francisco to pick up the latest iPhones. Sales for the iPhone 5s and 5c started yesterday with crowds in Sydney and extended through stores in the U.S., Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. In London, the […]
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has mandated Citigroup, HSBC, Mizuho and RBS to arrange a series of fixed income meetings ahead of a potential US dollar denominated senior bond. The state-owned company, rated A1/A+/A+, will hold meetings in Europe, Middle East and Asia between September 22 and September 25. A Reg S only senior guaranteed note may follow subject to market conditions via a special purpose vehicle […]
Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index trading near a four-month high, before the Federal Reserve decides later today whether to slow its $85 billion of monthly asset purchases. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. and Fanuc Corp. rose at least 2.7 percent in Tokyo as industrial companies led gains on the Asia-Pacific benchmark index. Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. surged 4.2 percent to a six-year high amid unconfirmed […]
Singapore regulators have stepped up their scrutiny of some local branches of Indian banks on concerns about asset quality, three bank executives told Reuters. India’s slowest economic growth in a decade and a weakened rupee have weighed on the balance sheets of heavily leveraged Indian companies, including those that have raised money from Indian lenders in offshore centres such as Singapore. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) […]
By The Arabian Post Staff International retailers continue to expand into the GCC region, often using Dubai as their ‘launch’ platform into other markets such as Doha, Riyadh and Jeddah, according to real estate consultancy firm CBRE. According to CBRE research, 25 new retailers opened stores in Dubai last year. A young population, strong brand association, solid household consumption and modern retail concepts coupled with a flourishing tourism […]
Dubai Duty Free is planning to borrow $750 million from a syndicate of international banks in the coming weeks to help further finance the expansion of Dubai’s international airport, the company’s executive vice chairman Colm McLoughlin said. DDF, which operates all of the retail outlets at Dubai’s airports, raised its first international financing last year, a $1.75 billion, six-year syndicated loan with tranches in dollars and U.A.E. […]
The patriotism of wealthy overseas Indians has helped the country avert economic crises in the past and it is little surprise that embattled policymakers are turning to them again to plug a record trade gap that is battering the rupee. This time, though, big investors among the more than 25-million overseas Indian community – the world’s second-largest diaspora – are staying away as the economic outlook darkens […]
DP World Ltd., the world’s third-largest ports operator, posted a 9.1 percent increase in first-half profit, beating analysts’ estimates, as it focused on fast-growing markets and monetized assets in Hong Kong. Net income rose to $264 million, or 31.8 cents a share, from $242 million, or 29.1 cents, the Dubai-based company said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai today. The mean estimate of three analysts was for net income […]
The Indian rupee rebounded on Thursday from a record low after the central bank’s move to provide dollars directly to oil companies provided relief to the currency, while a recovery in emerging market currencies also helped offer support. The central bank decision is aimed at removing a major source of dollar demand from the spot market – worth $400 million to $500 million daily – and so […]
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 […]
India’s biggest stock-market swings in 16 months are poised to continue, boosting options prices as the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus spurs further weakness in the rupee, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The CNX Nifty index has retreated 10 percent during the past month and the gauge’s 30-day historical volatility reached 21.1 yesterday, the highest level since April 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. […]
K. Raveendran, Special to Gulf News When Dubai Islamic Bank announced the launch of its first property development in Dubai Marina in January last year, there was only a hint that the world’s first Islamic bank might be looking at the emirate’s booming real estate sector somewhat more seriously than the rest of the banks. But in less than a couple of years, DIB has emerged as […]
