new partnerships qimc is the diamond sponsor for ‘made in
TRANSCRIPT
Thursday, January 23, 2020Jumada I 28, 1441 AH
BUSINESSGULF TIMES
AVIATION FOCUS : Page 12
Airline industry braces as China’s virus outbreak sparks fear globally
Qicca offi cial underscores role of arbitration effi ciencyBy Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter
Creating arbitration platforms by using technology should serve “as an available option” to
achieve effi ciency and security of infor-mation, especially sensitive data.
This was discussed in a keynote speech by the Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (Qicca) general counsel Dr Minas Khatchadou-rian during the “Middle East Arbitration Symposium” hosted recently in Doha by international law fi rm, Pinsent Masons.
During the event, Pinsent Masons also unveiled key fi ndings from their International Arbitration Survey 2019 on the topic of “Driving Effi ciency in In-ternational Construction Disputes”, un-dertaken in partnership with the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London.
In his keynote speech, Khatchadou-rian stressed that effi ciency “is a real concern” for all parties involved in ar-bitration. He said arbitration institu-tions have opened the door to improv-ing effi ciency in arbitration procedures, following diff erent surveys, which took place in the last few years and where stakeholders exchanged views and ex-perienced arbitration procedures.
“To address concerns of time and cost effi ciency, most of the national and in-ternational arbitral bodies, institutions, and centres have adopted expedited resolution processes for both small and medium-size projects.
“So, effi ciency has been achieved through, for example, expedited arbitration rules (fast track) for small claims, electronic means of communication as a faster way to communicate, and early dismiss of unmer-itorious claims,” he explained.
He added, “However, the dispute res-olution community is eager to achieve more effi ciency, including the practice of dispute prevention mechanisms, the use of dispute boards, some other me-diation use at the pre-arbitral stage, and then through the proceedings until the rendering of the award.
“Exploring the views of the us-
ers in construction and infrastructure projects, are very signifi cant in the di-agnosis of issues and to improve the way dispute resolution should be optimally approached.”
Khatchadourian pointed out that while construction projects play a role in the development of a country, “the same goes to the amount of disappoint-
ment when a project goes wrong and the construction is interrupted for several months or years.”
“It is very true that in the chain of contracts related to construction, the cascade eff ect of disputes happening at the top level between the employer and the main contractor can have a negative impact on the sub-contractors, lenders, and insurers, among others, as it is com-mon practice in construction projects to have more than one set of parallel contractual arrangements in place and where each of these contractual ar-rangements is regarded as a link in the overall contractual chain.
“Such inter-related eff ects have been felt in several cases in Qatar, or else-where, and where the arbitration has lasted more than two years despite the exertion of all possible eff orts to reduce time and cost, dealing with complex ar-bitrations,” he said.
Khatchadourian underscored the need to move away “from incrementally improving what we already do and ad-dress the fundamental question of how we can most eff ectively deliver what the users of arbitration need.”
“Furthermore, third party funding, which was a novelty in our region a few years ago, has an increasing role to play in commercial or investment arbitration related to construction projects. Third party funding not only benefits claimants may also assist a respondent to know that an outside entity with much litigation experi-ence has audited the case and decided to invest in it.
“Qatar and its arbitration commu-nity should draw practical lessons from the survey and fi nd out the new trends and the dynamism of the ever-evolving world of arbitration,” Khatchadourian said.
QFC, IPAQ showcase Qatar business reforms at WEFThe Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has
participated in the special briefi ng enti-tled “The Year Ahead: Spotlight on FDI”,
held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The event, organised by Bloomberg and sponsored by the QFC, focused on the consid-erable foreign direct investment fl ows around the world, which exceed $1tn annually, and shed light on the vigorous competition among coun-tries to attract and increase their shares of FDI.
The summit discussion delved into the on-going quest of trade and governmental enti-ties to off er bundles of incentives and benefi ts to increase their competitiveness over peers, while addressing the investments trends.
“Creating an infrastructure to enable an ef-fi cient business environment and introducing regulatory amendments are indispensable in attracting FDI into Qatar and this is what we have been doing over the past two years,” said QFC Authority chief executive Yousuf Mo-hamed al-Jaida.
During the briefi ng, al-Jaida sat on a panel “Smart and Sustainable Economies: Seiz-ing the FDI Opportunities” alongside other senior-level panellists; Claudio Facchin, president, PowerGrids, ABB; Dev Sanyal, chief executive, Alternative Energy and executive vice president, Regions, BP; and Lex Greensill, chief executive, Greensill.
During the session, the panellists tackled various pressing issues around the capital in-fl ow, benefi ts lured from international invest-ments on social, economic and environmental
fronts, and the identifi cation of trends shaping FDI decisions.
Al-Jaida highlighted Qatar’s ground-break-ing amendments and reforms to create a com-petitive business environment and referred to few examples, including easing of visa proc-ess as well as the business registration process from a two months’ process to an overnight one, in addition to the transformation from a protected foreign ownership regime to a 100% foreign ownership in certain sectors.
He also sat on a panel “Perspectives from
Qatar and Russia; Investment Trends in Emerging Markets” as a key speaker, alongside Sheikh Ali al-Waleed al-Thani, chief execu-tive, IPAQ (the Investment Promotion Agency of Qatar) and Saud bin Abdullah al-Attiyah, deputy undersecretary for Economic Aff airs, Ministry of Finance, and senior Russian rep-resentatives.
Organised by IPAQ in collaboration with Ro-scongress, the panel addressed the opportuni-ties and challenges for both global investors and the emerging markets they engage.
‘Made in Bangladesh’ expo at DECC on January 28-30
More than 50 companies from Bangladesh will showcase a wide range of exportable products and services in a first-of-its-kind “Made in Bangladesh” – MiB exhibition – to be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC ) on January 28-30.MiB is the three-day long, first-ever, single country dedicated trade and investment exhibition in the Middle East for Bangladesh, exclusively showcasing “Made in Bangladesh” products and services.Companies representing Bangladesh’s financial sector to ICT, tourism, boutique houses, agro, real estate, food and beverages will be present at the expo, providing entrepreneurs in Qatar with an opportunity of potential trade partnership.This exhibition will give a unique opportunity to the participating Bangladeshi companies to display their products and services and help them to have deep understanding of the needs and opportunities of Qatar market, to meet market leaders and prospective target partners through business-to-business (B2B) meetings, and meet Qatari investors and participate in guided industry tours.By visiting the exhibition, Qatari entrepreneurs and Doha residents will have the prospect to meet with the leading Bangladeshi brands and to get familiar with the business friendly environment and policies to invest in Bangladesh. This will eventually help to build stronger economic ties between Qatar and Bangladesh.MiB will host panel discussions on trade, investment polices of Bangladesh and Qatar, business opportunities between Qatar and Bangladesh, digitalisation, while the panellists will include business and policy leaders from Qatar and Bangladesh, industry thought leaders and the leading career professionals from Qatar and Bangladesh, followed by an eye-catching Bangladeshi fashion show and cultural events during the three-day exhibition.The first day of the exhibition will have a formal opening ceremony, seminars and cultural show under the theme “Rhythm of Bangladesh”, fashion show of Dhakai Jamdani and Katan.The second day will include seminars, a cultural show under the theme of “Seasons of Bangladesh” and the instrumental fusion and tribute to the musical legends followed by gala dinner.The third and closing day will have seminars, cultural show under the theme “The Bengal beats”, folk festival, formal closing and award ceremony.A high powered trade and business delegation headed by the Industry and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Salman F Rahman will be present during the exhibition to meet and discuss with the business leaders, think tanks and consulting groups in Qatar.The expo is being organised by the Embassy of Bangladesh, Qatar and Bangladesh Forum Qatar (BFQ), a non-profit organisation comprising Bangladeshi expatriate professionals.The Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh (EPB and the Qatar Financial Center (QFC) are the sponsors of the event, while the Qatar Chamber is sponsoring the event by organising B2B meeting between Bangladesh and Qatari counterpart throughout the three-day events.
New report to explore Qatar’s evolving tax regime
Qatar’s eff orts to broaden its revenue base by introducing extensive changes to the national tax framework will be explored in a forthcoming report by the global research and advisory firm Oxford Business Group (OBG).Marking OBG’s 15th year of operations in the country, The Report: Qatar 2020 will shine a spotlight on the General Tax Authority (GTA), which is tasked with implementing all legislation governing tax and improving compliance, assessing its progress to date.The report will also examine how the introduction of an excise tax on items such as tobacco and energy drinks has aff ected importers, manufacturers and traders of these and other special purpose goods, one year on from its introduction. OBG will consider what other indirect taxes are likely to follow as the leadership moves forward with its plans to diversify the economy in line with the Vision 2030, such as the highly anticipated Value Added Tax.Other topics set for analysis include the decision by the Qatar Financial Centre just this month to ban cryptocurrency-related activities amidst concerns over the possible funding of terrorism and money-laundering.Grant Thornton Qatar has signed a first-time memorandum of understanding with OBG for its forthcoming publication. Under the agreement, the business advisory firm will help OBG to carry out the research for the tax chapter of The Report: Qatar 2020 and other content that will be made available across the Group’s platforms. Jana Treeck, OBG’s managing director (Middle East) said she was delighted to have Grant Thornton Qatar’s experts on board for OBG’s analysis, given the rapid tempo at which the country’s tax and regulatory framework was evolving.“Making tax collection more eff icient and
eff ective is a key part of Qatar’s bid to ensure long-term growth is sustainable,” Treeck said. “Grant Thornton Qatar has an in-depth understanding of the changes taking place within the local taxation system and provides specialised services to a broad client base on navigating the latest tax legislation and regulations. I am sure that its team’s input will strengthen our coverage of this important aspect of Qatar’s economic development and investment opportunities.” Hassan Sultan al-Dosari, chairman and managing partner of Grant Thornton Qatar stated that they assist their clients to make compliance with tax relegations. “To foster economic growth and development, governments need sustainable sources of funding for social programmes and public investments. A well-functioning tax system is the foundation stone of the people-state relationship, establishing powerful links based on accountability and responsibility,” he added.The Report: Qatar 2020 will mark the culmination of more than 12 months of field research by a team of analysts from OBG. It will be a vital guide to the many facets of the country, including its macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and other sectoral developments. OBG’s publication will contain contributions from leading representatives across the public and private sectors, including His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani; HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani; HE the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, and Qatar Chamber chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al-Thani.The report will be produced with Grant Thornton Qatar.
