The Middle East has given McLaren Automotive, the British manufacturer of luxury sports and supercars, good reason to get revved up with sales soaring last year. Its Middle East, Africa and central and South America region grew by an impressive 69 per cent last year, as the company posted another record year of sales growth. From offices in Dubai, McLaren has expanded into Abu Dhabi. “We continue […]
Dubai-based air services provider dnata has revealed that December 23 was its busiest day in 2016 with 18,529 staff handling 281,388 passengers and 329,341 bags in the UAE. The company, a subsidiary of Emirates, said it dealt with one aircraft movement every 73 seconds on that day and closed the year with 419,133 tonnes of cargo at Dubai International Airport, up eight percent from the previous year. […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for January 11, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Ajman Wedding fair Attend the opening of The Ajman Palace Hotel Wedding Fair, which features more than 50 vendors, designers and wedding planners from around the country catering to luxury weddings. Following the ribbon-cutting […]
Prince Alwaleed: “This transaction marks yet another success for Kingdom’s value realization strategy” 10 January 2017 Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, announces that it has successfully sold its 100% interest in the Mövenpick Hotel Ambassador Accra to QG Africa Hotel LP, a Mauritius-based fund managed by Quantum Global Investments Africa Management Ltd. for a consideration of $100M. The […]
Plans have been revealed for a AED1.8 billion ($490 million) development in Dubai to feature amusement parks, apartments, shops, restaurants and a cultural centre. Ento Capital Managment, an investment company licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), said it is geared to reconstruct the Wonder Land project, located on Al Riyadh Street. Hayssam El Masri, CEO of Ento Capital, said the project is slated to start […]
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” So Henry Temple, the third Viscount Palmerston, described British foreign policy in 1848, at the height of its imperial pomp. “England is a power sufficiently strong, sufficiently powerful to steer her own course.” It is more than fanciful to imagine US […]
The world’s main repository for data on credit derivatives deals will move its database on to the blockchain, in the first big test case for whether the emerging technology can be employed across the finance industry. The DTCC, a US post-trade services group that processes more than $1,500tn of securities a year, will use technology from IBM and US blockchain start-ups R3 and Axoni as the basis […]
Last year was tough for global aviation and, like many in this sector, there’s not much I wouldn’t give for a crystal ball to see what 2017 has in store. Having said that, the consensus is that we can expect more of the same, with the wide range of macro challenges that beset the world in 2016 continuing. War and regional conflicts are ongoing and the ever-present […]
A student study suggests that one hundred days after zombie infection spread less than 300 people would remain alive globally. After one hundred days human survivors would be outnumbered a million to one by zombies. Students worked on the assumption that a zombie would have a 90% probability of turning others into the undead. However, factoring in humans killing zombies and human reproduction rates, world’s population would […]
If Paris is the capital of modern perfume then the Middle East, notably Mesopotamia and Egypt, were the hub in ancient times, stretching back 5,000 years. Le Grand Musée du Parfum in Paris charts some of that period with maps showing the sources and routes of myrrh, olibanum (frankincense), cinnamon, saffron and Indian spices to the ancient capitals of Alexandria, Babylon and Samarkand. Olibanum is an aromatic […]
A year ago Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince and the power behind the throne, electrified the global energy industry by revealing plans to float the world’s largest oil producer. The ambitious proposal for an initial public offering in state-owned Saudi Aramco is the centrepiece of the hard-charging 31-year-old’s vision to overhaul an economy seen as too heavily dependent on natural resources. One year on […]
Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, has cut its sales and profit expectations for 2017 as it braces for more pricing and competition pressure on its best-selling drug — the multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone. The Israeli group said net revenue for full-year 2017 would now be $23.8bn-$24.5bn, compared with the $25.2bn-$26.2bn range it gave in July. Expectations for earnings per share have also been […]
ABU DHABI // Exercise should be the first line of defence in the fight against depression after research published in the Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology hailed its benefits in releasing ‘feel good’ brain chemicals. Doctors advocate physical activity as the best remedy in many cases, but the simple solution is often overlooked in favour of medication that can be expensive and carry side effects. Restrictions […]
As the first battery cells roll off the production line at Tesla’s 1.9m sq ft Gigafactory in Nevada a scramble is under way to secure supply of the lithium that is their key ingredient. This week a small Australian mining company sold a lithium prospect in west Africa to a Chinese buyer for $78m — or more than 2,000 times the amount it paid for the deposit […]
Samsung Electronics has forecast its best quarterly profit in more than three years, projecting that operating profit for the last three months of 2016 surged 50 per cent as strong sales of chips and display panels offset the Galaxy Note 7 debacle. The world’s largest maker of memory chips as well as smartphones estimated its fourth-quarter operating profit at Won9.2tn ($7.8bn), the highest since the third quarter […]
Friday 02:30 GMT Overview Asia’s markets were bracing for key US jobs data on Friday, leaving stock indices flat and most currencies higher against a wobbling dollar. Within the region, attention was on the Chinese renminbi, which paused for breath after enjoying its biggest two-day rally against the dollar since the offshore market was created in 2010. Hot topic While currency markets are looking at the renminbi, […]
India will on Friday get its first official indication of the impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s war on cash on the larger economy. The country’s statistics ministry will release its estimate of growth in gross domestic product for the current fiscal year and analysts will be watching to see if it can maintain its 7.6% rate despite the severe cash shortage sparked by the Nov. 8 […]
Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, said that its revenues in India had exceeded $1bn last year as it looks abroad for growth amid continuing competitive pressures at home. Chinese-owned technology companies have so far led the smartphone market in India. The subcontinent is seen as the next big untapped market for mobile makers at a time when growth has begun to flag elsewhere. Sales of Xiaomi’s smartphones […]
On an episode of the popular television show House of Cards, the American president, played by Kevin Spacey, announces an initiative to create 10 million jobs in America, where anyone who’s unemployed and wants a job will get one. In a speech, he says: “Entitlements have crippled the country. Let me be clear, you are entitled to nothing; you build your future, it isn’t handed to you”. […]
Every big city has a sanctuary of sorts, a place where people can escape from the madness around them. New York has its famous Central Park; in London you can take your pick of Hyde, Regent’s, Green or St James’ parks – all greening up large parts of some of the world’s most expensive real estate. At the other end of the world, Auckland, the largest city […]
Increased number of visitors and hotel occupancy seen during Hajj and Umrah season January 05, 2017 Elaf Group, a SEDCO holding company, and a leading provider of travel, tourism and hospitality services, has recently seen growth spikes in the tourism sector of Saudi Arabia during the Umrah season and the recent celebration of Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) birthday. This was evident in the increase of occupancy rate in […]
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is embarking on a tour of the US following Donald Trump’s election as president, in an attempt to understand how the country has been divided by the impact of globalisation and technology. The chief executive of the world’s largest social network has made it a personal challenge to have visited people in every state in the US by the end of the year, […]
Starbucks has already established itself as the undisputed king of retail coffee chains. Now one Wall Street analyst thinks it can overtake McDonald’s as the world’s most valuable restaurant chain. The Seattle-based coffee chain’s shares fell 7.5 per cent last year, as investors warily eyed a deceleration in same-store sales from the first half to the second. The announcement last month that long-serving chief executive Howard Schultz […]
|By Matein Khalid|“Few individuals alter the course of history. Fewer still change the map of the world. Hardly anyone creates a nation state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three”. Dr. Stanley Wolpert’s words still give me goose pimples two decades after I first read his book. Mr. Jinnah founded Pakistan and was also my ancestral kinsman. I too was born in Karachi, the city by the sea, […]
