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

Ignore the noise. China’s long-delayed property tax is probably still at least three years away, despite a flurry of recent announcements. The concept of a levy on homeowners collected by local authorities is certainly gaining currency. Premier Li Keqiang said China “will steadily push forward legislation” in his annual report to the National People’s Congress. The tax may be based ...

The central issue in British politics is not, as you might have thought, Brexit. It’s housing. New analysis shows that Britain’s long-festering housing shortages contributed to the 2017 election that cost the Conservatives their majority. While Brexit divisions cut across party lines, Britain’s housing problems overwhelmingly benefit Labour. Now, it seems the government may finally be grasping the extent of ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG plans to raise as much as 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in an initial public offering of its asset-management unit, a key pillar of the German lender’s turnaround strategy. The offering values the asset manager at as much as 7.2 billion euros, a valuation that would align it with its bigger peer Amundi SA. Nippon Life ...

Bloomberg VBS Mutual Bank, one of South Africa’s smallest lenders, has been put into administration after it was unable to repay money owed to municipalities, according to the country’s central bank. The management team has been relieved of its duties and a curator from the auditing firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo put in place following a “severe liquidity crisis,” Lesetja Kganyago, governor of ...

Bloomberg Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. said it aims to raise as much as 100 billion yuan ($15.8 billion) in what would be the biggest-ever follow-on share offering by a Chinese company as it moves to replenish capital. China’s third-largest lender will sell up to 27.5 billion shares to seven state-linked entities including the country’s Finance Ministry, Central Huijin Investment ...

Bloomberg Egypt selected four European banks to manage its first euro-denominated bond sale, taking advantage of lower borrowing costs in Europe as it looks to secure funding to plug the budget deficit. The government picked BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Intesa Sanpaolo for the issuance worth between 1 billion and 1.5 billion euros that’s slated to be held ...

Bloomberg The Polish central bank could yet waver on its commitment to keep interest rates stable. While three of Poland’s biggest lenders said Governor Adam Glapinski last week delivered the most dovish briefing of his tenure, its message was still so nuanced that some in the market are having second thoughts. The zloty, after a brief decline, has settled down ...

ABU DHABi / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Paolo Gentiloni, Prime Minister of Italy, witnessed the signing of two historic agreements awarding Italy’s multinational oil and gas company Eni stakes in two of Abu Dhabi’s offshore concession areas. Under the terms ...

Dubai / Emirates Business A new group of ‘Hybrid’ cities recorded by JLL as having clear attributes of either ‘Emerging World Cities’ or ‘New world Cities’, has placed Dubai among the world’s top destinations for FDI in the real estate market. In a new report by JLL titled, World Cities: Mapping the Pathways to Success, ’Hybrid’ cities are best epitomised ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Azizi Developments, one of the leading private developers in the UAE, has announced that it will start accepting the prequalification applications for AED20 billion ($5.5 billion) worth of contract tenders for its projects in Dubai in 2018. This is in addition to the developer’s existing pipeline of projects that are in various stages of development across ...