Smartphone producers in China are closing in on market leaders Samsung and Apple. This is based on a large home market with above-average growth. Potential is even higher in India and Latin America. Today, the spotlight is on the two largest mobile telephone manufactures – Samsung and Apple – with their latest Galaxy and iPhone models. These smartphones are likely to sell in the millions, but this […]
Dubai World debt restructuring deal ‘soon’ DUBAI, 1 days ago One of Dubai’s top government officials said on Sunday that he expects state-owned conglomerate Dubai World to reach a deal on renegotiating its debt repayment schedule in the near future. “I can say for sure we will reach it. It is there and you will hear about it soon,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman of Dubai’s […]
A project displayed at Cityscape Global 2014. Rory Jones for The Wall Street Journal Dubai’s showcase annual real-estate event appears to offer more substance than style this year: Cityscape Global had fewer glitzy property launches on day one than last year, and there were no backroom scuffles as investors scrambled to snap up units of premier developers. There was still plenty of real estate for sale as […]
Hedge funds extended this year’s longest exit from bullish gold bets as slumping prices and investor outflows since June erased $6.7 billion from the value of exchange-traded funds backed by the metal. The net-long position in New York futures and options fell for a fifth straight week, with speculators boosting short bets to the highest since June, U.S. government data show. Investors sold 7.75 metric tons of […]
|TAP Special| Dubai World will reach a deal on renegotiating its debt repayment schedule soon, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, disclosed. “I can say for sure we will reach it. It is there and you will hear about it soon,” he told reporters at the sidelines of Ciyscape. Dubai World had offered creditors a series of incentives to lengthen a $25 […]
Chinese-backed hackers infiltrated the computer networks of airline, shipping and information technology companies responsible for transporting personnel and weapons for the U.S. military, a Senate investigation found. There were 20 such breaches from June 2012 to May 2013, giving the hackers insight into military logistics and a foothold that could be used to disrupt operations, according to a report today by the Senate Armed Services Committee. While […]
In a move to beef up its Intercloud strategy, Cisco is acquiring a privately-held company called Metacloud. The firm deploys and operates private clouds for global organizations with an OpenStack-as-a-service model. Metacloud’s model stands out in the industry because it both delivers and remotely operates production-ready private clouds in a customer’s data center. Cisco figures the platform will accelerate its strategy to build the world’s largest Intercloud. […]
Three years after its first foray into the Islamic capital markets ended without a sale, investors piled in to buy sukuk debt from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) yesterday as the bank joined the governments of Hong Kong and the U.K. in selling debut Shariah-compliant bonds this year. The New York-based lender attracted bids for three times the $500 million of sukuk it sold yesterday, according to […]
Edinburgh in the sunshine Photo: AP In bright sunshine this past week, the cobbled pedestrian streets of Edinburgh and the bustling byways in and around the Royal Mile have been thronged with students getting to know Scotland’s historic capital. Students like me, eager to start this new chapter in our lives while enjoying the cheap alcohol and easy socialising that comes with Fresher’s Week. However, behind the carnival […]
China will launch its international gold exchange 11 days ahead of schedule, sources said on Tuesday, racing ahead in the scramble to set up an Asian bullion benchmark as rival Singapore is forced to delay its gold contract due to technical issues. Asia, home to the world’s top two gold buyers – China and India, has been clamouring to gain pricing power over the metal and challenge […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties said the IPO of its shopping malls business unit has been sold out to institutional investors on the first day itself. The leading developer aiming to raise as much as AED 5.8 billion ($1.58 billion) from the offer of shares in Emaar Malls Group (EMG), which is expected to be the Gulf’s biggest stock sale since 2008. On offer are 2 billion […]
