News

Bloomberg Residential land values in London’s priciest areas are dropping, with developers taking a more cautious approach to new projects during the pandemic. The average price of land for development in prime central London fell by 6% in second quarter, the first decline in more than a year, according to a report by broker Knight Frank. That means plots are ...

Bloomberg US business activity stabilised in July, indicating only gradual progress for the economy as some states slow the pace of reopening to counter a pickup in coronavirus cases. The IHS Markit preliminary composite index of purchasing managers at manufacturers and service providers improved 2.1 points to a six-month high of 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction, the ...

Bloomberg A record number of Canada’s largest businesses are seeking protection from creditors, a testament to the strains companies are under because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the three months through June, 27 firms were granted protection under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), a federal law that gives insolvent corporations that have debt of more than $3.7 million an opportunity ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s economic activity plunged by a record in May, continuing a free-fall caused by a coronavirus outbreak that’s wreaking havoc on output. Activity, as measured by a proxy known as IGAE, dropped 22.7% compared to a year ago, the national statistics agency reported on its website. That’s more than the median forecast for a 20.3% contraction in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) praised “good progress” in tackling risky suppliers of core fifth-generation mobile network equipment and called on other member states to follow suit. With countries in the region under intensifying US pressure to ban China’s Huawei Technologies Co., the bloc published a report that assessed how well governments were reducing security risks in the shift to ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE’s successful launch of the Mars Mission, Hope Probe, will serve as a positive impetus to South Korea’s planned lunar mission and pave the way for joint Moon and Mars explorations, a senior official told Emirates News Agency (WAM). As South Korea is planning to launch a lunar orbiter in 2022, and send a lunar ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and holding company ADQ on Wednesday signed a joint venture (JV) agreement to create a new investment platform to fund and oversee development of industrial projects within the planned Ruwais Derivatives Park, a key enabler of Adnoc Downstream’s 2030 smart growth strategy and the UAE’s chemicals and industrial growth ...

DUBAI / WAM The Eid Al Adha holiday for ministries and federal bodies will begin on Thursday, July 30 (Day of Arafat), and will end on Sunday, August 2, the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources announced on Wednesday. In a circular, the authority added that work for all ministries and departments will resume on Monday, August 3. The authority ...

Sharjah / WAM Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) recorded an 8.6 percent increase in its operating profits amounting to AED 332.3 million in the first half of 2020 compared to AED 305.9 million for the same period last year. The net profit for the first half amounted to AED 251.2 million, compared to AED 290.5 million from last year. The balance ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has signed agreements with Boeing Global Services for the provision of maintenance support on its fleet of Boeing 787s. “These agreements are part of the strategic partnership between Etihad and Boeing signed in November 2019, in line with Etihad’s ongoing commitment to achieve excellence in all ...