Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co’s credit standing took another hit, as S&P Global Ratings placed the automaker’s rating on negative watch after it issued a weaker profit outlook last week. There is a more than one-in-three chance of a further delay in Nissan’s profit recovery, said the rating agency, which in February lowered the company’s long-term issuer credit rating for the ...
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China probes former securities regulator
Bloomberg Liu Shiyu, the former head of China’s securities regulator, is under investigation for suspected law violations and has turned himself in, authorities said. Liu, who remains a senior Communist Party official, is cooperating with the probe, according to a statement from China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission for three years ...
Read More »Japan’s unexpected growth spurt comes with reasons for caution
Bloomberg Japan’s unexpected growth spurt in the first quarter masked weakness in the economy just as policy makers prepare to hike the sales tax in October. Gross domestic product expanded an annualised 2.1 percent, but the biggest driver was imports falling even faster than exports, which meant that net exports technically fueled growth in the economy. Declining imports is a ...
Read More »US utilities charging customers for coal cleanup face blowback
Bloomberg First, states across the US ordered utilities to clean up ponds full of toxic coal waste. Now, they’re balking at how much companies want to charge for the work. Officials from Virginia to North Carolina to South Carolina are pushing back on utilities’ plans to charge customers for the costs of shuttering coal-ash ponds, long the primary way of ...
Read More »National Grid falls over nationalisation talks
Bloomberg National Grid Plc shares dropped the most in more than a month after it unveiled a decline in adjusted operating profit as the UK network operator rebuffed proposals to nationalise energy assets. The nationalisation proposals “are only going to cause a huge amount of disruption,†Chief Executive Officer John Pettigrew said in an interview. It’s “the last thing you ...
Read More »Optimism builds as London office developers tune out Brexit
Bloomberg For London office developers at least, the Brexit waiting game is over. Developers mostly steered clear of doing new projects on spec in the political upheaval that followed the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Now the surprising resilience of London’s office market, highlighted by technology giants like Alphabet Inc. committing to open new bases in the ...
Read More »Opec, allies’ job not done as oil inventory rising: Al Mazrouei
Bloomberg Efforts by Opec and its allies to balance the global supply and demand of oil aren’t complete because crude inventories continue to rise, according to United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei. “The job is not complete,†Al Mazrouei told reporters in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. “We are still seeing some inventory buildup and we ...
Read More »Real estate transactions in Sharjah hit AED5.2b in Q1
SHARJAH / WAM Real estate transactions valued AED5.2 billion in the Emirate of Sharjah in the first quarter of this year, according to Sharjah Real Estate Registration Directorate (SRERD). The latest figures show that the emirate recorded 13,195 transactions, including 1,131 sales in 122 areas that covered 10 million square feet. Investors from 31 nationalities worldwide were involved in these ...
Read More »UAE welcomes Saudi King’s call for emergency summits
ABU DHABI / WAM The United Arab Emirates has welcomed the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s call to the leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and other Arab League states for two emergency summits in Makkah on May 30, on the critical circumstances the region is going through and their consequences on ...
Read More »Jafza to waive $9.5m in fines
DUBAI / Emirates Business Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), the Middle East’s leading special economic zone and key growth engine of Dubai’s economy, announced it will waive an estimated AED 35 million ($9.53 million) in fines owed by its customers, in commemoration of the UAE Government’s designation of 2019 as the Year of Tolerance. Jafza’s decision to waive fines is ...
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