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JEDDAH / Emirates Business Arqaam Capital, the specialist emerging markets Investment Bank, said in a strategy note issued ahead of Jeddah Economic Forum to be held on March 1-3 that Saudi Arabia’s plans to implement wide-ranging institutional changes to put its fiscal policy on a sustainable footing would give an unprecedented impetus to public-privatepartnerships’(PPPs) in the country. History suggests that ...

BLOOMBERG NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., a U.S. mortgage real estate investment trust, hired a division of UBS Group AG to advise on a potential recombination with NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc., the company from which it was spun off in 2014. The REIT’s board formed a special committee that will be composed of independent directors who aren’t also on the ...

Doha / Emirates Business Tightening its grip on engineering consultancies, the government has cancelled the licences of at least nine errant firms and detected 87 violations this year. The punished firms include A grade consultancies. There are still some consultancies with engineers not registered with authorities. A committee at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment licenses engineers and engineering consultancies. ...

Dubai / Emirates Business HMG Properties Group, one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the GCC, has announced that it has carried out a massive restructuring of its leadership team, to better focus on its core activities and increase profitability for the company. HMG Properties, which develops and sells luxury residential and commercial properties across the GCC, Egypt, ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg China Everbright Holdings Co. and a unit agreed to buy a commercial building in Hong Kong for HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion), adding to the number of Chinese companies mopping up real estate in the world’s most expensive office market. They are buying Dah Sing Financial Centre, a top-tier office building in the Wan Chai district, which will ...

Doha / Emirates Business Single expatriates in Qatar can expect more housing options as some real estate agents seem willing to offer them flats vacated by families, it is learnt. As some middle-income expatriates have reportedly left the country or are planning to send their families back home, flats occupied by them – or targeted at such residents – are ...

Indianapolis / Bloomberg Republic Airways Holdings Inc. doesn’t plan to cut aviators’ jobs or seek to throw out their four-month-old contract in bankruptcy court, according to the pilots union. A potential bankruptcy filing had been part of monthly discussions between leaders of Republic’s pilots union and airline executives, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 357 executive board told members in ...

Bloomberg Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, said fourth-quarter profit climbed 32 percent on investments and earnings from the company’s expanding stable of operating businesses. Net income rose to $5.48 billion, or $3,333 a share, from $4.16 billion, or $2,529, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, ...

Ottawa / Bloomberg Canada should increase foreign-ownership limits on airlines and allow private investment in airports to enhance competition in the country’s transportation industry, according to a government-funded study. Institutional and private-equity investors should also be allowed to buy stakes in the country’s marine ports, according to the Canada Transportation Act Review presented to Parliament in Ottawa. The broadest study ...

NEW YORK / AP Gap’s shares took a hit in after-hours trading after the clothing chain offered a weak profit outlook. The outlook came as the San Francisco-based chain reported a 33 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits as business was hurt by a strong US dollar and strategic moves to turn around its ailing business. The results show the continued ...