By David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Philip Bilden, a former military intelligence officer and private equity executive with broad experience of Asia, particularly China, as the civilian head of the U.S. Navy. Trump has vowed to build up the U.S. Navy to 350 ships from the current 290, a move aides say is aimed at countering China’s rapid rise as […]
Konrad Mizzi offered no new information on his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal today when he briefed a European Parliament committee on the Maltese EU presidency’s priorities for the energy sector. Only one non-Maltese MEP, Reinhald Butikofer of the Greens, mentioned the scandal, despite several MEPs asking technical questions about Dr Mizzi’s energy portfolio. The only other Panama Papers-related questions came from Nationalist MEPs David Casa […]
Dubai, January 25, 2017 SAMENA Telecommunications Council, the tri-regional, non-profit telecommunications industry association that embodies a community of South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African telecoms operators, manufacturers, and specialist ICT firms, moderated a regulatory roundtable on spectrum management at the 3rd Annual MENA Spectrum Management Conference held in Dubai on 24 – 25 January. The conference, which was hosted by Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in […]
Writing today in The National, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, pledge new and enhanced cooperation on defence, trade, investment, food security, renewable energy and space research: India and the UAE are linked by our common desire to build a resilient modern strategic partnership. This desire has become more manifest […]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average marched higher after hitting 20,000 for the first time on Wednesday as strong earnings and President Donald Trump’s pro-growth initiatives reignited a post-election rally. Trump has made several business-friendly decisions since taking office on Friday, including signing executive orders to reduce regulatory burden on domestic manufacturers and clearing the way for the construction of two oil pipelines. The S&P 500 and the […]
Dow 20,000 is here at last. No regular reader — or indeed, any sentient and sensible human being — should base any investment decision on the Dow. Its methodological flaws are irremediable. And in any case, round numbers should not matter. One brief illustration of the Dow’s primitive methodology will suffice. Just five of its stocks — Goldman Sachs, IBM, Boeing, UnitedHealth and JPMorgan Chase — account […]
Dubai, UAE; 25th January 2017 Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, today has reported its financial results for the year ending 31st December 2016. Key highlights [2016 vs 2015]: Stable growth in Operating Income Operating Income up 3.2% year-on-year to AED 6.2 billion driven by strong growth in Net Interest Income & Net Income from Islamic Products Advertisement Net Interest Income & Net […]
Bloomberg has gone where MSCI feared to tread, becoming only the second major index provider to include China’s onshore markets in widely-followed benchmark indices in a move that could prompt rivals to follow suit. China is home to the world’s second-largest stock market and the third-largest bond markets, but its tight control of onshore activity has made its inclusion in flagship indices contentious, with many investors arguing […]
On Monday, the Australian government announced that it was establishing a new Critical Infrastructure Centre (CIC), dedicated to managing the “complex and evolving national security risks” to the nation’s critical infrastructure. The CIC’s initial focus will be on the most critical assets in the electricity, water, and ports sectors, according to a joint media release from Australia’s favourite attorney-general Senator George Brandis QC and Treasurer Scott Morrison. […]
Until recently, oil rich Gulf states could afford to ignore global bond markets. While developed and developing countries issued record sums of debt in the years after the financial crisis, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates used the vast oil wealth to propel themselves to affluence. The states — members of the six-country Gulf co-operation council — built skyscrapers, schools and motorways […]
By Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes | LIMA LIMA A top Latin America executive of Brazil’s Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] pushed back against calls to bar the company from countries where it has admitted to bribery across the region, warning “radical” reactions would jeopardise its ability to pay penalties. Odebrecht is “struggling to survive” in the wake of a growing graft scandal in Latin America and wants to […]
Investors are signalling a stronger US economy and the risk of rising inflation under the Trump administration, as robust price gains for precious and industrial metals have this month spurred a rise in miners’ shares. MSCI’s ACWI Metals & Mining index, a broad barometer that tracks companies around the world, has rallied nearly 15 per cent in 2017, the strongest year-to-date showing in more than a decade, […]
