Almost 40 years ago, German audio specialist Sennheiser set its engineers an ambitious task: to create the world’s best headphones, irrespective of cost. By 1991, the task was complete and the legendary Orpheus HE90 launched for sale with a price tag of $16,000 – about $28,000 in today’s currency. Fast-forward two decades, and Sennheiser has done it again. Its updated version of the HE90, the Orpheus HE1, […]
By Catherine Ngai and Liz Hampton | HOUSTON HOUSTON Commodities trader and investor TrailStone Group has purchased Cargill Inc’s gas and power trading group, three sources familiar with the deal said this week. The move, first reported by Sparkspread, comes amid a reshuffling in the power and natural gas industry as private equity firms and hedge funds pour into the space, filling a void left by banks […]
The sequel to the award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth was finally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival after its announcement in December 2016. The followup to the 2006 documentary was accepted with a standing ovation, and followed by rave reviews. Though the screening at the film festival is limited, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power is scheduled for a July 28 theater premiere. We may have to wait […]
While the year ahead could prove to be a bumpy one for global financial markets amid ongoing political and policy risks, there is reason for optimism over the outlook for stocks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Compared to 2016, a number of structural tailwinds should give investors greater confidence in MENA’s fundamentals. The implementation of major fiscal and capital market reform throughout the […]
When it comes to gourmet food, you can find all manner of creations in Dubai – from camel stir fry to truffle ice cream. Yet there is one thing missing – a Michelin star. That may be about to change, if recent rumours are to be believed. The prestigious 126-year-old French ratings guide recently expanded to Singapore, another expatriate-dominated hotspot. Last April, the international director of Michelin […]
By Noel Randewich | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is only hours old, but already a small parade of S&P 500 companies’ chiefs have voiced optimism that his promised tax cuts, stimulus spending and deregulation will boost corporate profits. In the days ahead of Friday’s inauguration, senior executives from Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and other major U.S. corporations said the […]
In 2015, Malian businessman and former interim prime minister Cheick Modibo Diarra told Arabian Business: “When it comes to investment…Africa really is the last frontier. Be it agriculture, energy production, extraction of gold and diamonds, or oil and gas, we have a lot of opportunities and a young workforce that understands how business works.” He was speaking at a time when interest in Africa among Middle East […]
RAS AL KHAIMAH, 20 January 2017 Excitement filled Rixos Bab Al Bahr as Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAK FTZ) and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) announced the winners of the first joint RAK Free Zones Business Excellence Awards on 19 January 2017. The much-awaited awards programme lauded 10 outstanding companies that displayed relentless commitment to organisational excellence and contributed immensely to strengthening Ras Al […]
PETALING JAYA: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is not just about investment in the manufacturing industry alone as the country has outgrown that model, said Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan (pic). In response to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s criticism of the Forest city project, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said in order for Malaysia to progress into a high income nation, the country needs to develop other […]
By Jamie McGeever and Marc Jones | LONDON LONDON For financial markets, the Trump era begins on Monday, and if history is any guide the following month should be a rocky one for Wall Street but positive for the dollar. The S&P 500 .SPX has fallen a median 2.7 percent in the month after each new president has taken the keys to the White House since Herbert […]
NEW DELHI // The first “strategic dialogue” between the UAE and India was held yesterday, days ahead of the state visit of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Sheikh Mohammed will arrive on Tuesday for a three-day visit, where he will be the chief guest at India’s 2017 republic day celebrations from January 24 to 26. […]
Donald Trump’s November victory ignited the steepest rally from election day to inauguration for a first-term president since John F. Kennedy won the White House in 1960. The charts below tell the tale of the vigorous, and in many ways unexpected, reaction to the rise of the billionaire property developer to the pinnacle of American politics. The S&P 500 index, a broad measure of the performance of […]
