The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
BERLIN / Reuters Volkswagen will give labour leaders a management board seat as part of a broad agreement to win approval for Herbert Diess as the German carmaker’s new chief executive, sources said on Wednesday. Europe’s largest automotive group is poised to replace group chief executive Matthias Mueller this week with Diess, a cost-cutter hired in 2015 from BMW as ...
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April, 2018
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11 April
Trump’s trade war pushes Europe towards China’s Xi
The trade fight between the US and China is posing a dilemma to the European Union: Should the world’s largest trading bloc pick a side? And, if so, which one? In theory, the US is the more natural ally for Europe: The two have cooperated closely since the end of World War II, building the multilateral institutions which are now ...
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11 April
Don’t rule out a yuan devaluation
Don’t relax yet: A potential yuan devaluation is still very much on the table. Currency traders sighed with relief after Chinese President Xi Jinping moved to ease trade tensions with the US, reiterating pledges to open the country’s economy further and cautioning against a cold-war mentality and zero-sum thinking. The yuan had weakened for the four previous days, with jitters ...
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11 April
Meddle with European banks’ senior bonds at your peril
European regulators are breaking something that didn’t need fixing. By pushing banks to issue senior non-preferred debt instead of traditional senior bonds, they risk inadvertently shutting many of the region’s neediest lenders out of the funding market. The securities are senior in name only — they can be turned into equity in the event of a catastrophe in the same ...
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11 April
Europe’s planned digital tax is indeed a bad idea
The European Commission’s proposed tax on digital services is intended to make companies such as Google and Uber pay more. The idea is that such firms are gaming the rules at the expense of other taxpayers. The issue is real and needs to be addressed — but the answer under discussion breaks with both established international practice and plain common ...
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11 April
Lessons on financial-market bubbles from the Bitcoin
The recent Bitcoin bubble wasn’t the first, and it might not be the last. Once in 2011 and twice in 2013, the price soared and then crashed: And again: One more time: Each peak was bigger than the last. If you think there will be another, even bigger bubble somewhere down the line, then maybe any losses you took in ...
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11 April
Tesco has a $5.7bn question hanging over its head
Tesco Plc, Britan’s biggest grocer, has completed its 4 billion pound ($5.7 billion) purchase of cash-and-carry chain Booker Group Plc. But investors hoping for more super-savings from the retail deal have to wait a little bit longer. That’s not to sniff at the 28 percent increase in Tesco’s full-year operating profit before exceptional items, nor the almost 30 percent reduction ...
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11 April
Why Zuckerberg is winning the Facebook hearings
Mark Zuckerberg did just fine in his first turn in the Congressional hot seat. He was confident. He capably tackled many of the queries proposed last week by Bloomberg columnists. The 33-year-old billionaire appeared humble throughout much of the hearing, with only a few smug smiles. The best news for Facebook Inc. the company was that Zuckerberg ably deflected any ...
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11 April
Doubts over US bank capital payouts may cloud earnings
NEW YORK / Reuters Quirks in the new US tax code are sowing doubts over how much big banks can boost dividends and stock buybacks this year, threatening to take the shine off what are likely to be strong quarterly profits. Changes in how companies can measure and apply past losses to tax bills, coupled with more extreme scenarios in ...
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11 April
Draghi nagged by unwelcome distraction from euro area’s east
Bloomberg Mario Draghi is finding the euro area’s eastern flank to be an unwelcome distraction. The European Central Bank president is likely to find the Governing Council missing both its Latvian and Slovenian representatives this summer, with the former barred because of a bribery investigation and the latter opting to leave his job. The ECB is questioning Latvia’s restrictions on ...
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