Boao / Reuters More than 30 countries are waiting to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), adding to its 57 founding members, its president said. The AIIB, first proposed by President Xi Jinping less than two years ago, has become one of China’s biggest foreign policy successes. Despite the opposition of Washington, almost many major US allies – ...

ANKARA / Reuters Turkey’s central bank should have cut interest rates more at this week’s policy meeting, an aide to President Tayyip Erdogan said, in a sign the central bank is likely to remain under pressure to lower the cost of borrowing. The bank kept its benchmark rate steady for the 13th straight month this week, but cut the upper ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG, Europe’s biggest investment bank, will hire about 100 people across equities trading as it seeks to expand the business and reduce reliance on desks dealing in bonds, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The hires will include roles in research, sales, technology and prime services, the business that caters to hedge funds, according ...

BEIRUT / AP Hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance money for cash-strapped Lebanon is being held up because of the country’s nearly two-year-old political stalemate, the president of the World Bank group warned, imploring the country’s politicians to vote for a president who can enact laws. In an interview in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Jim Yong Kim also said ...

Reuters GameStop Corp, the world’s largest retailer of video games, forecast first-quarter revenue below analysts’ estimates, blaming a lack of major videogame releases and weaker hardware sales. The company’s shares were down 5.6 percent at $28.55 in after-market trading this week. They had declined as much as 8.3 percent earlier. GameStop’s sales have been languishing as videogame publishers such as ...

Bloomberg Latam Airlines Group SA and Avianca Holdings SA were both downgraded further into junk territory by Fitch Ratings, which said that the economic slowdown in the region will be an obstacle for them to cut debt. Fitch cut Latam’s long-term foreign currency credit grade one step to B+, four levels below investment grade. The outlook for the Santiago-based carrier ...

DUBLIN / Reuters Founder Pat Byrne and private equity backers have repurchased Irish regional airline CityJet from German owners Intro Aviation for an undisclosed sum, the company has recently announced. The regional airline, which carried around 2 million passengers last year, was bought from Air France-KLM in 2014 by Intro Aviation. CityJet operates eight routes into the small London City ...

Bloomberg Next, one of Britain’s biggest fashion retailers, warned that 2016 was set to be its toughest year since the global financial crisis, sending its share price tumbling. “The year ahead may well be the toughest we have faced since 2008,” chief executive Simon Wolfson said in the company’s annual results statement as Next slashed its sales forecast. “We are ...

Bloomberg US retailers adopting cage-free eggs sooner rather than later could gain a profit advantage over competitors. Retailers, including Albertsons Cos., Kroger Co. and CVS Health Corp., announced plans this month to convert to 100 percent cage-free eggs in the next decade, amid a push from consumers and shareholders at US firms. The change likely won’t hurt profits for retailers. ...

Sunaina Rana / EMIRATES BUSINESS Rockwell Automation, Inc., the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs over 22,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries. Neil Enright, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, told Emirates Business, “I am proud to be ...