George Osborne, the former UK chancellor, is to join BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, as an adviser. BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive Larry Fink said the company wanted Mr Osborne’s “unique and valuable perspective on the issues affecting the world”, citing his work helping the UK and the G20 to recover from the financial crisis. “At the centre of our mission is helping people around the […]
Dubai, UAE, 20 January 2017 Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has issued on 15 January 2017 a Request for Proposal (RFP) to all qualified bidders for a 200MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Power Plant, the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. This supports the wise vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the […]
Kabir Mulchandani is a hands-on developer. While he may not be laying bricks, the SKAI Holdings CEO forwent his air-conditioned office in Downtown Dubai for an often stinking hot construction site on the Palm Jumeirah for the two years that it took for his flagship $1.2 billion hotel to be built. It was only in November that he finally walked offsite when the Viceroy Dubai Palm Jumeirah […]
Billionaire investor George Soros spoke to Bloomberg TV in Davos, and said the euphoria among stock investors since the victory of President-elect Donald Trump will end as uncertainty takes over. In an interview that may have been even gloomier than his last address to Davos in January 2016, when he said he was short the market, predicted a Chinese hard landing, and said the Fed’s hike was […]
“Comeback is a good word, man,” noted the actor Mickey Rourke, after portraying a washed-up wrestler led to a career renaissance. Could 2017 be the year when stockpickers can say the same thing? The post-financial crisis environment has been unkind to active investing, especially in equities, with most portfolio managers unable to beat their benchmarks even before costs. That has accelerated the seismic investor shift towards cheap, […]
20 January 2017 Abu Dhabi, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Etihad Airways today announced four additional weekly flights on the popular Abu Dhabi – Malé route, increasing frequency to the idyllic Maldives to 11 services a week between 1 July and 17 September 2017. The capacity increase will cater to high demand during the peak summer season. The announcement comes as the Abu Dhabi-based airline completed five years […]
Bernie Dunn may have retired from the US Army but he remains on a mission in the Middle East. The Boeing regional president hit a bullseye on December 11 when his team secured an $8 billion deal with Iran Air in the airline’s first plane contract since 1979. The world’s largest aerospace manufacturer beat out its French rival, Airbus, by 11 days. Though Airbus then secured 20 […]
By Kevin Yao and Elias Glenn | BEIJING BEIJING China’s economy grew a faster-than-expected 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, boosted by higher government spending and record bank lending, giving it a solid tailwind heading into what is expected to be a turbulent 2017. But Beijing’s decision to raise spending to meet its official growth target could exact a high price, as policymakers grapple with financial risks […]
DUBAI/BEIRUT: Iran’s government and entities close to the elite Revolutionary Guards have signed major economic contracts with Syria, reaping what appear to be lucrative rewards for helping President Bashar Assad regain control of parts of his country from rebels.An opposition group condemned the telecommunications and mining deals signed with Iran, Damascus’s main regional ally, as “looting” of the Syrian people and the country’s wealth by the “Iranian […]
19 January 2017 Leading global publisher The Business Year (TBY) recently met with HE Essam Abdul Mohsen Al-Marzouq, the newly appointed Minister of Oil and the Minister of Electricity and Water of Kuwait. The Minister spoke extensively about privatization plans in the electricity sector and elaborated on his intentions to move the Ministry of Electricity and Water away from being a producer in order to become more […]
Investor optimism faded in the week preceding the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, with equity funds suffering their largest outflows since the surprise result of November’s election. Close to $2.5bn fled US equity funds in the week ending Wednesday, according to data from EPFR Global, extending outflows of $250m from the prior week and demonstrating that the investor demand that drove more than $60bn of […]
By Richard Martin | BARCELONA BARCELONA Spanish third-tier team CD Tudelano have taken the unusual step of appointing Scottish businessman John Clarkson as coach on an 18-month contract without a salary, the club said on Thursday. Clarkson, who owns a care home business in East Anglia, takes over a side who are ninth in Group 1 of the regionalized Second Division B. The 60-year-old has previous experience […]
