President Barack Obama on Wednesday scaled down a long-planned trip to Asia, as a U.S. government shutdown entered a second day with no end in sight to the funding row in Congress that triggered it. Obama is expected to leave on Saturday for summit meetings in Indonesia and Brunei. Malaysian media quoted Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying he would now skip a subsequent visit to Kuala […]
Most regional markets slipped on Monday as fears of a U.S. government shutdown spurred slight profit-taking, but Dubai’s bourse booked its biggest quarterly gain in nearly six years. Dubai’s index shed 0.3 percent, easing off Sunday’s near five-year high. That trimmed its third-quarter gain to 24.3 percent, its best performance since late 2007. Trading volume in the quarter was the highest in four years. Shares in Dubai […]
The hospital sector is capable of yielding four times of the revenue generated by the hotel industry for the same amount of investment, a leading hospital management expert told the Hotel Show Dubai 2013 at the Dubai World Trade Centre on Sunday. The cost of putting up a hospital bed is almost the same as the cost of creating a room in a five-star hotel, but there […]
Cash-rich Asian and Middle Eastern lenders are taking a larger share of the $100 billion global aircraft financing market as Western rivals step back due to the liquidity crunch and stricter regulations, a top executive at Airbus said. European commercial banks, previously the primary funding source for airlines, have substantially cut their exposure to the aviation sector after the continent’s debt crisis, leaving a funding gap for […]
U.S. stock futures and the dollar came under pressure on Monday as a shutdown of the U.S. government seemed ever more likely, while the euro had political troubles of its own as the Italian government teetered on the edge of collapse. Hardly helping was a surprise downward revision to activity in China’s factory sector. While the final HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) did edge up to 50.2 […]
The United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab economy, is considering a tax on remittances, according to three bankers with knowledge of the plan. The federal Ministry of Finance has sent a circular to banks proposing the tax and invited suggestions from them on the levy, the bankers said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The ministry plans to hold talks with financial institutions […]
The United Arab Emirates’ first real estate investment trust plans to sell shares in an initial public offer on the Nasdaq Dubai bourse before the end of this year, three people aware of the plan said. Emirates REIT, which was formed in 2010 and complies with Islamic investment principles, has income-generating assets worth 770 million dirhams ($210 million). REITs directly invest in properties and distribute profits as […]
Dubai’s government is working on new rules to protect its real estate market and prevent any excessive rise of property prices that could end in a crash, a senior official said on Tuesday. The bursting of a property bubble in 2009-2010 caused prices to plunge by more than 50 percent, pushing Dubai close to a debt default. The market is recovering strongly this year, with apartment prices […]
The Gulf’s bond market is set to emerge from five months of near-inactivity after last week’s decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to maintain its monetary stimulus created a window for banks and corporations to raise cash. A total of $16.6 billion was raised on global bond markets last Thursday, a four-fold rise from the day before. The Gulf market’s reaction to the Fed will not be […]
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are poised to adopt a single medicine-pricing policy within the bloc as of 2014, Bahraini Minister of Health Sadiq Abdulkarim Al-Shihabi told local media. He said the application of a unified pricing system and common procurement policy for drugs will contribute to lowering the price of medicine in GCC states. The single pricing policy will be initially applied in government-owned facilities, which […]
Tamweel Aviation Finance (TAF), a new and integrated financing platform offering turnkey alternative financing solutions to airlines and aircraft leasing companies, has been established by Novus Aviation Capital in partnership with Development Bank of Japan Inc. (DBJ) and Airbus. The new enterprise has been set up to facilitate the funding of aircraft acquisitions, providing secured junior and mezzanine loans to airlines for all Airbus aircrafts, with a […]
Doctors at RAK Hospital marked the opening of a new era of intervention in congenital heart disease for this part of the world by carrying out an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) Closure without surgical intervention on a young adult by the technique of Device closure ASD device (Amplatzer septal occluder) is a relatively new non-surgical technique used to treat patients with atrial septal defect in which patients […]
