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Bloomberg The financial gearing of Asia Pacific’s largest companies has risen for a second year following a period of deleveraging, but market participants don’t see cause for alarm. The median total debt-to-total equity for non-financial companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index reached about 44% in the first nine months of 2019. That is slightly higher than the 41% seen ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE jumped ten spots on the list of most competitive countries in world during four years, acquiring 5th place in 2019 compared to the 15th spot in 2016, according to the annual World Competitiveness Ranking 2019 published by the IMD Business School. The UAE has proven its standing as one of the world’s most competitive ...

Dubai / WAM Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), the UAE Federal Export Credit Insurance Company, welcomed Dubai Cable Company (Ducab), to the trade insurance marketplace and will be supporting its expansion plans by offering international trade credit coverage. Ducab, a UAE-based global player in the development, design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of copper and aluminium wire and cable products, works with ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Sunday announced the completion of its historic project to export UAE-developed industrial technology, with the conclusion of performance guarantee tests at Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba). EGA won a competitive international tender in 2016 to supply its aluminium smelting technology to Alba for a major expansion project (Line 6 Expansion Project), in ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development announced a range of hospitality and food and beverage start-ups which will participate in the Liwa International Festival – Moreeb Dune, between December 26 and January 10. Through supporting start-ups participating in the festival, Khalifa Fund seeks to promote entrepreneurial presence in social, entertainment and commercial activities, seeking to grow ...

Bloomberg Taiyo Yuden Co, a Japanese maker of ceramic capacitors used in smartphones, sees increasing demand for its components next year as China pushes ahead with the fifth generation of cellular technology. “We’re already getting orders for 5G base stations,” Chief Executive Officer Shoichi Tosaka said in an interview. “Early next year we should start seeing 5G-related orders for smartphones.” ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc is likely to continue outperforming its mega-cap tech peers next year, according to Loup Ventures, which wrote that the iPhone maker could chase its 80%-plus rally in 2019 with another 20% gain in 2020. Analyst Gene Munster cited a number of tailwinds for the shares over the coming 12 months, including continued growth for the Apple Watch ...

Bloomberg Protesters in Hong Kong continued to target shopping malls in the city, harassing mainland Chinese and clashing with police, who used pepper spray on demonstrators. At least 14 people were detained at a mall in the Sheung Shui district near the Chinese border, government-backed broadcaster RTHK reported. The anti-government protesters singled out mainland Chinese shoppers, who locals blame for ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s economy is set to contract in the fourth quarter as the city reels from six months of violent social unrest, the financial chief said on Sunday. “Based on the situation of these few months, it is inevitable that negative growth will continue,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post. “This means the government will be ...

Bloomberg China is expanding its generic drug-procurement programme to include an additional 33 drugs, pitting domestic and international drugmakers in a price war that could see Chinese players dominate. Less than three months after China went nationwide with a pilot bulk-buying programme for 25 medicines, the government on Sunday announced a second batch of 33 drugs treating everything from diabetes ...