October, 2016

• 23 October

  GCC ministers meet as OPEC oil cut looms

  

    Bloomberg Russia’s energy minister met with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf oil-producers to discuss steps to stabilize crude markets amid OPEC’s drive to win cooperation from the biggest supplier outside the group in limiting output to prop up prices. Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Riyadh for oil ...

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• 23 October

  Sabic seeks to ease reliance on domestic natgas

  

    Reuters Petrochemicals giant Sabic is scouting for more overseas ventures to ease its dependence on domestic Saudi Arabian natural gas as it pushes ahead with its largest foreign investment with U.S. partner Exxon Mobil. “We do have projects that we evaluate with our existing partners or potential partners… We are a global company, we have the capability to start ...

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• 23 October

  Petrobras settles with Pimco over graft losses

    Bloomberg Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA settled four lawsuits brought by investors including Pacific Investment Management Co. after the nation’s biggest-ever corruption case torpedoed the company’s market value. Petrobras’ board approved agreements with Pimco Total Return Fund, Janus Overseas Fund, Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund and Al Shams Investments, according to a statement filed with Brazil’s ...

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• 23 October

  Preferred Hotels & Resorts enter Saudi and Bahrain

  

    Emirates Business Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest global provider of sales, marketing and distribution services to independent luxury hotels, continues to expand its Middle East portfolio with the addition of two new five-star hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and another five-star hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The three additions consist of a duo of ...

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• 23 October

  Indonesian nationalism takes a bite out of Apple

  

    Jakarta / AFP Apple is battling to gain a foothold in Indonesia after nationalistic regulations hit the US tech giant’s efforts to compete in the booming emerging market against Samsung and other rivals. The iPhone 6S and 7 are yet to be released in Southeast Asia’s top economy as Apple struggles to fulfil requirements that phone makers must have ...

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• 23 October

  Asian lenders spend millions to tap blockchain

  

    Beijing / AFP Asian lenders are spending millions of dollars developing applications using blockchain, a technology that promises to slash transaction costs, expedite cross-border payments and reduce the risk of fraud. Banks active in the region from Standard Chartered Plc to National Australia Bank Ltd. have in recent months started developing and testing systems utilizing the distributed-ledger technology in ...

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• 23 October

  China’s coal capital goes for clean up act to go green

  

    Bloomberg Sitting in the middle of almost 270 billion tons of coal reserves, the city of Taiyuan in northern China is an unlikely place to look for a leader in the battle for a greener future. This after all was China’s pollution poster child, a grimy industrial city of 4.3-million people that owed its growth to the coalfields of ...

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• 23 October

  Mitsui takes 15% stake in Stone Point-backed risk-swap venture

    Bloomberg Mitsui & Co., Japan’s second-biggest trading house, agreed to purchase a 15 percent stake in New Ocean Capital, the asset manager that was founded by XL Group Ltd. and Stone Point Capital to make insurance-related bets. Mitsui also committed $100 million of investment capital to the private fund platform, Bermuda-based New Ocean said recently in a statement. XL, ...

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• 23 October

  Dark clouds hover over Spain’s tourism future

  

    Madrid / AFP After basking in its best tourist summer season in 15 years, Spain now sees dark clouds on the horizon as popular destinations reach saturation point and holidaymakers are more thrifty, industry experts say. The 2016 summer season proved exceptionally good, with an influx of tourists fleeing other popular destinations recently hit by attacks, said Jose Luis ...

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• 23 October

  EU gives Belgium ultimatum over Canada trade pact

  

    Washington / AFP The European Union gave Belgium a barely 24-hour ultimatum on Sunday to say whether it can back an EU-Canada trade deal, warning otherwise it will cancel a summit to sign the accord with Ottawa. In an embarrassment for the 28-nation EU, Belgium has so far been unable to sign up to the CETA trade deal because ...

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