Bloomberg The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has made a 2.51 percent equity investment in Lebanon’s Bank Audi, the EBRD’s first investment in Lebanon, Audi said. The EBRD, a multilateral development bank, said the investment in Lebanon’s largest bank aims to support Lebanese financial markets, influence the broader economy and strengthen the financial sector. Lebanon has one of the ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is predicting volatile markets are here to stay, helping the lender arrest two years of declines at its debt-trading business. Its forecast that full-year trading revenue will rise is bolder than that of its peers. While other US And European trading behemoths are also predicting a boost to trading, they’ve restricted themselves to the shorter term. ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB won enough support from its shareholders for its proposed move to Helsinki from Stockholm, paving the way for the Nordic region’s largest bank to join Europe’s banking union. More than 95% of the shareholders present or represented at the bank’s annual general meeting in Stockholm voted in support of the proposed relocation, surpassing the two thirds ...

Bloomberg The UK’s largest lenders face tougher capital demands in this year’s stress test, as the Bank of England steps up efforts to avert a repeat of the financial crisis. Banks will be held to a single capital standard that includes their minimum capital requirements as well as any buffers they must have to account for their importance to the ...

DUBAI / WAM DHL has unveiled MyDHL+, an industry-leading global shipping application in the UAE, which will bring new levels of speed and simplicity to the cross-border shipping process. Shippers ranging from small businesses to large global corporations will be able to benefit from MyDHL+ and its intelligent, streamlined interface, which means fewer steps and considerably greater functionality than anything ...

Bloomberg Stephen Hawking, the British physicist and black-hole theorist who brought science to a mass audience with the best-selling book ‘A Brief History of Time,’ has died. He was 76. Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in England in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a spokesman for his family said in an emailed statement. “We are deeply ...

Dubai / Emirates Business In the fourth quarter of 2017, MENA IPO activity witnessed eight deals, representing a 60% surge in volume over the same period in 2016. The MENA IPO value, or capital raised, amounted to $2.5 billion in Q4 2017, over ten times the capital raised last year and the highest since 2014. The UAE led the MENA ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Microsoft revealed plans to deliver the intelligent, trusted Microsoft cloud from its first data centres located in the Middle East, empowering organisations, governments, and businesses to achieve more and recognising the unprecedented opportunity for digital transformation in the region. The Microsoft Cloud, comprising Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365, will offer enterprise-grade reliability and performance, combined ...

DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) achieved a total electricity savings of 1072 MW in 2017, valued at AED2.8 billion. District Cooling saves approximately 50% of power used for cooling, compared to conventional cooling systems, according to a study conducted by the United Nations Energy Efficiency Initiatives. This makes district cooling one of the top energy-efficient and ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Azizi Developments, one of the leading private developers in the UAE, has awarded two contracts worth AED1.5 billion for the construction of Phase 1 of Azizi Victoria, which will commence immediately. Two contractors have been appointed to build 32 buildings with 4,000 units. Green Modelling Contracting has been appointed to construct 16 buildings and Modern Civil ...