Major Saudi food producer Savola Group said on Wednesday it had begun preliminary talks on a potential acquisition of Kuwait Food Co (Americana) , one of the Middle East’s largest food companies. Savola has attended an investor roadshow held by Americana’s management, but talks have not yet reached a stage that would require disclosure, the company said in a bourse filing. Reuters reported in April that the […]
Dubai’s two biggest builders are turning to bank borrowing to help fund projects as a rise in late payments from their customers takes the shine off a booming construction market. Arabtec Holding PJSC, the contractor that helped push Dubai stocks into a bear market in June, said money owed by clients rose to 8.8 billion dirhams ($2.4 billion) through the second quarter from 7.2 billion dirhams at […]
|By Rashidul Bari| Palestine and Israel, once known as cradle of civilization, have become the hub of cemeteries in modern times. Their conflict has shed untold blood and produced graves as far as the eye can see. The countless tombstones are silent, but the sound of their outcry has carried from Middle-East to here at New York University’s Bobst Library—where I’m writing this article—and from which I’m […]
PARIS–French nationals are likely fighting alongside the self-proclaimed jihadist group Islamic State which has captured large swaths of Iraq, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Wednesday. “There are probably some of them in Iraq since the Islamic State, which has recruited these young nationals, takes them to all the areas where fighting is happening,” Mr. Cazeneuve said in an interview with radio station France Info. Nationals […]
The chemical triclosan has been linked to cancer-cell growth and disrupted development in animals. Regulators are reviewing whether it’s safe to put in soap, cutting boards and toys. Consumer companies are phasing it out. Minnesota voted in May to ban it in many products. At the same time, millions of Americans are putting it in their mouths every day, by way of a top-selling toothpaste that uses […]
Dubai’s hotels had the lowest occupancy in at least 18 years in July, standing more than half empty, as more rooms were created and demand declined, according to research firm STR Global. Occupancy declined 11.8 percentage points to 45.4 percent from a year earlier, STR Global said in a report. That’s the lowest since the company began tracking the Dubai hospitality market. Dubai, which built some of […]
Jebel Ali Free Zone FZE, a business park operator in Dubai, is cutting the price on a 2.2 billion-dirham ($599 million) Islamic loan by half as funding costs decline, according to three bankers familiar with the deal. The interest rate on the loan for the company known as Jafza will be reduced to 150 basis points, or 1.5 percentage points, over the Emirates interbank offered rate from […]
SHARJAH // The bodies of Santosh Kumar, his wife and daughter were cremated in a quiet ceremony in Sharjah on Saturday attended by friends and family, nearly a month after they died at their home. Police had registered a case of suicide on July 15 after they found the bodies of the Indian film producer, his wife Manju Menon and nine-year-old daughter Gauri in their Dubai apartment. […]
Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband Photo: PA To win in 2015, Ed Miliband not only has to set out a credible governing prospectus; he must demonstrate he fully understands Labour’s past mistakes. Mr Miliband has been coy about admissions of error on economic management, naturally preferring to castigate Britain’s Coalition government for overzealous austerity driving harsh cuts in the social fabric. Yet voters will only listen […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
By Kyler Hasson: CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) has been a strong performer since late 2012, with shares going from about $19 to $29, while earnings have remained about flat. Even with these relatively poor business results and the large run-up in the share price, I believe that shares offer substantial value around $29 and should more than double by the end of 2018. While most investors value railroads […]
As players stepped on the pitch of King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh to kick off the new Saudi football season, the sound of money came louder than the cheers of sports fans. A few minutes before the game started on Thursday, Middle East Broadcasting Center Group inked a deal with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation worth 3.6 billion riyals ($960 million) over 10 years to buy […]
By Northport Investments: We were preparing our third article on Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) during the week for publication at the beginning of the market-trading week when we noticed a surge in COH’s stock price on August 8, 2014 (Friday) without explanation. Our first response was “Someone knows something.” Later in that trading day news came out that a French luxury-brand company named Kering was potentially about to […]
|By TAP Staff| The international arbitration in relation to the gas sales and purchase contract between its partner Crescent Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for the supply of gas to the UAE has given its final verdict, proclaiming the contract binding on all the parties. The issue has been the subject of international arbitration since June 2009. Dana Gas announced in a release that […]
President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. air strikes had destroyed arms that Islamic State militants could have used against Iraqi Kurds, but he warned there was no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to tear Iraq apart. Speaking before U.S. warplanes struck militant targets for the second straight day, Obama said it would take more than bombs to restore stability, and criticized Prime Minister Nuri […]
Mumbai: After witnessing decline in profit for six consecutive quarters, State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, reported 3.3 per cent net profit growth to Rs 3,349 crore for the quarter ended June, compared to Rs 3,241 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, said: “Pressure (on asset quality) appears to be subsiding. But we need to see a pick-up in the economy to see appreciable changes in asset quality.” Net interest income grew 15 per cent to Rs 13,252 crore and fee income growth was 11 per cent to Rs 2,837 crore, though there was a fall in treasury income. The profitability got a boost of Rs 6,000 crore from sale of stressed assets to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) during the q
NEW DELHI: Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) has initiated the process of signing supply agreements with non-priority sector consumers such as paper and textiles units, even as power plants that had been given LoAs (letters of assurance) by the state-run company are facing shutdown in the absence of fuel.
