BUSINESS | 05BUSINESS | 04

Rolls-Royce cuts

9,000 jobs as

airlines turn off

engines

Marks & Spencer

warns of virus

impact as

profits halve

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THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020

BUSINESS

We are witnessing banks evolving at a faster pace than ever before and in some cases transforming their business models and venturing into “new age banking”, be it through the use of AI, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), or by launching digital only branches.

Nakilat takes delivery and management of newbuildLNG carrierTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Nakilat has taken delivery of a newbuild LNG carrier, “Global Energy”, which will be commercially and technically managed in-house by Nakilat. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), this is the first of four LNG carrier newbuilds to be delivered to Global Shipping Co. Ltd., a joint venture of Nakilat (60 percent) and Maran Ventures Inc. (Maran Ventures) (40 percent). The delivery of all four newbuild LNG carriers by end-2021 will bring Nakilat’s fleet to 74 vessels, which is just under 12 percent of current global LNG fleet in carrying capacity.

Nakilat’s Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Al Sulaiti said, “We are committed to grow our fleet in a sustainable manner to meet the rising demand for clean energy transport globally. The addition of this technolog-ically-advanced newbuild to our fleet not only gives us a competitive edge, but also allows us to provide additional capacity and flexibility to our customers, which is important in a dynamic marketplace. "

"The steady expansion of our fleet through the acqui-sition of these four newbuilds and the second phase

fleet transition that has already commenced, comes as part of our efforts to maximize returns for our shareholders and strengthen our position as the leading transporter of clean energy.”

Al Sulaiti added, “We have seen a shift in terms of man-agement and vessel technology in the industry, which we have taken into consideration. Con-structed in South Korea, the four modern vessels each have a cargo carrying capacity of 173,400 cubic meters, equipped with some of the most advanced technology in the market today, with two of them being equipped with ME-GI while the other two with X-DF propulsion technologies. These vessels also feature modern structural design and employ o t h e r a d v a n c e d technologies.”

Chairman of Maran Ven-tures, John Angelicoussis said, “Nakilat has been a strategic partner for many years and we are pleased to be taking delivery of this first LNG vessel under our new Global Shipping joint venture. We are confident these high specification vessels, built by DSME, and now managed technically and com-mercially by Nakilat, will provide charterers with a first-class LNG shipping service.”

Moody’s affirms QIIB rating at ‘A2’ with stable outlook

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The global rating agency Moody’s has affirmed QIIB ‘s rating at ‘A2’ with a stable outlook, QIIB announced yesterday. Moody’s affirmation of QIIB rating confirms the strength of the bank’s financial position and its ability to meet different market challenges, QIIB said.

In its affirmation of the bank’s rating, Moody’s indicated that it was based on a number of factors, the most important of which is that QIIB is one of the leading Islamic banking institutions in the State of Qatar, especially in the retail sector.

The credit rating agency stated that the bank has signif-icant credit strengths based on its resilient funding profile backed by a strong concession based on a large share of the local retail market, and that there is a very high probability of receiving government support in case of need.

On Moody’s affirmation of QIIB rating, Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, the QIIB Chairman and Man-aging Director, stated, “This rating ,at a remarkable degree, is part of Moody’s assertion of the strength of the Qatari economy and confidence in its ability to face various challenges - both domestic and foreign.” “Certainly, we are happy with our ability to continue our out-standing performance and achieve good results that were

clearly reflected in the various indicators that we disclosed in the last period, and we found resonating on Moody’s rating, which was based on real strengths enjoyed by QIIB for a long time”, Sheikh Dr. Khalid said.

QIIB is moving forward in promoting its financial positions and strength its cooperation with different business sector locally through financing various projects that provide added value to the national economy as well internationally through partnerships with low risks and good return. “The local banking sector, with its high solvency and prudent policies, according to which it is managed, is capable of achieving more progress, more gains to overcome any unex-pected and sudden challenges, as it has proven that it has the

flexibility and efficiency that qualifies it to continue to lead locally and internationally,” Sheikh Dr. Khalid added.

Dr. Abdulbasit Ahmad Al Shaibei, QIIB CEO, said that “QIIB has always relied on its strategy, focusing on the local market as we confidence that the opportunities and benefits provided by the Qatari economy are the best in the region, as well as our desire to be part of our country’s success story. This strategy paid off at all levels, so today we are proud for two reasons; first its affirmed our strong financial position and the second is that we are part of the success of our wider national economy ” “Our rating by the respected global credit rating agencies at high levels qualifies us to be able to adapt the challenges of the markets, and to find ways

to correspond with the various global outlooks that qualify the Qatari economy to achieve the desired balance during the coming period, despite the ongoing volatility in the global markets.”

The CEO noted that “QIIB maintains a remarkable oper-ational efficiency, focusing on the local market in its business strategy, as well implements interim and strategic plans in accordance with the best standards, deals realistically with all challenges”

“The bank also deals real-istically with all the challenges and is able to turn these chal-lenges into opportunities to rethink all the options that allow it to succeed in enhancing the performance and maintaining positive financial indicators that serve customers and benefit share-holders”, the CEO said. �P2

Dr. Abdulbasit Ahmad Al Shaibei, QIIB CEO

QIIB is moving forward in promoting its financial positions and strength its cooperation with different business sector locally through financing various projects that provide added value to the national economy as well internationally.

Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani

bin Abdullah Al Thani,

QIIB Chairman and Managing Director

Qatar banks’ asset base expanded 9.3% in 2019: KPMGTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

KPMG’s latest edition of the ‘GCC listed banks’ results’ report has shown that Qatar’s banking sector witnessed positive results in 2019, with an average 5.5 percent growth in net profit, which is attributable to higher margins, continued cost control, and a clear focus on risk.

The banking sector con-tinued to prove strength and resilience as Qatar banks saw growth in their asset base by 9.3 percent despite the liquidity pressure. Market sentiment has also reflected these funda-mentals with the share prices of all listed banks, except one, showing an upward trend, although this trend has reversed in 2020 with an overall decline of 10.6 percent in listed bank share prices in Qatar from 1

January 2020 to 30 April 2020. Speaking about the report,

Omar Mahmood, head of Financial Services for KPMG in the Middle East & South Asia, and partner at KPMG in Qatar, commented, “The financial trends identified through our analysis were largely positive, which, given the unique political and economic circumstances the region has witnessed in recent years, is particularly impressive, reflecting the continued resil-ience of the banking sector.”