The club crest of Spanish soccer team Real Madrid will be altered to remove the traditional Christian cross from clothing apparel sold in some Middle East countries under a regional deal. Marka, a retailing group in the United Arab Emirates, has been granted exclusive rights to “manufacture, distribute and sell Real Madrid products” in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, the company said in […]
Having abandoned its venture to lend out roughly $1 billion to legacy Taxi “Medallion” drivers and businesses some two years ago, and shifting its backing over to Uber resulting in many unhappy drivers as well as a handful of lawsuits, Capital One has nonetheless provided a useful spotlight into the troubled state of the traditional “yellow cab” industry by breaking out the details of its runoff commercial […]
24 January 2017 Warba Bank has today announced that, with immediate effect, Simon Clements has been named Chief Retail Banking Officer, taking over the responsibilities for Warba’s Retail Banking Group. In this role as Chief Retail Banking Officer, Clements will work towards enhancing customer experience and developing new and personalized products and services for our customers, significantly bettering our capability to support the Bank’s growing presence in […]
President Donald Trump has quickly moved to reverse another of Barack Obama’s signature policies, backing two multibillion-dollar oil pipeline projects that became test cases for Washington’s commitment to addressing climate change. Mr Trump said the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines would help to meet his campaign promise of producing new blue-collar jobs at home, insisting that any portions built in the US would have to use […]
Of the many quandaries investors must grapple with this year, high on their list is Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin. Not far behind is this — should they throw off their instinctive caution about Russia and its president, and push the rouble a lot higher? The turnround in the Russian rouble’s fortunes largely reflects the recovery in the price of oil, the country’s biggest export. That […]
Oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has invited banks to pitch for an advisory position on what is expected to be the world’s biggest initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley and HSBC are among banks that have received the request for proposals, one of the sources told Reuters, with the other adding that the invitation was to evaluate Aramco’s […]
A wave of about 25 African, European and South American countries is set to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank this year, reinforcing Beijing’s determination to push a global agenda even as US President Donald Trump rails against the ills of economic globalisation. Jin Liqun, president of the AIIB, said on Monday that an expanded membership would help boost lending by the $100bn multilateral organisation, which […]
SINGAPORE – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is opposed to the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR), a project for which China is among the contenders. Citing financial constraints, the former prime minister, who is chairman of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, said the HSR contract signed between Malaysia and Singapore may not be a done deal if the Opposition comes to power. “We need to do a study […]
Emirates airline has announced that it will operate the first ever scheduled commercial Airbus A380 flight to South America when it upgrades its Dubai–Sao Paulo service on March 26. Replacing the existing Boeing 777-300ER used on this route, the A380 service will mark the airline’s 10th year of operations in Brazil, which it began with daily flights between Dubai and Sao Paulo in October 2007. In 2012, […]
23 January 2017 Foursan Group, a leading Middle Eastern private equity firm, announced today the successful exit by its fund, Foursan Capital Partners (“FCP”), of its investment in Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank (“JDIB”), a premier Islamic banking institution listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. FCP was the second largest shareholder of JDIB and sold its stake to Bank Al-Etihad, a leading, publicly-listed financial services institution, realizing a […]
Generali, Italy’s largest insurer, has bought voting rights amounting to 3.01 per cent in Intesa Sanpaolo in a defensive move designed to block a mooted takeover bid by the country’s largest bank. The move came after shares in the insurer rose nearly 4 per cent on Monday following a report in Turin-based newspaper La Stampa suggesting Intesa was considering a takeover bid in tandem with Germany’s Allianz. […]
Proscient to provide Process Safety and Operational Risk Management System (PSORMS) capabilities to reduce risk, improve productivity and lower costs Proscient to provide Process Safety and Operational Risk Management System (PSORMS) capabilities to reduce risk, improve productivity and lower costs Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 23 January 2017 Petrotechnics, the developer of Proscient – the hazardous industries’ first software platform for Operational Excellence – has been selected by Accenture […]
