LONDON / Reuters The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the largest development organisa-tion in the Muslim world, will launch a $2.5 billion benchmark-sized sukuk, its largest since inception, “soon”, its president Bandar Hajjar said on Monday. Speaking at a sukuk conference at the London Stock Exchange Hajjar said the sukuk would support spending on infrastructure, education and health. The IDB is ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s attempts to scale up its cash management business in India via a tie-up with the country’s post office are starting to bear fruit, according to the UK bank’s local corporate banking head. The deal with the 164-year-old mail service, first agreed in 2015, allows Barclays to offer its cash management services via some 8,000 postal branches spread ...

Bloomberg Nigeria’s long-awaited interest rate-cutting cycle risks being short-lived, if it starts at all. Governor Godwin Emefiele said last month the Central Bank of Nigeria may reduce its benchmark from a record-high 14 percent before July if inflation drops closer to single digits. But with fuel costs surging and government spending swelling before next year’s election, he may struggle to ...

Bloomberg How have the mighty fallen. A year ago foreign funds including Franklin Templeton Investments were piling into Indian bonds. A record-long slump has now prompted the nation’s biggest bank to say enough is enough. India’s 10-year bonds dropped for a seventh month in February, the longest-losing streak in data compiled by Bloomberg starting in November 1998. Government-run lenders such ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates has unveiled a brand new Business Class cabin and configuration on its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with new wider seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration for the first time. The airline has invested over US$150 million to refurbish the 10 existing 777-200LR aircraft in its fleet. The newly refurbished Emirates 777-200LR aircraft is set in ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. will start offering prepared meals at its stores for the first time, a move that could help the nation’s biggest grocer sell more food while siphoning customers from restaurant chains. Ten different meals are now available in 250 stores, and the programme will expand to 2,000 locations by year’s end, Walmart executives said. The company also is ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE is preparing to announce jobs cuts at two troubled aircraft programmes that have been weighing on earnings for years. The planemaker’s management will meet with its European Works Council on Wednesday to explain reductions in the manufacturing rates of the A380 superjumbo and A400M military-transport programmes and “discuss associated implications for the workforce,” it said in a ...

Bloomberg Volantio Inc., the Atlanta-based startup that helped United Airlines Inc. manage its overbookings in the wake of the Dr. Dao scandal last summer, is telling investors it’s cracked a seemingly impossible code: generate more money for airlines while improving customer satisfaction. Eight months into its lifespan, the company—which helps airlines preventatively rejigger inventory by offering buyouts to flexible passengers—closed ...

DUBAI / WAM Driven by a robust performance and operation, Union Coop, the largest consumer cooperative in the UAE, posted revenues of AED2.9 billion in 2017, the highest since it was founded in 1982. Khaled Humaid Al Falasi, CEO of Union Coop, said shareholders’ rights grew 19 percent in 2017 to AED 2.5 billion from AED2.1 billion in 2016. He ...

DUBAI / WAM The final agreement to develop a greenfield economic free zone in Somaliland to complement the growth of the Port of Berbera has been signed between DP World and its government in Dubai. The global trade enabler expects to break ground on the 12 square kilometre free zone project this year. Located next to the port, it will ...