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HSBC

HSBC Q1 profit triples on higher interest rates

HSBC Holdings reported a 212 percent increase in quarterly profit on Tuesday, as it benefitted from rising interest rates around the world. Europe’s largest bank posted a pretax profit of $12.9 billion for the first quarter ended March, versus $4.2 billion a year earlier. The results were better than the $8.64 billion average estimate of […]

Architecture, Building, Office Building

Deutsche Bank agrees $511m deal for UK investment bank

Deutsche Bank has agreed to buy Numis Corp, a London-based boutique investment bank, for about £410 million ($511 million) as the German company deepens links with British corporate clients. The surprise acquisition is Deutsche’s largest in more than a decade and marks a rare move for its global investment bank, which has been looking for […]

Clothing, Shirt, Logo

Capricorn plans $575m in payouts and picks new CEO

British oil and gas producer Capricorn Energy plans $575 million in shareholder payouts under a new chief executive with experience of renegotiating Egyptian licenses, it said on Thursday, after two mergers failed amid investor revolts that also toppled its previous leadership. The company plans to commit $450 million to a special dividend to be paid […]

UK house prices show weak rise in April

Asking prices for property being put on sale in the UK over the past month rose less than normal for the time of year, figures from property website Rightmove showed, adding to signs of more subdued momentum in the property market. Rightmove said that average asking prices were up by 0.2 percent over the month, […]

Italy needs sovereign wealth fund to boost economy

Italy needs a sovereign wealth fund to funnel its large private savings into the corporate sector and boost the economy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was quoted as telling the Milano Finanza newspaper. “A national sovereign wealth fund, open to private contributions, could be the right instrument to relaunch investments, channeling Italy’s enormous savings towards productive […]

Black Sea grain deal elusive as ship inspections resume

Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea resumed on Wednesday under a UN-brokered deal, but Kyiv said more time was needed to secure an extension of the initiative. Ukraine, which depends heavily on revenue from grain sales as it battles Russia’s invasion, and its allies blamed the latest halt to ship inspections […]

Russia's Yamal LNG project attracted interest from Gulf investors – and may do so again

Ukraine ceasefire will unlock billions in Gulf-Russia deals

GCC investors shelved a potential $15 billion of investments in Russia when Moscow invaded Ukraine, but companies are said to be quietly resuming due diligence in the hope of tying up deals when a peace accord is reached.   These possible Gulf-Russia deals are mainly in the oil and gas, transport, logistics and agricultural sectors, according […]

Europe’s strikes may spell more flights havoc

Strikes across Europe have led to a spike in flight cancellations and delays, and driven down bookings to cities such as Paris, despite airlines’ efforts to avoid a repeat of last year’s disruption. During the Easter holiday weekend from April 5 to 11, flight cancellations and delays of more than three hours were higher than […]

Graphene Innovations Manchester signs deal with Quazar Investment to set up a UAE company to scale up graphene-based technologies

UK-UAE deal to roll out ‘miracle material’ graphene

A University of Manchester company has forged a $1 billion partnership in the UAE to spearhead the drive to commercialise graphene, the “miracle material” that’s stronger than diamond, more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber. Graphene Innovations Manchester (GIM) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Quazar Investment Company to set up the […]

Opec Russia

Russia forecasts stable oil output to 2025

Russia’s oil production is forecast to remain stable until 2025, its deputy energy minister Pavel Sorokin said, while Moscow plans reserves in order to make its supplies more resilient. Russia has decided to cut its crude oil output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year in order to prop up […]

Angry Birds maker in talks with Sega over tender offer

Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the mobile game Angry Birds, confirmed on Saturday that it is in talks with Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings Inc over a possible tender offer. Rovio announced the start of a strategic review and preliminary non-binding discussions regarding a potential tender offer for its shares in February, a statement from the […]

Saudia Saudi Arabian Airlines

Saudia plans to add 56 new weekly flights

State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) plans to add 56 weekly flights to 14 global destinations by the summer as it continues to ramp up operations. Under the expansion, the national flag carrier of the kingdom will serve cities across Thailand, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Europe in the latest addition to its scheduling. It […]

man cleaning solar panels

Xlinks in talks to boost UK-Morocco project funding

British renewable power firm Xlinks is in talks to raise new funding for its proposed plan to build vast solar panel and wind farms in the Moroccan desert that could power more than seven million British homes by 2030. Founder and CEO Simon Morrish said the talks represented “a significant step up in the level […]

UBS says Credit Suisse takeover ‘significant milestone’

The chairman of UBS told the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that the takeover of rival Credit Suisse was a significant milestone for Switzerland and for the global financial industry. Describing the transaction as “the first merger of two globally systematically important banks”, Colm Kelleher said it “means a new beginning and huge opportunities […]

German industrial orders beat estimates in February

German industrial orders rose more than expected in February, driven by strong growth in the vehicle manufacturing sector. Orders increased by 4.8 percent on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a 0.3 percent increase. New orders in the manufacturing […]

Iraq oil

Iraq revives $10bn deal vital to increasing its oil output

Iraq has agreed terms on a long-stalled $10 billion deal with France’s TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy. The deal includes building a seawater treatment plant, which is vital to increasing oil output in Iraq, Opec’s second largest crude producer.  The Baghdad government wants to nearly double Iraq’s oil production to 8 million barrels per day (bpd) by […]

Russian rouble sinks to 11-month low despite oil gains

The rouble ignored a leap in oil prices to slide past 78 against the dollar on Monday to its weakest mark in over 11 months, even as Russia’s benchmark stock index surged to a near seven-month high. Members of Opec+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with Russia and other allies, announced […]

Face, Head, Person

Sheikh’s salute puts London’s Mr Super Prime on the map

Business is booming for London-based luxury property broker Daniel Daggers, founder of DDRE Global, thanks in part to clients such as the chairman of Dubai airline Emirates. When Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum was looking to purchase in the UK capital, his adviser turned to DDRE’s Daggers for help. And the real estate mogul […]

Plantlab CEO Eelco Ockers

Saudi Greenhouses goes Dutch to elevate sustainable farming

Dutch indoor agriculture outfit Plantlab has committed to invest up to €300 million ($325 million) in the Middle East and North Africa to help support the region’s sustainable farming ambitions. Plantlab aims to build a minimum of 10 indoor farms over the next three to five years in partnership with Saudi Greenhouses. The first location, […]

Tie, Accessories, Accessory

Details behind Britain’s move to join trans-Pacific trade pact

Britain on Friday agreed to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade pact based around the Pacific rim, as it seeks to build ties around the world after leaving the European Union. Here are some details of the agreement as Britain seeks post-Brexit trade wins in geographically distant but faster-growing […]