Bloomberg Home Retail Group Plcshares rose in early trading after a takeover of the Argos stores owner turned into a 1.4 billion-pound ($2 billion) contest. Steinhoff International Holdings Ltd., the owner of Conforama furniture stores in France and Bensons Beds in the U.K., said late Friday it plans to make a 175 pence-a-share cash offer for the British retailer, topping ...

Barcelona / Bloomberg The Majestic, a luxury hotel in downtown Barcelona, is bumping up room prices by two thirds as delegates including Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg troop into Spain’s second city for the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC). “This is the biggest week of the year for hoteliers,” said Santiago Martin, communications manager for the Majestic Hotel Group. The ...

Dubai / Emirates Business According to the latest Chestertons MENA Observer report, the rentals in majority of the apartments sector across prime areas in Dubai didn’t witness any change in Q4 of 2015. However, locations such as Jumeirah Park, Islands and Golf Estates observed a slight rental decrease of 3%, 2% and 2% respectively. Villa segment also saw a decrease ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) announced its local and global growth strategy at the Group’s 2016 Annual Performance Meeting. His Excellency Saif Al Falasi, ENOC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, explained that the company’s strong integrated business model will enable it to withstand the challenges associated with the ongoing oil price volatility. Despite the difficult macroeconomic situation, ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business This week, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) hosted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant site in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi. The visit served as an important opportunity for the Director General to observe the significant progress being made at Barakah, which is ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Gulfood – the world’s largest annual food and hospitality trade show – has broken a Guinness World Record for the globe’s heaviest bag of rice. KRBL Limited, the world’s largest rice millers and Basmati rice exporters, has successfully entered the Guinness record books with a bag of rice from its acclaimed India Gate Classic Basmati Rice ...

London / Bloomberg David Cameron will make the case for staying in the EU to Parliament after London Mayor Boris Johnson became the highest-profile figure to say he’ll campaign for Britain to quit the 28-nation bloc, sending the pound plummeting. Cameron is due to address lawmakers in the House of Commons on the reform deal he struck with fellow European ...

London / Bloomberg The pound fell the most since May 2010 after London Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the U.K.’s most popular politicians, said he’ll campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in a June referendum. Sterling dropped at least 1.1 percent against all its 16 major peers, reversing a gain made on Friday when Prime Minister David Cameron ...

BERLIN / AFP Ending Europe’s open-borders Schengen agreement would cost EU economies at least 470 billion euros ($520 billion) over a decade, according to a German study published on Monday. The impact on trade flows would also cost major trade partners the United States and China tens of billions of euros each, said the study by the Prognos institute on ...

Lviv / AFP Branches of at least three Russian banks have been attacked during a spate of weekend violence across Ukraine that coincided with the second anniversary of the ouster of Kiev’s Moscow-backed leadership. The latest incidents occurred overnight Sunday in Lviv — a nationalist bastion in the west of the former Soviet republic — where unknown assailants torched the ...