News

Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s Chinese smartphone shipments plummeted an estimated 20 percent in 2018’s final quarter, underscoring the scale of the iPhone maker’s retreat in the world’s largest mobile device arena against local rivals like Huawei Technologies Co. The domestic market contracted 9.7 percent in the quarter, but Apple declined at about twice that pace, research firm IDC said in a ...

Bloomberg What kind of financial blow has the widening scandal surrounding Carlos Ghosn delivered to Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA? Investors are about to get a glimpse when closely watched earnings releases come out this week. The alliance partners have spent the last two months coping with a major reputational hit from Ghosn’s arrest, indictments by Tokyo prosecutors over ...

Bloomberg The UK economy buckled under the strain of Brexit uncertainty in the fourth quarter. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased a smaller-than-forecast 0.2 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in the third quarter. December alone saw the economy shrink by 0.4 percent, the most since before the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. The slowdown over the quarter came as ...

Bloomberg Shares of drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. gained, with acquisition target Celgene Corp. falling after activist hedge fund Starboard Value was said to have taken a stake in Bristol-Myers. The size of Starboard’s stake and any plans that Jeff Smith’s hedge fund might have for its investment in the $81 billion drugmaker couldn’t immediately be learned when Bloomberg reported the ...

Bloomberg Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG’s largest shareholder rejected a $4.2 billion offer from Denmark’s DSV A/S, saying the Swiss air-cargo company would do better with its own expansion plan. The Panalpina committee of the Ernst Goehner Foundation, which holds 45.9 percent of the stock, said in a statement it “supports Panalpina’s board of directors in pursuing an independent growth strategy ...

Bloomberg Europe’s scooter startups Tier Mobility and Voi Technology AB have held early-stage discussions to combine their operations, in response to the impact of larger US rivals on the continent, according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks, which started in November, recently stalled after Voi concluded that it could continue its growth independently, one person said. All of ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has approved a plan to ease levies businesses pay on foreign workers to help revive economic growth. Authorities will exempt some companies from paying the 2018 fees or reimburse those that have already paid, according to the official-Saudi Press Agency. To qualify for the aid, businesses need to have made strides in hiring more Saudi ...

DUBAI / WAM Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE) announced an agreement with Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc), to co-develop VitalyX, a real-time lubricant monitoring system, which can be deployed in multiple industries using large machinery, and advanced cloud-based system to detect and meas- ure key lubricant properties while simultaneously converting data into actionable insights. Enoc, which will not only ...

DUBAI / WAM A majority of businesses in Dubai foresee accelerated economic growth during first quarter of 2019, according to quarterly survey conducted by Department of Economic Development (DED) to gath-er the performance expectations and economic outlook of the local business community. The survey, conducted during final quarter of 2018, showed 59% of companies as optimistic about economic growth in ...

Dubai / WAM Rt Hon Liam Fox, UK Secretary of State for International Trade, has said that the UK enjoys strong trading relations with GCC countries and is looking forward to have a free trade agreement with the bloc in the right time. He also said that the World Government Summit is very indicative of the UAE getting increasingly outward ...