QIMC is the Diamond Sponsor for ‘Made in Qatar 2020’ in Kuwait
NEW PARTNERSHIPS | Page 11
Al-Jaida with other panellists at a WEF panel session in Davos.
Dr Khatchadourian: Technology plays a key role in achieving eff iciency and security of information.
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Thursday, January 23, 20202
Goldman says oil price could drop $3 if virus plays out like SarsBloombergSingapore
Oil markets are likely to take a hit from China’s deadly coronavirus, with aviation
fuel suff ering the most, if the Sars epidemic in 2003 is any guide, ac-cording to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The respiratory virus that origi-nated in Wuhan could result in global demand falling by 260,000 barrels a day in 2020, with jet fuel accounting for around two-thirds of the loss, Goldman said in a note. That would probably lead to a $2.90 a barrel drop in oil prices. The bank’s projections translate the estimated Sars demand impact into 2020 volumes.
The coronavirus is causing nervousness across fi nancial mar-kets, especially as it’s spreading just as hundreds of millions of Chinese prepare to travel domes-tically and internationally for the Lunar New Year holidays. The potential disruption is adding another wildcard to oil markets, which have already been roiled this year by tension in the Middle East and North Africa.
“While an Opec supply re-sponse could limit the fundamen-tal impact from such a demand shock, the initial uncertainty on the potential scope of the epi-demic could lead to a larger price
sell-off than fundamentals sug-gest,” Goldman analysts Damien Courvalin and Callum Bruce said in the note.
Oil price volatility may rise in the coming weeks, although Goldman still sees a sustained backwardation in Brent crude this year as the overall impact on fundamentals remains limited so far. Concern over the virus’s im-pact on oil demand, however, is expected to counter jitters around supply disruptions across Libya, Iran and Iraq.
During Sars, Singapore jet fuel prices weakened relative to other regions. The International Air Transport Association estimated there was a drop of 8% in annual traffi c for Asian airlines during the Sars outbreak, while North Amer-ican carriers experienced a smaller decline.
Health offi cials around the world are racing to gauge the dan-ger posed by the new Sars-like vi-rus with the fi rst diagnosis being reported in the US The number of total cases in China has been con-fi rmed at 440 with nine dead.
The actual impact on global oil demand will depend on how quickly the coronavirus spreads to other regions, and how contagious it is, the analysts said. A fast and aggressive response from Chinese authorities could also lessen the uncertainty and negative impact on the economy, they added.
Spain is nearing life without coal sooner than anyone thoughtBloombergLondon
From Galicia in the north to An-dalucia in the south — Spain’s old coal plants are running out
of steam.The Iberian nation last year cut use
of the dirtiest fossil fuel faster than anyone else in western Europe as re-newable energy and cleaner natural gas take over. The combustible rock, which has kept the region humming through world wars and economic boom times, is increasingly out of fa-vour with lawmakers and executives under pressure to do more to stop global warming.
“We are in a hurry, we have to move fast, everybody has to move fast,’’ Iberdrola SA chief executive offi cer Ignacio Galan said on Tues-day at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Spanish utility plans to permanently shut its two remaining coal-fi red power stations this year, replacing them with new wind and solar capacity.
Coal’s share in the nation’s elec-tricity fell to a four-decade low of less than 5% from 14% a year earlier, according to the nation’s grid opera-tor Red Electrica SA. The sharp drop is yet another sign how the unprec-
edented surge in renewable power output coupled with the lowest sea-sonal gas prices in a decade have up-ended traditional energy economics. Spain was anticipating exiting the fuel by the end of the decade, while the UK will shut all its plants by 2025. Germany last week struck a deal with its biggest power producers.
“The fall in coal generation means Spain could phase out the fuel much faster than the government ever im-agined,” said Dave Jones, an analyst at non-profi t group Sandbag in Lon-don.
The nation burned as much as 70% less coal in 2019 than a year earlier, while the level in Germany fell 28%, according to data from S&P Global Platts.
The Spanish government made a start by shutting all coal-mining operations last year after striking a deal with unions to invest €250mn ($277.7mn) in impacted regions to enable a smoother transition to a green economy. That allowed a tax on burning natural gas at power plants to be abolished. It had been intro-duced to prop up the ailing mining industry.
Output is poised to fall further this year as both Iberdrola and Naturgy Energy Group SA plan to retire their plants this year. Energias de Portugal
SA and Viesgo Holdco SA will shut their units by the middle of the dec-ade. That would leave Endesa SA, the biggest producer of power from coal, as the only remaining operator after 2025. The company said that from 2022, its last operating plant will run for less than 10% of its theoretical maximum hours in any given year.
If the utilities stick to earlier state-ments, then Spain could be entirely without coal as early as 2027.
The prevailing market and politi-cal forces working against coal mean that Spanish plants faced a projected loss of €992mn in 2019, according to a report from Carbon Tracker, a think tank focusing on the energy transi-tion.
The nation’s lead in exiting coal is helped by having some of the best re-newable resources in Europe, which, coupled with subsidies, has stimulat-ed more power capacity than needed to keep the lights on.
“Spain is the most oversupplied electricity market in Europe,” said Jones. “So it has the capacity to shut coal power plants and not wait for new capacity to come online.”
Preliminary analysis from the group showed that the fuel’s share of Europe’s electricity mix fell by 23% in 2019 from a year earlier and is set to decline further in 2020.
Wind turbines operate at a wind farm in Ortigueira, Spain (file). The nation’s lead in exiting coal is helped by having some of the best renewable resources in Europe, which, coupled with subsidies, has stimulated more power capacity than needed to keep the lights on.
Shell, Equinor are said to be looking at Argentina shale stake
BloombergBuenos Aires
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Equinor ASA are in talks to expand their acreage in Argentina’s fledgling shale play Vaca Muerta, according to people familiar with the matter.The two oil majors are looking to jointly purchase the 49% stake in the Bandurria Sur field currently owned by Schlumberger Ltd, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The service provider bought into Bandurria Sur in 2017, but said last year it’s looking to sell the holding. Argentina’s state oil company YPF SA holds a 51% operating stake.The interest from Shell, which is based in The Hague, and Norway’s Equinor comes at critical moment for Argentina’s nascent shale industry. The resources in Vaca Muerta have the potential to rival places like the Permian Basin the US, but the Patagonian oil patch is being held back by infrastructure bottlenecks, abrupt changes in government subsidies, and sovereign risk that’s being amplified by political volatility and an impending sovereign debt restructuring.Drilling is in a slump because of price controls on both crude oil and gasoline as the government tries to tame inflation. Unions representing oil workers are also being more assertive.Oil producers are waiting for more clarity on policy from new President Alberto Fernandez. He met with drillers last week including Shell and promised them special legislation. YPF chairman Guillermo Nielsen said on Tuesday that the proposed bill would seek to lure shale investments by “detaching” them from Argentine risk.Schlumberger announced it would sell Bandurria Sur in September as part of a broader divestiture of its production assets, an attempt by the company to diversify from its core services business. Chief executive off icer Olivier Le Peuch said on a conference call last week that the company expects to close the Bandurria Sur sale this quarter.Bandurria Sur is one of YPF’s three flagship shale oil areas. The other two are joint ventures with Chevron Corp and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. Production at Bandurria Sur is currently about 10,300 barrels a day and will plateau in a decade at 58,000 barrels, according to a YPF investor presentation.Spokesmen for Equinor, Schlumberger, Shell and YPF declined to comment on the talks.Shell has been ramping up production in Vaca Muerta, and Equinor is testing oil wells in the formation with YPF in a separate joint venture.
A staff member talks with a driver as he checks body temperature of passengers at an exit of a highway in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on January 21. The respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan could result in global demand falling by 260,000 barrels a day in 2020, with jet fuel accounting for around two-thirds of the loss, Goldman said in a note.
BUSINESS3Gulf Times
Thursday, January 23, 2020
New fi nance chief says Lebanon to decide on March bond next weekBloombergBeirut
Lebanon’s incoming Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said the fate of debt maturing in March
will be the new government’s top priority when it meets next week, as investor concerns intensify that the country could default on its next payment.
“Next week, the government will meet and decide on this,” Wazni said yesterday in his fi rst interview with an international news organisation. “This is a priority and will be the fi rst item to be discussed.”
Despite Lebanon’s unblemished record of paying creditors, bond in-vestors have all but priced in a sov-ereign default. Still, they diff er on when it would happen and whether foreign investors were likely to be exempt.
A proposal to have local banks swap their holdings of the $1.2bn Eurobond due March 9 with long-er-dated instruments in the central bank’s portfolio was rejected by the Finance Ministry after rating com-panies warned of a downgrade.
