|By Arabian Post Staff| The introduction of a new technique, using excavators that could virtually be called concrete-eaters, is set to revolutionize the way high rise structures are demolished in the UAE. The new method reduces the time required to bring down a high rise structure to a matter of days, instead of months and years required by conventional methods. The shorter time frames would mean much quicker […]
|By Arabain Post Staff| Bank Sarasin-Alpen Middle East Limited, defending the region’s biggest financial mis-selling case has lost the first appeals against the record judgement of $70 million penalty awarded by the Court of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Bank Sarasin and its DIFC subsidiary Sarasin-Alpin had filed an appeal against the liability finding which led to record damages being awarded against them. The liability appeal […]
|By Matein Khalid| It is no coincidence that the most profitable hotels on the planet are located in Makkah, the holiest city of Islam as the site of the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba. For fifteen centuries, Muslims have traveled to Makkah from all over the world for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, making the city the highest source of inbound foreign visitors in Saudi Arabia. Makkah is […]
|By Matein Khalid| The sultanate of Oman has enjoyed phenomenal economic development success in the 45 year reign of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Modern Oman is one of the true social, political and economic success stories of the Arab world. However, the Achilles heel of the Omani economy is its huge dependence on oil and gas export earnings, 60% of the sultanate’s GDP. Standard and […]
/By Arabian Post Staff/ Zurich Insurance Group AG has started a process to exit from its general insurance business in the Middle East, pronouncements by the company executives indicated. Zurich’s general insurance chief Kristof Terryn last week said in an interview that the Middle East business has been put into a ‘run-off’ in view of the ‘limited potential’ of general insurance in the region. It will, however, […]
|By Matein Khalid| The global credit cycle has an immediate impact on the UAE via oil prices, the US dollar peg, cross border bank credit flows, Federal Reserve monetary policy and world trade. The IMF has cut its 2016 growth forecast to 2.6%, the lowest since 2010. A leading developer just booked a 20 fold rise in penalties from walkaway offplan home buyers. Banks hire “loan rangers” […]
Crude oil surged the most in seven years, rebounding from the lowest in more than a decade as equities rallied. Volatility jumped. Futures rose 12 percent in New York and 11 percent in London. U.S. stocks halted a five-day slide that dragged global equities into a bear market. Producers are ready to work together and won’t make cuts unless there’s complete cooperation, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail […]
A general view shows the building ‘Gorod Stolits’ (Capital City) (C), which houses an office of 25 Floor Film Company, at the Moscow International Business Center also known as ”Moskva-City”, in Moscow, Russia, February 3, 2016. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev WASHINGTON Russian authorities in November raided offices associated with a Moscow film distribution and production company as part of a crackdown on one of the world’s most notorious financial […]
An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar NEW YORK Apple Inc (AAPL.O) must pay VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC.A) more than $625 million for using the patent licensing company’s Internet security technology without permission in its FaceTime and iMessage features, a federal jury in Texas said on Wednesday. […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Bank Sarasin-Alpen (ME) Limited, the former Middle East affiliate of co-defendant Swiss Private Bank J. Safra Sarasin, has failed to deposit $35 million in damages by the deadline of February 1, 2016 as per the order of the DIFC Court, the aggrieved party announced. The case relates to one of the biggest financial mis-selling cases in the GCC region. The defendant bank apparently failed […]
|By Matein Khalid| “One country, two systems”. This was the historic formula under which Margaret Thatcher agreed to hand over the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China, then ruled by Paramount Leader Deng Xiao Ping. The Hong Kong dollar’s spike to 7.81, on the high end of its 7.75 – 7.85 band, demonstrates the sheer scale of the speculative attack against […]
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waits to speak at a campaign town hall in Davenport, Iowa January 30, 2016. Reuters/Rick Wilking NEW YORK The millions of Twitter users following Donald Trump shouldn’t expect a “follow back” from the Republican presidential front-runner anytime soon. Trump’s campaign account @realDonaldTrump has nearly 6 million Twitter followers, the most of any candidate running for president. But he is picky about […]
WHY TAX/GREEN BREAK FOR INDIA’S RICH?
