The European Central Bank’s supervisory arm has rejected a request from Rome to delay a private sector-led rescue for Monte dei Paschi di Siena, leaving Italy little option but to inject state funds and impose losses on creditors. MPS asked the ECB for an extra five weeks to pull off a last-ditch €5bn equity injection for the lender, which emerged as the weakest in the European bank […]
Pearson, Microsoft and Google collaborate on state-of-the-art learning technology. Dubai,UAE, 9 December 2016 Pearson launched its latest augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) educational technology in the Middle East. This includes content for Microsoft HoloLens, the brand new augmented reality viewer, as well as content for VR including interactive 360° courseware. Microsoft’s HoloLens, is the world’s first untethered augmented reality system. HoloLens is a device that […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lanka’s heavily indebted government signed an agreement in principle on Thursday to sell an 80% stake in a deep-water port on the nation’s southern coast, close to one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, to a Chinese state-owned company, senior officials said. Under the deal, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, China Merchants Port Holdings Co. would pay about […]
December 9, 2016 by: Lauren Fedor and Katie Martin in London Irish fruit distributor Fyffes has agreed to a takeover by a subsidiary of Sumitomo, a deal that will value the London-listed company at €751m and allow the Japanese conglomerate to dramatically expand its European food business. The two companies said on Friday that Swordus Ireland Holding, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo, would acquire the entire share […]
In 2011, as skincare brand Nivea marked its centenary with a string of parties across the world, Indian billionaire BR Shetty hosted his own private celebration in his extraordinary apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. No humble pied-à-terre, this pad occupies the entire 100th floor of the tallest building in the world — not bad for the former pharmaceutical salesman, who was one of the first people to […]
Madrid, Spain – 09 November 2016 Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), a leading global developer of large-scale solar power plants and part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, has been awarded a 30 year 300 MW solar project in the second electricity market auction, conducted by the National Energy Control Center (CENACE) of Mexico. With this Build-Operate-Own agreement, FRV extends its global footprint into the Mexican market at very […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 9, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Tennis event Take part in the ZSC Academy Tennis Festival, a fun way to experience and learn more about the sport. There will be lessons for children ages 2 and older, tennis […]
08 December 2016 “The power and energy landscape in Africa is undergoing significant change” says Evan Schiff, African Utility Week event director, adding that current trends include “the availability of private investment for power and energy projects, the fast development of energy storage, renewable energy is becoming cheaper, gas that is an increasingly attractive mode of power generation in Africa, and that in the next 10 years, […]
The deals, if finalized, would bring much-needed expertise and foreign investment to Iran’s ailing energy sector. Continue reading the main story Just as important, the agreements provide a lifeline to the rest of the world, experts say, critical to keeping dollars flowing and in cementing relations with European and Asian countries. Few Iranian officials like to acknowledge that in public, insisting that the country is immune to […]
The release in cinemas last week of Ali Khaled’s Lights of Rome about the UAE football team at the World Cup in 1990 was the latest development in what has been a strong couple of years for documentaries in UAE cinema, as well as the wider Arab world which has a long history of documentary filmmaking. A high point for the industry here was undoubtedly 2015’s He […]
MOSCOW — The Russian government announced Wednesday that it will sell nearly 20 percent of its state oil company, Rosneft, to the Swiss commodity trading firm Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. The deal defies expectations that no investor would dare buy a share in the Russian asset, given Western sanctions against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. But the emergence of foreign money […]
News stories are released on weekdays. 2 hours ago Vatican confirms ban on homosexual candidates for priesthood The Vatican has confirmed that homosexual men should not be ordained to the priesthood. In a new instruction for the training of seminarians, entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, the Congregation for the Clergy says that the Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those […]