To keep its currency peg intact and fi nance foreign-currency obli-gations, Lebanon has relied on the millions living abroad to send remit-tance through local banks, which, along with the central bank, hold most of the country’s debt. With in-fl ows slowing, cracks in the fi nanc-ing model have appeared, risking the decades-old exchange rate.
Speaking by telephone hours af-ter the new cabinet convened for its fi rst meeting at the presidential palace in Beirut, the minister said he doesn’t see a devaluation in the short term, despite the emergence of a parallel exchange-rate mar-
ket for increasingly scarce dollars. Wazni, who has a PhD from Paris Dauphine University, served as an adviser to the fi nance and budget parliamentary committee for two years. He was appointed late Tues-day after the president approved the formation of a new government to replace former Premier Saad Har-iri’s cabinet.
The political breakthrough inject-ed calm into fi nancial markets. Leba-non’s debt maturing on March 9 rose 0.6 cent to 83.8 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, adding to a 4 cent gain over the past two days.
The cost of insuring Lebanon’s debt against default for six months fell for a third day, after surging above 10,000 basis points last week. The credit-default swaps have fallen to 9,637 basis points, from around 10,280 basis points on Friday.
Hariri resigned in late October in the face of mounting protests that accuse the political elites of ram-pant corruption and worsening liv-ing conditions. Protests have turned violent in recent days with hundreds injured in scuffl es between riot po-lice and demonstrators.
One of the world’s most indebted countries, Lebanon is succumbing to a fi nancial crisis that’s seen local lenders and the central bank ration US currency, leading to the rise of a parallel rate higher than the peg of 1,507.5 per dollar. The International Monetary Fund has said that Leba-non’s eff ective exchange rate is “sig-nifi cantly overvalued.”
Wazni said the parallel rate would ease as the government seeks to re-store confi dence and show needed action.
“We have two exchange rates now and government formation doesn’t change,” Wazni, an adviser to vet-eran Parliament Speaker Nabih Ber-
ri, said. “But the rate at the paral-lel market will depend on restoring confi dence and the actions of the government.”
In separate remarks broadcast on a local television station, Wazni said it was nearly impossible for the parallel rate to return to its original level.
Lebanon needs external funding to break the grip of its fi nancial and economic crisis, Wazni said, but added that it was too early to speak about whether the government would seek fi nancing from the IMF.
He said the new lineup faces sev-eral challenges and should imple-
ment an overhaul that reassures the local market as well as the interna-tional community.
Under Hariri, the cabinet failed to implement much-needed reforms that would have unlocked $11bn in international aid meant to boost the country’s ailing infrastructure.
Lebanon should restructure Eurobonds, seek IMF help, says former ministerReutersBeirut
Lebanon should restructure its Eurobonds, including a $1.2bn issue maturing in March, and secure a multi-billion dollar IMF bailout to stave off economic meltdown, its former labour minister said.The country is deep in financial crisis and struggling with one of the world’s largest debt piles relative to GDP, and markets are focused on whether a new government formed on Tuesday will meet the March payment.“I don’t see the logic of the system leaking $500mn to $600mn out of
Lebanon on the March payment when an actual restructuring of the Eurobonds is next to inevitable,” Camille Abousleiman told Reuters in an interview. “That money would be better spent on other things, such as food and medicine.”Abousleiman, who drafted the legal framework for Lebanon’s bonds from the mid-1990s onwards, spoke on Tuesday while still caretaker labour minister.He is not part of the new government.Lebanon has never defaulted on its international debt but with its longer-dated bonds trading at less than half their face value, the market is already pricing in prospects of a default or restructuring.The central bank mulled a proposal to
ask local holders of some of this year’s bonds to swap them for longer-dated ones to ease pressure on state finances.Former caretaker finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil asked it to hold off on that plan until the new government was formed.“The size of the debt is too large relative to the size of the economy,” said Abousleiman, who said any restructuring of the debt could include an extension of the maturity or reduction in the interest rate, not necessarily the principal.Lebanon’s gross public debt is around $89.5bn, 38% of it in foreign currency.Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni on Tuesday said the new government must decide on its approach to the Eurobond due in
March and also needed foreign support to help ease economic and financial strains.Abousleiman said it was “inevitable” the new government would look to secure IMF support as there was no other way to get the “large liquidity” Lebanon needed.A deal of around $4bn to $5bn might ease the deficit, reassure bondholders and encourage other prospective international donors, while also giving momentum to economic and social reforms, he said.“This needs to be accompanied by a serious plan to combat corruption and return ill-gotten gains,” he said, referencing one of the root causes of widespread civil unrest.
‘Turkish central bank to set monetary policy in line with falling inflation’
ReutersDavos
Turkey’s central bank will set monetary policy in line with develop-
ments in inflation, which is expected to fall to single digits by the
middle of this year, the bank’s governor Murat Uysal said yesterday.
Uysal was responding to a question by broadcaster NTV about the
criteria for reducing interest rates to single figures, after the bank
trimmed its policy rate by 1,275 basis points to 11.25% in the last six
months. Uysal said the bank had entered a period of fine tuning and
that future steps will be data-dependent.
“I can say that we will see single-digit levels in inflation starting
in the middle of the year. Our monetary policy will be formed in
accordance with that,” he said. The latest rate move last week
brought the bank’s policy rate below inflation, which stood at 11.8%
in December, but Uysal said that the outlook was for positive real
rates considering that inflation is forecast to fall to single digits.
IMF an option for Lebanon depending on terms, says senior politicianReutersBeirut
An International Monetary Fund pro-gramme is an option for Lebanon de-pending on terms that should be bearable
for the crisis-hit country and not trigger social unrest, a senior politician said yesterday as a new government took offi ce.
The question of whether Lebanon should en-gage the IMF is seen as one of the most pressing decisions facing the cabinet, which must ur-gently draw up a rescue plan to address a fi nan-cial and economic emergency as protests turn violent.
After months without eff ective government, Lebanon fi nally formed a government on Tues-day with backing from the powerful group Hez-bollah and allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) founded by President Michel Aoun.
New Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet is made up of technocratic fi gures selected by groups including Hezbollah, the FPM and Par-liament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement.
The FPM nominated six of the 20 ministers.“The top priority is to put in place a rescue
programme for fi nancing Lebanon’s needs and one of the options is an IMF programme,” Alain Aoun, a senior FPM politician, told Reuters.
“But we have to understand fi rst what are the requirements and to see if they are bearable or acceptable to us as Lebanese, because we don’t want to have a social problem in addition to the fi nancial crisis.
“We have to be careful not to trigger social unrest,” he added. “But we defi nitely need in-ternational assistance to fi nance our spending needs in the public and private sector.”
The absence of a government had left Leba-non rudderless with ordinary people suff ering in a crisis whose root causes include decades of corruption and bad governance that have landed Lebanon with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens.
A liquidity crunch has led banks to restrict access to cash and caused the Lebanese pound to slump.Jobs have been lost and infl ation has soared. Over the last week, hundreds have been injured in clashes between security forces and demonstrators.
New Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said on Tuesday Lebanon needed foreign aid to save it from an unprecedented situation that had forced people to “beg for dollars” at the banks and fear for their deposits.
Turkish bank probe ‘casts wide net over trading in fi nancial sector’ReutersAnkara/Istanbul
Turkish competition offi cials made surprise visits to several private, state and foreign banks late on Fri-
day to analyse computers as they opened a wide-ranging probe of trading in the fi nancial sector, according to three bank-ers.
Turkey’s Competition Authority told Reuters on Tuesday it was conducting “preliminary research” into banks, as it regularly does in all sectors, adding it could not say more about the eff ort until the process is completed.
Turkish media reported on Friday that the competition authority, which is part of the Ministry of Trade, was investi-gating possible violations in foreign-exchange, deposit, credit and brokerage services.
Two Turkish broadcasters have said that more than 20 banks are involved.
Bankers said it was unclear exactly what the competition offi cials were in-vestigating.
One banker said offi cials fanned out across Istanbul and simultaneously en-
tered the lenders late on Friday afternoon.They analysed computers, and re-
quested more transaction information that is due this week, the person said.
“The investigation that started on Fri-day was a surprise to us,” said a second
banker, who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.
The competition authority was not working with the BDDK banking regula-tor, which usually does such audits and would have access to some of the infor-
mation being sought, the second banker said.
“This is why it raises question marks since we don’t exactly know what they are looking for,” the person said.” All op-erations by banks are being investigated.”
The government has clamped down on fi nancial markets with a series of new rules and regulations since a currency crisis in 2018 knocked nearly 30% off the value of the Turkish lira.
The changes — including curbs on for-eign-exchange and reserve requirements meant to boost lending — were meant to stabilise the currency and kick-start a re-covery from recession.
In 2013, the competition author-ity fi ned 12 banks a total of 1.1bn lira ($620mn at that time) for collusion on interest rates.
In 2017, it probed 13 banks over corpo-rate loans.
A senior banker said the latest investi-gation was routine, while Finance Minis-ter Berat Albayrak was quoted as saying on Monday he had heard about the inves-tigation from the sector.
“There is nothing to be concerned about,” Albayrak was quoted as telling lo-cal reporters.
A money exchange vendor displays Lebanese pound banknotes at his shop in Beirut (file). The country is deep in financial crisis and struggling with one of the world’s largest debt piles relative to GDP, and markets are focused on whether a new government formed on Tuesday will meet the March payment.
A money changer counts Turkish lira bills at a currency exchange off ice in Istanbul (file). The government has clamped down on financial markets with a series of new rules and regulations since a currency crisis in 2018 to stabilise the lira.
Uysal: Single-digit levels in inflation seen starting in the middle of the year.
