John Brandon SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Get ready to take some Tylenol VR, folks. We might need that (totally made-up) medication someday if a Forrester prediction comes to fruition. Analysts are saying there could be as many as 52 million headsets sold by 2020, made up mostly of the recently released HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. The Forrester ...
Read More »Greece, don’t just sit there. Undo something
Earlier this month Greece’s government announced the formation of a privatization “superfund†to sell off state-owned assets, including the Greek railways, postal service and a number of utilities. Its scope – the sale of 50 billion euros in state assets – comes a close second in scale to the privatizations of the 1980s in Britain under Margaret Thatcher. The ...
Read More »Canada bankers urge govt to cool soaring house prices
Bloomberg Canadian bankers are calling on the government to take further steps to cool surging housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver. The heads of National Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia said mortgage down-payment requirements should be boosted to tame the market, joining the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which said on Wednesday measures should be ...
Read More »Port of Melbourne valued at $6bn: State Premier
Bloomberg Australia’s Victoria state is “very confident†the winning bid for a 50-year lease to operate the Port of Melbourne, which is valued at between $4 billion and $6 billion, will exceed the book price, state Premier Daniel Andrews said. “All the market expectation, all the commentators talk about us exceeding the price that we’ve booked, and we are ...
Read More »Sydney dwelling values soar in 10 months
Bloomberg Sydney’s home values posted the biggest rise in 10 months in May, as lower mortgage rates and a partial easing of lending standards revived buyers’ appetite. Prices in the nation’s largest city climbed 3.1 percent in May, the fifth straight month of gains and the most among state capitals, according to research firm CoreLogic Inc. The increase, the ...
Read More »Apartment owners dip as NYC, San Francisco rents seen soft
Bloomberg Apartment owners with properties in San Francisco and New York tumbled after landlord Equity Residential said new leases in those cities — two of the most expensive U.S. rental markets — are falling short of revenue expectations. Essex Property Trust Inc., a real estate investment trust focused on the West Coast, slid 3.7 percent for the biggest decline ...
Read More »Realtors hope to resurrect stalled project in Ontario
Bloomberg Developers are in preliminary discussions to re-stoke urban development on vacant land west of the Piemonte at Ontario Center shopping center. The area — north of Citizens Business Bank Arena and south of Fourth Street in Ontario — had been planned as a 24-hour hub of activity filled with residents who would be drawn to the restaurant and ...
Read More »Qatar Airways’ biggest jet to Atlanta lands amid bumps
DOHA / Tribune News Service Qatar Airways’ bumpy trip to Atlanta continued on Wednesday when its first flight had to settle for a parking place on the tarmac instead of a regular gate. The Middle Eastern carrier launched its Atlanta-Doha service with a double-decker Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner. The inaugural flight landed about 4 pm, but the ...
Read More »Chinese flights delay worsens to 21 minutes
Shanghai / Bloomberg The Chinese are spending more time at airports and on aircraft as flight delays worsen. The average delay for flights last year was 21 minutes, 2 minutes worse than in 2014, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a report dated May 30 on its website. Air traffic control issues was the biggest reason for ...
Read More »Singapore Inc. buys $1bn stocks in Alibaba
Singapore / Bloomberg Singapore’s state-owned investment firms Temasek Holdings Pte and GIC Pte, long-term Alibaba Group Holding Inc. investors, bought a combined $1 billion of stock in the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, the second-biggest stakes being sold by SoftBank Group Corp. The purchases add to the technology holdings of both investment firms. Temasek and GIC were early investors in Alibaba ...
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