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

Bloomberg Nigeria plans to start building a $5.8 billion hydro-power plant in the eastern Mambila region this year, after it agrees on loan terms with China’s Export-Import Bank. “We hope to break ground this year if we can conclude the financing,” Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola said in a Jan. 23 interview in the capital, Abuja. “Contracts are …

Bloomberg PetroChina Co, the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, forecast that full-year profit rebounded off a record low and may have tripled amid cost cutting and higher energy prices. Net income for 2017 may have jumped by as much as 16 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), the state-run oil giant said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, …

Bloomberg Saudi International Petrochemical Co. is considering investing in the US shale industry in what would be the company’s first foreign venture as it faces higher costs and a shortage of feedstock at home in Saudi Arabia. Sipchem, as the business is known, may seek a US partner in its effort to tap into the booming shale industry, though Chief …

Bloomberg Oil’s slowing down as danger signs flash ahead. Futures are on course for their biggest drop in seven weeks amid concern an investor frenzy for risky assets may be overextending markets, while a weak dollar that had lifted commodities is gaining back some strength as Treasury yields advance. Sentiment is also being hurt as American crude inventories were forecast …

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. is set to invest $50 billion over the next half decade in a return to the oil giant’s spending habits before crude suffered its worst price rout in a generation. With oil prices now hovering above $65 a barrel in New York, Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods disclosed a program that includes the Permian Basin …

Bloomberg Some borrowers with interest-only mortgages may lose their homes as a result of shortfalls in repayment plans, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warned. The FCA has identified three peaks in interest-only mortgage repayments, the first of which is currently underway. Defaults are less likely in the present wave of maturities because the homeowners are approaching retirement and have higher …

Bloomberg The only thing that might be colder than Toronto in January is the Canadian city’s housing market. While the bleak mid-winter is never the best time to sell a home in Canada, a string of open houses in the country’s largest city were chillingly empty on a recent afternoon. Tougher mortgage rules went into effect on January 1 just …

Bloomberg China’s top banks — the biggest in the world — have typically traded below the value of their assets on concern over rising bad debt and falling profitability. That’s starting to change, and quickly. A recent surge in the Hong Kong-traded shares of China’s Big Four state banks lifted their average price-to-book value ratio to 1. That’s the highest …

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is changing the way it reports some of its key numbers ahead of its annual results next month. The earnings of the consumer finance unit, whose assets increased by 12 percent to 39.2 billion pounds ($54.8 billion) in 2016, will be merged with the retail division, according to a memo sent to investors and seen …

Bloomberg Inflation expectations in Mauritius are contained for now, leaving room for the central bank to stick to its accommodative stance to support economic growth, Governor Yandraduth Googoolye said as he prepares to chair his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting next month. The pick-up in the average rate of price growth in the 12 months through December was due to …