Hedge funds cut bullish gold bets, reducing long contracts to the lowest since June, before prices rose the most in a month as the Federal Reserve unexpectedly decided not to taper stimulus. The net-long position held by speculators fell 17 percent to 70,113 futures and options in the week ended Sept. 17, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Long wagers fell 6.8 percent to 109,217, the […]
A major independent global study released today calls on airlines to take a fresh look at handling flight delays and cancellations in order to drive loyalty and minimize impact on customers in the short- and long-term. Titled ‘Passengers First: Re-thinking Irregular Operations’, the study is authored by Norm Rose of travel industry research authority PhoCusWright and commissioned by Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel […]
Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) today announced a new record by reaching the 5 billion barrel mark, with a total of 5 million contracts (eqv. 5 billion barrels) traded on the exchange. This milestone comes 7 months after the DME passed the 4 billion barrels mark and continues the strong growth trajectory in trading volumes across the last 12 months. The 5 millionth trade on the Exchange took […]
Asian shares ran out of steam on Friday as investors pondered what policy the U.S. Federal Reserve will pursue after it triggered a global market rally by leaving its stimulus level unchanged. The dollar drifted off a seven-month low against a basket of major currencies and U.S. Treasury yields rose after a string of upbeat U.S. data provided a reminder to markets that the day the Fed […]
Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index trading near a four-month high, before the Federal Reserve decides later today whether to slow its $85 billion of monthly asset purchases. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. and Fanuc Corp. rose at least 2.7 percent in Tokyo as industrial companies led gains on the Asia-Pacific benchmark index. Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. surged 4.2 percent to a six-year high amid unconfirmed […]
GEMS Education, a Dubai-based schools operator, is seeking to raise about $500 million to fund growth by selling a stake of up to 20 percent in the privately owned company, Chairman Sunny Varkey said. GEMS, which employs about 11,000 staff, operates around 100 private schools across the Gulf region, home to many prosperous expatriates. Private schools in countries such as the United Arab Emirates are expanding rapidly […]
Just Falafel, a United Arab Emirates-based franchise restaurant offering the traditional Arab food, has hired an advisor to help arrange an initial public offer of shares on the Nasdaq Dubai bourse as soon as October, sources said. The plan suggests IPO activity in Dubai is resuming after a gap of more than four years caused by the global financial crisis and the emirate’s 2009-2010 property market crash. […]
Shares in Oman Telecommunications Co OTL.OM (Omantel) plunged to a 10-week low on Tuesday after the government rekindled plans to reduce its stake in the former monopoly. Omantel was down 5.6 percent at 1.51 rials at 0624 GMT, its lowest level since July 11 and nearly wiping out its 2013 gains as investors gave the thumbs-down to a state move to offload a 19 percent stake in […]
Shares dipped and the dollar lost ground on Tuesday as investors consolidated positions before a U.S. Federal policy meeting at which the central bank is set to start scaling back stimulus. German Bunds also edged lower, with the 10-year yields rising 1 basis point to 1.888 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent in early trade, retreating from a five-year high hit […]
Commercial banks in the United Arab Emirates are expected to post net profit growth of about 20 percent in 2013, the chairman of the Gulf state’s banking federation said on Wednesday. UAE banks such as Dubai lender Emirates NBD and National Bank of Abu Dhabi posted strong second-quarter earnings thanks to an economic recovery in key sectors, primarily real estate, and lower provisions as the Gulf state […]
Asian shares surrendered earlier gains while the dollar remained under pressure on Thursday, facing growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s impending stimulus reduction might be smaller than some had believed. The waning likelihood of an immediate U.S. military strike on Syria also continued to undermine the dollar as diplomatic efforts to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control intensified. European stocks are seen edging up, as […]
Gold will extend a drop into 2014 as the U.S. Federal Reserve tapers stimulus, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said, forecasting that a decision by the central bank to start reducing bond-buying next week may spur renewed selling. The reduction of asset purchases may be the catalyst that pushes gold prices lower, analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Damien Courvalin wrote in a report today. Goldman’s economists expect that […]
