The new smartphone being introduced this week by BlackBerry will be cheaper than both the Apple iPhone 6 and the newest Samsung Galaxy edition. But will anyone notice? The BlackBerry Passport will sell for $599 without a wireless carrier contract in the U.S. Compared to various models of the iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 currently on sale, that’s a price cut of about $50 to $250. […]
Image: Bigstockphoto. For illustration purpose only How UAE’s private sector can improve Emiratisation DUBAI, 1 days ago There has been an increasingly competitive talent attraction landscape amongst UAE businesses for some time now, with many companies, particularly in the private sector, struggling to recruit enough Emirati nationals to fulfil goals laid out by the government. Gavin Smith, managing director of ReThink MEA, a specialist recruiter in the […]
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 […]
DIFC Investments LLC, which owns properties in the Dubai International Financial Center business park, said it plans to raise about $700 million from an Islamic bond sale to repay debt and fund development as borrowing costs decline. The state-controlled company, which is planning to issue the sukuk before the end of October, will use the proceeds to repay the $650 million outstanding on a syndicated loan, DIFC […]
|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 […]
U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. continues to lead its “friend and allies” in the strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the terrorist group known as Islamic State. Obama said in his weekly address Saturday the militants “pose a threat to the people of Iraq, Syria and the broader Middle East.” He said “if let unchecked, they could pose a growing threat to the United States.” […]
In an effort to make open source security tools more user friendly, Google and Dropbox announced Thursday that they have teamed up with the Open Technology Fund to form “Simply Secure.” The goal of the new non-profit organization is to “help craft usably secure technologies and make them available for everyone.” This is the second time this week a major technology company has launched an open source […]
With iOS 8 now available as a free upgrade for many iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners, here are a few tips to keep in mind before you take the plunge. First, make sure your device is eligible for the update. Here’s of the list of devices covered: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod Touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad […]
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. […]
As PayPal girds up to go after a big new rival in the online payment arena, it’s doing so by taking shots at that competitor’s security track record. Not long after Apple unveiled Apple Pay, its new contactless payment system, PayPal took out a newspaper advertisement slamming the new service. Apple Pay, suggests the ad, is no more safe than a selfie in the iCloud, making reference […]
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 […]
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 […]
Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) has held talks with banks about raising a loan to help fund its general operations, the first time the firm has commissioned such a facility in years, three banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. While it is a rarity for the company to raise money not tied to a specific project, a loan would be the latest example of a Dubai state-backed entity tapping […]
Dubai’s boom-and-bust real estate market can land you at the wheel of a Rolls-Royce or behind bars. Kabir Mulchandani should know: he’s experienced both. Five years after spending 140 days in jail facing charges of fraud and embezzlement for which he ultimately was cleared, the chairman of developer SKAI Holdings stands at a building site watching cranes start work on one of the company’s three projects. They […]
Spurred by a rapidly deteriorating economy, the International Monetary Fund has approved a three-year extended credit facility worth $552 million with Yemen, the impoverished Arab nation that has become a breeding ground for the terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The lifeline will provide some relief for Yemeni authorities who face a myriad of political and security challenges that continue to drag on the economy. […]
By Christina Farr and Edwin Chan SAN FRANCISCO Wed Sep 3, 2014 7:44am IST The Apple logo is pictured at a retail store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has often displayed uncanny timing, with its well-orchestrated end-of-year iPhone releases. But the leak of racy celebrity photos in the past few days […]
By Robert Castleman: As a holder of BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY), I get a great deal of pushback from some pretty smart people that think BlackBerry is a failed company in its death throes. Here, I outline why I think BlackBerry stands a chance, even if it still is a very high-risk holding. To understand my investment thesis, we will have to take a dive into software development and […]
Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai’s largest lender, plans to sell a benchmark-sized capital-boosting bond, a document from lead managers said on Monday, looking to take advantage of favourable markets to strengthen its reserves. ENBD has chosen Citigroup, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and its own investment banking arm to arrange investor meetings ahead of a potential issue, the document said, confirming what banking sources told Reuters […]
Meraas Holding, a state-owned property firm that is developing some of Dubai’s most ambitious real estate projects, is in talks with banks to raise up to $4 billion, sources aware of the matter said on Monday. Dubai has bounced back rapidly from a debt crisis in 2008, when property prices fell by more than half, and state-linked property companies have started work on several major projects in […]
Topaz website For proof that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats look no further than Dubai’s Topaz Energy and Marine. In the dark days following the global recession it scrapped a planned $500 million London IPO in 2011 that valued the company between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion. Since then regional economies and capital markets have recovered strongly. Fast forward to Wednesday and Standard Chartered Private […]
|By TAP Staff| Aldar Properties has reported a strong wave of demand for long-term, bulk lease deals from corporate clients. The lease agreements signed with corporate clients range from two to 30 years, providing Aldar with long-term security of income. Both local and international companies have signed bulk leases at Al Rayyana, The Gates Towers, The Arc, Sun and Sky Towers and Al Murjan Tower over the […]
LONDON, August 15 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has affirmed Abu Dhabi’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) at ‘AA’. The Outlooks are Stable. The issue ratings on Abu Dhabi’s senior unsecured foreign and local currency bonds have also been affirmed at ‘AA’. The Short-term foreign currency IDR has been affirmed at ‘F1+’. The UAE Country Ceiling has been affirmed at ‘AA+’; this Ceiling also applies […]
London-based Gatehouse Bank is developing new business lines and widening its investor base as the Islamic wholesale lender looks to build a more stable revenue stream, its chief executive said. Gatehouse, one of Britain’s six full-fledged Islamic banks, is joining several of its peers in broadening its scope, after the country’s Islamic finance sector got a boost from the government’s first issue of an Islamic bond in […]
Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed it was considering selling the international arm of its private bank, a deal one source said could net it as much as $1 billion, as the British government leans on it to focus more on domestic lending. The move means that Coutts, founded in the 18th century and best known as banker to Queen Elizabeth, could be split into two businesses – […]
