Bloomberg Richemont is acquiring Italian jewellery brand Buccellati to bolster its existing portfolio of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. The Swiss luxury-goods maker bought the Milan-based brand from Gangtai Group Corp, a Chinese investment company, for an undisclosed price. Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein, said it probably paid less than the $250 million the Shanghai-based investment ...

Bloomberg The UK’s accounting watchdog opened an investigation into Ernst & Young’s audit of Thomas Cook Group Plc’s financial statements after the 178-year-old tour operator collapsed. The Financial Reporting Council began the probe amid a growing political outcry over the failure last month, which cost thousands of jobs and left tourists stranded across Europe. The Big Four accounting firms have ...

GENEVA / WAM The UAE affirmed its support for the efforts of the UN Secretary-General and UN Special Envoy for Yemen to encourage conflicting Yemeni parties to implement all relevant Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2216/2015, without conditions. The UAE’s statement was delivered by Ambassador Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, UAE Permanent Representative to the UN and Other International Organisations in ...

AMSTERDAM / WAM OCI N.V. and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), on Monday announced the completion of their transaction to combine Adnoc’sfertiliser business into OCI’s Middle East and North Africa (Mena), nitrogen fertiliser platform, creating a world-leading joint venture. The combined company, which has been named Fertiglobe and is headquartered in the international financial centre Abu Dhabi Global Market, ...

DUBAI / WAM His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, chaired on Monday a meeting of the Executive Council at Emirates Towers, Dubai, in the presence of HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai. The meeting proceedings saw the Executive Council ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), on Monday announced that it had signed a $300 million seven-year unsecured term loan with a group of six banks. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank served as initial mandated lead arranger, bookrunner and underwriter. The loan will be used to repay secured debt and support the future financing needs of the business. FirozTarapore, CEO of ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The value of the UAE’s food and beverage exports grew by 26 percent in 2018 compared to 2017 while the value of its re-exports grew by 28 percent, according to Juma Mohammed Al Keet, Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Economy. He stated this during a meeting organised by the Ministry of ...

Bloomberg Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned that war between his country and Iran would lead to a “total collapse of the global economy” and should be avoided. In comments that echo clear signals from the Trump administration that it doesn’t want to resort to conflict to punish Iran for disputed attacks on Saudi oil facilities, the prince said ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The National Election Committee (NEC), announced that early voting in the 2019 Federal National Council, FNC, elections will commence on October 1, and will continue until October 3, from 9 am until 6 pm. Confirming the readiness of the polling stations for early voting, Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Mohammad bin Nasser Al Owais, Minister of Health ...

Dubai / Emirates Business The UAE is the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region’s top solar energy producer, according to Top Solar Projects Mena, a report published by Netherlands-based Solarplaza. “Among the top five markets in the Mena region with the largest operational and in-the-pipeline solar projects include the UAE (58%), Egypt (23%), Jordan (10%) and Morocco (6%),” said ...