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

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan may resort to its least preferred tool to expand stimulus next time the yen jumps: more government bond purchases. That’s according to Takahide Kiuchi, a former BOJ policy board member who said the central bank’s favored option — deepening negative interest rates — would face opposition from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration because it would ...

Bloomberg Metro Bank Plc, the lender founded by US entrepreneur Vernon Hill, plunged to a record low after it disclosed that British regulators are probing how it misclassified assets, an incident that prompted a share sale. Shares in Metro Bank tumbled as much as 20.8 percent to 1,030 pence, the lowest since the London-based lender first sold stock to the ...

Bloomberg Banco Santander SA may return to using a scrip dividend a year after saying it would reward shareholders entirely in cash, in a sign that it’s concerned about capital. Spain’s biggest bank said it would combine any such payout with share repurchases to avoid diluting the existing stock. The lender also decided to increase its medium-term dividend payout target ...

Bloomberg An unprecedented travel boom in Asia has spawned new budget carriers and millions of first-time fliers, but a shortage of pilots is threatening to choke that demand. Bamboo Airways Co. in Vietnam was the latest low-cost carrier to start services this year and more are expected to join the race. In Southeast Asia alone, low cost carriers have about ...

Bloomberg Costco Wholesale Corp. may be a latecomer to e-commerce, but consumers love it even more than Amazon.com Inc., according to a customer satisfaction survey released. The warehouse shopping club scored 83 on the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index, edging out Amazon’s score of 82. Amazon had topped the category since 2010, but its score slipped four points compared with ...

Bloomberg Farfetch Ltd. shares advanced for a third straight session and hit their highest levels of the year following an e-commerce pact with London-based luxury department store Harrods that may lead to more business from elite retailers. The stock gained as much as 9.4 percent and traded at its highest level since mid-December. Shares of the online retail apparel company ...

Bloomberg Air France-KLM Group fell the most ever after the Dutch government’s surprise decision to buy a stake in the airline raised concern that competing national interests will derail Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith’s efforts to streamline the carrier. The Netherlands purchased a 13 percent holding, a move aimed at gaining parity with influential shareholder France following a power clash ...

SEOUL / WAM During an official visit to the Republic of Korea by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has signed three framework agreements with Korean energy companies. The agreements will explore upstream exploration and production opportunities, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Mubadala Petroleum has announced that it signed the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) together with its partner PTTEP Energy Development Company Limited (PTTEP ED), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited, for offshore Block G1/61 containing the Erawan producing gas field in Thailand. The current Block G1/61 concession will expire in April 2022 and ...

BELGRADE / WAM President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia has opened the textile factory ‘Armis Luss Protect’ textile factory in the Raska District. The factory was funded by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation. The opening ceremony was attended by the UAE Ambassador to Serbia Mubarak Saeed Ahmed Barasheed Al Dhaheri. The Serbian President thanked the UAE and the Khalifa ...