The numbers involved in musical theatre are staggering, according to Nick Allott. His favourite statistic is this: The seven Harry Potter films — the most successful franchise ever — grossed a total of $13bn; the four most successful musicals — Cats, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera – have garnered a whopping $16bn. “A lot of people don’t know that,” says the managing director […]
Oman’s tourism ministry has signed an agreement with Orascom Development Holding to build a new beachfront city complex. Ahmed bin Nasser Al Mahrizi, Minister of Tourism, signed the deal with Samih Sawaris, chairman of Orascom and Omani tourist firm Muriya, to develop City Walk. Set to be located in North Al Hail, the development comes as part of the continued collaboration between the Ministry and Muriya to […]
A Malaysian businessman and his partner have been charged with orchestrating the single biggest fraud in the history of Singapore’s stock exchange, which wiped out S$8bn in value and triggered a lasting loss of investor confidence. Soh Chee Wen, also known as John Soh, faced charges in a Singapore court on Friday in relation to an alleged fraud in which three publicly listed stocks soared in valuation […]
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has hired HSBC to advise it on a potential purchase of a stake in ACWA Power, a developer and operator of power and water plants, sources close to the matter said. Riyadh-based ACWA Power has chosen JP Morgan to advise it on the process, the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not […]
Palestinian leaders were more wary. “I don’t personally know Jared Kushner and have never met him, but welcome the idea of having him assist in breaking the deadlock in the negotiations of the conflict,” said Amin Maqboul, secretary general of the revolutionary council of Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority. Continue reading the main story The extent of Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Israel is unclear. […]
BOSTON Activist shareholders plan a record number of resolutions focused on climate change at U.S. company annual meetings in 2017, even as President-elect Donald Trump looks set to loosen environmental regulations. Based on filings so far, U.S. companies are on track to face roughly 200 resolutions on climate matters at their shareholder meetings next year, according to Rob Berridge, who follows the subject for Ceres, a sustainability […]
Sunil John, the founder and CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, was presented with the Chairman’s Award at the Middle East PR Awards 2016. Now in its eighth year, the Middle East PR Awards recognises agencies, corporates, teams and individuals who have shown exceptional return on investment, creativity and strategic impact. The Chairman’s Award, one of the top prizes at the industry’s biggest event, is given to an individual […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Friday, dragged by a strong dollar, rising Saudi supplies to Asian clients, and a fall in Chinese imports. Brent crude futures were trading at $48.42 at 0753 GMT, down 58 cents, or 1.2 percent, from their last close, although overall activity was thin after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and ahead of the weekend. U.S. […]
After a US election in which hyper partisan news sites helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency, the future direction and financing of this ardent alternative journalism seems unclear. In recent days, some brands and ad platforms have blacklisted the right-wing Breitbart News for hate speech, while Facebook and Google — facing accusations of enabling misinformation online — have acted to prevent their advertising from appearing on […]
US stock funds continue to pull in investor’s cash after the US election, as Donald Trump’s rhetoric over renewed growth for the economy shows no sign of abating. Just over $5.1bn flowed into US stock funds for the week ending November 23, according to data from EPFR. It was a lighter intake than the previous record-setting week, but still accentuated the rotation out of bond funds and […]
The battle for Thanksgiving online shoppers is well under way, with early data suggesting that it is off to a positive start. Between midnight and 5pm US Eastern Time, online sales increased 13.6 per cent to $1.15bn, compared with 2015, according to Adobe Digital Index, which tracks 80 per cent of online sales of the top 100 retailers. It said this figure meant sales via ecommerce for […]
Theresa May is facing a growing backlash over her flagship business reforms after leading company bosses and the Bank of England’s chief economist urged her to reverse plans on executive pay. Senior finance and corporate figures, including the BoE’s Andy Haldane and GlaxoSmithKline’s chief executive Sir Andrew Witty, have rejected two of the prime minister’s main corporate governance proposals. In a report to be published on Friday, […]
