An island in the Venice lagoon, a 15th century bastion against the Ottoman Turks and a former monastery on the southern coast are among prime properties Italy has put on an online auction for buyers from around the world. Searching for funds to cuts its public debt and comply with European Union budget guidelines, the cash-strapped country has cut through red tape to ensure buyers can quickly […]
The wrenching selloff in U.S. high-growth technology and biotech shares could leave investors braced for more than a minor pullback when earnings pick up speed this week. First-quarter earnings estimates have fallen sharply as many companies have blamed the brutal winter for weak outlooks. With high-valuation stocks under pressure, earnings could be subjected to even more investor scrutiny than usual. “There’s skepticism among investors about the outlook, […]
Dubai’s benchmark stock index fell the most in a month, tracking a decline in global markets last week, on investor concern this year’s rally was overdone given prospects for earnings growth. Saudi Arabia’s gauge dropped. The DFM General Index tumbled 1.7 percent, the most since March 12, to close at 4,759.15 in the emirate. Dubai Islamic Bank , the United Arab Emirates’ biggest shariah-compliant bank, declined for […]
General Motors engineers were well aware of serious problems with ignition switches in GM small cars, but rejected several opportunities to make fixes, according to dozens of confidential documents released on Friday by a Congressional committee investigating the deadly defect. Parts supplier Delphi Automotive also repeatedly tested switches and found they did not meet GM specifications, according to emails and other memos. The internal documents from GM, […]
Grand Prairie-based Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is again attempting to broaden its international reach beyond North America into the Middle East. The theme park owner and operator said it’s partnering with Meraas Leisure and Entertainment, a Dubai-based real estate development company, to open a Six Flags-branded park in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The project will open in 2017 and be located in a multi-themed park […]
The U.S. government warned banks and other businesses on Friday to be on alert for hackers seeking to steal data exposed by the “Heartbleed” bug, as a German programmer took responsibility for the widespread security crisis. On a website for advising critical infrastructure operators about emerging cyber threats, the Department of Homeland Security asked organizations to report any Heartbleed-related attacks, adding that hackers were attempting to exploit […]
The Nasdaq suffered its biggest drop in two-and-a-half years on Thursday after another sharp selloff in biotech and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor, increasing investor anxiety about a broader pullback. The Nasdaq biotechnology index .NBI shed 5.6 percent, its biggest one-day drop since August 2011, adding to recent losses since a large drop in Gilead more than two weeks ago triggered a wider selloff for […]
Gold extended gains to a third session on Thursday, scaling fresh two-week highs, after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting showed that officials were not keen on increasing interest rates anytime soon. Gold prices came under pressure last month after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the U.S. central bank would probably end its massive bond-buying programme this fall and could start raising interest rates around six […]
The company planning the first initial share offering on Dubai’s main stock market for five years says it will spend the proceeds on opening more than 100 fashion stores, restaurants and cafes across the Gulf Arab region over the next five years. Marka, created by prominent businessmen in the United Arab Emirates, will offer for sale 55 percent of its capital or 275 million shares at 1 […]
New York’s highest state court has ruled that a lawsuit by the Algosaibi family conglomerate, claiming that a Saudi billionaire who married into the family committed a $150 million fraud, should be heard in Saudi Arabia. In the lawsuit, Ahmed Hamad al Gosaibi & Brothers Co claimed that Maan al-Sanea, the billionaire head of the Saad Group, used its accounts with Dubai-based Mashreqbank PSC to commit fraudulent […]
Bank of America agreed to pay nearly $800 million in fines and restitution to settle allegations of deceptive marketing and unfair billing involving credit card products, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said they had ordered the bank to pay $727 million in relief to consumers to resolve problems with add-on products providing identity theft […]
Commodity futures trading volumes in India fell 40.49 percent in the year to March 2014, its second straight year of decline, the market regulator said on Tuesday. In value terms, futures trading at commodity exchanges fell to 101.44 trillion rupees in the first twelve months from April 2013 from 170.46 trillion rupees a year ago, the Forward Markets Commission said in a statement on its website. Trading […]
