July, 2018

• 25 July

  Don’t blame Amazon, Apple for an expensive market

  The highest-valued stock in the S&P 500, based on this year’s expected earnings, is not Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc or any other member of the FANG bloc. In fact, none of the tech megacaps, which also include Facebook Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc, even rank in the top 10. Hess Corp, an 85-year-old oil company, with a forward P/E ...

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• 25 July

  How Europe should respond to Donald Trump on trade

  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker cannot be looking forward to his meeting with Donald Trump. He knows there’s little hope of making the US president see sense on trade. (Trump confirmed on Twitter that “tariffs are the greatest.”) But Juncker can avoid making a bad situation worse, and with luck even suggest a way out of this mess. The EU ...

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• 25 July

  Fighting tax dodgers can kill economic growth

  

  It’s easy to be outraged about multinational corporations’ shifting of profits to tax havens, but much harder to figure out how to stop them from doing it without hurting the economy. Evidence exists that curbing tax avoidance opportunities makes these firms move actual jobs, not just accounting profits, overseas. In a recent paper, Thomas Torslov, Ludvig Wier and Gabriel Zucman ...

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• 25 July

  Verizon Communications snubs Hollywood for technology. Good call

  

  Verizon Communications Inc closed the books on a critical quarter. The company named its next CEO, shut down its latest experiment in a string of failed mobile-video services, geared up for its rollout of 5G network service, and watched with insouciance as its three closest rivals — AT&T Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. — took bold steps on ...

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• 25 July

  The three methods for an earth-friendly investing

  

  Green bonds are a fast-growing financial instrument, with annual issu- ances of less than a billion dollars a decade ago having grown to more than $170 billion last year. They’re increasingly popular as a way to fund environmentally friendly infrastr- ucture, energy efficiency and clean energy. As the market grows, an intriguing split is emerging between green bond markets: Asia ...

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• 24 July

  FAB H1 profit hits AED6.1bn

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank, on Tuesday reported an H1 2018 group net profit of AED6.1 billion, up 10 percent year-on-year; with annualised earnings per share (EPS) standing at AED1.08. Meanwhile, operating income reached AED9.8 billion in the period between January and June. Cost-to-income ratio (ex-integration costs) at 25.7 percent continues to ...

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• 24 July

  UAE launches 16 catalysts to draw foreign investment

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE has created 16 catalysts that have helped to attract foreign direct inves- tment (FDI) according to relevant national statistics for the end of 2017. Along with its political, economic, social and security stability, the country’s geographic location, competitiveness, free-market policies, encouragement for the private sector, and attractive investment environment have enabled it to lead ...

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• 24 July

  Borouge awards EPC contract to build fifth petchem plant in Ruwais

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Borouge has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for an additional Polypropylene Plant, PP5, to be integrated with the existing Borouge 3 complex in Ruwais and grow the polymer production capacity to almost 5 million tonnes per annum by 2021. The EPC contract has been awarded to Tecnimont SPA, a subsidiary of Italy’s Milan-based ...

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• 24 July

  Etisalat’s Q2 profit rises 12.4% to AED2.2 billion

  

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etisalat Group on Tuesday announced its consolidated financial results for H1 ending on June 30, 2018. The group’s consolidated net profit for first half of 2018 amounted to AED4.3 billion, representing 6% increase year over year, while the consolidated revenues amounted to AED26.2 billion, representing 4 percent increase year over year. Essa Mohamed Al Suwaidi, ...

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• 24 July

  Abu Dhabi DED, tech firm ink pact on blockchain, AI

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Department of Economic Development — Abu Dhabi and Algorythma, the UAE-based first-rate end-to-end technology service company signed an MoU with the aim of promoting joint cooperation between the two parties as well as implementing projects, initiatives and strategies related to digital transformation. The MoU was signed by Khalifa Bin Salem Al Mansouri, Under-Secretary of the ...

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