On another note, the COVID-19 pandemic that the world is facing since the beginning of the year 2020 is having unprecedented impact on the financial markets globally and locally and creating a unique situation for the industry because of the implications for operating models, employees,

suppliers, customers, and the drop in oil prices that all affected financial results. Banking experts agree that the sector will be dealing with the effects of this

pandemic for the foreseeable future, leading the banking sector to evolve, and only agile and flexible banks that are willing to transform will succeed and secure their financial strength for future growth.

On the future of the financial services sector in light of the current pandemic, Mahmood commented: “We are witnessing banks evolving at a faster pace than ever before and in some cases transforming their business models and ven-turing into “new age banking”, be it through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), or by launching digital only branches to serve their cus-tomer base more effectively. We expect banks to continue to aggressively pursue techno-logical advancement and use

revamped business platforms, by partnering and collaborating with various fintech firms.”

Additional insights in the report find that although regional banks have remained resilient in terms of profitability and asset growth, they do however continue to focus on managing the credit quality of their loan portfolios to ensure this resilience can be maintained.

The report titled ‘GCC listed banks’ results: New Age Banking (Access Report), analyses the results of selected listed banks in the region. It summarizes bank’s results against selected key per-formance indicators for the year ended 31 December 2019 and compares these with the same information for the year ended 31 December 2018.

Omar Mahmood, head of Financial Services for KPMG in the Middle East & South Asia, and partner at KPMG in Qatar

UK sells negative bond yields for first timeAFP — LONDON

Britain yesterday sold bonds for the first time at a negative yield, meaning investors are paying to own haven sovereign debt as they shelter from coronavirus turmoil.

The UK debt management office said it had raised £3.75bn ($4.6bn, €4.2bn) at an average yield of minus 0.0003 percent for bonds maturing in 2023. That means investors are effectively charged to park their cash in bonds, which are in keen demand as COVID-19 sends the global economy into a dizzying downturn.

The development has sparked fresh debate over negative interest rates from the Bank of England, whose governor Andrew Bailey stated Wednesday that the policy has not been ruled in or out.

BoE chief economist Andy Haldane has meanwhile hinted at the possibility of neg-ative interest rates, with Britain set to endure its deepest recession for centuries according to the central bank. In response to the pandemic, the BoE slashed its main interest rate to a record-low 0.1 percent and pumped an extra £200bn into the UK economy to encourage retail banks to lend

to hard-hit businesses under so-called quantitative easing (QE).

Questioned about whether the bank would contemplate either buying riskier assets under QE -- or sending interest rates into negative territory, Bailey told a parliamentary committee yesterday: “We do not rule things out as a matter of prin-ciple. But... that doesn’t mean that we rule things in either.” “Given what we have had to do in the last few weeks, it would be no surprise to learn that of course we are keeping the tools therefore under active review in the current situation.”

02 THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020BUSINESS

Support packageDutch ministers Wouter Koolmees (Social Affairs), Wopke Hoekstra (Finance) and Eric Wiebes (Economic Affairs) explain the 2.0 support package in The Hague, yesterday. The package should not only help more companies affected by the coronavirus crisis, but also be more focused and provide more ex-ante control.

FROM BUSINESS PAGE 1

Dr. Al Shaibei pointed out that the Qatari economy, which succeeded over the blockade and left it behind, the government’s policies have turned into rich opportunities, positively reflected on the various economic sectors, par-ticularly the banking sector.

"This economy is able to provide solutions in various fields, foremost of which is that banks in turn are required to raise their performance to match that of Qatar’s dynamic and prosperous economy.”

QIIB was established in 1990 as the second Islamic bank in the State of Qatar, and is currently the third largest Islamic bank listed on the Qatar Exchange (QE) in terms of assets and market value. Effectively, the bank initiated its operations in 1991.

QIIB provides integrated banking services to clients through a network of branches spanning across the country. Moreover, the bank was able to establish an advanced digital infrastructure and e- channels services that have elevated its banking services to a whole new level. Also, QIIB has extensive regional and inter-national partnerships.

Moody’s affirms

QIIB rating

at ‘A2’ with

stable outlook

Major deals boost real estate index: Ezdan Report

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The exceptional transactions for the sale of some properties over the past week (May 10-14, 2020) contributed to a significant rise in the real estate price index, according to Ezdan Real Estate report.

Al Daayen Municipality registered the sale of a land plot spanning over a large area at QR50m, while the Doha Municipality saw a property sale deal worth QR37.7m for a multi-use land plot located in Lusail area, which reflected the continued control of land sale over other types of properties in terms of volume, added the report.

The report indicated that as per the breakdown of property sale activity and the volume of sales that were registered during the period from May 10-14, 2020, the Real Estate Registration Department reg-istered 54 property sale deals worth approximately QR216.3m, and the operations were distributed over 7 munic-ipalities; Umm Salal, Al Khor,

Al Thakhira, Doha, Al Rayan, Shamal, Al Daayen and Al Wakra Municipality, and the deals entailed vacant land plots, multi-use buildings, multi-use land plots, and residential buildings.

Al Daayen Municipality accounted for the highest deal in terms of value by selling a vacant land plot in Al Khisa spreading over an area of 19,300 square metres, at a price per square foot that reached QR241, totaling QR50m, and Doha Municipality also wit-nessed the sale of a multi-use land plot in Lusail area spanning over 5837 square meters, at QR600 per square foot, with an aggregate value of QR 37.7m.

QICCA holds webinar on IPRs in sports eventsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatari law ensures the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) against any violations and there are many legislations issued relevant to intellectual property, according to participants of a webinar which was hosted by the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) at Qatar Chamber, in cooperation with the Qatar Lawyers Association.

During the event, the par-ticipants also reiterated that Qatar has acceded to 46 inter-national treaties and conven-tions in the field of intellectual property.

The webinar, which was moderated by Sultan Mubarak Al Abdullah, Partner Director at Sultan Al Abdullah & Partners, highlighted the importance of intellectual property in all fields, especially in hosting and organ-ising large scale sports events.

