Abu Dhabi’s stock market plans to introduce covered short-selling in the first quarter of 2017, its chief executive said on Monday, as it seeks to boost liquidity and attract more foreign investors. In covered short-selling, investors borrow shares and sell them in the expectation of repurchasing them later at a lower price. Regulators in the Gulf have until now shied away from allowing the practice because of […]
Toshiba warned the market that it could book an impairment loss of “several billion dollars” at its troubled US nuclear division and reconsider its presence in that industry as accounting issues returned to blight one of Japan’s biggest industrial names. With Toshiba’s financial position becoming more clouded by the announcement, its chief executive, Satoshi Tsunakawa, told a press conference on Tuesday night in Tokyo that the company […]
The eurozone’s biggest stock markets are closing in on double-digit gains for the final quater of 2016, as a combination of resurgent banks shares and a weaker euro entice investors into a region that has disappointed for much of the year. On Tuesday’s return from the Christmas break, Germany’s Xetra Dax 30 advanced 0.1 per cent in early afternoon trading, and is now up more than 9 […]
TOKYO Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) is gauging demand for its first bond offering since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear calamity, with some market participants expecting a sale as early as February, people familiar with the plans said. Once-sceptical investors are now more comfortable with the utility’s outlook after government moves to reassess decommissioning and compensation costs, bankers and investors who asked not to be identified told Thomson Reuters […]
In 2016 it was all about Panamagate. But by retaining Konrad Mizzi in his executive and Keith Schembri besides him in Castille, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stubbornly failed to recognise the extent of the public outrage at these revelations Jurgen Balzan 27 December 2016, 7:20am Joseph Muscat stood by his men and by his own admission, he evidently considers himself unable to complete the energy plans without […]
A problem has emerged for France’s anti-immigrant, anti-Euro presidential frontrunner, Marine Le Pen, and it has little to do with being behind in the polls ahead of the 2017 presidential elections, far from it. It has, however, everything to do with something far simpler: money, as the National Front leader is suddenly struggling to raise the €20 million ($21 million) she needs to fund the French presidential […]
Chinese retail investors may be able to dream of Picasso while hanging share certificates on their walls. A Singapore-based Chinese billionaire investor, who this year acquired stakes in peer-to-peer group Lending Club, Legg Mason, the fund manager and Sotheby’s, has proposed “securitising” the artist’s work to create fractional ownership and tap a wider market in Asia. Chen Tianqiao and his wife Chrissy Luo, co-founders of investment group […]
The European Central Bank has said that Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s capital shortfall has risen to €8.8bn from €5bn, significantly increasing the price tag of the rescue of Italy’s third-largest lender by the government. In a statement released late on Monday, MPS also revealed that the ECB had warned that the bank’s liquidity had suffered a “rapid deterioration” over the past month, as it tried in […]
ACE Hardware, the world’s largest hardware retail cooperative, is to open at First Avenue in Dubai’s Motor City, becoming its main anchor retail tenant. The retailer said in a statement that it will operate on the ground floor across an area of almost 6,500 sq ft. ACE stores sell a wide variety of hardware products to maintain and fix homes and businesses. “The pace of demographic growth […]
Dubai, 26 December, 2016, UAE Ajman Free Zone (AFZ) signed an investor partnership agreement with Dubai Quality Group (DQG) to activate fruitful cooperation between both parties to foster quality, business excellence, and innovation in the workplace. The signing ceremony was attended by senior officials from both the organizations. The delegation from DQG was headed by Eng. Ahmed Al Mulla, Vice Chairman of DQG, who presented the Certificate […]
In 2016, we saw some phone manufacturers take big risks, trying to push the boundaries of what a smartphone should do, while other companies played it safe. LG and Lenovo each tried to create a modular ecosystem, while Google walked away from the idea altogether. Apple even got on board with water resistance, and then Google jumped into the smartphone war. Take your phone for a swim […]
Kuwait, 26 December 2016 Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” and Gulf Bank announced in a joint statement the successful completion of “Markaz” 5 years bond issue with a nominal value of 25 Million Kuwaiti Dinar, which was oversubscribed. This extensive demand reflects the investors’ trust in “Markaz”, the quality of the issue, and the high creditworthiness of “Markaz,” in addition to the effectiveness of the joint distribution efforts […]
