Bloomberg Atop a hill in southern Spain sit a cluster of cement apartment blocks surrounded by scruffy gardens. Built during the go-go years of the country’s property bubble, the development was eerily still on a recent June morning. Banco Popular Espanol SA, which took ownership in a foreclosure, is offering flats for as much as 147,000 euros (US$165,100). Fatima …

  Bloomberg Jefferies Group is making more changes to the investment-banking division that manages relationships with private equity firms, according to people familiar with the matter, following the departure of the group’s global head, Adam Sokoloff, in March. Christopher Ooten, a managing director at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit, will join Jefferies’s financial sponsor group to replace Theodore …

  Sunaina Rana EMIRATES BUSINESS Founded in 2009 by John ‘Coz’ Colgrove and John Hayes, Pure Storage is out to change the way people build technology. With headquarters in Mountain View, CA and offices across the US, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa, Pure’s disruptive, software-driven storage technology combined with a customer-friendly business model has helped drive …

   Our Correspondent EMIRATES BUSINESS Bloom Holding, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based National Holding Company, strives to build communities that integrate aesthetics, quality living and value-added offerings in education, hospitality, healthcare, leisure and retail. Bloom Holding’s diversified portfolio includes residential and commercial properties, retail and leisure centers as well as mixed-use communities in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai. Complementing …

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatar’s government expects to run a budget deficit for at least three years as low natural gas and oil prices weigh on its revenues, the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics said. In a long-term report on the Qatari economy, the ministry forecast a fiscal deficit of 7.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, …

  Emirates Business The GCC Ministers of Finance, in a vital meeting in Jeddah recently, approved in principle the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Tax treaties. Some administrative matters still need to be resolved, notably with regards to the tax collection mechanism related to intra-GCC trade. The GCC Committee has been tasked to provide its recommendation by the end …

  Manama / Tribune News Service Setting up a new venture to collect millions of dinars to restart work on four developments in Bahrain that were never completed has been proposed by industry experts. They also called for the auctioning of two of the stalled projects as part of measures to resolve the crisis in the next six years. Thousands …

  Manama / Tribune News Service Concerns have been raised that people would be attacked if ATM machines are installed in public parks across Bahrain. The proposal, presented by Southern Municipal Council chairman Ahmed Al Ansari to the Central Bank of Bahrain, aims to provide services across the board and generate municipal income from the leased space. Works, Municipalities and …

  Bloomberg The campaign to keep the U.K. in the European Union led in the first opinion poll fully conducted since Thursday’s slaying of politician Jo Cox as the debate resumed five days before the referendum. Staying in the bloc won 45 percent support in the Survation telephone poll of 1,001 adults on Friday and Saturday for the Mail on …

  Paris, France / AFP French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said the EU should act quickly and firmly if Britain votes next week to leave the European Union. Britain’s EU referendum will be held on Thursday, with an EU summit set for a few days later on June 28 at which Macron said EU leaders should take a firm stand with …