It also reviewed the intel-lectual property system, inter-national conventions, and domestic legislation, as well as the role of intellectual property in sports events and the legal system for the protection of intellectual property during sports events.

The revenues of interna-tional institutions responsible for major sporting events from

brand exploitation in mar-keting and TV broadcasting exceed $300bn, participants during the webinar added.

Speaking during the event, Dr. Mohamed Salem Abu Al Faraj, Founding Director of the Innovation and Intellectual Property Office and Associate Professor of Commercial Law at Qatar University, reviewed a number of international agreements related to the pro-tection of intellectual property, most notably the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual

Property Rights (TRIPS).He also reviewed national

legislation in the intellectual property protection and efforts exerted by Qatar for the pres-ervation of intellectual property rights within the framework of the National Vision 2030.

He said that most of the intellectual property claims in Qatar are cases that are related to trademark and trade name.

Gamal Mohamed Abu Gheida, Partner, Founder, and Manager of AraMarks

Intellectual Property, also reviewed the concept of intel-lectual property and its relation to innovation, as well as the role of the state in pro-tecting innovations.

He also reviewed com-bating commercial fraud and encouraging innovation by protecting the interests of the innovator, as well as the forms of intellectual property, such as copyright, industrial models, patents, designs, trademarks, and confidentiality of information.

Participants during the webinar hosted by the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) at Qatar Chamber, in cooperation with the Qatar Lawyers Association, recently.

Most buyers in GCC now willing to purchase a vehicle online: SurveyLANI ROSE R DIZONTHE PENINSULA

Online car purchases might be the new norm, with 6 out of 10 car buyers in the GCC now considering to purchase a car online, according to the latest report by YallaMotor on the ‘COVID-19 Effects on Car Buyers’ Purchasing Decision’.

The report, which surveyed more than 1,200 car buyers across the GCC, highlights the perspective of car buyers in the region towards purchasing a vehicle, and aims to help guide the automotive sector towards their next plan of action amid the pandemic.

Car delivery services are on the rise, the report said. It also revealed that about 82 percent of GCC car buyers are now open to test driving a car at home, as long as vehicles have been san-itised, they have a sales con-sultant with them, and they can book the vehicle online. Only 18 percent of the respondents were not willing to test drive a car at home.

Also, about 56 percent of the car buyers said they are not willing to go to the showroom now to check the vehicle; which is a stark contrast to the pre-vious survey conducted in 2019, which showed that 50 percent of the car buyers were willing to visit the showroom twice

before purchasing a vehicle. This brings a massive

potential to online tools and alternative ways to engage with customers, the report added.

While it is a known fact that car buyers are relatively price-sensitive, the COVID-19 situation has made that far more evident. About 74 percent of the respondents answered that reducing prices will positively impact their decision to purchase a vehicle; 11 percent would prefer to see attractive loan options; 10 percent of the respondents also said they would prefer comple-mentary financial assistance throughout the ownership cycle, such as insurance and servicing; while the remaining 5 percent will consider options with less commitment and monthly pay-ments such as lease and co-ownership.

Data from the report also showed a massive appetite for purchasing a used car. Almost 7 out of 10 of the respondents have the intention of buying a second-hand car, while 2 out of 10 will still go for a new car, and 1 out of 10 respondents will consider a Certified Pre Owned vehicle.

When it comes to the time frame, majority of the car buyers will make their decision to purchase a car within three to six months (40.35%), while 39.19 percent will take up to

three months to make their decision. Previous results from the Car Buying Behaviour report conducted last year showed 64.59 percent of the car buyers stated they would make the decision in less than a month.

According to the report, majority of car buyers who were in the market to purchase a vehicle have decided to hold their decision until there is more clarity on how the situ-ation will be in the near future.

About 65 percent said that due to COVID-19, their decision to purchase a vehicle has been affected. More resilient car buyers, a specific group of 35 percent, have said that the current situation has not affected their decision to pur-chase a vehicle.

Yal laMotor General Manager Jorge Bialade said: “Uncertainty is the word we have been hearing lately in the automotive industry. For this purpose, we decided to shed some light on where car buyers stand, what they are expecting and how their purchasing cycle has changed. Another statement we heard a lot was ‘let us wait until things get back to normal’. Whatever we used to expe-rience as the “norm” won’t be there anymore."

"The fact we might be able to go back to our offices, take a walk, participate in events, drive cars and walk into show-rooms does not mean our pur-chasing behaviors won’t change. COVID-19 forced us to rethink the way we operate while slowly and almost without noticing it changed our behaviors. Although we are unsure how long this uncer-tainty will last, we hope that these initial results will help guide the automotive sector towards their next plan of action”.

Lebanon seeks foreign govt-backed financing for power plants after defaultREUTERS — BEIRUT

Lebanon has turned to global power plant manufacturers including General Electric to arrange financing to build badly needed electricity capacity, hoping favourable terms can be agreed with help from their governments.

Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said yesterday that Lebanon had modified its approach to the process since it defaulted on its sovereign debt in March, meaning it was unable to offer the kind of sov-ereign guarantee sought by investors.

“The default has caused a significant financability problem for infrastructure projects in Lebanon. That is why we are trying to meander around it,” he said in an interview.

Beirut has said it plans to sign memorandums of under-standings with Siemens AG, General Electric, Mitsubishi and Ansaldo Energia - for negotiations to propose finan-cially viable solutions for building the plants.

“We talked to the four companies... they all expressed interest of their governments to finance such projects,” Ghajar said.

“They are all willing to invest because now com-panies like these don’t have a lot of work around the world.” Fixing the loss-making power sector is seen as critical for the country which is mired in a financial crisis seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war.

Foreign donors see it as a

test of Beirut’s will to enact long-delayed reforms that may in turn help unlock their aid.

The companies would have conditions attached to their financing, which is expected to come from export credit agencies. “Hopefully we can meet these conditions... If they cannot be met we are back to square one,” Ghajar said.

Lebanon has set a six-month period for the negotiations.

