Doha / Emirates Business Tightening its grip on engineering consultancies, the government has cancelled the licences of at least nine errant firms and detected 87 violations this year. The punished firms include A grade consultancies. There are still some consultancies with engineers not registered with authorities. A committee at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment licenses engineers and engineering consultancies. ...

Dubai / Emirates Business HMG Properties Group, one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the GCC, has announced that it has carried out a massive restructuring of its leadership team, to better focus on its core activities and increase profitability for the company. HMG Properties, which develops and sells luxury residential and commercial properties across the GCC, Egypt, ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg China Everbright Holdings Co. and a unit agreed to buy a commercial building in Hong Kong for HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion), adding to the number of Chinese companies mopping up real estate in the world’s most expensive office market. They are buying Dah Sing Financial Centre, a top-tier office building in the Wan Chai district, which will ...

Doha / Emirates Business Single expatriates in Qatar can expect more housing options as some real estate agents seem willing to offer them flats vacated by families, it is learnt. As some middle-income expatriates have reportedly left the country or are planning to send their families back home, flats occupied by them – or targeted at such residents – are ...

Indianapolis / Bloomberg Republic Airways Holdings Inc. doesn’t plan to cut aviators’ jobs or seek to throw out their four-month-old contract in bankruptcy court, according to the pilots union. A potential bankruptcy filing had been part of monthly discussions between leaders of Republic’s pilots union and airline executives, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 357 executive board told members in ...

Bloomberg Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, said fourth-quarter profit climbed 32 percent on investments and earnings from the company’s expanding stable of operating businesses. Net income rose to $5.48 billion, or $3,333 a share, from $4.16 billion, or $2,529, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, ...

Ottawa / Bloomberg Canada should increase foreign-ownership limits on airlines and allow private investment in airports to enhance competition in the country’s transportation industry, according to a government-funded study. Institutional and private-equity investors should also be allowed to buy stakes in the country’s marine ports, according to the Canada Transportation Act Review presented to Parliament in Ottawa. The broadest study ...

NEW YORK / AP Gap’s shares took a hit in after-hours trading after the clothing chain offered a weak profit outlook. The outlook came as the San Francisco-based chain reported a 33 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits as business was hurt by a strong US dollar and strategic moves to turn around its ailing business. The results show the continued ...

Washington / Bloomberg The public spat between American Airlines Group Inc. and Gogo Inc., which provides the bulk of the carrier’s domestic inflight Wi-Fi, could be considered the final blow to ground-based internet access that has become another irritating part of the air-travel experience. It will take years for Gogo to install its backlog of orders for faster Internet service, ...

AFP In the Hindu Kush mountains, craftswomen who painstakingly stitch flowing scarves are skilled artisans who were unable to sell their products beyond the remote region until mobile internet came to Pakistan and dropped the market into the palms of millions of previously marginalised people. The women of northern Chitral are among the unlikely profiteers of an e-commerce boom since ...