|By TAP Staff|Last year the Pay TV market in the MENA region grew 11.2 percent in terms of market share and 14.13 percent in terms of subscriber numbers, according to the findings of the latest Middle East Media Market report released by IHS, a leading global source of business information and insight. Over the last decade (2004 – 2013) the number of primary Pay TV subscribers almost […]
Dubai told international bankers on Monday that it was gearing up for another boom and did not regret the pro-growth policies which brought it to the brink of default five years ago. It appeared to win the endorsement of many of the bankers. Over a dozen top Dubai officials and executives met about 100 representatives of financial powerhouses including Deutsche Bank, Nomura Holdings and Fidelity Investments for […]
Dubai-based real estate investment trust Emirates REIT IPO said it had expanded the size of its initial public offer of shares on NASDAQ Dubai, the emirate’s first IPO since its financial crisis erupted in 2009, because of strong demand. Emirates REIT will raise $175 million in the IPO, which was 3.5 times oversubscribed, by selling 128.68 million new shares, it said in a statement on Sunday. In […]
Italian businessman Massimo Cellino has been given approval to complete the purchase of second tier club Leeds United after an independent QC overturned the Football League’s initial decision to block him. Cellino, president of Italian Serie A club Cagliari, agreed in February to buy a 75 percent stake in former English champions Leeds for a reported 25 million pounds ($41.48 million) from Dubai-based GFH Capital. However, the […]
U.S. stocks fell, with the Nasdaq Composite Index sliding the most in two months, after large technology stocks from Google Inc. to Yahoo Inc. plunged as investors sold the bull market’s biggest winners. Google Class A shares sank 4.6 percent in the biggest drop since October 2012. Facebook Inc. lost 4.6 percent, bringing its two-day slide to 9.5 percent. Yahoo Inc. declined 4.2 percent to the lowest […]
India’s high-profile RBI governor is likely to come under political pressure to retreat from his hawkish stance on inflation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins power in the general election. Strategists in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), confident that his jobs-first policy pitch will secure a strong voter mandate, suggest that they would prefer to have one of their own at the helm of the Reserve Bank […]
AP | New York | Microsoft Corporation unveiled a new virtual assistant for Windows Phone devices Wednesday as it seeks to gain traction in a highly competitive and lucrative market for smartphones. The assistant, Cortana, is named after an artificial-intelligence character in the company’s ”Halo” video games. Cortana tries to be chatty like Apple’s Siri, while anticipating information you might want, like Google Now. Cortana is among the new […]
With a youthful, well-educated population, strong relationships with both neighbours and world powers, and a strategic location on the Gulf, major oil producer Kuwait should be as dynamic a hub for the region as Dubai or Doha. But while others in the Gulf have powered ahead, attracting foreign investment and developing infrastructure, Kuwait has stagnated, frustrating the people of a country once seen as a Middle East […]
Dubai will compete with London for a share of Islamic banks’ liquidity management business by offering a new platform for murabaha trading. Many Islamic banks around the world manage their short-term funds with murabaha, in which one bank acquires merchandise and another agrees to buy it at a mark-up. Traditionally, banks from the Gulf and as far afield as southeast Asia use commodities traded on the London […]
General Motors Co CEO Mary Barra came under withering attack for her company’s decade-long failure to deal with defective parts linked to fatal crashes, in a hearing where U.S. Senators accused the company of “criminal” behavior and “a culture of cover-up.” Democratic and Republican senators, including some former prosecutors and state attorneys general, challenged Barra’s assertion that GM had vastly improved its safety and management practices since […]
The S&P 500 closed at another record high on Wednesday as signs of steady private-sector hiring suggested that the economy was slowly building momentum after a winter-related pullback. That also put more focus on Friday’s government jobs data, which is among the most widely watched economic indicators. “There’s positioning ahead of that report,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president of BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. He […]
Oman’s central bank has set new caps on banks’ credit exposure to non-residents and funds placed abroad, giving lenders six months to comply. The move comes after the government and regulators last month set up a financial stability committee to monitor and manage risks in the banking and capital markets. “The banks which are in excess of the prudential limits prescribed under the guidelines are granted up […]
