Smarting from growing losses, Taiwanese phone maker HTC Corp says it will expand its range of cheaper products as it fixes off-target marketing for its premium smartphones. The company that has long prided itself as a purveyor of upscale, feature-loaded products says it needs to sell more mid-tier and affordable smartphones after losing out in 2013. Muscled off-track by fast-growing Chinese rivals like Xiaomi Inc as well […]
The regulator of Dubai’s tax-free financial centre said on Sunday that Deutsche Bank had been found to be in “material non-compliance” with orders to provide information as part of an investigation into alleged rule breaches. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) had in November last year sued the lender, after almost one year of investigations into the bank’s wealth management division. An out-of-court agreement between the bank […]
A number of new openings will come up this week when local companies from different sectors hold walk-in interviews. Among the companies holding open days for jobs include Dubai Refreshments, Dubai Islamic Bank, Crown Plaza Hotel, Gulf Medical University and an IT company. Dubai Refreshments, the sole franchisee and distributor for Pepsi Co. in the UAE, is recruiting Warehouse Supervisor, Store and Spare Parts Supervisors, QA/QC Chemist, […]
Dubai-based builder Arabtec Holding said on Sunday it would set up five new subsidiaries as it expands into new markets and infrastructure projects. Two of the units will focus on infrastructure projects inside and outside the United Arab Emirates, one will focus on water and energy project and one will concentrate on the Egyptian market, it said in a bourse statement. Arabtec will also set up an […]
Dubai’s biggest equities brokerage plans to expand into Germany by July to tap growing investor appetite for UAE equities, its chief executive officer said. Mena Corp Financial Services, which traded the most shares on the Dubai Financial Market among the 48 brokerages tracked by the exchange last year, plans to open a representative office in Frankfurt in the second half, Fathi Ben Grira, group chief executive, said […]
Oman, which faces Iran across the Strait of Hormuz, said it’s poised to start raising cash for a $3 billion rail line offering an alternative route for oil and freight shipments that funnel through the 21 mile-wide channel. The nation of 3.3 million people, located on the southern side of the strait, is considering issuing bonds by the end of 2014 to kick-start funding for the track […]
Dubai’s largest real estate developer Emaar Properties regained an investment-grade credit rating on Wednesday, marking the emirate’s strong recovery from its financial crisis five years ago. Standard and Poor’s raised its long-term rating of Emaar to BBB-minus, the lowest investment grade, from BB-plus. In 2009, S&P had cut the state-linked firm to junk status as the global credit crunch and a crash of Dubai’s property market ravaged […]
Pumping his fist into the Paris air, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal, celebrated the award of the 2020 World Expo to Dubai. A Dubai counterpart returned the favor three weeks later, hailing Abu Dhabi’s role in securing the event. The backslapping late last year signaled the ever-closer relationship between the sheikhdoms at the core of the seven-member United Arab Emirates, one a […]
Investment bankers in Europe are off to the leanest start to a year in a decade as dwindling income from deal-making and trading presses firms to reduce costs. Revenue from arranging mergers, loans and stock and bond offerings for clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell 22 percent to $1.58 billion last month from the year-earlier period, according to data compiled by New York-based research […]
Abu Dhabi and Dubai completed due diligence on a potential merger of the two bourses in the United Arab Emirates, bringing the combination a step closer, according to two people familiar with the matter. Valuation and structuring work was completed in December, with the deal now requiring approval from the governments of the two emirates before proceeding further, the people said, asking not to be identified as […]
ING Group NV, the Dutch financial services conglomerate, said on Monday it was closing its Middle East asset management operation, based in Dubai, after the team there resigned. The closure is in line with ING’s restructuring drive, which involves only maintaining asset management operations in countries where it has a strong insurance presence, Karl Hanuska, a spokesman for ING Investment Management in the Netherlands, said by telephone. […]
Asian shares skidded on Tuesday while the dollar struggled to keep its footing, after disappointing data cast doubt on the strength of the U.S. economy and gave investors little reason to hope for stability in emerging markets after their recent rout. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell about 1.4 percent, touching its lowest level since early September at one point. The gloom was likely […]