More power cuts of late are linked to the crisis: Ghajar said two fuel shipments sitting off the coast had not been unloaded promptly as JP Morgan, the vendor’s corre-spondent bank, had put a financial hold on Lebanese letters of credit.

The issue had now been resolved.

Majority of car buyers who were in the market to purchase a vehicle have decided to hold their decision until there is more clarity on how the situation will be in the near future. About 65 percent said that due to COVID-19, their decision to purchase a vehicle has been affected.

Germany agrees on rescue package for Lufthansa REUTERS — BERLIN

The German government has agreed on final details of a rescue package for struggling airline carrier Lufthansa, Der Spiegel magazine reported yesterday.

Lufthansa is seeking to tap Germany’s economic stabili-sation fund to help it weather the coronavirus pandemic and what is expected to be a pro-tracted travel slump.

The ministers in charge put the finishing touches on the bailout package and a gov-ernment official was on his way to Frankfurt to seal the deal with airline managers, the magazine reported. The German finance ministry and the economy min-istry both declined to comment. A Lufthansa spokesperson also denied any statement on the media report.

The airline said on May 7 that it was negotiating a €9bn bailout with the German government to ensure its future, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Lufthansa said then that the package included a non-voting capital component, known as a so-called silent participation, a secured loan, and a capital increase which may leave the government with a share-holding of up to 25 percent plus one share.

“Today our load factor on Delta is somewhere about 35-40 percent full,” he said in an inter-view. “Once we get close to 60 percent on an individual route that’ll be the trigger for us to add more planes into the system.” Bastian said.

H E Minister Al Subaie, said: “For US Partner-ships, we are looking specifi-cally to collabo-rate in the ex-port of crops we are not cultivat-ing here, tech-nology transfer, and strategic development of the Hamad Port.”

03THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020 BUSINESS

World’s largest sovereign fund vows more transparency on shareholder votes

REUTERS — OSLO

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest with $1 trillion worth of assets, will make its votes at shareholder meetings more transparent by explaining any opposition to board recommendations, it said yesterday.

The fund, which invests around 70 percent of its port-folio in the stock market, has stakes in some 9,200 com-panies, owning 1.5 percent of all globally listed shares.

In most cases, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) will back a board’s proposals at a meeting of shareholders, but not always, it said.

“It is particularly relevant for companies and the general public to understand why we in some cases vote against the board,” Chief Corporate Gov-ernance Officer Carine Smith Ihenacho (pictured) said.

The fund already releases records showing which pro-posals it backed or rejected, but only rarely has it explained its actions. From Wednesday onwards, that will change.

“We will publish the rationale in our voting solution one day after the shareholder meeting,” NBIM said.

To help manage expecta-tions, it also released four position papers on Wednesday to clarify its views on board independence, multiple share classes, shareholder rights in equity issuance, and com-panies’ related-party transac-tions. Ihenacho also called for more efficient voting proc-esses at many firms.

“We see that in several markets, there are still manual voting processes, several layers of intermediaries, and a lack of electronic solutions,” she said.

Germany moves to ‘clean up’ meat industry after virus outbreaksAFP - BERLIN

The German government yesterday banned the use of subcontractors in the meat industry after a string of coro-navirus infections among mainly foreign slaughterhouse workers sparked alarm.

“It’s time to clean up the sector,” Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (pictured) told reporters after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet agreed on stricter regulations.

From January 1, 2021 abattoirs and meat processing plants will have to directly employ their workers, putting an end to the controversial practice of relying on chains of subcontractors to supply labourers from abroad, often from Bulgaria and Romania.

Critics have long argued that imported workers are paid less and are more vulnerable to abuses, and Heil himself has described the system as “dodgy”.Concern mounted after several German slaughterhouses were hit with coronavirus outbreaks, prompting fresh scrutiny over hygiene and working conditions.

At one slaughterhouse in the northwestern district of Coesfeld, more than 260 workers tested positive for the virus. Many come from eastern Europe and live in shared housing, a common practice among subcontracted workers. Two other abattoirs, one in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and another in Lower Saxony, have reported around 100 cases each.

“The meat industry is

important in our country,” Heil said. “But there can be no tol-erance for a business model that willingly accepts exploitation and the spread of pandemics.” Although Germany has weathered the coronavirus storm better than many of its European neighbours, the slaughterhouse outbreaks have dealt a blow to its efforts to gradually restart Europe’s top economy.

In some districts, the virus clusters have pushed infection rates back above an agreed threshold, forcing regional gov-ernments to rethink loosening lockdown restrictions.

“It’s unacceptable... that whole districts have to pay the price and suffer economic harm,” Heil said in Berlin.

Germany’s meat industry employs some 200,000 people, and Heil estimated that in some plants 50 to 80 percent of workers were hired through subcon-tracting agencies.

As part of its package of measures, the government agreed to “massively” ramp up health and safety inspections at slaughter and processing sites. Employers will also have to share information

with local authorities about where foreign workers are staying, to make it easier to trace people who have come into contact with an infected person.

Authorities will also make a greater effort to educate foreign workers about their rights under German law, Heil said.

Employers falling foul of the tougher rules are to face fines of up to €30,000 ($33,000), double the previous amount.

There was immediate blowback from the industry lobby, with the German Meat Industry Association (VDF) warning that subcontractors were needed to find foreign workers for jobs that were hard to fill in Germany.

“A lot of meat processing activities might now move abroad,” VDF head Heike Harstick told newspaper group Funke Mediengruppe.

But unions welcomed the crackdown, with the DGB trade union describing the subcon-tracting system as “organised irresponsibility”.

The NGG food union said it was time to finally end the “inhumane and criminal” condi-tions in the industry.

Germany is not the only country where meat factories have emerged as COVID-19 hotspots. Slaughterhouses across the United States have shut down after at least 5,000 meat and poultry workers contracted the virus. France, Australia, Spain and Brazil have also reported out-breaks at meat plants, where people tend to work in close proximity.

Qatar’s food security not affected by COVID-19MOHAMMAD SHOEB THE PENINSULA

The Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Engr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie yesterday said that Qatar’s food security is robust, and not affected due to the COVID-19 as the country has developed many strategies to deal with crises, especially after the unjust blockade imposed on Qatar nearly three years ago.