Lebanon’s incoming Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni arrives for the inaugural cabinet meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of capital Beirut yesterday. The fate of debt maturing in March will be the new government’s top priority when it meets next week, as investor concerns intensify that the country could default on its next payment, he said.
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Thursday, January 23, 20204
ReutersSydney
Australian consumer pessimism deepened in January as house-holds fretted about the eco-
nomic impact of devastating bush-fires that killed 29 people, millions of animals and destroyed thousands of homes in recent months.
The Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank index of consumer sentiment, released yesterday, fell 1.8% in January to the lowest since last October.
It declined 1.9% in December.The index was down a hefty 6.2%
from a year earlier, and at 93.4 indi-cated pessimists continued to out-number optimists.
The free-fall in sentiment bodes poorly for consumer spending and could hit growth in Australia’s A$1.9tn ($1.30tn) economy in coming quarters.
Economists generally expect the bushfires to drag on gross domestic product by 0.25%-0.4% per quarter through March 2020, with agricul-ture, retail, tourism and construction the hardest hit.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the index could have fallen fur-ther but the survey was conducted in the week where there was widespread rain, which somewhat cushioned the hit from the bushfires.
Wildfires are common in Australia but the current season was unprece-dented in its scale of destruction and duration.
Scores of fires continue to burn on the east coast despite recent rain.
“If the survey had been conducted a few weeks earlier then the index is likely to have fallen by even more, notwithstanding the very low start-ing point,” Evans said in a statement.
“This low level of confi dence is con-sistent with the generally lacklustre re-ports on consumer spending.”
All the economic components of the index recorded declines in January.
The “economy, next five years” sub-index fell 3.7% in while the “economy, next 12 months” sub-index slipped 5.4%. Both are down 8.9% and 11.9% respectively.
The direct impact of the fires has so far been felt mainly in rural town-
ships though hazardous smoke haze hung over the biggest cities of Syd-ney and Melbourne, hitting tourism and spending.
Businesses are also feeling the heat with fashion retailers and food & beverage makers reporting a
slowdown in sales. The Australian Tourism Export Council has esti-mated international tourism rev-enue in 2020 could fall by 10% to 20%.
“Overall, we think that the bush-fires increase the likelihood of a rate
cut from the RBA in February,” UBS analysts wrote in a note on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) slashed interest rates three times last year to an all-time low of 0.75% and has expressed intentions to do more if needed.
Australian consumer gloom worsens amid bushfi res
Mumbai bets on all-night shopping to lift India economyReutersMumbai
Residents of Mumbai will be able to shop and dine out until dawn from late this
month as the Indian city plans to lift restrictions on retail trading hours in order to boost the local economy.
With India’s economy grow-ing at its slowest pace in 11 years, the government of Maharashtra state believes the move will boost spending and create jobs.
Malls, shops and eateries in commercial districts of Mumbai such as Bandra Kurla Complex and Nariman Point will be able to remain open 24 hours, seven days a week from January 27 if they choose to, Anil Deshmukh, home minister in the Maharashtra state government told reporters yes-terday after the state cabinet ap-proved the plan.
Currently, all stores are re-quired to shut by 10pm, while res-taurants have to shut by 1:30am, at the latest.
The new law will exclude pubs and bars, which will still be re-quired to shut down at 1.30am, the state government said.
“We are hopeful that this move will provide jobs and revenue to our youth,” Aaditya Thackeray, tourism and environment minis-ter in the state government, told reporters after the cabinet meet-ing. The city is home to 20mn people and attracts millions of visitors each year.
Whether shops take up the op-tion and extra cost involved in staying open through the night remains to be seen, although lo-cal media quoted the National Restaurant Association of India as saying malls and restaurant own-ers had expressed interest in oper-ating 24 hours a day.
Thackeray dismissed concerns that the plan would lead to a law and order problem in the city.
Some smaller Indian cities have scrapped retail trading hour limits but Mumbai will be the fi rst major city to allow 24-hour trading.
India offi cially forecasts 5% economic growth for the cur-rent fi nancial year, the slowest pace since 2008/09, and analysts expect the government to an-nounce tax concessions in its an-nual budget next month that will leave many individuals with more money in their pockets.
Shoppers ride an escalator inside a shopping mall in the central business district of Sydney. Australian consumer pessimism deepened in January as households fretted about the economic impact of devastating bushfires that killed 29 people, millions of animals and destroyed thousands of homes in recent months.
Lenders set terms for India’s fi rst shadow bank liquidationBloombergMumbai
Indian lenders have set the prelimi-nary terms for companies wishing to bid for Dewan Housing Finance
Corp’s assets, people with knowl-edge of the matter said, as the nation’s bankruptcy courts attempts to resolve its fi rst shadow bank insolvency.
The assets have been divided into
three groups – mortgages, loans to builders of government-assisted hous-ing, and project fi nancing, the people said, asking not to be identifi ed be-cause the discussions are private.
They have set minimum net worth and asset requirements for the bidders in each category, the people added.
The debt resolution process for De-wan Housing is being closely watched because it’s likely to create a precedent for other shadow lenders aff ected by
the crisis which broke out in 2018 with a series of defaults at a major infra-structure lender.
Dewan was one of the worst aff ected, prompting the Reserve Bank of India to take over management of the company in November and start bankruptcy pro-ceedings.
Representatives at Dewan and Un-ion Bank of India, which is leading the creditor’s group, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Bidders for the mortgage loans will need a minimum net worth of Rs35bn ($491mn) and Rs100bn of assets under management, the people said.
While investors for the builder’s loans taken out under the govern-ment’s slum rehabilitation programme require net worth of Rs5bn and assets under management of Rs10bn, one of the people said.
For project loans, the requirement is Rs10bn of net worth and Rs40bn of
assets under management, the person added.
The decision was taken at a lenders meeting last week, at which advisory fi rm Grant Thornton was appointed to conduct an audit of Dewan’s transac-tions, the people said.
The lenders also appointed real es-tate specialists JLL India and RBSA Ad-visors to value Dewan’s assets and give them an assessment of the losses they are likely to face, the person added.
Foreign loan disbursement jumps 156% in Pakistan
InternewsIslamabad
Pakistan saw a 156% surge in disbursement of foreign loans that increased to $5.5bn in first half of the current fiscal year but non-project loans rose to 84% of the total receipts, which could compound Islamabad’s debt sustainability issues.Pakistan has taken another Chinese commercial loan of $700mn from China Development Bank as the government struggles to enhance its non-debt creating inflows.Foreign loan disbursements have picked up significantly after signing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, which is providing a cushion to the government to meet its external financing needs.But the disbursement by the World Bank and Saudi Arabia against its $3.2bn annual oil credit facility remained low during the July-December period of the current fiscal year.Bilateral and multilateral creditors and commercial banks disbursed $5.52bn in loans in the July-December period of fiscal year 2019-20, according to figures released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.The State Bank of Pakistan has not released the external debt repayment data for the first half, therefore, it is not clear how much of the $5.5bn has been utilised to repay the maturing debt.The disbursement was higher by $3.4bn or 156% compared with loans of $2.2bn received in the same period of previous fiscal year.The $5.5bn in loans were equal to 43.7% of the projected $12.6bn borrowing that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has targeted
to secure in the current fiscal year in a bid to bridge the current account deficit and meet the debt repayment requirement.In its first year in power, the PTI government had acquired $16bn worth of external loans.The break-up of the $5.5bn loans showed a trend that suggests that Pakistan’s external debt woes would not ease in the near future and it will keep taking new loans to repay the old loans.Out of $5.5bn, Pakistan received $4.7bn or 84.7% in non-project aid the sum that has been used to either finance the budget, build foreign currency reserves and buy oil.Out of this, the direct budget and balance of payments support stood at $3.8bn or 70% of the total loans.The project financing remained at only $865mn, which means these loans were used for some productive purposes.However, as compared to the previous fiscal year, there was 60% reduction in the project loans.Foreign exchange-related risks elevated in fiscal year 2018-19 that ended in June last year, according to the new Public Debt Management Risk Report of the Ministry of Finance.The report showed that Pakistan’s short and long-term foreign debt maturing in fiscal year 2018-19 increased to 158.7% of the total liquid foreign currency reserves by June 2019.The borrowing of $5.5bn in July-December of this fiscal year included $1.8bn in commercial loans, which was equal to 90% of the annual borrowing target of $2bn.Pakistan secured $700mn in new loan from China Development Bank and $50mn from Dubai Bank in December alone.
The disbursements by bilateral lenders stood at $524mn, which was higher than the annual target of $480mn.China disbursed $392mn in project financing in the first six months of this fiscal year.Beijing disbursed $198mn for the Havelian-Thakot road project and $122mn for the Sukkur-Multan motorway that has been completed.The Asian Development Bank has turned out to be a saviour for the government that has so far provided $2.1bn, exceeding annual target of $1.7bn.However, out of $2.1bn, the ADB’s budgetary support loans amounted to $1.8bn including a billi dollars crisis response facility.
The Islamic Development Bank disbursed $408mn under the oil credit facility out of the total of $1.1bn.The World Bank has released just $233mn so far against the annual estimate of close to $1.2bn.
The World Bank’s disbursements were hardly 21 per cent of the annual projections.Saudi Arabia has so far given $407mn worth of oil against the annual credit facility of $3.2bn.The government has not yet floated the global bonds against the annual borrowing target of $3bn.
In alternate financing, the government is relying on hot foreign money, which it so far has received to the tune of $2.4 bn.
But the hot foreign money is coming at the expense of growth in local industries.In order to attract hot foreign money, the central bank has kept the interest rates at 13.25 per cent.
