News

Bloomberg UnitedHealth Group Inc. won US antitrust approval for its $4.3 billion acquisition of DaVita Inc.’s physician practice group, letting the health conglomerate close a deal it struck 19 months ago to expand its business of taking care of patients directly. The Federal Trade Commission said that it had signed off on the tie-up after UnitedHealth agreed to sell assets ...

Bloomberg Workers at a major auto parts plant in Michigan are poised to return to work after a brief strike, alleviating the threat of a supply disruption for carmakers Ford Motor Co., Tesla Inc. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. The United Auto Workers called the strike after failing to reach a tentative contract agreement with Faurecia SA. A tentative deal ...

GENEVA / WAM The number of people fleeing war, persecution, and conflict exceeded 70 million in 2018. This is the highest level that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has seen in its almost 70 years. Data from UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, released on Wednesday, shows almost 70.8 million people are now forcibly displaced. To put this in perspective, this ...

Bloomberg Global oil demand growth is slowing. That is the view of all three major oil forecasting organisations, who have cut their assessments for what they expect in terms of an increase in crude consumption this year. The latest outlooks from the International Energy Agency, the US Energy Information Administration and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) all show ...

DUBAI / WAM Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director-General, said that the launch of Microsoft cloud services in the UAE confirms the country’s leading role in the ICT sector and as one of the world’s leading hubs of digital transformation in all sectors. In a statement, on the launch of Microsoft cloud services in UAE, Al Mansoori said that the ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Landmark Group and HSBC have completed a first-of-its-kind transaction that connected two independently- built blockchain platforms, proving their interoperability and showing how collaborative technologies can further accelerate international trade in the future. It also marks a major step forward in the Middle East’s retail industry adopting blockchain. The transaction involved a shipment from Bee Dee Industries ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Homegrown UAE company Zbooni has announced it has just closed its latest funding round of $1.1 million from Chalhoub Group and B&Y Venture Partners to continue to grow the business. With a strong growth record over two years, it is handling millions of dirhams of sale transactions per month through its connected chat commerce app. The ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Khalifa University of Science and Technology announced that it has become the first university in the UAE to be ranked among the top 300 academic institutions globally by the Quacquarelli Symonds, QS, World University Rankings 2020. Ranked 268th overall with a jump of 47 slots, Khalifa University thus remains among the top 27 percent of ...

Dubai / WAM Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), on Wednesday announced that its leasing division DAE Capital and Moscow based, Volga Dnepr owned cargo airline AirBridgeCargo have entered into a purchase and leaseback agreement with PDP financing for three factories new Boeing 777 freighter aircraft. The three aircraft will be the first of this type to enter AirBridgeCargo’s fleet in 2020. ...

SHARJAH / WAM Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB), appointed banks to arrange investor meetings ahead of the issuance of a US dollar-denominated Islamic bond, also known as Sukuk, the bank has announced. SIB has mandated Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Structuring Agents for a benchmark size T1 Sukuk issuance. The instruments are priced following ...