News

  Bloomberg United Bankshares Inc. agreed to buy Cardinal Financial Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at about $912 million to expand in the Washington, D.C, region. The buyer will pay 0.71 United share for each Cardinal share, a price that represents 2.24 times Cardinal’s tangible book value as of June 30, the companies said Thursday in a statement. The ...

  Bloomberg Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, whose fertilizer company is investing more than $6 billion in potash mining, said it could take at least a decade for the potash market to work off the excess because of the past “disruptive” actions by the largest sellers. Potash prices have collapsed since 2013, when a trade pact between Russian and Belarusian producers, ...

  Bloomberg Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating the US job market remains healthy. Jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 262,000 in the week ended Aug. 13, the smallest level in a month, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 42 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 265,000. Low ...

  New York / AFP Wal-Mart Stores reported higher second-quarter earnings and lifted its profit forecast on Thursday after notching higher sales in the US. Earnings for the quarter ending July 31 were $3.8 billion, up 8.6 percent from the year-ago period. Sales were up 0.5 percent at $120.9 billion. Wal-Mart scored higher comparable sales and customer traffic in the ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) — an independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices — will showcase the best practices and experiences of the green building champions from across the Middle East and North Africa region at a special event on August 24 from 8.30am to 11.30am ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business ‘Sumfun’ summer festival — Shurooq’s latest summer festival celebration taking place across four of Sharjah’s most iconic and popular destinations and running until September 16 — kicks off with visitors receiving opportunities to win a series of travel packages, valuable cash prizes and a grand prize comprising of the latest Cadillac CTS 2016. The Sharjah ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business SellAnyCar.com, the Middle East’s first and largest car buying service guaranteeing the purchase of any car within 30 minute, has released new research indicating that the price variance in classified ads for pre-owned car creates ambiguity and lowers the rate of successful transactions. The research is part of a SellAnyCar.com initiative to identify and address ...

  Riyadh / Emirates Business The organizing committee of the coffee and chocolates exhibition, which is being held for the third year in a row at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Centre from December 20-23, revealed that the size of exhibition area has increased to 7781 sq m display area. The total number of participants reached over 100 because ...

  Bloomberg Mad Dog, BP Plc’s drilling project deep in the Gulf of Mexico, could be Exhibit A in the oil industry’s war on cost. When the British oil giant announced the project’s second phase in 2011, it put the price at $20 billion. Last month, after simplifying plans and benefiting from a sharp drop in everything from steel to ...

  Manila / Bloomberg The Philippines economy grew faster than economists predicted last quarter, giving a boost to new President Rodrigo Duterte as he seeks to attract more investment and speed up infrastructure spending. Gross domestic product increased 7 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, the fastest pace since the same period in 2013, the ...