If there are political similarities in the impulses that led the UK to vote for an exit from the EU and the US for Donald Trump, the market reaction to Wednesday’s collection of British tax and spending measures illustrated the economic differences between the two countries. While Trumponomics has fast become shorthand for a promised programme of tax cuts and infrastructure incentives that could rival the actions […]
Zayed Future Energy Prize leads discussion on innovation for sustainable development in UAE during Innovation Week in Masdar City Abu Dhabi-UAE: 24 November 2016 The Zayed Future Energy Prize convened a majlis of business, science, technology and youth leaders in Masdar City today, to explore ways in which innovation can unlock potential in the economy to sustainably deliver on the goals of the UAE Vision 2021. Entitled […]
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, known on Wall Street as the “king of bankruptcy” for his record of buying failing companies, will be tapped as Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, putting an advocate of renegotiating US trade pacts in a key economic post. Mr Ross was a close adviser to Mr Trump during his campaign and helped develop the president-elect’s policies for corporate tax cuts, increased infrastructure spending and […]
Hopes of a fix to the collateral squeeze facing the eurozone’s €5tn short-term funding markets were boosted this week after reports emerged the European Central Bank will consider ways to ease rules on how it lends its stockpile of sovereign debt. A lack of good quality collateral, which market participants use to secure loans, has crippled the single currency area’s short-term funding (“repo”) markets. One big reason […]
By Stanley Carvalho and Agnieszka Flak | ABU DHABI/MILAN ABU DHABI/MILAN Alitalia could cut up to 2,000 jobs as controlling shareholder Etihad Airways pushes for sweeping changes to turn the loss-making airline around, according to sources close to the matter. The Italian carrier may also ground at least 20 planes to cut certain unprofitable routes on domestic and regional services where it is struggling to compete with […]
|ARABIAN POST SPECIAL|By K Raveendran| As predicted, Emaar chairman Mohammed Alabbar’s foray into e-commerce has already started creating waves in the regional and global online retailing market. In an apparent move to retain its clout, global e-commerce leader Amazon.com is reportedly in talks to acquire Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com. Amazon is reportedly considering a bid for all of souq.com, which had initially planned to sell a minority stake. […]
While most global equity markets were subdued due to the US Thaksgiving holiday, the FX world was very busy overnight, marked by the relentless dollar surge on expectations of a rate hike not only in December but further in 2017, sending Asian currencies to the weakest level in 7 years: the Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index reached 103.32, the lowest level since March 2009. The regional FX plunge […]
China has become the first country to receive more than 1m patent applications in a single year — a record the World Intellectual Property Organisation said reflected “extraordinary” levels of innovation in the world’s most populous nation. “[The Chinese] are making innovation a central part of their economic strategy,” Francis Gurry, director-general of the UN agency, said at a briefing in Geneva. While sceptics have long argued […]
November 24, 2016 by: Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator Thursday 08:30 GMT. European equity markets are trading cautiously in the wake of solid US data that bolstered the case for a near-term rate rise from the Federal Reserve and which has triggered another bout of dollar strength. The rampant buck is battering many emerging market currencies and leaves gold down $5 to $1,182.5 an ounce, the metal’s […]
Emarat Dzayer Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate, and Groupe Imetal, a Government of Algeria entity, have signed an agreement to develop a $1.6 billion steel plant in Algeria’s Annaba Province. The agreement was signed on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Algerian-Emirati Investment Forum. The agreement will create Emarat Dzayer Steel Company, a joint venture in which Groupe Imetal will hold 51 percent stake through its two subsidiaries […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday as upbeat economic data strengthened the prospect for higher U.S. interest rates, while the dollar’s bull run continued with U.S. bond yields propelled to multi-year highs. Japanese stocks swam against the tide and rose to a near 11-month high as the yen weakened. Spreadbetters saw a mixed opening for European stocks, forecasting a slightly […]
November 24, 2016 by: Yuan Yang in Beijing and Peter Wells in Hong Kong Ctrip International has agreed to pay £1.4bn ($1.7bn) for Skyscanner, the Scottish airfare comparison website, in move that will help the Chinese online travel group target the country’s booming outbound tourism industry. Some 120m Chinese tourists went abroad last year — more than double the number of 2010, according to the China Tourism Research […]