South Korea registers lowestgrowth in a decade for 2019AFPSeoul
South Korea’s economy expanded at its slowest pace for a decade last year, hampered by prolonged trade tensions between the US and China and the sluggish
semiconductor market, the central bank said yesterday.The world’s 12th-largest economy grew 2% in 2019,
down from 2.7% the previous year and the worst per-formance since 2009 in the wake of the global fi nan-cial crisis. Slowing growth presents a challenge for the South, which enjoyed a decades-long boom known as the “Miracle on the Han” but where a highly educated
youth now struggles to fi nd well-paid jobs and frustra-tion is mounting over inequality. President Moon Jae-in has been criticised for a controversial economic policy featuring public spending increases and the concept of “income-led growth”, which has seen the minimum wage rise more than 30% in three years.
Opponents say it hurts those it is intended to help by raising employment costs.
The trade-dependent economy slowed “due to fac-tors such as a decrease in semiconductor prices”, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. “While the growth of government consumption expanded, construction and facilities investment contracted as private consumption expenditure and export growth slowed,” it said.
Indian professionals launch B2B Networks Qatar Chapter
A group of Indian professionals and entrepreneurs
representing diff erent sectors in Qatar off icially launched
the Business 2 Business (B2B) Networks Qatar Chapter
yesterday.
B2B Networks, which is registered with Indian Business
Professional Council (IBPC) under the aegis of the Embassy
of India, is a non-profitable organisation that aims to bring
together entrepreneurs in diff erent sectors under one
umbrella and develop and strengthen the businesses of
each member.
The group is managed by the following off icers —
Mohamed Kallatt, president; Abdul Gafoor, vice president;
Tenny Thamby, general secretary; Shaju, treasurer; Sibi K
Saidu, public relations off icer; Razik Ashraf, membership
chair; and Pramod Variyath.
According to Kallatt, the group will conduct weekly
meetings to enhance members’ awareness on the current
market landscape, legal matters, and business oppor-
tunities in and around Qatar. It will also hold monthly
programmes to enable employees achieve professional
and technical trainings, enabling B2B Networks members
to develop their businesses without much complexity.
Kallatt said B2B Networks will be able to provide busi-
ness partners with the opportunity to collaborate with each
other in a clear and transparent manner by assessing the
current situation in Qatar.
B2B Networks will be raising funds from the association
to support charity work, in co-operation with the Embassy
of India, Kallatt added.
PICTURE: Othman Khalid
BUSINESS5Gulf Times
Thursday, January 23, 2020
ReutersSingapore
Asian investors with money in the US equities market are un-willing to cash out their bets
just yet – but some are beginning to buy insurance against a correction, according to a quant fund manager who advises clients on asset alloca-tion.
US stocks were the standout asset class of 2019, with low global bond yields helping to drive the benchmark S&P 500 index almost 29% higher for its best year since 2013.
That has left a lot of investors nervous about the rally ending but also reluctant to sell while it contin-ues.
“It’s still the right asset class to be in, especially with bond yields quite low,” said Paul Sandhu, Asia-Pacific head of BNP Paribas Asset Manage-ment’s multi-asset quant solutions team, which manages $150bn global-ly. “But we see a lot of tail risk.”
He rated a worldwide slowdown as his top concern and is advising clients to diversify by adding new assets.
“Japanese investors have been starting to look at different ways of protecting themselves from a down-turn, without actually selling their equity investments,” Sandhu said.
One such strategy, he explained, is to buy options or straddles that pro-tect against sharp price movements, or to use products that increase ex-posure to equity performance not correlated with the broader market.
An option contract, in basic terms, allows investors to sell a stock at a fixed price in the future, essentially putting a floor under potential losses or even a cap on gains.
A straddle involves buying protec-tion in both directions.
A recent rise in the implied vola-tility priced into stock market op-tions to sell or buy at prices well off current levels indicated a pick-up in such hedging, Sandhu said.
“It means that fear is starting to
go up in the market.” Nevertheless, the S&P 500 has already spent Janu-ary logging fresh highs, even as risks from Mideast tensions to uncertainty
on global growth have clouded the outlook.
Futures pricing suggested the index is poised yesterday to shrug off fears
about a new Chinese virus sparking a global pandemic.
“It’s become like a black hole ac-tually, absorbing everyone’s money,”
said Sandhu. “The more you struggle to get out, to find alternatives, it just kind of pulls you back in, because it’s the best show in town.”
Investors look for insurance as US bull market runs: Fund
Indianequities slide in volatile tradingBloombergMumbai
Indian stocks dropped in vola-tile trading, with the bench-mark index posting its longest
losing streak in almost a month, as investors assessed earnings re-ports and the implications of Chi-na’s spreading coronavirus.
The S&P BSE Sensex Index fell 0.5% to 41,115.38 as of the 3:30pm close in Mumbai, after earlier ris-ing by the same magnitude.
This was the third day of losses for the gauge, its longest run of declines since December 26.
This came as China announced nationwide screening to address the outbreak of a new respiratory virus.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty 50 Index slid 0.5%, clocking four days of declines – its longest such streak since October.
Ten Nifty 50 companies have posted earnings for the Decem-ber quarter, with fi ve beating or matching expectations and the others, including Asian Paints Ltd, missing projections.
Foreign investors injected $1.7bn into India’s stock mar-ket this year as of January 20, the most since November, helping the benchmark touch new highs ear-lier this month.
“Valuations are a concern in some sectors,” and are driving the correction, said Umesh Me-hta, head of research at Mumbai-based Samco Securities Ltd.
Sixteen of 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd fell, led by gauges of metal and oil-and-gas companies.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp dropped the most on the Sensex, while technology stocks including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd were among the top gainers.
EM stocks gain groundReutersBeijing
Emerging market stocks regained foot-
ing yesterday after China’s response to
contain a virus outbreak eased fears of a
global pandemic, while the South African
rand treaded water after a reading on
inflation.
The death toll from a new flu-like coro-
navirus in China rose to nine yesterday
with 440 confirmed cases but investor
anxiety was calmed as China vowed
to tighten containment measures in
hospitals.
MSCI’s index for emerging market
stocks rose 0.6%, a day after seeing its
worst session since early August.
“Amid hopes that the authorities in af-
fected countries are better equipped this
time around following other epidemics
over the years, the losses in risk assets
should prove transitory as long as inves-
tors’ fears can be reined in,” Han Tan,
market analyst at FXTM wrote in a client
note.
The viral outbreak tested risk appetite
on Tuesday, although most analysts point
to the recent losses being temporary
even as investors grapple with its poten-
tial implications for the global economy.
Market players in the emerging
markets space have recently enjoyed
some calm after trade tensions between
the United States and China cooled and
both sides signed an initial trade deal last
week.
Currencies in the developing world
remained range bound with the MSCI’s
index for emerging market currencies
trading flat.
South Africa’s rand firmed slightly
against the dollar as data showed head-
line consumer price inflation quickened
in December and was in line with expec-
tations of economists polled by Reuters.
However, the reading could leave still
room for the South African Reserve Bank
(SARB) to cut its main lending rate.
The SARB unexpectedly cut its main
lending rate last week to stimulate the
flagging economy as it lowered its infla-
tion forecasts significantly.
Turkey’s lira and the Russian rouble
traded in tight spaces against the dollar.
Currencies in eastern and central
Europe – Hungary’s forint, Poland’s zloty
and the Czech crown – eased mildly
against the euro.
Asia stock markets rebound but killer virus fuels new Sars fearsAFPHong Kong
Asian markets bounced back yesterday on bargain-buying following the previous day’s sharp losses but investors remained on
edge after a deadly virus from China was confi rmed to have spread to the United States.
Global equities took a severe hit on fears the new outbreak, which has killed nine and sickened hun-dreds, could cause as much economic damage as the Sars epidemic that killed hundreds of people in 2003.
Shanghai dived 0.3% to 3,060.75, extending the previous day’s 1.4% drop, with authorities battling to contain the coronavirus strain as China prepares for the Lunar New Year holidays, when millions of people travel across the country.
Offi cials warned yesterday the strain could mu-tate and spread.
However, Chinese mainland shares performed a U-turn to end the day with gains.
Tourism-linked fi rms – which had been hit by
concerns about the impact on the global economy just as it shows signs of a tentative recovery from a long-running slowdown – also enjoyed a reverse.
After a sell-off in Asia on Tuesday, news that the US had reported its fi rst case of the new virus hit Wall Street with the Dow and S&P 500 sinking from record highs.
Fears of a bigger outbreak rose after a prominent expert from China’s National Health Commission confi rmed Monday that the virus can be passed be-tween people.
The World Health Organisation will hold an emergency meeting later yesterday to determine whether to declare a global public health emergen-cy over the disease, which has also been detected in Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
“While it is still early days, there is a risk that any outbreak could depress consumer sentiment and spending, including tourism as well as travel and transport-related business,” said National Aus-tralia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril.
“In addition to the sad and devastating human cost, (Sars) also had an economic impact with epi-centres such as Hong Kong enduring a short-lived
recession. “This time the epicentre is in China, so the economic growth impact could be more se-vere.”
Most markets across Asia were in positive terri-tory Wednesday as traders kept tabs on develop-ments linked to the virus.
“The main focus for investors still appears to be on the underlying economic data,” said Michael Hewson of CMC Markets UK.
Tokyo ended up 0.7% at 24,031.35, while Hong Kong added 1.3% at 28,341.04 following a 2.8% plunge the previous day.
Sydney rose 0.9%, Wellington added 0.7% and Singapore put on 0.2%.
Seoul climbed more than one % after data showed South Korea’s economic growth rallied at the end of last year, indicating a bright outlook for 2020.
