UAE. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, achieved its strongest financial results to date in 2014, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively over the previous year. 2014 PEFORMANCE SUMMARY OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS *The above results represent the standalone airline business within the newly formed Etihad […]
Mena M&A value rises 9pc to $8.9bn in Q1 DUBAI, 23 days ago Announced deal value in Mena increased to $8.9 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015 from $8.2 billion during the same period last year, marking an increase of 9 per cent, a report said. In Q1 2015, 90 deals were announced as compared with 89 deals in Q1 2014, according to the Q1 […]
Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO.O) agreed on Thursday to buy Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O) for $37 billion in the largest merger of chipmakers ever, turning a lesser known company run by a ferocious dealmaker into one of the biggest industry players. Avago, which serves the wireless and industrial markets, is offering Broadcom shareholders $17 billion in cash and Avago shares valued at $20 billion. Broadcom is best known for […]
UAE. Fifty-seven percent of global financial services executives believe regulation has enabled growth of their business, according to the results of Deloitte’s Staying Ahead of the Pack survey. In addition, half of executives expect much more regulation in the near future, with 69 percent feeling prepared for it. The survey of 200 executives at banking, securities, insurance and investment management firms around the world was conducted to […]
One of the biggest challenges marketers face these days is keeping track of customer behavior across multiple channels and devices. Oracle is hoping to help with that by adding new mobile capabilities to its Oracle Marketing Cloud. Those new capabilities, rolled out earlier this month, include an enhanced mobile Data Management Platform (DMP) that helps to link multiple identities across platforms and devices to a single customer. […]
By JODI RUDOREN May 26, 2015 JERUSALEM — Hinting at a new strategy as he starts his fourth term with a more conservative coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told the European Union’s foreign policy chief that he wants to negotiate with the Palestinians over which settlements in the occupied West Bank would be annexed by Israel, officials said Tuesday. Palestinian leaders quickly rejected the idea as a […]
Shiite fighters during an operation to retake the remaining areas of the Baiji oil refinery from the Islamic State on Monday in Salahuddin Province in Iraq. By TIM ARANGO May 26, 2015 BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials said Tuesday that a combined force of Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militias had started moving to retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, from Islamic State fighters. The officials billed […]
JORDAN. Technology will be a “game changer” in tackling youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa’s emerging Digital Economy, but only if the government, private, and people sectors collaborate effectively, according to a new report released on the eve of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2015. The report “Re-Dynamizing the Job Machine: Technology-Driven Transformation of Labor Markets in […]
DUBAI // Outstanding achievements by UAE women in fields as diverse as civil aviation, business strategy, technology and social enterprise were recognised on Monday night. Laila Al Muhairi, assistant director general for strategy and international affairs at the General Civil Aviation Authority, won the first award in the professional category at the Emirates Women Awards. “My objective is to inspire generations of girls in the UAE and […]
SYRIA. Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday and overran Iraqi government defenses east of Ramadi, the provincial capital that they seized five days earlier. The twin successes not only pile pressure on Damascus and Baghdad but throw doubt on a U.S. strategy of relying almost exclusively on air strikes to support the fight against Islamic State. U.S. and […]
By TAP Staff|Arcapita, the global investment management firm, announcedthe completion of the sale of J.Jill Group Inc., a leading US-based multi-channel retailer of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear, to TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P., a New York and London-based investment management firm. The parties did not disclose the transaction value. Originally founded in 1959 and headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, J.Jill provides inspired styles to its loyal customer through […]
An anonymous painting of Turkish Emperor Mahmud II leading his troops. By DAVID MOTADEL May 23, 2015 CAMBRIDGE, England — THE last several months have brought a dramatic escalation in conflict across the Middle East, almost all of it involving tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims — which are in turn fueled by a power struggle between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia for regional supremacy. Tehran runs a […]
Branding on a budget DUBAI, 16 days ago How does a lone entrepreneur create a brand image and message and keeping costs low? While this really depends on how lean your start-up will be, there are a number of tools which one can pick and mix to launch a brand, a report said. The fundamental strategy when branding on a budget is to eliminate the need for […]
UAE. The findings of a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy, shows that mobile technologies are creating immense value for consumers – value that greatly exceeds the costs of owning a mobile device. In fact, consumers worldwide value mobile technologies at 11 to 45 percent of their income – well above what […]
By PETER BAKER May 21, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama denied that the United States and its allies were losing the fight against Islamic State forces in the Middle East, but he acknowledged in an interview posted online on Thursday that more should be done to help Iraqis recapture lost territory. While repeating his refusal to commit large-scale American forces to the region, the president said Sunni fighters in […]
There’s a big problem with the security questions often used to help people log into Web sites, or remember or access lost passwords — questions with answers that are easy to remember are also easy for hackers to guess. That’s the key finding of a study that Google recently presented at the International World Wide Web Conference in Florence, Italy. Google said it analyzed hundreds of millions […]
MUMBAI Indian e-commerce firms are offering funding help and tech support to woo small retailers, emulating a strategy used by Chinese online retail giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to expand into the towns and villages home to the majority of consumers. India’s biggest e-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and the local arm of Amazon.com Inc are online marketplaces, with commission from sellers accounting for the bulk of […]
|Special byTAP Staff|Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments is expected to reap rich dividends from its involvement with Mongolia’s coal industry in the wake of a landmark mining deal concluded recently. Aabar Investments has been the largest UAE investor in Mongolia since 2011 through its investment into Gobi Coal & Energy Ltd, which has been credited with the discovery of the massive Oyu Tolgoi project. Its two main projects, […]
|By Alaa Alghamdi| There can be few more crucial yet intractable conundrums in the world today than the question of the root causes of terrorism. Terrorism seems to strike out of the blue, and sometimes with devastating force; dealing with its effects after the event is very far from being a tenable strategy. If there is a way to deal with terrorism it is to prevent it, […]
Doha Bank posts $115m net profit, up 5.2pc DUBAI, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago Doha Bank has posted a net profit of QR420 million ($115.2 million) for the first quarter of the year, compared to QR399 million for the same period last year, an increase of 5.2 per cent. The bank’s net operating income increased 2.3 per cent to QR714 million, while its total assets increase QR4.1 […]
Dubai’s drive to develop its Islamic finance sector is fuelling growth of sharia-compliant banking but the benefits are unevenly distributed, with some lenders struggling to compete against burgeoning competition. In 2013, Dubai’s government announced plans to turn the emirate into a centre for an “Islamic economy” with sharia-compliant businesses ranging from banking to asset management, trade, food preparation and certification, fashion, education and tourism. This looked like […]
Marketing of Dubai property to overseas investors needs new regulation to prevent damage to “Brand Dubai” from gimmicks being offered to coerce buyers including yachts and luxury cars, the chairman of Emaar Properties was quoted as saying on Sunday. Dubai has ramped up its oversight on the emirate’s property sector in the wake of a real estate crash at the end of the last decade which sent […]
GIB unit fund appoints Barclays for brokerage services MANAMA, 3 days ago GIB Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, the flagship hedge fund of GIB (UK), has appointed Barclays Bank to provide additional prime brokerage services to the fund. GIB UK is a subsidiary of Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank (GIB), said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication. The appointment complements the relationship with the […]
As chairman of Emaar Properties, Mohamed Alabbar has shaped much of Dubai’s skyline, but rapid growth in his outside real estate interests is raising the possibility of a rarity in the Gulf – open shareholder dissent. Speculation persists that Alabbar and Emaar, the company he founded in 1997, could soon part ways despite a categorical denial from the firm last month. His involvement in other firms’ projects, […]
