Generali, Italy’s largest insurer, has bought voting rights amounting to 3.01 per cent in Intesa Sanpaolo in a defensive move designed to block a mooted takeover bid by the country’s largest bank. The move came after shares in the insurer rose nearly 4 per cent on Monday following a report in Turin-based newspaper La Stampa suggesting Intesa was considering a takeover bid in tandem with Germany’s Allianz. […]
A billionaire Chinese hedge fund manager has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for market manipulation in one of the country’s highest-profile financial crimes prosecutions since a market rout in 2015. Xu Xiang, an investment guru who used to be compared with Carl Icahn, led a loose-knit group of hedge fund managers from the port city of Ningbo known as the “Limit-up Kamikaze Squad” because of their penchant for […]
Abu Dhabi’s government merged two of its top investment funds on Saturday to strengthen their financial clout in an era of low oil prices, creating a company with assets totalling about $125 billion. The new fund, Mubadala Investment Co, was formed by merging Mubadala Development Co and International Petroleum Investment Co, which own corporate stakes in the energy industry and other sectors across the world. The new […]
MADRID Pope Francis on Sunday said he would not make an opinion of Donald Trump until he first had a chance to see specific policies the new U.S. president would implement. On Friday, as Trump was taking office, Francis had urged him to be guided by ethical values, saying he must take care of the poor and the outcast during his time in office. “I think that […]
Tamer Nahas, founder and CEO of BOLDtalks, a Dubai-based boutique event consultancy and curator of high-impact events focused on global thought leadership, explains that believing in one’s initial vision and its relentless perusal is essential for the survival of a business in its infancy. Often referred to as the region’s most thought-provoking event, the BOLDtalks concept hosts renowned opinion leaders and achievers to discuss very diverse, but […]
The agreement continues the efforts to support strategic projects in the emirate, according to the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 Abu Dhabi, January 22, 2017 The Office of His Highness Sheikh Falah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), as part of its support for the project to link the cities of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain via Hyperloop technology. […]
A ship capable of breaking through thick Arctic ice to deliver Russian liquefied natural gas to Asia is due to begin trials, marking an important step towards completion of a $27bn LNG project championed by president Vladimir Putin. The tanker is the first of a new class of icebreaking LNG carriers that will open an export route from Siberia to the Pacific — reducing Russia’s dependence on […]
Ripkowski Fumbles Away a Scoring Chance Photo Packers fullback Aaron Ripkowski fumbled in the second quarter. The Falcons recovered the ball in the end zone. Credit David J. Phillip/Associated Press The Packers had another drive end in frustration when Aaron Ripkowski fumbled at the end of a 12-yard run that short-circuited a drive that went 64 yards on 7 plays. The Falcons recovered the fumble in the […]
Dubai developer Deyaar has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dubai South to build a new multi-purpose development in the master-planned city around the new Al Maktoum International airport. The new development in Dubai South, which will be on an area of 1.27 million sq feet in the Residential District, features residential units, shops, retail outlets and hospitality facilities. The development will be owned 50 percent by […]
The world’s largest pension fund, Japan’s GPIF, is under intensifying pressure to draw a “line in the sand” on corporate governance standards in the country as other investors rail against a controversial takeover deal. The imbroglio centres around Panasonic’s proposed purchase of PanaHome. Investors say it represents one of the sternest tests to date of Japan’s stewardship and governance codes, guidelines introduced in 2014 as part of the “Abenomics” drive to […]
MADRID Pope Francis on Sunday said he would not make an opinion of Donald Trump until he first had a chance to see specific policies the new U.S. president would implement. On Friday, as Trump was taking office, Francis had urged him to be guided by ethical values, saying he must take care of the poor and the outcast during his time in office. “I think that […]
Screw you. That was the direct message to the media from President Trump and his spokesman Saturday, using both CIA headquarters and the White House briefing room to underscore that there’s a new and combative sheriff in town. They accused the press of “deliberately false” reporting and intentionally trying to undermine him by lowballing the crowd at his inauguration. Even to some politically conservative observers, it appeared […]
ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Syria’s government and opposition fighters will on Monday sit down at the negotiating table for the first time in nearly six years of war, the latest diplomatic push to end hostilities. Hosted in the Kazakh capital Astana, the talks will see an opposition delegation composed exclusively of opposition groups negotiating with the regime of Bashar Assad in an initiative sponsored by opposition backer Turkey […]
A little-remarked shift of how the cloud is used and who uses it is well underway – and it could be music to your ears. Low-hanging fruit When cloud services first started, and for some considerable time afterwards, cloud services providers concentrated, quite naturally, on the low-hanging fruit. The battleground was centred around key but generic applications such as email, office productivity and storage, which quickly became […]
For hundreds of years, fishing and pearl diving were vital to the people who lived around the Arabian Gulf. Along with trade, it was these two activities that allowed communities to flourish in the days before the discovery of oil. While pearl diving is largely a thing of the past, fishing remains a major industry – perhaps too major. Like many other seas, the Arabian Gulf is […]
If you thought Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has an innately charming persona — simply by looking at his posts on Facebook — then you might be surprised to know that there’s a science behind that appeal. Yes, even the founder of the most popular social networking site needs professional help in keeping his Facebook profile squeaky clean. Zuckerberg is making sure his social media presence is […]
While the rest of the developed world woke up in a cold sweat on the first official morning of the Trump presidency, the Kremlin said that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was ready to meet President Trump but preparations for the possible meeting may take months, not weeks, according to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “This will not be in coming weeks, let’s hope for the best – that the […]
· Global security and fire safety leader to showcase solutions from recently-acquired Xtralis, a pioneer in early fire and intrusion detection technologies · Honeywell to host seminars and workshops for industry stakeholders, experts to discuss market trends, latest technologies and regional best practice 21 January 2017 Dubai, United Arab Emirates – In response to growing demand for smarter, more connected security systems across the Middle East, Honeywell (NYSE: HON) will […]
It won’t be long now. Today, Donald Trump becomes “leader of the free world.” Might even be a tougher job than running a staff of journalists. It’s a situation that got me wondering: Should I be studying the President-elect’s approach to leadership? Could his style help the women and men who manage newsrooms and other staffs be more effective? The answer, I think, is mostly no. I […]
While the year ahead could prove to be a bumpy one for global financial markets amid ongoing political and policy risks, there is reason for optimism over the outlook for stocks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Compared to 2016, a number of structural tailwinds should give investors greater confidence in MENA’s fundamentals. The implementation of major fiscal and capital market reform throughout the […]
RAS AL KHAIMAH, 20 January 2017 Excitement filled Rixos Bab Al Bahr as Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAK FTZ) and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) announced the winners of the first joint RAK Free Zones Business Excellence Awards on 19 January 2017. The much-awaited awards programme lauded 10 outstanding companies that displayed relentless commitment to organisational excellence and contributed immensely to strengthening Ras Al […]
Just hours after President Trump was sworn into office, amid Chuck Schumer’s jabs over HUD, the Senate has confirmed retired Marine General James Mattis as defense secretary and retired Marine General John Kelly as homeland security secretary. They were both expected to be confirmed easily, and were, but Democrats promised fights over several other nominees. Mattis was the first to be confirmed by a vote of 98 […]
Kabir Mulchandani is a hands-on developer. While he may not be laying bricks, the SKAI Holdings CEO forwent his air-conditioned office in Downtown Dubai for an often stinking hot construction site on the Palm Jumeirah for the two years that it took for his flagship $1.2 billion hotel to be built. It was only in November that he finally walked offsite when the Viceroy Dubai Palm Jumeirah […]
Billionaire investor George Soros spoke to Bloomberg TV in Davos, and said the euphoria among stock investors since the victory of President-elect Donald Trump will end as uncertainty takes over. In an interview that may have been even gloomier than his last address to Davos in January 2016, when he said he was short the market, predicted a Chinese hard landing, and said the Fed’s hike was […]