MILAN/LONDON On the morning of July 29, former Italian Industry Minister Corrado Passera was traveling in a high-speed train toward the medieval city of Siena, racing to meet the directors of the world’s oldest bank to present them with a rescue plan. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s third-largest lender, was destined to be wound down within months unless it could raise billions of euros and pull […]
Over the past year, technology and ‘sharing economy’ start-ups have continued their disruption of traditional industries — from Uber and other ride hailers’ shake-up of the taxi market to Airbnb’s myriad alternatives to conventional hotel stays. But which will be the next businesses to be challenged by further digitisation and automation? FT correspondents have looked ahead five to 10 years to identify those industry sectors and companies […]
26 December 2016 Dubai – The internet of things (IoT) is rapidly gaining momentum within the healthcare industry of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to IDC Health Insights, there has been a steady rise in IoT initiatives over recent years, and in some usage scenarios, IoT services are maturing rapidly toward mainstream deployment. The firm projects IoT spending by healthcare providers across the Middle East […]
Dubai’s Shuaa Capital bought 14 percent of Bahrain’s Khaleeji Commercial Bank on Sunday for 9.6 million dinars ($25 million) and said it would use the stake to support the bank’s expansion. The Dubai-listed investment bank purchased the stake from Alimtiaz Investment Group for 0.065 dinar per share, acquiring 147.1 million shares in a special auction, the Bahraini bourse said. KHCB is an Islamic retail bank with assets […]
SEOUL Headed for a fourth straight annual profit decline, Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) is trimming its cost fat; scaling back on business class flights and annual family home trips for overseas employees, executives told Reuters. The South Korean automaker has been hit by its exposure to weak emerging markets, and a product line-up that features more sedans than sport utility vehicles, just as SUVs have become more popular […]
By Jake Spring | NINGDE, China NINGDE, China A dusty village on the outskirts of Ningde, a third-tier city in China’s southeast, seems an unlikely place for the headquarters of a potential global leader in future automotive technology. Yet China’s top-down industrial policy diktats – move up the value chain, clean up polluted urban skies, and shift to plug-in cars – have Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) […]
When US authorities started pursuing banks for their role in slicing, dicing and packaging the arcane products that sparked the financial crisis, they initially focused on domestic lenders. Now it is Europe’s banks that are in the crosshairs. Two days before Christmas, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to settle with the US Department of Justice over the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up […]
BEIJING China needs to keep financial market liquidity stable and regulate its “money gates” to prevent asset bubbles, but it also needs to ensure a lack of liquidity doesn’t cause financial stress, according to a commentary in a newspaper owned by the People’s Bank of China. Chinese policymakers face a dilemma as they need to tighten credit to contain debt and speculative investment without triggering a wave […]
Saudi Arabia’s government plans to provide 200 billion riyals ($53 billion) of incentives to the private sector over the next four years in its drive to diversify the economy beyond oil, according to an official planning document. A reform programme launched this year, after a plunge in oil prices slashed state revenues in the world’s top oil exporting country, envisions the private sector investing tens of billions […]
Region’s Largest Financial Advisor Observes “Troublingly Low” Penetration Rates across the Country Key Benefits Include Medical Emergency Coverage, as well as Compensation for Flight Delays and Loss of Personal Belongings 22 December 2016 Dubai, United Arab Emirates UAE holidaymakers are putting themselves at increased risk of facing serious financial repercussions by not taking measures to adequately cover themselves in the event of a travel emergency, experts […]
More than a month after the election, the following sentence has become a cable news cliché: Journalists in New York and Washington, D.C. are out of touch with the rest of the country. It’s true. There’s a lot of local nuance that doesn’t make the national news. And it’s even true within cities like New York — growing up in the Bronx often meant watching reporters based […]
Australia’s cybersecurity capabilities and researchers will be showcased to global players in the United States in February, in a delegation sent to the RSA Conference in San Francisco led by Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security Alastair MacGibbon and recently appointed CEO of the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network Craig Davies. According to Nicola Watkinson, Austrade’s senior trade and investment commissioner for North America, […]
