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Reuters Viacom Inc has asked CBS Corp to sweeten its merger bid by about $2.8 billion or almost a quarter more than CBS’s offer, people familiar with the matter said, indicating the wide gap in the US media firms’ price expectations. National Amusements Inc, the Redstone family company that controls CBS and Viacom, has pushed them to negotiate a merger ...

Reuters Pivotal Software Inc, a division of Dell Technologies Inc, said on Monday it expects its initial public offering of 37 million Class A shares to raise up to $592 million. Pivotal Software said it expects the offering to be priced between $14 and $16 per share. The company, which plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under ...

SANTIAGO / Reuters A looming trade war between the United States and China will fuel near-term volatility for copper prices, but strong demand and tight supply for the metal will bolster long-term market fundamentals, the head of Anglo-American’s copper division said in an interview. The price of the red metal has fluctuated along with other financial commodities in recent weeks ...

LONDON / Reuters Britain’s financial watchdog called on Monday for immediate coordination with European Union counterparts to ensure that Brexit is as smooth and stable as possible for markets. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said financial firms should feel comfortable about relying on a transition deal agreed last month between Britain and the EU. This covers the period between ...

Bloomberg UK home prices jumped to a record in March, though the larger picture of a slowdown is unchanged, according to Halifax. Values surged 1.5 percent from February, to an average 227,871 pounds ($321,600), the lender said in a report published on Monday. But over the first quarter, prices were stagnant, it said, adding that activity has “softened” compared with ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Deposits of non-residents in UAE Islamic banks increased by AED4.2 billion over the first two months of 2018, bringing up to AED17.058 billion their total savings in Sharia-compliant banks operating in the country until the end of February from around AED12.81 billion in December 2017. The growth in non-residents’ deposits in January and February is a ...

ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Shareholders of Adnoc Distribution, the UAE’s largest fuel and convenience retailer, on Sunday approved a AED 735 million (AED 5.88 fils per share) dividend payment, at the company’s landmark first Annual General Meeting (AGM). HE Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Adnoc Distribution Board Chairman, said, “The IPO and recently announced fourth quarter and 2017 full ...

DUBAI / WAM Two-way trade between GCC countries and the European Union has exceeded EUR143 billion ($175.87 billion) in recent years, according to a senior official of the European Union visiting the UAE to attend the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) taking place in Dubai from April 9 to 11. This confirms that the European Union is the largest trading partner ...

Bloomberg The Middle East is emerging as a potential beneficiary of the brewing trade war between the US and China as the Asian nation strikes back with retaliatory tariffs on American petrochemical products. If China goes ahead with its proposal to slap a 25 percent tariff on polyethylene and liquid propane, which were among 106 American goods targeted, buyers in ...

DUBAI / WAM With the aim of further strengthening the existing partnership and collab-orating in sustainable agriculture and development, the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE), joined forces on Sunday to work together on sustainability projects. Through this partnership, both organisations agreed to cooperate in technical research, the sharing of knowledge, capacity ...