Industry sources said WCL executives recently inspected sites of several prospective consumers from non-core sectors, including West Coast Paper Mills and Surya Laxmi Cotton Mills as a precursor to signing of fuel supply agreements.
The move by WCL, sources said, is in contradiction to the government’s recent emphasis on increasing coal supplies to power projects commissioned by March 2015.
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NEW DELHI: State-run oil refiner-marketer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has drawn up plans to ramp up the capacity of its refinery at Numaligarh in Assam’s Golaghat district from three million tonnes per annum to nine million tonnes at an investment of Rs 16,600 crore.
The project includes laying a 1,350-km pipeline to bring in crude from a port on the east coast. While the refinery expansion would cost about Rs 8,800 crore, the remaining investment is expected to go into laying the pipeline and other assorted facilities.
Company sources said the project would mark the single-largest investment in Assam and boost economic activities in the north-east as well as unlock potential for exporting fuels to India&
New Delhi: With co-development and co-production of defence products in mind, India and the US on Friday agreed to take the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative forward.
The decision was taken at the delegation-level talks between defence minister Arun Jaitley and US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, who is on a three-day visit to the country.
In the meeting, both sides took note of the progress made over the years in deepening defence ties. Both the sides reaffirmed their desire to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation, especially in technology and discussed ways for strengthening this partnership.
Stressing on indigenisation of the defence industries, Jaitley said, “The develop
‘The disease took away my future and my children lost the mother they had had,’ says Elaine Reynolds Photo: JOHN LAWRENCE When Stephanie Reynolds hunches over her smartphone, she looks like any self-absorbed twentysomething, whiling away a carefree moment or two socialising online. In fact, the 24-year-old is using social media for a reason very close to her heart: she has launched a Facebook page to find her […]
Hong Kong, Indonesia and Pakistan are banking on pent-up investor demand as they look to raise up to a combined US$3.5bn in the fast-growing Islamic bond market. The three sovereign sukuk issues, including a planned US$1bn debut from Triple A rated Hong Kong, are set to launch before the end of September. Few Asian issuers have targeted the global sukuk market in the past, and the glut […]
PARIS– France is “ready to play a full part” in actions to protect and help civilians in Iraq from attacks from the militant group that calls itself Islamic state, French President Francois Hollande‘s office said Friday in a statement. France will discuss possible actions in Iraq with the U.S. and its partners to end civilians’ sufferings, the statement said. Mr. Hollande welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama‘s decision to […]
NEW DELHI: Contrary to popular perception, India has little to worry about its product-specific support to agriculture exceeding the limits prescribed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a recent study has revealed.
This implies that New Delhi’s aggressive stance at the world body, seeking leeway from the cap on public stockholding for food security or even a total waiver from the restriction citing the resource-poor status of its farmers, lacked rationale.
The country’s product-specific subsidy for rice stood at minus 2.87% and that for wheat at minus 10.22% of the respective production values in 2010-11 when calculated on a fully inflation-adjusted basis, according to a joint paper by Icrier exper
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has relaxed norms for refinancing of infrastructure loans which banks want to be tagged as standard assets. From April 2015, the moment a loan is restructured, banks will have to classify them as bad loan. RBI had made an exception to the rule by allowing banks to classify infrastructure loans as standard assets if half of the outstanding loans are refinanced by a new set of lenders in the form of take-out financing. On Thursday, the central bank relaxed this norm by allowing standard tag if 25 per cent of the outstanding is met through take-out financing. Also, an infrastructure loan that is refinanced can be tagged as standard asset provided promoters are willing to invest more equity in the project. But the standard tag will be a
