MUSCAT / WAM Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) signed on Thursday a 1.2 $ billion contract to supply piping for its drilling operations through Duqm. The five-year deal with Japanese supplier Sumitomo further includes a new supply yard in the Duqm Special Economic Zone, which will be a logistics centre for materials being delivered to PDO’s drilling locations. The agreement ...

  Dubai / WAM National Bonds Corporation (National Bonds), the leading sharia-compliant savings and investment company in the UAE, has announced that it registered a 50 percent increase in the number of female regular savers in 2016 in comparison with 2015. In addition, the cumulative savings within the company’s various programs grew by 43 percent last year. Currently, National Bonds ...

  Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson made its biggest deal ever in a bold bet that it can get more growth out of medicines for a rare type of high blood pressure. The $30 billion purchase of Swiss drugmaker Actelion Ltd., which J&J is funding with cash it holds outside the US, will fulfill its goal of gaining a new drug ...

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc rose the most in two months in London trading after the bank took a 3.1 billion-pound ($3.8 billion) charge in a step toward resolving a US probe into sales of mortgage securities. The lender is continuing to cooperate with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on its investigation, though timing of a ...

  Bloomberg Commodities will be supported in the months ahead by a global rebound spanning the US, Europe and China that’s buttressing worldwide demand for raw materials, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “We’re seeing a cyclical uptick in global economic activity and that’s driving demand, not only for oil but all commodities,” Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research, said ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is exploring options for expanding in Dublin, as the UK moves closer to exiting the European Union, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Irish capital is emerging as a favored location for the bank’s so-called back-office jobs, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because a final ...

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Officer Andy Jones is stepping down, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg. Jaideep Khanna and Reid Marsh will replace Jones as co-heads for the region, the memo showed. Jones, who will return to the U.K. in the first half of this year, will take on a temporary role as vice chairman, according ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. charged some homebuyers fees to extend promised interest rates when the bank failed to process their mortgage applications on time, ProPublica reported, citing four former employees from the Los Angeles area. The practice, apparently limited to that region, broke with the company’s policy of eating the fees when it was at fault for delays, ...

  Bloomberg BlackRock Inc. yanked custody services from State Street Corp. on more than $1 trillion in client assets as the asset manager seeks to cut costs by putting pressure on vendors. The move of assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. is part of BlackRock’s strategy to exact lower fees, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bank ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Gulf stock markets were mixed on Thursday, supported by strong global equities and oil prices, while Egypt surged on the back of the success of Cairo’s international sovereign bond issue. The Saudi index edged up 0.1 percent though losing stocks outnumbered gainers by 99 to 52. Petrochemical blue chip Saudi Basic Industries added 1.0 percent, while ...