Bloomberg U.S. apartment vacancies climbed in the first quarter as a flood of newly built units hit the market, slowing the rate of rent increases. Effective rents, or what tenants pay after landlord concessions, rose 4.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, down from 5 percent growth at the end of 2015, Reis Inc. said. The vacancy ...

Bloomberg Norway will let its sovereign wealth fund raise real estate holdings by about $17 billion, while rejecting a proposal to expand into infrastructure projects. The upper limit on real estate investments for the $850 billion fund, the world’s biggest, should be raised to 7 percent from 5 percent, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The real estate assets will ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business If you think of socialising in UAE, a nearby mall would be the first option to come to your mind. Malls are not just places of shopping in UAE, they are rather the lifeline of the country and imagining a life without access to malls is nearly impossible. Over the years, many factors have led ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Under the patronage of the Dubai Economic Council, the first edition of the Top CEO Conference drew to a spectacular close at the Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai, on Tuesday. The first instalment of the event was organised by TRENDS magazine and leading international business school INSEAD. The conference was an open discussion between thought leaders, executives ...

Sunaina Rana / Emirates Business Women’s participation at workplace has increased manifold over the last decade, but at the same time due to busy schedules and lack of office flexibility many working mothers are giving up their careers midway. According to a recent survey of professional women in the GCC by MCG Group, 76 percent respondents cited lack of flexible ...

Dubai / Emirates Business ENOC Lubricants and Grease Manufacturing Plant (ELOMP), part of the Marketing business segment of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), has achieved three global certifications in quality, health and safety, further reiterating its leadership within the regional lubes industry. ELOMP’s Jebel Ali facility has achieved the ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management System, the ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business IbnRushd will be the Personality of the Year at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF). The event, which will take place from April 27 to May 3 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), will celebrate influential cultural figures, both international and Arabic. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin ...

KUWAIT / Reuters All signs suggest that a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries in Doha on April 17 will produce an initial agreement to freeze output, Kuwait’s OPEC governor Nawal Al-Fuzaia said on Tuesday. Fuzaia, giving a speech at the oil ministry, also said she expected the oil market to achieve a balance between supply and demand ...

CAIRO / Reuters Saudi businessmen are investing $4 billion in projects including the Suez Canal, energy and agriculture, and have already deposited 10 percent of that sum in Egyptian banks, the deputy head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council told Reuters, two days before Saudi Arabia’s King Salman visits Cairo. Egypt has been struggling to attract foreign investors since an uprising ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Japan’s government will escape a piece of bad news until after a summer election. The $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund will on July 29 announce what may be its worst annual loss since the global financial crisis — about three weeks later than usual and after an upper house poll that must be held before July ...