Bloomberg First Gulf Bank PJSC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC completed a merger to create the United Arab Emirates’ biggest bank with assets of $180 billion, with the new entity to be called First Abu Dhabi Bank. The lender began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Sunday under the ticker NBAD, with shares up 1.5 ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business The UAE plastics industry is the fastest growing in the GCC, growing by 24.2% per annum in the past decade. This is according to the ‘GCC Plastic Industry Indicators 2016’ report due to be released at the 8th edition of GPCA PlastiCon by Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), the go to resource for industry ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business Imdaad, the GCC’s leading integrated facilities management (FM) company based in Dubai, was recently awarded a three-year contract worth approximately AED 4 million by the iconic Dubai Maritime City, a sole specialized maritime cluster for UAE and GCC and dubbed as world’s first maritime center. Under terms of their agreement, Imdaad will deliver integrated FM ...

  Bloomberg Serbians voted on Sunday in an election that looks set to hand Premier Aleksandar Vucic the presidency, a move that may let him strengthen his grip on power and give Russia a chance to deepen its influence in southeastern Europe. Vucic, who served as war-time ruler Slobodan Milosevic’s information minister in the 1990s, is poised to shift from ...

  WASHINGTON / AP The US ambassador to the United Nations says there’s no question Russia was involved in the US presidential election and that the actions of the Kremlin will be addressed after the investigations are completed. “We don’t want any country involved in our elections, ever,” Nikki Haley said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” ...

  LONDON / AP UK police questioned six people Sunday in a vicious attack on a teenage asylum-seeker in the London borough of Croydon. Authorities have arrested four men and two women, all in their 20s, on charges of attempted murder in the attack that left a 17-year old Kurdish-Iranian hospitalized with a fractured skull and a blood clot on ...

  KANDAHAR / AP At least nine civilian have been killed after an Afghanistan army commando unit detonated a cache of ordinance found in southern Helmand province. Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand, said on Sunday that soldiers conducted an operation in which they found explosive and ammunition caches and detonated them. Rasoul Zazia, spokesman for the ...

  Dubai / WAM The UAE tops investment destinations in the Middle East and North Africa, MENA, region, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy stated. Addressing the inaugural session of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM 2017) which opened in Dubai on Sunday, Sultan Al Mansouri highlighted the recently released UNCTAD’s Global Investment Report 2016 where, the minister added, the ...

  Dubai / WAM A series of meetings held by Minister of Economy Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri with several leading world figures participating in the seventh edition of the Annual Investment Forum, which started in Dubai on Sunday, focussed on areas of common economic interest. Al Mansouri met Rustam Minnikhanov, President of Tatarstan, as well as the Ministers of Economy, ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM A non-stop schedule of interactive discussions, live performances and exciting events is set to enthral visitors over the course of the closing days of this year’s edition of the Mother of the Nation Festival. Organised by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and running until April 4, the second edition of the Mother ...