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

Bloomberg Hudson’s Bay Co chairman Richard Baker raised his offer to take the struggling retailer private, handing a victory to minority shareholders including Catalyst Capital Group Inc that fought to derail the original bid. Hudson’s Bay said in a statement it agreed to a new bid by Baker and a group of allies, who together control the company. The offer …

Bloomberg Just before Christmas last year, a trip to Nintendo Co’s flagship store in Tokyo would have required an hour’s wait just to get in and buy a plush Mario toy or a set of chopsticks bearing Luigi’s face. Opened in November on the sixth floor of the renovated Shibuya Parco shopping mall, the constantly packed 300-square-metre showcase exhibits the …

Bloomberg The number of fatal aviation accidents in 2019 rose above the five-year average to 20, with more than half occurring in North America, the Aviation Safety Network said. The 20 crashes killed 283 people, with the bulk of the deaths coming from the Ethiopian Airlines disaster in March, when a Boeing Co 737 Max jet plunged into the ground …

Bloomberg Inspectors at a Japanese airport didn’t conduct X-ray checks on large cases before they were loaded onto a private jet that’s thought to have carried Carlos Ghosn as the former Nissan Motor Co chief executive officer escaped to Turkey, NHK reported on Sunday. Kansai International Airport inspectors didn’t examine the cases as they were too big to fit into …

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retail sales posted another double-digit decline in November as visitor arrivals to the financial centre plunged. Retail sales by value retreated 23.6% in the month from a year earlier, extending the run of declines to ten months. The decline in November was slightly better than economists’ expectation and the record contraction in October. By volume, sales contracted …

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is considering opening offline retail stores in Germany, newspaper Die Welt reported, citing an interview with Ralf Kleber, head of the company’s operations in the country. Kleber didn’t specify the timing of the plan. Amazon already operates offline stores in the US and the UK, including Amazon Go supermarkets and the Whole Foods Market chain. It has …

Bloomberg Manhattan home sales slipped 1.2% in the fourth quarter — and that’s the best news for the market in two years. It was the smallest year-over-year decline in deals since buyers started retreating in 2017, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. While home-shoppers are still wary of overpaying in a …

Bloomberg Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke delivered what he called “a relatively upbeat” assessment of the US central bank’s ability to fight the next recession. While the Fed has limited room to cut short-term interest rates because they’re already so low, Bernanke argued that quantitative easing and forward guidance could provide enough extra punch to combat a future economic …

Bloomberg Emerging Asia’s top-performing currency in 2019 may find itself dethroned this year by a rival that’s also armed with a strong current-account surplus. Both the Thai baht, which took the regional crown with a 9% gain last year versus the US dollar, and the Taiwanese dollar climbed above the psychologically significant 30-per-dollar level this week. Scotiabank, among the top …

Bloomberg Argentina’s “strict” foreign-exchange regulations will remain in force as the government seeks to stabilise the economy, the Pagina/12 newspaper reported, citing Production Minister Matias Kulfas. Lawmakers last month handed President Alberto Fernandez extraordinary powers to renegotiate debt terms with creditors and increase taxes, marking a victory on his first legislation since taking office last month. “In the current context, …