This came yesterday as the Minister was speaking at a live webinar organized by the US-Qatar Business Council (USQBC) on “Qatar’s Vision or Sustainable Food Security”.

In addition to the Minister, the Webinar was attended by many other distinguished guests, including Ambassador Anne Patterson, President of the US-Qatar Business Council; Mohamed Badr Hashem Al Sada, CEO of Hassad Foods; and Mohammed Barakat, Man-aging Director of the business council.

H E Minister Al Subaie, said: “For US Partnerships, we are looking specifically to collab-orate in the export of crops we are not cultivating here, tech-nology transfer, and strategic development of the Hamad Port.”

Commenting further on Qatar’s food security objective, the Minister noted: “With food security, being self-sufficient does not mean you are secure. Local production will not

supersede the importance of international partnerships.

“On food security, we have learned the hard way due to the blockade. We developed many strategies to deal with a crisis. When the global COVID-19 crisis began, the State of Qatar was one of the countries least affected.”

Highlighting the impor-tance and scope of Qatar-US bilateral relations, H E Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie said: “We cherish the US-Qatar relationship. One of our main challenges has been water scarcity and we must always adapt the newest tech-nologies and innovations to

overcome this. We see a large opportunity to collaborate in this area.”

H E Minister Al Subaie said: “Post-blockade, Qatar’s food security has focused on four main pillars: interna-tional trade & logistics, enable domestic markets, enhance domestic self-suffi-ciency, and increase strategic reserves.”

The Minister added: “We have already begun PPP

(public-private partnership) projects for fisheries with our first project almost finished. Fish farming licenses will be floated in the next few months where we expect a lot of private sector interest.”

H E Eng Al Subaie further added that the state of Qatar has built into the Qatar National Vision 2030 a great importance on environmental protection. The upcoming Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup

will be the first world cup that is carbon-neutral.

Mohamed Badr Hashem Al Sada, CEO of Hassad Foods, said: “We already have a rela-tionship with the US in food security. We have investments across the United States for dairy, fodder, and other areas. Frozen meat, waste man-agement, and testing/safety would be key areas we’d look for US collaboration.”

On his part, Mohammed

Barakat, added: “The green buildings, the carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup, carbon credits, and other initiatives have made Qatar a leader in environmental sustainability in the region.”

The USQBC, which is the premier vehicle for enhancing US-Qatar commercial rela-tions, expressed its gratitude to the participants and distin-guished guest of the webinar, including the Minister of M u n i c i p a l i t y a n d Environment.

During the event it also noted that recently the US engi-neering giant General Electric won a $703.3m contract to produce F110 engines for Qatar and several other allied countries.

While Qatar’s economy is expected to shrink this year due to COVID-19, the IMF expects the country will have a huge bounce back in both oil and non-oil GDP in 2021.

As a result of concerted efforts in boosting the bilateral economic ties, the Qatar-US bilateral trade volume reached at all time high in 2019 breaching the previous peak level recorded in 2014.

The total value of goods exchanged between the two countries during the year jumped to nearly QR30bn ($8.15bn), registering a double-digit growth of 36 percent (year-on-year) com-pared to QR21.84bn ($5.99bn) in 2018, according to official data.

The Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Engr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie (below left) and other dignitaries, including Ambassador Anne Patterson (above left), President of the US-Qatar Business Council, during the webinar, yesterday.

QDB develops National Response Guarantee ProgramQNA - DOHA

In implementation of the direc-tives of H H the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to support and provide financial and economic incentives to private sector companies affected by the implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and based on the directives of H E the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) included companies operating in the contracting and construction sector to take advantage of the COVID-19 National Response Guarantee Program, and extended the period of QDB’s coverage of the

percentage of financing profits granted through the program to 12 months instead of 6 months only. Under this decision, companies wholly owned by the private sector and affected by the repercussions of the novel coronavirus pandemic are entitled to benefit from the national guarantee program launched by Qatar Devel-opment Bank in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Qatar Central Bank and all banks operating in the country, and to obtain financing with the aim of helping them to pay the sal-aries of their employees and special rental benefits.

According to this decision, the Government of the State

of Qatar through the Qatar Development Bank will fully cover the percentage of financing profits during the first year on behalf of the ben-eficiary companies, as the pro-gramme’s mechanism of action includes the provision of a 100 percent coverage guarantee by Qatar Devel-opment Bank to the com-mercial and Islamic banks that provide funding without taking any fees or commis-sions on the guarantee granted, whether by the com-mercial or Islamic banks or the beneficiary companies, pro-vided that the financing is paid by the beneficiary company to the commercial and Islamic banking grantors within a maximum period of three

years, including a grace period of one year.

QDB stated that companies wishing to benefit from the program are required to be fully owned by the private sector, and to be registered in the wage pro-tection system in force in the State of Qatar.

Regarding the mechanism applied to benefit from the program, companies wishing to benefit or their official represent-atives must communicate with the commercial and Islamic banks in which they hold accounts for the wage protection system and requests for benefit are submitted through them exclusively.

Requests can also be sub-mitted on behalf of more than one company by Qatari citizen

partners or owners of affected private sector companies.

QDB had announced National Response Guarantee Program that provides guar-antees to local banks to grant loans to affected private com-panies in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) and all banks operating in the country, in response to the implications of the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The National Guarantee Program aims to support salaries and rents of companies in the private sector. DB will manage and issue the guidelines for this program, while banks operating in the country will grant the financing on the basis of a guarantee from the QDB.

More summer flights seen as US travel slowly rises: Delta CEO

REUTERS - WASHINGTON

Delta Air Lines Inc is likely to increase capacity this summer by adding flights in June and July as US domestic travel slowly picks up amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive officer said yesterday.

CEO Edward Bastian (pic-tured) told Fox Business Network the airline’s 60 percent cap on passenger load would help it maintain social dis-tancing, while it also undertakes other efforts such as cleaning to boost customer confidence.

“Today our load factor on Delta is somewhere about 35-40 percent full,” he said in an interview. “Once we get close to 60 percent on an indi-vidual route that’ll be the trigger for us to add more planes into the system.” Bastian said he expected to add about 200 flights in June, and probably another 200 or 300

flights in July.Overall, US travel continues

to be “slow,” he said, adding that he expects it to recover in the next 12 to 18 months, although international travel may not restart more fully until 2021.

