By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON The British government’s appeal against a legal ruling that it needs parliamentary approval to trigger the formal process of leaving the European Union is being heard in the country’s top court this week. Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she will invoke “Article 50” of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of March and begin the formal Brexit negotiations […]
MILAN Ferrero, maker of Nutella chocolate spread, has appointed Jerome Gregoire, currently head of the company’s operations in Greece, Cyprus and Malta, as managing director at Delacre, the biscuit maker it has just bought from United Biscuits. Belgium-based Delacre said on Monday Ferrero had completed the acquisition of the Delacre and Delichoc biscuit brands from United Biscuits. Ferrero had made an offer in July to acquire the […]
This is the first of a series on the global rise of exchange traded funds The supposed death of the stock picker has become one of the dominant narratives of post-crisis finance. As trillions of dollars have rushed into low maintenance, index-based products facilitated by exchange traded funds, it has become common place to hear traditional fund managers and analysts complain that this wall of cash is […]
Dubai Airports has rolled out an upgraded Wi-Fi service across both Dubai International and Dubai World Central airports that allows passengers to access unlimited free high-speed. The airports authority said the new service was launched after extensive research into passenger expectations. Dubai Airports said access to the Wi-Fi has also been made simpler with only one click required on the landing page to connect to the service. […]
BEIJING China’s Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure on Monday after President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese investment fund from acquiring the U.S. business of German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron (AIXGn.DE). Obama’s executive order barring China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) from completing the acquisition of a German company with American assets was one of only a few such instances in which a U.S. president has blocked a […]
Shares in Italian banks opened sharply lower Monday morning after voters rejected the country’s constitutional reform referendum, with investors questioning whether some of Italy’s largest financial institutions will now be able to raise capital needed to shore up their finances. Milan’s stock market benchmark, the FTSE Mib, was down 1.4 per cent to 16,857.0 in opening trading, led lower by its banks after Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime […]
Discuss the law of large numbers with statisticians and they mean using large samples to improve experiments. Analysts take the phrase to mean no company or economy can grow stratospherically forever. China watchers have another approach, forecasting eye-popping numbers for future foreign investment into Chinese financial markets. Expected long-term inflows via the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, launched on Monday, are no exception. But in the short term, […]
Following a successful listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on November 17 with a market capitalisation of AU$23 million, conversational commerce company Flamingo is now looking at Australia as a key market, with online lending marketplace DirectMoney being announced as its first local client. Born in Australia and based in the US, Flamingo is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provides an “intelligent guided selling platform” to […]
December 05, 2016 Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), the Bahrain-based leading international aluminium smelter, announced the appointment of Waleed Tamimi today on Sunday December 4, 2016 as the new Director of Administration. A Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Waleed comes from a business management background with a stronghold on operational excellence. He joined Alba in 2011 as a Master Black Belt Specialist in the Operational Excellence Department. […]
Abu Dhabi has revamped the boards of two key state-owned entities, Abu Dhabi Airports and the Tourism Development Investment Company (TDIC), which are handling some of the emirate’s biggest development projects. Company sources gave no reason for the changes, which occurred last month and replaced Ali Majed al-Mansouri, who had served as Abu Dhabi Airports chairman since 2012 and TDIC chairman since 2014. Like other governments in […]
John Key has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, saying it felt like “the right time to go” and that he wanted to leave on his own terms ahead of next year’s general election. Mr Key, a former Merrill Lynch banker who won three consecutive elections and whose National party is ahead in opinion polls, said he would vote for Bill English, deputy prime minister, in a […]
By Crispian Balmer and Gavin Jones | ROME ROME Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would resign after suffering a crushing defeat on Sunday in a referendum on constitutional reform, tipping the euro zone’s third-largest economy into political turmoil. His decision to quit after just two and a half years in office deals a blow to the European Union, already reeling from multiple crises and struggling […]
Don’t worry about the robots, worry about the humans. Image: iStock There’s a huge difference between the modest aims of the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning being used today, and the grand ideas of creating an artificial general intelligence that could match — and then rapidly exceed – the capabilities of a human mind As they develop, AI and machine learning will be able to […]
New energy vehicles (NEVs) at Beijing Institute of Technology’s campus. Credit: Yu Hao Many Chinese cities are suffering from deteriorating environmental quality—particularly due to air pollution that contributes to fog and haze. Air pollutant levels now far exceed “safe” limits established by the European Union, and one of the main culprits behind it is the rapid increase in automobile ownership and usage. These rising environmental concerns are […]
Investors should invest in properties as prices are reasonable and the market is showing signs of recovery, according to an Omani real estate developer. Latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information showed sales are up 124 percent to $19.99 billion (OMR7.7 billion) in the first ten months of 2016 from $8.83 billion (OMR3.4 billion) for the same period 2015. Mortgage deals jumped by […]
Meetings held with Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and Korea Diamond Exchange 04 December 2016 Dubai, UAE: As part of the ongoing efforts of the UAE Kimberley Process Chair (KP Chair), Ahmed Bin Sulayem, to engage countries across the diamond supply chain, he has held meetings with senior government and industry representatives in South Korea. The aim of these discussions was to deliberate ways to bolster […]
Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) has announced plans to build 54 new service stations over the next four years. The expansion plan kicked off with the opening of a gas station in the Dubai International Academic City area, the company said in a statement. Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO of ENOC, said: “Our service station expansion programme is part of ENOC’s wider growth strategy over the […]
Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft’s venture-funding group, has been adding more companies to its investment portfolio over the last couple of months. In May, Microsoft announced plans to create Microsoft Ventures, a small early-stage investment group targeting startups in the cloud, security and machine-learning markets. In October, Microsoft created a new site for its Ventures arm that listed 10 concerns in which it had invested to date. (At that […]
Sennheiser’s new MB 660 UC wireless headset is a serious piece of kit in many respects. A chunky headset with large ear cups and a solid, no-nonsense headband, it’s designed to take a few knocks — both in the office and at home. When it needs to travel, the MB 660 UC sits in a tough, zippable carry case. The package will consume a fair amount of […]
By Arno Schuetze | FRANKFURT FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets division will cut ties with about 3,400 clients in its debt and equities sales activities, the bank said on Friday. Deutsche Bank will immediately cease debt sales services to some financial institutions and hedge funds as well as equity sales activities, the execution of equities trading orders and equity structuring activities for some clients, a spokesman said, […]
· Family businesses are threatened by rapidly changing internal and external environments · Study by Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) stresses the need for family businesses to identify priority areas for action to institutionalize and adapt · Strategy& suggests three focus areas for institutionalization: governance, strategy and corporate enablers · Although each family business has unique features, Strategy& has identified four archetypes of family […]
India is an interesting country when it comes to Internet access. On the one hand, India has the second most Internet subscribers in the world. There are over 450 million people online here. On the other hand, we also have the largest number of unconnected people. Only about 35 percent of our population is online, including more than 70 percent of women. Between 70 and 80 percent […]
Every year, Brazilian venture capital firm Monashees takes entrepreneurs from its portfolio companies on an overseas discovery tour. This year, instead of Silicon Valley, the firm headed to the Yangtze Valley, in a clear sign of a new front opening for Chinese investment in Latin America. China is seeking to expand lending and investment in Brazil and elsewhere on the continent, as it shifts from its traditional […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