By Garga Chatterjee
On 16th January, with much fanfare, the Union government announced its “Start-up India” scheme. On attendance were big people, big enough not to deserve any income tax break in their next seven lives. But this is precisely what the Government of India (GoI) has offered – an income tax exemption for first three years of a “start-up”. There will also be tax exemption on capital gains. After all its fake environment-love recently in Paris, this GoI scheme has also offered a three-year exemption on environment law compliance! Entities will only need to self-certify! In the name of “start-up”, exactly what anti-environment, anti-labour racket are we starting up here? This will also be true for labour law and working condition compliance (including payment of wages and benefits to staff). Shamelessly, this whole sch
An Apple logo is seen at the Apple store in Munich, Germany, January 27, 2016. Reuters/Michaela Rehle Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shares fell more than 6.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest percentage drop in two years, after the company reported its slowest-ever rise in iPhone shipments and forecast that quarterly sales for the current period would post the first drop in 13 years. At least 16 analysts cut […]
ENERGY-HUNGRY BANGLADESH SAW DECADES-LONG WAIT
By Ashis Biswas
KOLKATA: Diplomacy may have won the day for Russia more than financial/technological reasons, in bagging the order to build two nuclear power generating stations in Bangladesh by 2022-23.
This would enable Bangladesh to become the third country in South Asia to generate nuke power, after India and Pakistan. However, Sri Lanka could join the list soon according to present indications.
A proposal to build nuclear power plants in East Pakistan had been put forward as early as 1961 and approved in 1963, according to open source information. Therefore, neither Awami League (AL) leader Sheikh Hasina, nor Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia, can be rightfully accused of harbouring illusions of grandeur in going nuclear. Bangladesh has pledged to observe non-proliferati
UAE. To coincide with the annual Arab Health Exhibition & Congress this week, six major investment opportunities in the GCC’s health care market in 2016 have been predicted by EY as being areas of high demand and growth in the region. According to the EY ‘Investment Big Bets – Healthcare and Life Sciences in the GCC’ report launched today, specialized centers of excellence (CoEs), home health care […]
UAE. Businesses must adjust how they nurture loyalty among Millennials or risk losing a large percentage of their workforces, according to Deloitte’s fifth annual Millennial Survey. Forty-four percent of Millennials say, if given the choice, they expect to leave their current employers in the next two years. That figure increases to 66 percent when the time frame is extended to 2020. The findings were revealed through a […]
UAE. UAE. Hays GCC 2016 Salary & Employment Report, published today by recruiting experts Hays, found that 49 per cent of employers feel positive about 2016 compared to a higher 69 per cent who felt the same in 2015. The survey, which was completed by over 2,400 employees and 200 employers, forecasts mixed fortunes for job candidates and salaries over the next 12 months. In 2015, 48 […]
DUBAI // Three members of a gang that broke into a villa in Jumeirah and stole Dh1.5 million worth of jewellery have been locked up for three years. The Dubai Criminal Court was told that in July last year American R J, Mexican D P and Colombians M A and M O, all aged 32, broke into the empty villa and stole diamonds and other valuables. They […]
People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw September 27, 2013. Reuters/Kacper Pempel/Files An exodus of top Twitter Inc executives has raised concerns about the company’s plans to win more users. Media head Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head Kevin Weil, the head of the engineering division, Alex Roetter and HR head Brian “Skip” Schipper […]
The $15 trillion rout in global equity markets since May is reawakening the lure of gold for investors seeking safety. Hedge funds more than doubled their net-long position in bullion last week, just three weeks after they were the most-bearish ever. Investor holdings of gold through exchange-traded products are expanding at the fastest pace in a year, and the value of the ETPs has jumped by $3 […]
SAUDI ARABIA. 2015 has established itself as a record-breaking year for cross-border M&A post-financial crisis, according to a Cross-Border M&A Index* by global law firm Baker & McKenzie. With corporate deal-making activity at record highs, those companies are also executing record levels of cross-border transactions, a global trend reflected in the Middle East. Overall M&A in 2015 reached US$4.28 trillion, of which 39% were cross-border in nature […]
Oil rallied, heading for biggest two-day advance since 2009 after a slump to a 12-year low prompted some investors to buy back record bearish bets. Front-month futures have jumped more than 18 percent after the February contract expired Wednesday at $26.55 a barrel, the lowest settlement since 2003. Speculators this month amassed the biggest-ever short position in U.S. crude amid concern that turmoil in China’s markets would […]
|By Matein Khalid| I had called for Brent crude to fall to $30 in successive columns since the November 2014 OPEC conclave in Vienna, when Saudi Arabia abandoned its traditional role as the “swing producer” the central bank of black gold. The world oil markets now face a supply shock, a demand shock, epic volatility and the loss of the “swing producer”. The world is running out […]
