Articles written by
arabian post staff

Economy

GM had early knowledge of switch problem

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, […]

April 13

Featured

New studies intensify concerns of cell phone brain tumour

|By TAP Staff| New studies are intensifying medical concerns about malignant brain tumors from cell phone use. According to the BioInitiative Working Group, evidence for health risk from wireless tech is growing stronger and warrants immediate action. The Group released a mid-year update covering new science studies from 2012 to 2014. “There is a consistent pattern of increased risk for glioma (a malignant brain tumor) and acoustic […]

April 13

Featured

Abu Dhabi gets Cleaveland Clinic marquee brand

 For decades the Cleveland Clinic has provided healthcare to the upper echelons of Middle Eastern society who fly halfway across the world for treatment at the Ohio-based private medical center. Soon, they can skip the trip. Early next year the Cleveland Clinic plans to open an ultra-modern, 364-bed specialty hospital on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, one of the most ambitious forays into the oil-rich country […]

April 12

Reports & Analysis

MENA pay TV market set for huge growth

|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 […]

April 09

Banking & Finance

SEC unearths bogus fees at 200 private equity firms

A majority of private-equity firms inflate fees and expenses charged to companies in which they hold stakes, according to an internal review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, raising the prospect of a wave of sanctions by the agency. More than half of about 400 private-equity firms that SEC staff have examined have charged unjustified fees and expenses without notifying investors, according to a person with […]

April 08

Featured

Citi says threat of Dubai bubble repeat remains

|By TAP Staff| A new Citibank report on Dubai property market asserts there is little room of investors to show complacency as the measures to curb speculative demand and to strengthen the prudential regulation of the real estate and banking sectors so far do not remove the threat of a repeat of property-led volatility of 2008-09. As Dubai’s property market booms and large-scale projects are announced, parallels […]

April 05

Featured

Samsung chairman ordered to appear before Indian court

|By TAP Staff| India’s Supreme Court has ordered the chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Kun-hee, to appear before a local court within six weeks to avoid arrest in a dispute with an Indian company that was to supply goods to a Dubai company. The dispute is over the payment of over a $1.4 million owed to the company for supplying the goods. The dispute dates back to […]

April 02

Economy

Acquisitions pay off for Gulf banks

|By TAP Staff|Takeovers abroad and a boost in treasury income helped Gulf banks increase revenues by more than 10% last year – the best combined performance since the crisis hit five years ago – with regional lenders easily outperforming their international counterparts, says Boston Consulting Group. “We’re seeing again double-digit growth in the region which, however, comes to a large extent because of international acquisitions of the […]

April 01

Featured

Al Gosaibi settlement move to break years of deadlock

|By TAP Staff|Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company (AHAB) announced that it has invited financial institutions with claims against the company to attend a meeting in Dubai, UAE on May 7, 2014, at which AHAB will outline the terms of a comprehensive settlement agreement. The move by AHAB breaks a stalemate that has existed since late 2009 when AHAB’s last comprehensive proposal was rejected by financial institutions, […]

April 01

Featured

China seizes $14.5b assets from politician

Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the center of China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said. More than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, […]

March 30

Featured

Fitch sees RAKBANK viability constrained

|By TAP Staff| Fitch Rating sees RAKBANK’s viability rate (VR) constrained by its fairly small franchise rising credit risk exposure due to its expansion in unsecured SME lending and pressure on liquidity from a wide asset-liability maturity mismatch. The bank accounts for only 2 percent of the UAE banking assets, it notes. According to Fitch, RAKBANK’s viability rating could be negatively affected if the bank’s expansion in […]

March 28

Economy

Qatar regulator reprimands RBS

Qatar’s financial regulator has reprimanded Royal Bank of Scotland for insufficient training of its branch staff, it said on Tuesday. “Although RBS QFC had a programme in place, it was deficient in a number of material respects and it fell short of the standards expected of authorised firms,” the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFC RA) said in a statement. “The QFC has accepted an enforceable undertaking […]

March 26

Economy

Wealth funds increase Western real estate investments: JLL

|By TAP Staff| Gulf sovereign wealth funds are steadily increasing their investment into Western real estate, says property consultant JLL in a new report. According to the report, 2013 saw more than $13 billion invested in Western overseas property, surpassing the previous peak JLL recorded in 2006. London remained the favourite Western destination for real estate investment, with Knightsbridge, Kensington, Mayfair and the City being the most […]

March 19

Economy

India maintains lead in Dubai’s trade volumes

|By TAP Staff| India topped Dubai’s major trade partners with a total trade volume of AED 137 billion in 2013, representing a 10% share of Dubai’s total trade, figures released by Dubai Customs showed. China came second with a value of AED 135 billion, followed by the USA with AED 86 billion, that is a 6% share. Saudi Arabia rose to the fourth position with a total […]

March 18

Economy

UK consultancy ranks Dubai 3 points behind Qatar as financial centre

|By TAP Staff| A Global Financial Centres Index compiled by London-based consultancy Z/Yen using assessments of financial services professionals has come up with a most astonishing finding: Dubai comes three points behind Qatar. According to the index, Qatar, Dubai and Riyadh took places 26, 29 and 31 respectively, but continued to rise in the index, while 23 of the 27 European centres declined in rank. New York […]

March 15

Off the Cuff

There’s a machine around that will take your job

|By Aki Ito| Who needs an army of lawyers when you have a computer? When Minneapolis attorney William Greene faced the task of combing through 1.3 million electronic documents in a recent case, he turned to a so-called smart computer program. Three associates selected relevant documents from a smaller sample, “teaching” their reasoning to the computer. The software’s algorithms then sorted the remaining material by importance. “We […]

