The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business Increasing attention on converged systems and cloud solutions has started taking a toll on the Middle East’s hardware market. As more enterprises and businesses in the region move towards cloud computing, hardware market registered a flat growth in 2015, according to a recently released data. In a new research report released by International Data ...

  Our Correspondent / Emirates Business Al Tayer Motors — the official importer-dealer for Lincoln in the UAE — has broken ground for a new concept showroom, incorporating sales, service and spare parts, for the luxury brand at Al Ittihad Road in Dubai. Kumar Galhotra, President of Lincoln, present at the ground-breaking ceremony said, “It’s an honour to be here ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Abu Dhabi Airports has announced that Emirates Leisure Retail, ELR, HMSHost International, Lagardere Capital, and SSP, four world-class food and beverage retailers, have been awarded the concessionaire contracts for Abu Dhabi Airports’ Midfield Terminal Building, MTB. Once operational, the MTB will constitute a number of world first exclusives in terms of its F&B offerings, including ...

    Emirates Business India continues to be a crucial part of Etihad Airways’ growth strategy contributing significantly to the airline’s global operations, to job creation and to connectivity for India. Addressing a media conference in Mumbai to mark the launch of Etihad Airways’ daily A380 service to India’s commercial capital, Etihad Airways Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Baumgartner, said that ...

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA reported an unexpected increase in first-quarter profit, boosted by consumer banking, and announced plans to deepen cost cuts at its investment bank. The shares jumped. Net income rose to 924 million euros ($1.06 billion) from 868 million euros a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said on Wednesday. That beat the 765 million-euro average estimate of ...

  Bloomberg Prashant Jain, who oversees $27 billion at HDFC Asset Management Co., took home Rs.61.7 million ($931,000) in salary and Rs.163 million in stock options in the year ended on March 31, figures posted on the fund’s website for investors show. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co., the second-largest fund, paid its Chief Investment Officer S. Naren Rs.48 million, while ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA is appealing a HK$605 million ($78 million) fine imposed by Hong Kong’s securities regulator in connection with its sales of structured products including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.-related notes between 2003 and 2008. The appeal hearing began in the city on Wednesday after the Securities and Futures Commission previously alleged failures in internal controls ...

  Paris / AFP France’s BNP Paribas has became the first European major bank to post a profit rise for the first quarter, delighting analysts and sending its shares sharply higher. Net profit grew by over 10 percent year-on-year to 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) for the first three months of the year, thanks to one-off gains but also to ...

  New York / AFP Erste Group Bank AG, Austria’s biggest bank, beat analyst expectations for first-quarter profit as a sharp drop in bad debt provisions outweighed declining lending and fee revenue. Net income came in at 274.7 million euros ($316 million) in the three months through March compared with 226 million euros a year earlier, the Vienna-based bank said in ...

  Madrid / AFP Spanish banks, which slimmed down after a property boom went bust in 2008, are once again closing branches and slashing jobs as their profitability is hit by stiff competition. The country’s three biggest lenders — Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank — last week all posted lower first quarter net profits, especially in Spain, which is grappling with ...