There were small losses in Manila and Mumbai.“I would expect a lot of people – candidly, like
we are – that are looking for opportunities to buy rather than sell” the dip in stocks caused by con-tagion worries, Lamar Villere, of Villere & Co, told Bloomberg TV.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. US stocks were the standout asset class of 2019, with low global bond yields helping to drive the benchmark S&P 500 index almost 29% higher for its best year since 2013.
Emptied booths stand on the trading floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The HKEX added 1.3% to 28,341.04 points yesterday following a 2.8% plunge the previous day.
Zad Holding CoWidam Food CoVodafone Qatar
United Development CoSalam International Investme
Qatar & Oman Investment CoQatar Navigation
Qatar National Cement CoQatar National Bank
Qatar Islamic InsuranceQatar Industrial Manufactur
Qatar International IslamicQatari Investors Group
Qatar Islamic BankQatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)Qatar General Insurance & ReQatar German Co For Medical
Qatar Fuel QscQatar First Bank
Qatar Electricity & Water CoQatar Exchange Index Etf
Qatar Cinema & Film DistribAl Rayan Qatar Etf
Qatar Insurance CoQatar Aluminum Manufacturing
Ooredoo QpscNational Leasing
Mazaya Qatar Real Estate DevMesaieed Petrochemical Holdi
Al Meera Consumer Goods CoMedicare Group
Mannai Corporation QscMasraf Al Rayan
Al Khalij Commercial BankIndustries Qatar
Islamic Holding GroupInvestment Holding Group
Gulf Warehousing CompanyGulf International Services
Ezdan Holding GroupDoha Insurance Co
Doha Bank QpscDlala Holding
Commercial Bank PsqcBarwa Real Estate Co
Al Khaleej Takaful GroupAl Ahli Bank
14.12
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1.26
1.57
0.53
0.60
6.10
5.55
20.96
6.89
3.57
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1.90
16.59
2.46
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22.69
0.91
16.40
10.51
2.20
2.38
3.19
0.78
7.01
0.72
0.77
2.33
15.80
8.40
3.29
4.17
1.32
10.35
1.90
0.58
5.30
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304,624
843
3,487,533
2,254,330
690,004
4,778,141
254,596
113,394
3,005,976
-
50,422
498,858
85,545
1,112,497
3,584,234
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590,362
338,848
6,957,815
159,328
5,000
-
-
306,206
1,679,359
331,929
577,576
6,067,319
858,187
211,115
65,389
911,311
6,375,746
5,215,438
440,677
587,234
4,921,285
56,479
5,688,846
12,256,923
433,199
936,947
479,367
3,603,660
1,551,973
184,779
296,024
QATAR
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
KUWAIT
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
OMAN
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
KUWAIT
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
KUWAIT
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES
Oman PackagingOman Oil Marketing Company
Oman National Engineering AnOman Investment & Finance
Oman Intl MarketingOman Flour Mills
Oman Fisheries CoOman Europe Foods Industries
Oman Education & Training InOman Chromite
Oman ChlorineOman Ceramic Company
Oman Cement CoOman Cables Industry
Oman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%Natl Aluminium Products
National Real Estate DevelopNational Mineral Water
National Life & General InsuNational Gas Co
National Finance CoNational Detergent Co Saog
National Biscuit IndustriesNational Bank Of Oman Saog
Muscat Thread Mills CoMuscat Insurance Co Saog
Muscat Gases Company SaogMuscat Finance
Muscat City Desalination CoMajan Glass Company
Majan CollegeHsbc Bank Oman
Hotels Management Co InternaGulf Stone
Gulf Mushroom CompanyGulf Investments Services
Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-SharGulf International Chemicals
Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co LtdGlobal Fin Investment
Galfar Engineering&ContractGalfar Engineering -Prefer
Financial Services Co.Financial Corp/The
Dhofar TourismDhofar Poultry
Dhofar Intl DevelopmentDhofar Insurance
Dhofar Generating Co SaocDhofar Fisheries & Food Indu
Dhofar CattlefeedDhofar Beverages Co
Construction Materials IndComputer Stationery Inds
Bankmuscat SaogBank Nizwa
Bank Dhofar SaogArabia Falcon Insurance Co
Aloula CoAl-Omaniya Financial Service
Al-Hassan Engineering CoAl-Fajar Al-Alamia Co
Al-Anwar Ceramic Tiles CoAl Suwadi Power
Al Sharqiya Invest HoldingAl Maha Petroleum Products M
Al Maha Ceramics Co SaocAl Madina Takaful Co Saoc
Al Madina Investment CoAl Kamil Power Co
Al Jazerah Services -PfdAl Jazeera Steel Products Co
Al Jazeera ServicesAl Izz Islamic Bank
Al Buraimi HotelAl Batinah PowerAl Batinah Hotels
Al Batinah Dev & InvAl Anwar Holdings Saog
Al Ahlia Insurance Co SaocAhli Bank
Acwa Power Barka SaogAbrasives Manufacturing Co S
A’saff a Foods Saog0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref
#N/A Invalid Security#N/A Invalid Security
0.27
0.88
0.13
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0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.16
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-
5,325
992
298,480
-
-
25,000
-
-
-
-
-
25,200
215,615
-
-
-
-
-
219,083
-
-
-
27,000
-
-
4,000
40,000
2,061
-
-
75,418
-
-
-
182,726
-
-
-
-
135,017
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,037,685
670,000
2,640,000
-
-
-
5,000
-
425,100
111,000
155,621
10,000
-
60,000
3,000
-
-
306,598
185,200
32,700
-
41,070
-
-
302,017
-
312,270
-
-
-
-
-
-
Al-Madar Finance & Invt CoGulf Petroleum Investment
Mabanee Co SakcInovest Co Bsc
Al-Deera Holding CoMena Real Estate Co
Amar Finance & Leasing CoUnited Projects For Aviation
National Consumer Holding CoAmwal International InvestmeEquipment Holding Co K.S.C.C
Arkan Al Kuwait Real EstateGfh Financial Group Bsc
Energy House Holding Co KscpKuwait Co For Process PlantAl Maidan Dental Clinic Co KNational Shooting CompanyAl-Ahleia Insurance Co Sakp
Wethaq Takaful Insurance CoSalbookh Trading Co Kscp
Aqar Real Estate InvestmentsHayat Communications
Soor Fuel Marketing Co KscTamkeen Holding Co
Alargan International RealBurgan Co For Well Drilling
Kuwait Resorts Co KsccOula Fuel Marketing Co
Palms Agro Production CoMubarrad Holding Co Ksc
Shuaiba Industrial CoAan Digital Services Co
First Takaful Insurance CoKuwaiti Syrian Holding Co
National Cleaning CompanyUnited Real Estate Company
AgilityKuwait & Middle East Fin Inv
Fujairah Cement IndustriesLivestock Transport & Tradng
International Resorts CoNational Industries Grp Hold
Warba Insurance CoFirst Dubai Real Estate Deve
Al Arabi Group Holding CoKuwait Hotels Sak
Mobile Telecommunications CoEff ect Real Estate Co
Tamdeen Real Estate Co KscAl Mudon Intl Real Estate Co
Kuwait Cement Co KscSharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Kuwait Portland Cement CoEducational Holding Group
Bahrain Kuwait InsuranceAsiya Capital Investments Co
Kuwait Investment CoBurgan Bank
Kuwait Projects Co HoldingsAl Madina For Finance And In
Kuwait Insurance CoAl Masaken Intl Real Estate
Intl Financial AdvisorsFirst Investment Co Kscc
Al Mal Investment CompanyBayan Investment Co Kscc
Egypt Kuwait Holding Co SaeCoast Investment Development
Privatization Holding CompanInjazzat Real State Company
Kuwait Cable Vision SakSanam Real Estate Co Kscc
Ithmaar Holding BscAviation Lease And Finance C
Arzan Financial Group For FiAjwan Gulf Real Estate Co
Kuwait Business Town Real EsFuture Kid Entertainment And
Specialities Group Holding CAbyaar Real Eastate Developm
Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate CKgl Logistics Company Kscc
Combined Group ContractingJiyad Holding Co Ksc
Warba Capital Holding CoGulf Investment House Ksc
Boubyan Bank K.S.CAhli United Bank B.S.C
Osos Holding Group Co
90.00
19.80
925.00
72.40
19.80
38.90
50.00
461.00
55.00
39.60
18.70
82.00
68.00
22.90
265.00
1,220.00
9.00
430.00
23.00
47.90
82.00
55.80
124.00
5.20
107.00
72.00
59.50
125.00
40.20
70.40
155.00
13.80
44.50
31.50
68.50
60.00
817.00
85.40
46.00
183.00
9.10
243.00
63.00
36.40
254.00
100.00
589.00
20.50
305.00
23.00
240.00
42.20
970.00
365.00
200.00
38.00
156.00
311.00
212.00
14.50
335.00
44.00
53.20
37.20
10.10
39.00
395.00
38.50
50.80
80.00
14.00
40.00
22.30
251.00
26.90
14.40
42.50
100.00
82.00
7.90
85.00
35.90
254.00
42.50
66.00
60.00
662.00
335.00
103.00
-0.88
-1.49
0.65
-0.82
-4.35
1.04
31.58
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.60
-1.20
0.00
0.00
2.71
0.00
-5.26
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.20
6.90
-1.59
0.00
0.00
-10.00
-0.34
0.00
0.00
0.57
0.00
0.73
0.00
-10.00
1.48
-1.64
0.12
0.47
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.41
0.00
1.96
1.60
0.00
-1.17
0.00
-0.33
1.32
0.00
0.00
-0.92
