By Northport Investments: We were preparing our third article on Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) during the week for publication at the beginning of the market-trading week when we noticed a surge in COH’s stock price on August 8, 2014 (Friday) without explanation. Our first response was “Someone knows something.” Later in that trading day news came out that a French luxury-brand company named Kering was potentially about to […]
A container ship in the Suez Canal near Ismailia port city, northeast of Cairo. Reuters The Suez Canal–one of the world’s vital trading routes–is set for the first major expansion in its 145-year history. Egypt’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar plan, which could nearly double the waterway’s capacity to 97 passing ships a day by 2023, has been largely welcomed by shipping industry executives and economists, albeit with some skepticism. […]
Mumbai: After witnessing decline in profit for six consecutive quarters, State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, reported 3.3 per cent net profit growth to Rs 3,349 crore for the quarter ended June, compared to Rs 3,241 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, said: “Pressure (on asset quality) appears to be subsiding. But we need to see a pick-up in the economy to see appreciable changes in asset quality.” Net interest income grew 15 per cent to Rs 13,252 crore and fee income growth was 11 per cent to Rs 2,837 crore, though there was a fall in treasury income. The profitability got a boost of Rs 6,000 crore from sale of stressed assets to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) during the q
Dubai mortgage lender Amlak Finance said on Thursday that all its creditors had approved a plan to restructure its debt, bringing to a close protracted talks over the last major hangover from the emirate’s property market crash of 2008. Twenty-eight creditors had been seeking a deal with the Islamic lender, which had its shares suspended from trade on the Dubai Financial Market in November 2008 as the […]
A return to an era of higher interest rates could derail attempts by Islamic finance to create alternatives to a short-term funding instrument that has dominated the industry, but which some scholars and regulators want to see replaced. Islamic finance has been trying to diversify away from so-called commodity murabaha, a common cost-plus profit arrangement, in an attempt to reduce reliance on a single tool, stop money […]
By Kofi Bofah: Last June, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) CEO John Chen first revealed the Passport phone at the company annual general meeting at Waterloo. Originally codenamed Windermere, the Passport is scheduled for official showing at a launch event in London this September. Already, the optimistic Chen has argued that the Passport will reclaim original BlackBerry customers lost to the iOS ecosystem. Going forward, however, the initial optimism […]
NEW DELHI: The central government’s worries on the Insurance Bill aggravated on Tuesday with Congress accusing it of adopting double standards on the issue and dismissing threats from the treasury benches that a joint session may be convened, forcing BJP ministers to knock on the doors of parties like SP and BSP to muster the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Congress sources maintained the government was reportedly keen on passing the insurance bill in Parliament in this session so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can showcase it to the US during his visit in September and hence wants to hurry through the process without sending it to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. BJP leaders, on the other hand, alleged Congress was playing politics on
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government while censuring previous Congress government for ignoring state’s interests while signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), has banked on the HPCL’s own consulting firm, SBI Caps’ report.
Chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, during her budget speech, said that based on appraisal report, the project will earn revenue of more than 68,000 crore within 15 years, from the day of production.
According to government officials, the data was cited from the report prepared by HPCL-appointed consulting firm, SBI Caps. Riding on these figures, the government is firming its stand on renegotiating the terms. “These facts came
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government was open to accommodating minor modifications to the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, so that it could be passed in the current session of Parliament. He also said calling a joint session of Parliament was a real option if the Bill was defeated in one of the Houses. After an all-party meeting failed to break the deadlock on the issue between the government and Opposition, Jaitley on Monday reached out to the Congress. But the Congress continued to insist the Bill be sent to a select committee of Parliament, as it now was much changed from the one the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The party added it would be willing to support the legisl
The government is proposing a major overhaul of its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy as part of the Narendra Modi-led administration’s plan to woo overseas investors and improve ease of doing business in India, which ranks at a lowly 134 out of 189 global economies in this respect, according to the World Bank.
The government is looking to adopt the international practice of linking policy with industrial codes to ensure foreign investors won’t have to wade through complicated press notes or circulars to decipher the policy for a sector.
“Discussions are on. There is merit in seeding the industrial codes with the FDI policy,” said a government official aware of the deliberations. The mov
NEW DELHI: Stung by Reliance Industries’ alleged bid to “influence” the foreign third arbitrator appointed by the Supreme Court in the KG-D6 block case, the government is set to approach the court with a plea that the relevant arbitration be done strictly within the country sans a foreign umpire.
Armed with a law ministry opinion conveyed to it recently, the petroleum ministry will also take the firm stand that RIL’s foreign partners, BP and Niko, should not be made a party to the arbitration, which was initiated by the Indian company, sources familiar with the matter told FE.