General assembly meetings of FGB and NBAD held on December 7th Combined bank has total assets of approximately AED655 billion (US$178 billion), representing a 27% market share of UAE banking sector[1] Shareholders approve combined bank’s board of directors from effective merger date Effective date of merger towards the end of Q1 2017 as initially planned. Abu Dhabi, 7 December 2016 Shareholders in First Gulf Bank PJSC (FGB) […]
07 December 2016 Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), the Bahrain-based international aluminium smelter, has been performing reasonably well in light of the market conditions, according to a statement issued by the Chairman of Alba’s Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa. The statement was made following the fourth quarterly meeting for the year 2016, which was held on Wednesday December 07, 2016 at Alba. […]
The European Central Bank should retool its asset-purchase programme to fund a wave of new infrastructure spending across the continent, according to one of the world’s most powerful bond managers. Rick Rieder, global chief investment officer of BlackRock’s $1.6tn fixed income business, says the ECB should avoid a “false choice” between continuing on its present course or tapering its existing programme, when it meets to decide monetary […]
Dubai aims to become the seventh leading maritime capital of the world by 2020 ahead of London, New York, Tokyo, Copenhagen, and Rio de Janeiro The UAE is first WTO member from the Arab region to ratify the new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in April 2016 07 December 2016Dubai aims to become the seventh leading maritime capital of the world by 2020 ahead of London, New […]
Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodity traders, has announced a 12 per cent decline in annual profits as challenging market conditions curbed money-making opportunities and it was forced to write down the value of port and rail assets. In the year to September, net profit was $975m, down from just over $1.1bn in 2015 which was a record year for trading the Geneva-based company. In spite […]
Submitted by Daniel Cloud “Donald Trump is either too incompetent to understand that his foolish phone call threatens our national security, or he’s doing it deliberately because he reportedly wants to build hotels in Taiwan to pad his own pockets.” – (Democratic National Committee Spokesperson) Is that true? Did “incompetent” President-Elect Donald Trump’s “foolish” telephone conversation with Taiwan’s President Cai Yingwen actually “threaten American’s […]
Expansion will help ensure Abu Dhabi’s rising demand for gas is met sustainably and economically 07 December 2016 Abu Dhabi, UAE – Plans to expand the Al Hosn Shah Gas plant’s capacity by 50 per cent have come one step closer today, with the awarding of the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Services contract, to Britain’s Amec Foster Wheeler. One of the key players in the GCC […]
ABU DHABI // The UAE Space Agency issued the Arab world’s first national space policy in the capital on Tuesday – the first step to formulating laws for the industry. “The policy is just like a torch guiding us to where we have to go,” said Dr Mohammed Al Ahbabi, the agency’s director general. “Our space laws will have elements designed for tomorrow’s technologies and industries, such […]
The US Supreme Court has thrown out a $399m patent damages award against Samsung to Apple, in a unanimous verdict in favour of the Korean electronics group. The five-year-old case between the two smartphone market leaders could now continue for much longer, after the justices ordered the lower Federal Circuit court of appeals to reconsider the basis upon which the damages were originally calculated. While the decision does not […]
A man holds up his mobile phone showing a M-Pesa mobile money transaction page for the photographer at an open air market in Kibera in Kenya’s capital Nairobi (Reuters/Noor Khamis). This post features a conversation with Georgia Levenson Keohane, executive director of the Pershing Square Foundation, adjunct professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, and author of Capital and the Common Good: How Innovative Finance is […]
Hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand has returned almost 15 per cent this year by betting on a recovery in oil prices and he forecasts the rally has further to run after Opec’s agreement last week to cut supplies. The French founder of Andurand Capital, which has grown to be one of the world’s largest oil funds, returned 6.1 per cent in November as he positioned for crude’s […]
Paula Hawkins takes the plunge Into the Water It has been the publishing sensation of the past few years, so it is no surprise that news of the follow-up to Paula Hawkins’s psychological thriller The Girl on the Train made waves this week. Into the Water will be released on May 2 next year, and Hawkins shows no signs of diverting from the successful formula that has […]