The U.K. has chosen HSBC Holdings to arrange and advise on its debut Islamic bond planned for as early as this year in an effort to become the first non-Muslim nation to sell the debt, a Treasury official said. Other banks will be mandated closer to the time of the sale, the official said yesterday, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. Linklaters LLP […]
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) , the emirate’s main stock exchange, has issued rules allowing the lending and borrowing of securities, part of efforts to make the market more flexible ahead of an influx of foreign funds. Lending and borrowing of securities is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year, if investors are ready, DFM said in a statement seen on Friday. Securities lending and […]
The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep trimming its economic stimulus drew fire on Friday as India’s central bank chief said Americans should be more attuned to the global impact of their policies, and the IMF called for vigilance given strains in financial markets. The push-back came on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s last day on the job and two days after the U.S. central bank reduced the pace […]
When planners designed the Business Bay district in Dubai at the height of the last real-estate boom, they boasted it would become the largest business and office district in the Middle East. Yet a visit to the site today suggests there is a lot more living than working taking place, with nannies pushing carriages and children romping around a playground. Throughout Dubai, developers are restarting projects that […]
India pledged on Thursday to take all necessary steps to ensure stability in financial markets as it tried to calm jitters over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to scale down its economic stimulus. The U.S. central bank said on Wednesday it would buy $65 billion in bonds per month starting in February, down from $75 billion now. It shaved its purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage bonds […]
A unit of Dubai Holding, owned by the emirate’s ruler, has sold a piece of land to fast-growing shopping mall developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), the latest in a series of plot sales initiated by state-linked firms in the emirate to raise funds. The unit, TECOM Investments, sold 1 million square feet of land at its International Media Production Zone (IMPZ), a development that spreads across 43 […]
For a bellwether, Emaar Properties — builder of the world’s tallest tower — has done quite well for itself in the past year: reflecting Dubai’s meteoric real estate sector recovery with a 104% gain in 2013 that underpinned the stock market’s stellar performance. On Tuesday, Emaar’s stock rallied another 6.3% to 8.24 dirhams ($2.25) – its highest closing level since early September 2008, when Dubai’s much celebrated […]
The executive suite is not the only place that is greying in India’s 40-year-old information technology sector. As the $108 billion industry enters middle age and its growth slows, the three-million-strong workforce is also getting older, making it harder to extract some of the cost advantages of the young, cheap labour for which it is known. Firms have had to change in order to attract and support […]
Asian markets rallied on Wednesday after Turkey stunned investors with a huge hike in interest rates, stirring hopes drastic action would short-circuit a vicious cycle of selling in emerging markets and revive risk appetite. European shares were expected to ride the wave of optimism, with financial spreadbetters predicting Britain’s FTSE 100 to open 43-48 points higher, or up by as much as 0.7 percent; Germany’s DAX was […]
GEMS Education celebrated the listing of a $200 million (AED 735 million) Sukuk on NASDAQ Dubai on Tuesday, with founder and Chairman Sunny Varkey ringing the market opening bell at Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The nominal value of Sukuk currently listed in Dubai has now reached $13.28 billion (AED 48.8 billion). More than 50% of that sum, amounting to $6.85 billion (AED 25.2 billion), has come from […]
Gold’s biggest slump in three decades has been a boon for MKS (Switzerland) SA’s PAMP refinery near the Italian border in Castel San Pietro, whose bullion sales to China surged to a record as demand rose for coins, bars and jewelry. As prices plunged 28 percent in 2013, investors dumped a record 869.1 metric tons from gold-backed funds traded mostly in the U.S. and Europe. Much of […]
Lower-than-expected holiday iPhone sales and a weak revenue forecast by Apple Inc renewed fears about Chinese demand and a tepid global market, wiping 8 percent off company stock. This year was to have been Apple Inc’s watershed moment in China, when a long-awaited deal with the nation’s largest carrier was to have propelled it back toward the top ranks of its most crucial market, clawing back ground […]
