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

    Bloomberg Garena, Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to lead a planned initial public offering that could fetch about $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore-based online gaming portal and e-commerce provider plans to select additional banks as soon as this month, the people said. Garena is considering listing ...

  Bloomberg China Communication Technology is among final bidders for Asia Broadcast Satellite, the communications operator being sold by European private equity firm Permira, people familiar with the matter said. CCT, a Shenzhen-based provider of military communication equipment, is in the advanced stages of negotiations with Permira, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. ...

  Bloomberg China is becoming more dependent on overseas natural gas as it seeks to wean itself off coal and avoid the toxic smog that suffocates the country every winter. The world’s largest energy user will increase imports of liquefied natural gas about 30 percent this year as domestic production stagnates and the government pushes cleaner fuels in an effort ...

  Bloomberg The German economy is getting some wind in its sails just as the waters are about to get rough. The nation, the first of the world’s biggest developed economies to report on its 2016 performance, probably achieved expansion of 1.8 percent, helped by a pickup toward the end of the year. The German result, forecast by economists surveyed ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board is set to sign off on a $4.3 billion settlement of US criminal and civil penalties for rigging diesel-powered cars to cheat on emissions tests, the latest step in the carmaker’s effort to resolve the scandal. The agreement with the US Department of Justice and customs authorities will include a guilty plea, Wolfsburg, Germany-based ...

  Bloomberg UK industrial production rose more than economists forecast in November, led by a surge in oil and gas as a major North Sea field resumed operations. The 2.1 percent increase from October, the biggest in seven months, was more than double the 1 percent predicted by economists in a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing also rose more than expected, by ...

  Bloomberg Venezuelans have to navigate a labyrinth of lines to buy staples like sugar or aspirin. They’ve gotten used to finding that the store shelves are empty, a frustration that sometimes boils over into looting. So they don’t really need economic data to tell them that 2016 was a terrible year. Still, when and if the numbers do come ...

  Bloomberg Bouygues SA won a construction contract worth at least 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for the controversial Hinkley Point nuclear plant in the UK that will use the same technology as over-budget and delayed projects in France and Finland. Bouygues will work with UK firm Laing O’Rourke on construction of the buildings that will house the two nuclear ...

  Bloomberg Arctic chill and heavy snowfall left tens of thousands of households in southeastern Europe without electricity as rivers froze over, cables failed and power stations had unplanned outages. From Greece to Hungary, hydroelectric production plummeted as temperatures fell as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) and parts of the Danube river were almost entirely covered ...

  Bloomberg The egg-shaped flying river taxi is gaining support, as SeaBubbles seeks to close its third funding round in under a year and aims to firm up interest from potential customers, including the city of Paris and companies in the San Francisco Bay. To build the first battery-powered bubble-shaped ships that hover a few inches above the water and ...