News

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s government has cut the income tax paid by national oil giant Saudi Aramco to smooth the company’s initial public offer of shares next year, which is expected to be the world’s largest equity sale. A royal decree on Monday, retroactive to Jan. 1, set a tax rate of 50 percent for the firm. Previously, Aramco had ...

  Bloomberg Fortis Healthcare Ltd., India’s second-largest private hospital chain by market value, is weighing a buyout of the Singapore-listed business trust that owns some of its clinics, people with knowledge of the matter said. The New Delhi-based company is considering making an offer for all the units it doesn’t already own in RHT Health Trust, which has a market ...

  Bloomberg China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co.’s creditors held an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss a cash shortage at the milk producer, according to a peer-to-peer lender that attended the gathering. Government officials from Liaoning province, where Huishan is based, convened the meeting and asked the company’s lenders to refrain from demanding immediate repayment, according to Hongling Capital, a ...

  Bloomberg Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. won European Union approval for a $77 billion merger, overcoming regulators’ concerns with hefty concessions, including the sale of large parts of DuPont’s global pesticide business. The takeover, announced a year ago, is the first to win EU approval out of a trio of mega-deals that would reshape the global agrochemicals industry. ...

  Bloomberg German business sentiment climbed to the strongest since July 2011 in a sign that the economy is sustaining its momentum as revival in global trade trounces fears of rising protectionism. The Munich-based Ifo institute’s business climate index rose to 112.3 in March from a revised 111.1 in February. That beat the median estimate of 111.1 in a Bloomberg ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM In an indication reflecting the successful cost optimisation policy adopted by the United Arab Emirates, the UAE Federal Budget surplus rose during the first nine months of 2016 by 130 percent to AED8 billion from AED3.48 billion in the same period in 2015. Analysis indicated that the total revenues of the federal government reached AED37.463 ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Heavy industries are among the major catalysts that underpin the economy of Abu Dhabi, with the emirate having invested more than AED51 billion over the past 15 years to establish a robust industrial infrastructure for aluminum and steel industries, according to a recent media report. Citing official figures of the Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) and ...

  KUWAIT / Reuters A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers has agreed to review whether a global pact to limit supplies should be extended by six months, it said in a statement. An earlier draft of the statement had said the committee “reports high level of conformity and recommends six-month extension”. But the final version ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE Cabinet approved a national strategy to promote the rights of children with disabilities and maximise their well-being, and a strategy for motherhood and childhood, as part of the Strategic Plan for the Rights of Children with Disabilities 2017-2021, and the National Strategy for Motherhood and Childhood 2017-2021. Both Strategies were prepared under the ...

  Dubai / WAM Emirates Airline, the world’s largest operator of A380s, on Sunday celebrated the launch of three A380 destinations, bringing its flagship three-class double-decker aircraft from Dubai to Tokyo- Narita, Casablanca and Sao Paulo on the same day. With this triple deployment, it will be the first airline to operate scheduled A380 services in Latin America as well as ...