The government’s move would escalate the conflict between it and RIL over the alleged suppression of gas production at the once-pro
The value of shares bought by foreign investors through swap arrangements on the Saudi stock exchange jumped in July, official statistics showed on Sunday. Authorities in the kingdom granted long-awaited approval on July 21 to open up the bourse to direct foreign investment for the first time in early 2015. Foreigners currently can only purchase shares through swap arrangements, contracts in which a local broker or investor […]
Challenges such as large current account and fiscal deficits remain, but three years after the Arab Spring uprisings, the tide is turning in favour of the economies of North Africa, says London-based Capital Economics. A gradual return to political stability in Egypt and Tunisia should support activity there, while exports are likely to pick up on the back of the modest recovery in the global economy, its […]
NEW DELHI: Petrol became cheaper by Rs 1.09 per litre in Delhi from Friday after state oil companies slashed the price of the fuel for the first time since mid-April because benchmark gasoline rates in the international market dropped.
Companies, however, raised the price of diesel by 56 paise in Delhi, helping to reduce the gap between pump and market rates by about Rs 1.50 per litre and increasing the prospects of deregulating the fuel soon.
If the trend continues, diesel pricing could be freed from state control in three months, government and industry officials said. Prices of diesel sold to bulk consumers such as the railways and state transport companies at market rates have been reduced, IOCsaid in a statement.
Middle East funds are heavily bullish towards Saudi Arabian stocks after news the market will open to direct foreign investment, while they are bearish on the United Arab Emirates because of concern about high valuations. The latest Reuters survey of 15 leading investment managers,conducted over the past 10 days, showed two-thirds expected to raise their equity allocations to Saudi Arabia in the next three months, up from […]
Dubai shares gained the most in almost seven years in July, helping claw back some of the losses sustained in a bear market that wiped a quarter off the benchmark index. Real estate-related companies led the rally. Arabtec Holding Co. (ARTC), which spurred the DFM General Index’s collapse in May and June, advanced 4.9 percent today to bring monthly gains to 63 percent. Emaar Properties PJSC, the […]
Dubai luxury property developer DAMAC is offering investors the option of converting its Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), listed on the London bourse, into ordinary shares that would be listed on Dubai’s main stock market. Investors would get around 23.08 shares per GDR. They have until Sept. 2 to decide on the offer, the developer said in a statement to the London bourse on Wednesday. No new shares […]
Damac Properties is recommending investors convert GDRs, listed on the London bourse, into shares that would be listed on Dubai’s stock market. Reuters A company needs to sell at least 55% of its stock to list on the main U.A.E. bourses – a regulation that has been blamed in part for the weak IPO market in the Arab Gulf country. After all, most big companies in the […]
Three young rebels, their AK47s propped against wooden stools in the afternoon heat, guard the entrance to the giant Ndassima goldmine carved deep into a forested hilltop in Central African Republic. Sat in a thatched shack at the edge of a muddy shantytown, the gunmen keep the peace – for a price – among hundreds of illegal miners who swarm over the steep sides of the glittering […]
Mumbai: State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited may go solo on its plans to build its second underground liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility in Mangalore.
The company which was planning to rope in Total SA of France, to build the cavern jointly, said Total is not interested at present and may join the company at a later stage.
“We see merit in the project and have decided to go ahead. We will commission the detailed feasibility report shortly and then call for tenders in the next four-six months,” said a senior HPCL official.
The cavern, will cost HPCL Rs 700 crore and will store 60,000 tonnes of LPG. HPCL and Total, through their equal joint venture, South Asi
The U.S. sanctioned three Russian banks and a state-owned shipbuilder that serves Russia’s navy and oil and gas industry, joining with the European Union in escalating the penalties for Russia over its actions in Ukraine. “Russia is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of progress,” President Barack Obama said at the White House. “We can’t, in the end, make President Putin see […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. lender, is cutting hundreds of technology support employees in its corporate and investment bank amid a revenue decline, people with knowledge of the move said. Workers in locations including New York, Tampa, Chicago and Dubai were notified of the cuts this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter. […]
The emirate of Sharjah has appointed HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered to manage a debut sukuk transaction, according to two sources away from the transaction. One of the sources said that Sharjah Islamic Bank and the investment banking arm of Kuwait Finance House, KFH Financial, were also mandated on the deal. The transaction could come as early as September. Sharjah would become the […]
MUMBAI: India’s banking sector may be getting ready for a wave of consolidation as the country tries to build institutions of world-class proportions. Four big state-run banks — State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India — have already begun an exercise to identify takeover targets to gain access to franchises that would augment their capabilities, said three top bankers familiar with the move.
The top managements of the four banks are in the process of preparing a blueprint that would explain the rationale for absorbing one or two entities, said the people cited above, none of whom wanted to be named.
Employees at these state-run banks are engaged in the exercise after f
