Reuters National Bank of Kuwait, (NBK) the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, reported an almost 11 percent rise in second-quarter net profit from a year earlier, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The bank said its net profit for the first half of the year jumped 9.3 percent due to higher net interest income and net income from ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank is relying on an obscure piece of legislation dating back to World War II to justify keeping interest rates steady: its rarely-discussed third objective of monetary policy. Traditionally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is seen as having a dual mandate of maintaining stability of the currency and full employment. Both goals support its aim to ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s long-suffering IPO bankers are headed toward their biggest payday in eight years. This month’s initial public offering for Carrefour SA’s Brazil unit will generate almost 140 million reais ($42 million) in fees for a group of local and international banks, based on a regulatory filing from the French grocery company. That tops the 119 million reais paid by ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc (M&S) reported a fresh drop in quarterly clothing revenue and missed estimates for food sales, dealing a blow to Chief Executive Officer Steve Rowe as he seeks to revive the U.K. retail bellwether. Same-store sales in the clothing and home division fell 1.2 percent in the 13 weeks ended July 1, London-based M&S said ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Alcatel on Tuesday announced the launch of Alcatel A5 LED in the UAE. The world’s first interactive LED-covered smartphone, A5 LED delivers on Alcatel’s enjoy.now promise with innovations for energetic young consumers. “With the A5 LED, Alcatel is delivering new fun features, like light-up notifications and unique LED cover patterns and themes you create yourself, as ...

Bloomberg Air France has a week to gain support from pilots for its plan for a new lower-cost airline to win back market share from competitors, with a key union demanding guarantees on the number of flights the carrier will operate. SNPL union has put Air France’s latest proposal for pilots, which includes the plan for the new airline, to ...

Kuwait / Emirates Business Wendy’s, the third largest Burger chain in the world, is keeping the burger fans of Kuwait happy with a new restaurant opening in the Fahaheel area opposite Al Kout Mall. This stand-alone venue that can fit up to 32 seated diners is now open for all Kuwait foodies to enjoy. Owned by Alghanim Industries, one of ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The federal government revenues collected through e-Dirham surged to over AED2.5 billion during Q2 of 2017, a 25 percent growth over the corresponding period in 2016, according the Ministry of Finance (MoF), statistics. The government services revenues collected through the e-Govenment Website increased to a total of AED958,461,182 during the same period from AED1,583,950,310 during the ...

VIENNA / WAM Over $320 million worth of new funding to the benefit of developing countries across the world, has been approved by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). This came during OFID’s Governing Board 159th session held in Vienna recently during which OFID Director General Suleiman Jasser Al-Herbish noted that the loans underline the international organisation’s commitment to ...

ABU DHABI / Reuters Telecoms group Etisalat terminated a management agreement with its Nigerian arm and given the business time to phase out the Etisalat brand in Nigeria, the chief executive of Etisalat International said on Monday. Nigerian regulators intervened last week to save Etisalat Nigeria from collapse after talks with its lenders to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan failed. ...