News

Bloomberg China’s southernmost province of Hainan is getting a package of favourable policies covering tourism, duty-free shopping and medical services that’s designed to help transform the island into an international tourism destination. Hainan, often billed as China’s Hawaii, will become a “free trade port,” China National Radio reported. The upgraded status is an economic distinction that’s aimed to help boost ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s trucks chief wants to take his division to “the next level,” with the German manufacturer considering a stock listing that would catapult the $37-billion unit into the blue chip ranks of Europe’s largest economy. “An initial public offering is just one of the options, another is that we could issue our own bonds,” Andreas Renschler, who oversees ...

NEW YORK / Reuters General Electric Co said it took a $4.24 billion equity charge and reduced earnings for the last two years by 30 cents a share, figures in line with expectations the company set earlier this year when it said it would comply with new accounting standards. The maker of power plants, jet engines, medical devices and other ...

Bloomberg Walt Disney Co. must make an offer for Sky Plc if its $52.4 billion purchase of most of 21st Century Fox Inc. succeeds, the UK Takeover Panel ruled. Disney would have to bid 10.75 pounds per Sky share upon completing the acquisition of Fox assets, which include an existing 39 percent in Sky, and if Fox or Comcast Corp. ...

Reuters Saga Plc, an over-50s travel and insurance company, reported a small rise in full-year pretax profit after its tour operations were hit by the collapse of Monarch Airlines, but said its travel business had “excellent” visibility this year. Saga, which offers ocean and river cruises, singles holidays and escorted tours, said underlying pretax profit rose to 190.1 million pounds ...

Reuters French food services and facilities management group Sodexo reported a well-flagged fall in first-half core operating profit and kept its recently reduced targets for sales growth and margins for the 2017/18 full year. Sodexo, which is the world’s second-biggest catering company after Compass Group, struck a cautious tone over its medium-term goals although Chief Executive Denis Machuel said he ...

London / Reuters GlaxoSmithKline is divesting its rare disease gene therapy drugs to private biotech company Orchard Therapeutics as Chief Executive Emma Walmsley makes good on her promise to prune the drugmaker’s pharmaceuticals portfolio. Financially, the transaction will not move the dial for Britain’s biggest drugmaker, but it offers a sign that Walmsley is making progress in reshaping the company ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Land Department (DLD) revealed that real estate transactions in Dubai for the first three months of 2018 totalled AED58 billion through 13,759 sales. Commenting on the announcement, Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director-General of DLD, said, “The Dubai real estate market continues to show continuous growth, driven by general optimism and confidence in the real estate ...

DUBAI / WAM Deyaar on Saturday announced its preliminary unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2018, ending on March 31, 2018. Deyaar reported a year-on-year increase in revenues by nearly 25 percent to over AED176 million for the first quarter of 2018, compared to AED142 million last year. Deyaar reported a healthy rise in net profit by more ...

SHARJAH / WAM Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has been awarded the ISO 27001 Certification, and is among few in the region to have been given this accolade. ISO 27001 is a globally recognised standard for “Information Security Management System” and provides the accreditation on SIB’s security practices to customers, regulators, partners and other stakeholders and ensures that SIB is aligned ...