He said he expects the com-pany’s costs to be down more than 50 percent in the second quarter on year-over-year basis, and that with the help of US government assistance he sees ending June with a $14 billion cash balance to help the airline ride out the pandemic.

The measures is expected to hand the company annual savings of more than £1.3bn ($1.6bn). The restructuring will cost Rolls about £800m.

04 THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020BUSINESS

Rolls-Royce cuts 9,000 jobs as airlines turn off engines AFP — LONDON

Rolls-Royce, the British maker of plane engines, said yesterday it will cut at least 9,000 jobs and slash costs elsewhere, as the coronavirus hammers the aviation sector.

“This is not a crisis of our making. But it is the crisis that we face and we must deal with it,” chief executive Warren East (pictured) said in a statement announcing that Rolls would cut nearly one-fifth of its global workforce.

“Our airline customers and airframe partners are having to adapt and so must we.”

Unions said they expected most of the cuts to occur in the UK, while analysts said the knock-on effect for supply chains meant many more people working across the aer-ospace industry were set to lose their jobs.

Rolls said it expected “the loss of at least 9,000 roles” from a global workforce of 52,000 and would also cut “expenditure across plant and property, capital and other indirect cost areas”.

The measures is expected to hand the company annual savings of more than £1.3bn ($1.6bn). The restructuring will cost Rolls about £800m.

Rolls said the restructuring would predominantly affect its civil aerospace business.

“Our defence business, based in the UK and US, has been robust during the pan-demic, with an unchanged outlook, and does not need to reduce headcount,” it added.

Rolls has already spent the past two years cutting thou-sands of management roles fol-lowing weak demand for its power systems used by the marine industry.

“The restructuring announced... (in) June 2018 will transition into this wider pro-posed reorganisation,” Rolls said yesterday.

“Focused predominantly on reducing the complexity of our

support and management func-tions, the programme has sub-stantially delivered on its objectives.”

The new cull comes as global air travel remains vir-tually non-existent, even though governments have begun to ease their lockdowns.

With planes grounded worldwide, airlines are slashing thousands of jobs and Rolls has followed suit.

“Being told that there is no longer a job for you is a terrible prospect,” East added yesterday.

“But we must take difficult decisions to see our business through these unprecedented times.”

Steve Turner, a senior

official at British union Unite, accused Rolls of “shameful opportunism”.

“The news that Rolls Royce is preparing to throw thousands of skilled, loyal, world-class workers, their families and communities under the bus during the worst public health crisis since 1918 is shameful opportunism,” he said in a statement.

Paul Everitt, chief executive of UK aerospace trade body ADS, meanwhile said that Brit-ain’s government needed to take “urgent action” to “min-imise the impact on jobs and manufacturing capability in the long-term”.

F o l l o w i n g i t s announcement, Rolls-Royce saw its share price slide by 2.5 percent to 261 pence in morning deals.

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.1 percent overall.

“In a positive economy job layoffs will often send shares higher since it lowers wage costs,” said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group.

“In such a hard economy for air travel to which Rolls Royce is closely tied, the job losses just spell out the difficulties.”

Remote work could help company cut costs, says Deutsche Bank CEOAP - FRANKFURT

Germany’s Deutsche Bank says it is in good financial shape and will push ahead with cost cuts to bolster profitability - and its CEO says working from home could play a role in that.

CEO Christian Sewing (pic-tured) said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, held online due to the corona-virus outbreak, that the company was on track to meet its goals for cutting its cost base to €17bn ($18.6bn) in 2022 from €21.5bn last year.

The company will not pay a dividend as it carries out a far-reaching restructuring aimed at eliminating riskier and less profitable businesses and focusing on its European client base.

Sewing said financial reserves exceeded regulatory requirements and that the Frankfurt-based bank was sticking to financial goals set out last year. He said the company was “part of the solution” during the crisis, advising the government on support efforts and acting as a “conveyor belt” for 6,500 appli-cations for emergency credit with a volume of over €5bn.

He added that efforts to adapt to the outbreak through remote working and video con-ferencing raised the possibility of spending less on office space and travel.

“If 60 percent of employees worldwide can work away from their offices and still deliver excellent service to our clients, then of course we have to ask ourselves: can we give our staff additional flexibility to work from home if they want to?” Sewing said in his speech to shareholders. “And if that’s the case, do we need quite so many offices in expensive urban centers?”

Less corporate travel would save the company time and money, and benefit the envi-ronment as well, he added. Deutsche Bank had 88,000 employees at the end of last year.

Turkey eyeing post-virus production recovery

ANATOLIA - ANKARA

Turkey’s main priority is to ensure a permanent recovery on the production front in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the country’s technology and industry minister said yesterday.

Addressing a virtual meeting organized by the Foreign Eco-nomic Relations Board, Mustafa Varank (pictured) said the expectations of the real sector are improving, and the last two weeks have also seen positive signs on normalisation from the pandemic.

“Electricity consumption in the organised industrial zones started to rise in the beginning of May,” he said, adding,that all main automotive factories are operating, and there is a recovery in textiles. The food, chemical, pharmaceutical and packaging industries have emerged stronger, he said.

“Many manufacturers talk about investment and export opportunities, and we’re focusing on the steps to realize this potential,” Varank said.

The minister urged com-panies in Turkey to invest in

digitization in order to make their businesses more resistant to calamities such as the corona-virus pandemic.

“At this point, we are working to facilitate access to digital tech-nologies and to expand the smart industry, supporting the com-panies with incentives and grants in their digital transformation,” Varank said.

According to him, in addition to job security in the transition to the “new normal,” the devel-opment of production capabil-ities is also extremely critical.

“The outbreak reminds us how important self-sufficiency is,” he said. Varank said that when the country meets its raw material and intermediate goods requirement from domestic sources, it becomes more resistant to external shocks.

In the days to come, he said, there will likely be a transition from the unipolar world order to a multipolar world order, and power balances will shift. “So we need to focus on getting a big slice of this division.”

Turkey, Varank said, enjoys advantages thanks to its geo-graphical location, logistics net-works, non-disruptive supply chain, emergency response capacity, and crisis management ability.