1.39
0.00
-1.04
-2.50
0.32
0.00
0.69
0.00
0.00
-0.56
2.20
3.06
-0.76
0.00
-1.28
-1.55
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.40
3.46
-0.69
0.24
0.00
1.11
-4.82
0.00
0.28
0.40
0.71
0.00
-4.31
0.30
-0.30
0.00
1,748,872
1,221,500
592,722
500
200,100
914,913
3,683,231
-
-
-
5,051
100,750
1,435,819
-
110,257
-
285,111
43,442
-
426,027
4,881
180,750
410,292
-
-
100
8,400
19,934
-
296,110
-
952,740
-
60,000
303,625
161,409
984,302
607,319
119,955
-
850,610
1,595,623
-
1,100,182
124,865
-
4,474,479
-
50,300
699,692
8,322
-
47,058
24,350
-
2,753
2,425,848
1,490,915
438,184
101,000
-
-
449,253
15,945,200
10,001
217,802
-
81,100
3,457,779
-
-
-
-
328,173
14,487,193
1,064,901
1,880,586
-
545,301
7,364,808
10
100,300
488,237
334,616
-
2,335,522
775,716
2,859,173
-
Al-Eid Food KscQurain Petrochemical Industr
Advanced Technology CoEkttitab Holding Co Sak
Real Estate Trade Centers CoAcico Industries Co Kscc
Kipco Asset Management CoNational Petroleum Services
Alimtiaz Investment GroupRas Al Khaimah White Cement
Kuwait Reinsurance Co KscKuwait & Gulf Link Transport
Humansoft Holding Co KscAutomated Systems Co Kscc
Metal & Recycling CoGulf Franchising Holding Co
Al-Enma’a Real Estate CoNational Mobile Telecommuni
Sanad Holding Co KsccUnicap Investment And Financ
Al Salam Group Holding CoAl Aman Investment Company
Mashaer Holding Co KscManazel Holding
Tijara And Real Estate InvesJazeera Airways Co Ksc
Commercial Real Estate CoNational International Co
Taameer Real Estate Invest CGulf Cement Co
Heavy Engineering And Ship BNational Real Estate Co
Al Safat Energy Holding CompKuwait National Cinema CoDanah Alsafat Foodstuff Co
Independent Petroleum GroupKuwait Real Estate Co Ksc
Salhia Real Estate Co KscGulf Cable & Electrical Ind
Kuwait Finance HouseGulf North Africa Holding Co
Hilal Cement CoOsoul Investment Kscc
Gulf Insurance Group KscUmm Al Qaiwain General Inves
Aayan Leasing & InvestmentAlrai Media Group Co KscNational Investments CoCommercial Facilities CoYiaco Medical Co. K.S.C.C
Dulaqan Real Estate CoReal Estate Asset Management
80.00
309.00
785.00
14.00
26.00
124.00
90.00
1,320.00
132.00
65.00
165.00
63.50
3,140.00
62.40
49.00
75.10
68.90
798.00
0.00
51.00
29.80
59.00
78.90
38.50
54.00
1,085.00
94.00
80.00
26.80
49.90
407.00
91.00
22.40
970.00
15.10
480.00
103.00
435.00
511.00
819.00
61.00
100.00
86.00
653.00
66.70
46.50
32.20
147.00
216.00
66.50
350.00
96.50
1.27
0.00
0.00
-6.04
-5.45
-0.80
0.00
1.54
3.13
0.00
0.00
0.79
0.16
-9.96
-27.94
0.00
0.58
0.63
0.00
-0.58
0.68
0.00
1.81
-3.51
0.00
-0.91
-1.57
0.00
-0.37
0.00
0.00
0.44
-0.88
0.00
-0.66
0.00
0.00
2.11
1.19
-0.24
0.00
0.00
7.50
0.00
0.00
0.22
-5.29
0.00
-1.37
0.00
0.00
0.00
120,500
1,341,811
-
104,019
2,024,403
177,090
82,092
1,800
16,971,907
-
-
386,410
211,651
1,000
38,200
-
550,155
23,093
-
236,443
1,399,209
149,732
1,686,703
211,502
-
2,117
375,054
253,621
134,061
45,024
25,535
1,634,988
150,002
-
68,705
50,000
825,730
849,385
2,381,012
5,763,287
-
-
51,279
-
-
5,844,182
12,900
4,023,056
403,242
-
-
-
OMAN
Company Name % Chg Volume
Voltamp Energy SaogVision Insurance Saoc
United Power/Energy Co- PrefUnited Power Co Saog
United Finance CoUbar Hotels & Resorts
Takaful OmanTaageer FinanceSweets Of OmanSohar Power Co
Sohar International BankSmn Power Holding Saog
Shell Oman Marketing - PrefShell Oman Marketing
Sharqiyah Desalination Co SaSembcorp Salalah Power & Wat
Salalah Port ServicesSalalah Mills Co
Salalah Beach Resort SaogSahara Hospitality
Renaissance Services SaogRaysut Cement Co
Phoenix Power Co SaocPackaging Co Ltd
OoredooOminvest
Oman United Insurance CoOman Telecommunications Co
Oman Refreshment CoOman Qatar Insurance Co
0.14
0.11
1.00
2.40
0.09
0.13
0.13
0.10
0.55
0.06
0.11
0.07
1.05
1.19
0.26
0.14
0.60
0.50
1.38
3.43
0.52
0.48
0.07
2.21
0.51
0.34
0.33
0.61
1.20
0.09
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.90
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.39
-0.83
0.00
0.00
-0.78
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
112,798
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
80,457
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
174,609
29,000
40,143
-
103,635
5,000
309,486
166,008
-
-
Sultan Center Food ProductsKuwait Foundry Co Sak
Kuwait Financial Centre SakAjial Real Estate Entmt
Kuwait Finance & InvestmentNational Industries Co Ksc
Kuwait Real Estate Holding CSecurities House/The
Boubyan Petrochemicals CoAl Ahli Bank Of Kuwait
Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)National Bank Of Kuwait
Commercial Bank Of KuwaitKuwait International Bank
Gulf BankAl-Massaleh Real Estate Co
Al Arabiya Real Estate CoKuwait Remal Real Estate Co
Alkout Industrial Projects CA’ayan Real Estate Co Sak
Investors Holding Group Co.KAl-Mazaya Holding Co
0.00
-1.23
0.00
4.05
0.00
-2.37
0.00
0.00
0.15
-0.37
-0.29
-0.18
-0.54
-0.70
0.64
0.00
1.64
-2.68
0.00
2.40
0.00
0.00
15,050
1,150
52,765
30,730
464,001
5,566
102,340
301,977
423,385
901,664
357,090
5,755,782
10,805
4,554,597
5,149,687
-
1,689,359
1,776,110
-
156,150
1,459,704
233,498
54.00
320.00
104.00
180.00
49.50
165.00
27.00
46.00
689.00
270.00
342.00
1,095.00
552.00
282.00
316.00
37.00
30.90
21.80
850.00
72.50
8.00
60.10
Lt Price
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Thursday, January 23, 20206
Fallen UBS trader Adoboli seeks redemption in bond market dealsBloombergAccra, Ghana
Former UBS Group trader Kweku Adoboli fought to avoid deportation from the
UK to the nation of his birth after his conviction for a $2.3bn loss at the Swiss bank.
Now, he is seeking a comeback in Ghana with a plan to kick-start its mortgage-backed bond market.
The 39-year-old was extradited to the West African country in No-vember 2018 after being jailed in 2012.
He spent the fi rst nine months mostly indoors as he struggled with depression.
Support from family and friends helped him shake ambitions of re-turning to England, his home since the age of 12, and to make peace with a new life in Tema, a port city east of the capital, Accra, teaming with industrial plants and the na-tion’s only oil refi nery.
Nowadays, Adoboli speaks – albeit in a British accent – like he never set foot out of Ghana as he talks about the gaps in the coun-try’s mortgage-fi nancing market.
“Our job now is look for ways to expand banks’ balance sheet, to create a mortgage market that would allow us to increase de-mand-side funding for housing,” Adoboli said during an interview in the lounge area of a fi ve-star hotel in Accra. “What are you go-ing to do in 30 years time when our population doubles?”
The former banker, who left Ghana when he was four, was con-victed for covering up bad bets during July and August 2011 amid a market sell-off .
For the trades, Adoboli served
about half of a seven-year sentence, getting out in 2015, in a case that rippled through Zurich-based UBS and London’s City fi nancial centre.
Adoboli estimates that the plat-form he plans to develop could accumulate $100mn in mortgage-backed securities after the fi rst year of starting operations.
Banks would also be asked to join as shareholders, he said.
It won’t be easy going.Ghana has a low uptake in mort-
gages, nascent capital markets, high interest rates and a banking industry that has just emerged from a crisis.
Most people buy a plot of land with their savings and then slowly build their homes, often complet-ing them by retirement, without ever taking a mortgage.
The government estimates there’s a shortage of 2mn homes in the country of 30mn.
With an average economic-growth rate of 7% over the past three years though, the middle class is expanding.
There are about 9mn Ghana-ians earning more than $11 a day, which could increase to 14mn by 2030, according to data compiled by World Data Lab.
Adoboli is confi dent it can be done.
A study done by him and his business partners found that there are 2.5mn households that can af-ford a $50,000 home loan, he said, declining to identify who is work-ing with.
Packaging existing and new mortgages into securities that are then sold to investors could also free up banks to boost lending, helping to expand the market.
The value of home loans in-creased almost 10% in the nine months through September to 4.5bn cedis ($796mn). That’s not
even 1% of mortgages in South Af-rica, an economy fi ve times bigger and where there is an active se-curitisation market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Adoboli is trying to raise $6mn from investors to fund the accred-itation of the business, its licens-ing as well as the fi nancing of the software needed to create a mort-gage-syndication platform.