|By TAP Staff| The growing political instability in the Gulf has not affected spending on infrastructure development, which is expected to swell by 77 percent in 2014 over last year. According to latest compilations by Global Investment House, the value of new infrastructure projects in GCC is expected to surge to $86 billion this year. The value of new projects in Qatar and the UAE would rise […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) is hacking into corporate servers and attacking global ISPs as part of its effort to map off the entire Internet according to a report Sunday in Der Spiegel, a German daily, citing new documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The spy agency is also placing under surveillance the CEOs and other employees at telecom companies it considers vital to the infrastructure […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai added to its financial market profile when Bank of America-Merrill Lynch announced on Monday it was moving its head of frontier markets research to the city. The move reflects the bank’s plan to take advantage of growing investor interest in the Gulf and surrounding region. Global firms have been strengthening their presence in the wake of surging stock markets, index upgrades and most […]
Boom and bust – two words that are regularly heard when the property market in the United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, is discussed. But that theme appears to be changing. At least that’s what some industry experts are indicating. The property market, after rebounding sharply since early 2013 from the global financial crisis-induced crash, is now showing signs of stabilising – with the pace of growth in […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties said it’s seeking to raise as much as $1.58 billion from the initial public offering of its malls unit in the UAE’s biggest IPO since 2007. Emaar Malls Group PJSC plans to sell 2 billion of its founders’ shares, or about 15 percent of its equity, in a price range of 2.5 dirhams to 2.9 dirhams apiece, according to a company statement […]
|TAP Special| A lower oil price has now become both an economic and political necessity. This is in view of the complications introduced by the disruption of Middle East politics brought about by recent advances by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Bank of America Merrill Lynch notes in a review of the regional political and economic situation that the threat of a radical Islamic Sunni […]
UAE. Two-thirds (66 percent) of millennial high-frequency travellers rate “unique rewards” as an important factor when choosing a hotel loyalty program, compared with just 43 percent of their older counterparts, according to a new Deloitte study, “Winning the Race for Guest Loyalty”. “Our study indicates that customers are waiting to see which program will provide them with the greatest relevant rewards before they commit to a brand, […]
|By TAP Staff| Just over a year ago, China’s Xiaomi was little more than a mid-sized smartphone-maker with an odd name (Xiaomi means “millet”), trailing household brands such as Samsung, Lenovo, Coolpad and others. During the first six months of 2014, however, this four-year old company sold 26m smartphones, propelling it to pole position in the Chinese market. Next year, Lei Jun, its founder and CEO, expects […]
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was “extremely encouraged” by pledges of military assistance against Islamic State militants by countries inside and outside the Middle East and that some nations had offered ground troops. Kerry has been touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for U.S. efforts to build a coalition to fight the Islamic State militants who have grabbed territory in Syria […]
On the face of it, Jordan must be a tough sell to international investors: there is the ubiquitous threat of instability and violence lurking from neighboring Syria and Iraq while the kingdom’s small economy, which is reliant on foreign aid, is strained by high unemployment and budget deficits. Nonetheless, some foreign private equity groups are willing to take the risk. Buyout giant Carlyle Group last year bought […]
|By TAP Staff|The rising popularity of Islamic finance in the West is prompting analysts to conclude that the world is finally recognizing the fact Islamic finance is not just for Muslims and it ready to go mainstream. Islamic finance received a shot in the arm recently with the move by US investment bank Goldman Sachs to revive plans to issue its first sukuk. In June when the […]
|By Winfried Weber| German Mittelstand has become a new role model for managers from all over the world. A pilot study of Mannheim Institute of Applied Management Research found that mostly managers from Asia and emerging countries are attracted by the German Mittelstand model and send delegations to learn more about it. They come directly to Germany as the management education programs taught at business schools or […]
|By TAP Staff| Asia is giving expression to its growing disenchantment with the prevailing West-centred gold pricing mechanism by setting in place its own benchmarks that reflect the region’s market dynamics. China and Singapore are preparing to launch physical bullion contracts with an eye on gaining pricing power of the metal at a time when the global benchmark is under scrutiny. CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives […]