“We want to spread the advantages we have in the defense industry, automotive, textile and white goods to more sectors,” he said, stressing that Turkey could be one of the world’s leading regional supply centers in the new era.

Norwegian Air’s lessors take majority ownership after debt restructuring REUTERS - OSLO

Lessors including AerCap and BOC Aviation are now the biggest shareholders in Nor-wegian Air after the budget carrier completed a debt restructuring and secured a long-sought credit guarantee from Norway’s government.

With most of its fleet grounded by coronavirus lock-downs, the company had said it would run out of cash in mid-May unless it accessed a 2.7 billion crown ($271m) gov-ernment aid package.

Bondholders, lessors and shareholders recently agreed to a 12.7 billion crowns debt con-version and share sale that boosted Norwegian’s equity, meeting a key aid condition.

Major lessor Aercap now

holds a 15.9 percent stake after converting lease obligations into shares. BOC Aviation, ulti-mately controlled by state-owned Bank of China, holds 12.67 percent . Lessors collec-tively took a majority of Nor-wegian’s capital as smaller firms including Avolon and DP Aircraft did similar deals.

Leasing firms said they reluctantly agreed to take

shares for debt as Norwegian’s bankruptcy would have released a glut of used planes into the market, hurting the rest of their business.

“Lessors went with least unpalatable option,” said a source close to one of the firms.

AerCap’s Chief Executive Aengus Kelly (pictured) told investors this month the debt swap was an “extraordinarily rare” move that would only ever be considered in “very unusual circumstances”.

The recovery plan will see Norwegian operate seven air-craft for up to 12 months before building up to 110-120 planes in 2022, compared with almost 150 before the crisis.

“Norwegian will still need to collaborate closely with a number of creditors as the

company currently has limited revenues,” the airline’s CEO Jacob Schram cautioned.

The debt conversion increases the number of shares at issue to 3 billion from just

163.6 million, diluting existing owners and driving down the share price.

The stock was down 23.3 percent to 2.90 crowns at 1131 GMT after hitting a record low

of 1.50 crowns earlier in the session, still above the 1 crown share-issue price.

Norway’s aid package comes on top of an earlier 300 million-crown payout.

A Norwegian Air jet taxi at Denver International Airport, Colorado, US, in this file photo.

Vanguard’s $50bn woman found winners in bond-market chaosBLOOMBERG

One of the worst-ever bouts of dislocation in the US bond market generated some winning trades for Vanguard Group’s Inc’s Gemma Wright-Casparius.

As liquidity disappeared amid the pandemic-sparked mayhem in March, the veteran fixed-income portfolio manager saw opportunities, including in older, less-traded Treasuries.

The market for these secu-rities had all but vanished after a popular trade that exploits price differences between cash Treas-uries and futures blew up.

For Wright-Casparius, the sole head of four actively managed mutual funds with combined assets of about $50bn, the undervalued securities pre-sented a bargain. As she and a handful of senior colleagues continued to work on the firm’s trading desk in Malvern, Penn-sylvania, Wright-Casparius also deemed that inflation expecta-tions had become too dire and increased mortgage-debt holdings. Things soon got so desperate for the bond market that the Federal Reserve stepped in to support it.

Her wagers have paid off, with several of her funds beating most of their peers in 2020. Now, the portfolio manager, who’s been in finance for about 40 years, envisions a long road to economic

revival as the nation endures the steepest levels of joblessness since the Great Depression.

“The market gave you some lemons early in March, and we tried to capitalise on that,” Wright-Casparius said in an interview. Going forward, “there’s still a lot of unanswered questions, especially regarding consumer behaviour, so the economic recovery should be slow and gradual.”

The $7.2bn Vanguard Inter-mediate-Term Treasury Fund, among the four she runs on her own, has returned 7.2 percent this year -- beating 89 percent of its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Her $9.2bn Short-Term Treasury Fund is outpacing 90 percent of rivals.

It is part of a select universe of just 31 US fixed-income mutual funds and exchange-traded funds tracked by Morningstar Inc that were run exclusively by women as of May 1. That tally, helmed by 27 women, is out of more than 2,500 fixed-income funds, with over 2,200 managers, followed by Morningstar. For taxable funds alone, the list shrinks to 16 women.

For women in asset man-agement, progress has been slow, despite widespread focus on the importance of diversity. Even passive funds, a booming area of money management that was once a hot-spot for female talent,

have seen the percentage of women managers drop over the past decade.

Still, Wright-Casparius is pos-itive on the prospects for women and is as excited about what she does as when she began her career. Before switching over to asset management, she worked at investment banks including Barclays Plc, where she was director of fixed-income research. She joined Vanguard in 2011.

The two largest holdings in Wright-Casparius’s Intermediate-Term fund as of March 31 were a 0.63 percent coupon inflation-linked Treasury and a 2.88 percent coupon regular Treasury, both of which were originally issued in 2018 and mature in 2023, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The fund purchased the former last quarter and added to the latter position during the period, according to the data.

Older securities, known as off-the-runs, are tougher to trade even under normal conditions, and were hit hardest by the evap-oration of liquidity in March. A blow-up of basis trades, which exploit price differences between cash Treasuries and futures, helped stoke the turmoil. That left some off-the-run prices too depressed relative to bench-marks, according to the Vanguard team.

“The volatility in March was

breathtaking,” she said. “While part of my man-

agement is taking a very long term view, we had dislocations in the Treasury market space and we took advantage.”

‘Accommodative for Years’The world’s biggest economy

will merely hobble back as states and businesses gradually reopen, requiring years of monetary support, in the estimate of Wright-Casparius and her colleagues at the $5.3 trillion asset manager.

They see the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield bumping around in a range and slowly gliding higher to about 1 percent , from around 0.7 percent now.

But that level will only be attained by late-2021, when growth finally returns to pre-virus levels and inflation rebounds above the Fed’s 2 percent target, Wright-Casparius says. Increased government borrowing will help boost long-term yields, said the Queens, New York, native.

The move toward a steeper yield curve, the gap between 2- and 10-year rates has expanded to about 50 basis points from just above 30 at the start of the year, will gradually gain momentum, she adds.