March 15

Commodities

Consortium formed to finance Ghana commodity exchange

|By TAP Staff| A private-public investment consortium has been formed to finance the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX). Investment consortium partners include Ghana’s top tier financial institutions, Data Bank Agrifund Manager Ltd, Ecobank Ghana Ltd, UT Bank Ghana Ltd, as well as IFC, 8 Miles Fund and eleni, with minority stakeholding by the Government of Ghana. The consortium partners and the Government of Ghana have […]

March 14

Banking & Finance

BoB in unique Ten Trillion club

|By TAP Staff| Bank of Baroda, which identifies itself as India’s international bank on the strength of its global operations, is set to celebrate the milestone of a Ten Trillion Bank, taking it into a unique league of banks with turnover of ten trillion rupees or more. The largest Indian bank, after the State Bank of India, is the only bank in the UAE with a full-fledged […]

March 10

Featured

Being in Dubai is a big plus for businesses

|By TAP Staff| Being in Dubai helps businesses and investors to reap rich rewards, according to findings in a summary report compiled by Dubai FDI, the foreign investment agency in the Department of Economic Development (DED) of Dubai. And the ease and competitiveness of doing business in Dubai is attracting the attention of worldwide investors, it adds. The reports cover such key sectors as logistics, retail, information […]

March 10

Featured

Dubai’s first IPO in 5 years coming soon

|By TAP Staff| Dubai stock market is set to see the first initial public offering in five years when a new company under formation for fashion and food retailing will tap the capital market within the next few weeks. The company, named Marka, is still in the process of being formed. It will operate in the UAE’s fashion retailing and food and beverage sectors; its over 100 […]

March 09

Economy

India’s generics supply to US in jeopardy

U.S. regulators are mobilizing to shore up confidence in America’s generic-drug supply as alarm grows over the quality of products made in India, and the head of the largest U.S.-based maker of the medicines predicted more trouble lies ahead. “It’ll get worse before it gets better,” said Mylan (MYL) Inc. Chief Executive Officer Heather Bresch, whose company has half of its more than 20,000 employees in India. […]

March 06

Featured

The Dubai Mall you didn’t know about!

|By TAP Staff| The Dubai Mall gets more foot traffic than the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls and Disney World combined. Attracting 75 million visitors a year, it is one of the most visited tourist attractions on the planet. The Dubai Mall is no ordinary shopping center. Recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest shopping mall (in terms of total floor space) it is larger than […]

March 06

Featured

RAK Ceramics may be up for sale

|By TAP Staff|The ruling family of Ras Al Khaimah  is exploring a sale of its shares in RAK Ceramics, the global leader in the manufacture of ceramic wall and floor tiles and sanitary ware, Reuters reported quoting a source familiar with the matter. Talks on the possible sale have been going on for the past six months, the source told Reuters, declining to be named because the […]

March 05

Banking & Finance

UAE banks outperform GCC counterparts in net profits

| By TAP Staff| UAE banks outperformed their counterparts in the rest of the GCC in terms of net profits for 2013. The UAE banks were followed by Qatari banks, which took the second overall position. According to an analysis of the GCC banking sector by Global Investment House, profits of banks in the UAE grew 15.8 percent YoY while the banks in Qatar recorded a growth […]

March 05

Featured

UAE bank customers to have new charter of rights

|By TAP Staff| The UAE Banks Federation proposes to soon issue a charter for customer rights, which will incorporate certain minimum standards in banking services and provide for remedial actions open for them in case of failures by the banks. The CEOs Advisory Committee of the Federation has examined the framework and content of the charter at its first meeting this year. The meeting reviewed the Federation’s […]

March 03

Sales & Marketing

Danube Buildmart rebrands with Juhi Chawla as brand ambassador

|By TAP Staff|UAE’s leading home-grown building materials company Danube Buildmart has rebranded itself as Danube Home and announced former Miss India and Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla as the new brand ambassador. The company also unveiled a new logo and announced the addition of soft furnishing to its portfolio of products. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rizwan Sajan said that in much the same manner that Juhi has […]

March 01

Talking Point

Maybe you can buy your own credit card details from black market

|TAP Special|If you are lucky, maybe you can buy your stolen credit card details from the black market yourself. If you are not, chances are that the information will land up with someone else, who will surely want to use it to make money off you. A cybersecurity firm said on Tuesday that it uncovered stolen credentials from some 360 million accounts that are available for sale […]

February 26

Biz Tech

How BuzzFeed is reinventing itself

BuzzFeed has come a long way from cat lists. This month one of its journalists was on the ground in Kiev reporting on the crisis in Ukraine, and last December it published an in-depth article on a Chinese dissident living in Harlem, New York. The kittens haven’t disappeared, but these days there is serious journalism as well. When Facebook Inc tweaked its News Feed filters in December […]

February 24

Politics

Ousted president’s luxury estate opened to public

A sprawling forested estate of graceful waterways and summer houses – half the size of Monaco but just one hour’s drive from Kiev – stands as a symbol of the folly of Ukraine’s fugitive president. Even the most cynical Ukrainians, who on Saturday streamed to see Viktor Yanukovich’s luxury estate, rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they were confronted by the scale of the opulence he built […]

February 23

Off the Cuff

Forex traders face extinction as computers take over

A widening probe of the foreign-exchange market is roiling an industry already under pressure to reduce costs as computer platforms displace human traders. Electronic dealing, which accounted for 66 percent of all currency transactions in 2013 and 20 percent in 2001, will increase to 76 percent within five years, according to Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based consulting firm that reviewed Bank for International Settlements data. About 81 […]

February 18