Bank ABC in $250m million loan facility deal MANAMA, 3 days ago Bahrain-based Bank ABC said it has closed a $250 million syndicated term loan facility for Bank Sohar. The three-year facility was signed on July 14 and will be used by Bank Sohar for general funding purposes, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication. Besides Bank ABC, which acted as the […]
Turning rubble into homes, the Dutch style AMSTERDAM, 2 days ago In Dutch capital Amsterdam, a mobile factory, the size of two shipping containers, ingests rubble at one end, liquifies it into cement and spurts out Lego-shaped building blocks. Call it rubble for the people, converting the deadly debris from disasters into homes and hospitals, cheaply and quickly. It’s the brainchild of Gerard Steijn, a 71-year-old sustainable […]
ABU DHABI // It has gone so fast – and so far, so good. It’s already the third anniversary of work starting on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant at Barakah, near the border with Saudi Arabia. And it is still on budget and set to go live in late 2017, ultimately providing a quarter of the Emirates’ energy needs. But becoming the first new member to […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global investors have raised their holdings of cash significantly in response to a weaker global economic outlook, particularly in China, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for July. Overall, equity allocations are unaffected by the higher risk aversion, however. • Confidence in the global economy falls sharply: 42percent of investors expect strengthening over next year, down from 55 percent a month ago.• China heads concerns: […]
|By Matein Khalid| Last week was a roller coaster and the Nikkei Dow closed at 19,800. Abenomics has had a seismic impact on Japan’s economy, financial markets and banking system. The yen has fallen from 76 on the eve of the election in 2012 to 122 against the US dollar. Corporate profits have exploded. Land price rises, job growth, bonuses, capex and consumer spending have lifted Japan […]
Prices for German luxury cars in China are tumbling as the country’s stock market sell-off and worries about broader economic growth chill demand for auto brands that once commanded price premiums from affluent Chinese consumers. At Mercedes-Benz stores operated by a dealer group with nearly 200 multiple brand outlets, customer traffic at showrooms has dwindled markedly since mid-June, when a stock market slide that saw indexes plunge by […]
|By Matein Khald| During the 2008 post-Lehman financial meltdown, home prices in Dubai fell by 60-70 per cent and a generation of offplan flippers and leveraged investors/buyers (a mortgage, by definition, is a highly leveraged and speculative financial product. There is a reason the word “mortgage” derives from the French “mort” or death!) were wiped out. However, the Arab Spring, global liquidity and the successful debt restructuring […]
Pedestrians walk past a logo of Toshiba Corp outside an electronics retailer in Tokyo, Japan, June 25, 2015. Reuters/Yuya Shino/Files TOKYO An independent investigation of Toshiba Corp’s accounting irregularities is looking at the role played by top officials, people familiar with the matter said, a move that could force a management overhaul at the Japanese conglomerate. As the probe has widened from looking into accounting errors at […]
|By Matein Khalid| De Gaulle dissed gold as a “barbarous relic” and Lenin sneered the yellow metal was fit only to “pave capitalist latrines”. So what? Gold has been an monetary metal in human history for centuries, back to the time of Pharonic Egypt, the Inca Empire, King Midas and the Spanish conquistadores of Mexico. While President Nixon removed the gold/dollar Bretton Woods linkage in 1971 and […]
INTERNATIONAL. This is now officially a Greek tragedy. In many ways, it is relatively easy to understand why the result was a No from Greece. There is little to lose, as a Yes to more austerity hardly was a great choice for a society on the brink of a social break down. The vote clearly was not help by the fact that the actual vote: Yes or No […]
Oil price flux unlikely to hit long-term sector growth BEIRUT, 13 hours, 17 minutes ago The cyclicality of the oil and gas industry is unlikely to impact the long term trajectory of the sector, a report said, noting that the current fluctuations may speed up some of the trends that were already unfolding. The new report entitled “Oil and Gas Reality Check 2015” released by Deloitte, a […]
By ANNE BARNARD July 5, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government troops and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon pushed into the Syrian border town of Zabadani on Sunday amid heavy airstrikes, continuing an offensive aimed at strengthening their control of routes between Lebanon and Syria. Pushing insurgents out of the mountain town would continue advances aimed at cutting insurgent supply lines to Lebanon, and would also be a symbolic victory. […]
INTERNATIONAL. Greece’s seeming hour-by-hour descent into chaos at the end of the second quarter has fashioned an intensely uncertain framework casting markets at the mercy of headline risk. It is with that ever-changing caveat that Saxo Bank publishes its Q3 Outlook ahead of the Greek referendum on EU membership which, as things stand, will take place July 5. The outlook for Q3, therefore hangs in the balance, […]
DUBAI // Staff should not be forced into making up “lost hours” because of the reduced working day during Ramadan, recruitment experts and the Ministry of Labour have warned. The ministry has ordered that the working day be cut by two hours during the holy month, for Muslim and non-Muslim staff. Companies that do not comply face punishments including having employees’ visas cancelled, which would be a […]
By ANNE BARNARD and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — The fiercest fighting in months raged in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, as newly reorganized insurgents carried out a new offensive on government-held areas. Two insurgent coalitions — a new one that includes the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, and one formed in May by local factions long active in Aleppo — attacked simultaneously […]
In another sign of the ongoing changes in online search, Yahoo is testing a search partnership with Google. The search giant confirmed in a statement that “Yahoo is currently testing search results and ads from a number of partners, including Google as one of their options.” A Yahoo spokesperson told us, “As we work to create the absolute best experiences for Yahoo users, from time to time, […]
|TAP Special| Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Alwaleed Philanthropies, announced his intention to donate all of his wealth to philanthropy over the coming years to help build a “better world of tolerance, acceptance, equality and opportunity for all.” This $32 billion philanthropic pledge will help build bridges to foster cultural understanding, develop communities, empower women, enable youth, provide […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai announced plans to build the world’s first fully functional 3D printed building, an ambitious move that will establish the UAE’s position as the global centre of technology in architecture construction and design. The building will be located close to the ‘Museum of the Future’, launched earlier this year in Dubai, and will act as temporary headquarters for its staff. It will be approximately […]
|TAP Special|Emirates has released a point-by-point rebuttal of subsidy allegations, asserting that the US legacy carriers got the facts wrong, got the law wrong, and set their sights on an outcome that will be wrong for American consumers, communities and the national economy. This is the airline’s response to allegations of subsidy and unfair competition leveled by the “big three” US legacy carriers – Delta, United and […]
UAE. A new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy, delves into the challenges faced by Exploration & Production (E&P) companies here in the GCC region. The fact is, these are trying times for E&P companies globally. Following more than a decade of strong financial returns, the industry has experienced several difficult years caused […]
VIENNA — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation’s top leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran’s nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging the talks would need to continue beyond what was once considered the absolute deadline for […]
VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry began on Saturday what the Obama administration hopes will be the final push for a nuclear accord with Iran, just three days before a deadline for concluding an agreement. However, American officials have almost discounted the notion that a deal will be made by Tuesday’s deadline. Their goal is to bridge a number of technical and political divides over the […]
Gold edged higher on Friday, recovering from its lowest in more than two weeks as Greece failed to reach an agreement with its international creditors, although gains were capped by expectations of a U.S. interest rate hike. Asian equities fell as Greece failed again to reach an agreement with its creditors and stumbled towards a default, while major currencies like the euro and dollar drifted as the […]