“Initially, we see the curve and rates range-bound, and then toward the recovery phase we are looking for slightly higher yields and slightly steeper curve,” she said.

Some staff will be sitting at different desks, and in some cases different floors, when they get to work, accord-ing to the memo, which was sent yes-terday to employees in the Europe, Mid-dle East and Africa region.

05THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020 BUSINESS

JPMorgan expects to keep offices half full after lockdown endsBLOOMBERG

When employees return to work at JPMorgan Chase & Co., their coffee mugs and pictures of the kids probably won’t be where they left them.

The bank has been placing workers’ personal items into sealed boxes to prepare desks for common use after lock-downs tied to the coronavirus pandemic begin to ease, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.

Co-workers will be harder to find, too: The bank expects to keep its offices half full at the most for the “foreseeable future,” the memo states. Capacities will vary by location, according to a person briefed on the plans.

“As we prepare for this level of flexible seating and put pro-tocols in place for all areas to be cleaned and disinfected effectively, we have started clearing all desk surfaces and floor areas of any personal and business-related work items,” JPMorgan said in the memo. “We know how important your items are and will continue to make every effort to treat them with care.” The world’s biggest banks have been studying how best to safely bring employees back to the office once

restrictions put in place to stem the spread of COVID-19 are lifted. Planners are trying to figure out how to reorganize lobbies, elevators and work spaces to prevent contagion and keep employees far enough apart to meet social-distancing guidelines.

At JPMorgan, that means some staff will be sitting at dif-ferent desks, and in some cases different floors, when they get to work, according to the memo, which was sent yes-terday to employees in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Similar notices were sent to US workers other than

branch staff, the person said, asking not to be identified because the moves haven’t been announced publicly.

Not everyone will come back at the same time or even to the same location where they used to work, and the return will happen slowly and “in waves,” according to the memo. Officials at American Express Co. and Visa Inc. have said the majority of their workers won’t be coming back at all for the rest of the year.

JPMorgan still doesn’t have a timeline for getting employees back to buildings that have been shut to most workers since March. The bank is also working to remodel reception areas to make them safer for staff who work there, and will be removing lobby furniture and

limiting elevator capacity to maintain social-distancing protocols.

It’s currently conducting a study of “people flow” across major offices to figure out how best to manage movement within buildings. Other com-panies are considering making routes around offices one-way only, using protocols already enacted at some grocery stores, where paths are marked by arrows on the floors or walls.

“We know that the office you return to will be different from the one that you left,” the bank’s task force on returning to the office wrote in the memo. “We will all adjust to this ‘new normal’ in different ways, but remember, we’re all in this together.”

Marks & Spencer warns of virus impact as profits halveAFP — LONDON

British clothing-to-food retailer Marks & Spencer yesterday announced a slump in annual profit as it booked a sizeable charge late on from the coro-navirus outbreak and said it was slashing costs.

Net profit collapsed 49.5 percent to £27.4m ($33m, €30m) in the 12 months to March 28 from a year earlier, M&S said in an earnings statement.

The group booked a £52-million charge in March, largely owing to COVID-19.

Annual revenue meanwhile dipped two percent to £10.2bn.

M&S warned it expected sales to sink by about £2.1bn in its current 2020/2021 financial year, with clothing and household items such as fur-niture hit the hardest.

The retailer added it had embarked upon a £1bn cost-cutting plan to help combat fallout from the novel corona-virus pandemic.

“Whilst some customer habits will return to normal, others have changed forever,” chief executive Steve Rowe (pictured) said.

“The trend towards digital has been accelerated,” he added, with M&S physical stores continuing to struggle.

“Coronavirus has accel-erated the shift to online, and customer behaviour has been changed forever,” said Har-greaves Lansdown equity analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 8,856.15 +0.61 %

QE Total Return Index 17,025.65 +0.61 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index - Price 1,982.29 +0.79 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,536.34 +0.79 %

QE All Share Index 2,748.21 +0.58 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 3,841.97 +0.93 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,493.47 +0.49 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,533.93 -1.50 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,353.68 +0.55 %

QE All Share Insurance 2,018.71 -0.10 %

QE All Share Telecoms 841.30 +0.87 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 7,056.35 -0.17 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

20-05-2020Index 8,856.15

Change +54.01

% +0.61%

YTD% -15.05

Volume 156,759,282

Value (QAR) 316,776,906.23

Trades 10,886

Up 30 | Down 13 | Unchanged 02

19-05-2020Index 8,802.14

Change +37.61

% +0.43%

YTD% -15.57

Volume 147,177,034

Value (QAR) 292,745,877.79

Trades 10,833

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR202.8618 grammeSILVER QR1.7958 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low All Ordinaries 4207.354 110.624 2.7 5069.5 3829.4

CAC 40 Index/D 3176.13 -0.06 0 4169.87 2979.87

DAX - Composit/D 531.14 8.71 1.67 667.98 485.74

DJ Indu Average 0 0 0 12876 9936.39

Egypt Cma Gn Idx 675.91 13.3 0.95 1567.23 143.08

Hang Seng Inde/D 19783.67 452.97 2.34 24468.64 18868.11

ISEG Overall/D 2510.71 44.36 1.8 3037.89 2333.35

Karachi 100 In/D 11311.29 276.37 2.5 12768.4 11032.2

Nikkei 225 Index 9038.74 94.26 1.05 10891.6 8227.63

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 1370.58 1039.7

Straits Times/D 2821.09 -62.91 -2.18 3280.77 2847

Currency Buying (QAR) Selling (QAR)

US$ 3.6305 3.6500

Pound Sterlig 4.4682 4.5313

Swiss Frnac 3.7067 3.7591

Japanese yen 0.03355 0.0342

Australian Dollar 2.2895 2.3346

Canadian Dollar 2.5502 2.6003

Indian Rupee 0.0474 0.0483

Pakistan Rupee 0.0225 0.0231

Philipine Peso 0.0712 0.0726

Bangala Takka 0.0425 0.0433

Sri lanka Rupee 0.0187 0.0191

Nepalese Rupee 0.0297 0.0302

South African Rand 0.1887 0.1925

Euro 3.8966 3.9508