He plans to launch the venture at a fi nance conference in Ghana in May, he said.
“The long-term goal is to make a sustainable platform that will grow the economy,” Adoboli said.
Kweku Adoboli speaks during an interview in Accra on January 15.
Adoboli now sports a thick, shaped beard that his therapist suggest he grow.
When he fi rst started coming out in public, he would disguise himself with a hat and sunglasses.
“The deportation made it hard to accept being recognised,” he said. “But now that I have done so much healing, the beard is a re-minder of how important it is to be proud of how far we’ve come,” he said, “and how proud I am to be a black African.”
The University of Nottingham graduate acknowledges he has a long way to go to win back trust, and is still under the constant su-pervision of family and friends.
“I took responsibility because basically nobody else wanted to,” he said of the UBS conviction, adding that he was acquitted on charges of seeking personal gain. “I’m still at the beginning of a journey.
The day when I deliver my fi rst profi t to someone, that will be a good day.”
Kweku Adoboli, a former trader at UBS (second left), arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London (file). Adoboli estimates that the platform he plans to develop could accumulate $100mn in mortgage-backed securities after the first year of starting operations.
Moroccan bourse expects 2 IPOs in 2020, bets on MSCI comebackBloombergMarrakesh
Two companies are expected to go public on the Casablanca Stock Exchange this year, the Moroc-can bourse’s managing director said yesterday, in
IPOs that could help revive trading and return the coun-try to emerging market status.
Karim Hajji, speaking at a conference in Marrakesh, didn’t identify the two companies.
But Hamza Bennani, who heads Aradei Capital, a REIT that has property assets valued at 4bn dirhams ($416mn), said in an interview on the conference’s sidelines that it plans to list on the exchange this year to raise its capital.
Moroccan offi cials are trying to patch up the country’s deteriorating fi nances and spur new activity and eco-nomic growth, and the new listings, along with govern-ment plans to divest in some state assets, are key to that eff ort.
Government plans to sell off some state assets should give a boost to what’s Africa’s second-largest stock ex-change by market capitalisation.
The government’s privatisation of state phone giant Maroc Telecom in the early 2000s helped inject greater liquidity into the market.
Eff orts to boost the exchange and sell off some state assets is part of a broader push backed by King Moham-med VI to develop a new growth model for the economy.
The potential assets cited have been state carrier Royal Air Maroc and storied luxury hotel La Mamounia.
Hajji said it was doubtful the state IPOs would include phosphate giant OCP, which has been dubbed the Ara-mco of fertilisers because it controls over half the world’s known reserve of the fertilizer component.
“Probably, a unit or two of OCP can be privatised,” he said without providing more details.
Taken together, the eff orts should help raise Morocco to emerging market status within two to three years, he said.
The kingdom was relegated to MSCI frontier status in 2013 amid a liquidity squeeze and an absence of fresh listings.
“Liquidity has been a key problem for the last 10 years,” Hajji said.
European stock markets hit by Trump tariff threatAFPLondon
European stocks were hit yes-terday by US President Donald Trump’s threat to slap auto tar-
iff s on EU-built cars and a gloomy auto sales forecast.
Markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris closed lower after Trump said he would order a 25% surcharge on Euro-pean cars if the EU did not agree to a trade deal.
Analysts at Charles Schwab broker-age described traders as fairly cautious as the region mulled “the possibility of a showdown between Europe and the US”.
As trading wound down in Europe, the auto sector association ACEA con-tributed to the wary mood with a fore-cast that European new car sales would fall by two % this year, their fi rst de-cline in seven years.
Shares in carmakers Volkswagen slid by 1.2% and Daimler lost more than 2%, with Mercedes-parent Daimler also warning that its 2019 earnings could fall short of expectations owing to massive new charges related to die-sel emissions cheating.
London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 7,571.93 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was down 0.3% at 13,515.75 and Paris’s CAC 40 lost 0.6% to 6,010.98 points at the close yesterday.
Before Trump issued his latest trade threats, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index had hit a record high at 13,640.06 points, with dealers hailing a recent China-US trade deal.
“German companies are among the most exposed to global trade worries,
and therefore those enjoying the big-gest bounce since US-China relations improved at the back end of last year, resulting in this month’s trade deal,” said Markets.com analyst Neil Wil-son.
In Davos, Switzerland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted prospects for a wid-er trade truce, saying that an accord between Europe and the United States was also possible within weeks.
US stock markets were in positive territory in midday trading, while oil prices fell on fears of a glut on the mar-ket after Brazil’s energy minister fore-cast record output this year.
Earlier in the day, Asian markets had bounced back on bargain-buying fol-lowing sharp losses on Tuesday that were triggered by fears over the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
“Fears of the spreading coronavirus appear to be easing a bit after China said it is taking steps to contain the vi-rus,” Schwab analysts said.
Global equities have been roiled this week by fears that the Chinese virus outbreak which has killed nine and sickened hundreds, could cause as much economic damage as the Sars epidemic that left hundreds dead in 2003.
The World Health Organisation was meeting yesterday to determine whether to declare a global public health emergency over the disease, which has also been detected in Thai-land, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
Meanwhile, with markets generally rising, safe plays such as gold and the Japanese yen were weaker. The dollar was shuffl ing toward the highs reached
in December against other major cur-rencies.
“The call here is not that the virus is done or nipped in the bud by any means,” said Kay Van-Petersen, glo-bal macro strategist at Saxo Capital markets. “But there have been no big further reported outbreaks, and the response from the Chinese authorities has been very, very positive”.
The dollar index rose 0.07%, with the euro down 0.05% to $1.1077.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.04% versus the greenback at 109.94 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.3137, up 0.69% on the day.
Oil prices fell sharply as traders fi g-ured a well-supplied global market would be able to absorb disruptions that have cut Libya’s crude production.
US crude fell 2.33% to $57.02 per barrel and Brent was last at $63.29, down 2.01% on the day.
US 2-year, 10-year and 30-year yields hit two-week lows after the bank of Canada held interest rates steady and opened the door for possible easing.
“Going into this year, the belief was that global easing was over and things were looking better for the en-tire world,” said Jim Vogel, senior rates strategist at FHN Financial in Mem-phis.
“For Canada to sort of change its outlook fairly quickly opens up the possibility that easing could occur elsewhere too,” he added.
Benchmark 10-year notes were un-changed in price yielding 1.7691%, from 1.769% late on Tuesday.
Spot gold dropped 0.1% to $1,556.49 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.10% to $1,556.40 an ounce. Copper lost 0.88% to $6,105.50 a tonne.
Apple IncAmerican Express Co
Boeing Co/TheCaterpillar Inc
Cisco Systems IncChevron Corp
Walt Disney Co/TheDow Inc
Goldman Sachs Group IncHome Depot Inc
Intl Business Machines CorpIntel Corp
Johnson & JohnsonJpmorgan Chase & Co
Coca-Cola Co/TheMcdonald’s Corp
3M CoMerck & Co. Inc.
Microsoft CorpNike Inc -Cl B
Pfizer IncProcter & Gamble Co/The
Travelers Cos Inc/TheUnitedhealth Group Inc
United Technologies CorpVisa Inc-Class A Shares
Verizon Communications IncWalgreens Boots Alliance Inc
Walmart IncExxon Mobil Corp
318.42
131.86
309.29
143.85
49.46
113.10
143.85
51.29
247.31
235.53
144.32
62.07
147.93
136.69
57.44
212.32
178.59
90.08
167.09
105.15
40.17
126.28
140.95
299.81
154.12
209.52
60.59
53.94
116.19
67.28
0.58
1.02
-1.30
-1.37
1.34
-0.19
0.20
-2.49
0.66
1.11
3.70
2.51
-0.90
-0.11
0.47
0.55
-0.45
0.12
0.35
0.55
-0.42
0.15
0.03
-0.24
-0.23
1.08
0.45
0.13
0.52
-0.44
1,472,646
119,762
613,061
116,439
1,367,283
403,836
444,450
270,390
78,568
246,411
1,194,859
2,027,080
663,259
448,457
535,896
219,265
154,417
474,734
1,634,377
334,482
605,959
397,453
87,568
170,667
126,832
604,429
444,554
184,458
266,289
1,036,676
DJIA
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Anglo American PlcAssociated British Foods Plc
Admiral Group PlcAshtead Group Plc
Antofagasta PlcAuto Trader Group Plc
Aviva PlcAstrazeneca PlcBae Systems Plc
Barclays PlcBritish American Tobacco Plc
Barratt Developments PlcBhp Group Plc
Berkeley Group Holdings/TheBritish Land Co Plc
Bunzl PlcBp Plc
Burberry Group PlcBt Group Plc
Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-DiCarnival PlcCentrica Plc
Compass Group PlcCroda International Plc
Crh PlcDcc Plc
Diageo PlcDirect Line Insurance Group
Evraz PlcExperian Plc
Easyjet PlcFerguson Plc
Fresnillo PlcGlencore Plc
Glaxosmithkline PlcGvc Holdings Plc
Hikma Pharmaceuticals PlcHargreaves Lansdown Plc
Halma PlcHsbc Holdings Plc
Hiscox LtdIntl Consolidated Airline-Di
Intercontinental Hotels Grou3I Group Plc
Imperial Brands PlcInforma Plc
Intertek Group PlcItv Plc
Johnson Matthey PlcKingfisher Plc
Land Securities Group PlcLegal & General Group PlcLloyds Banking Group Plc
London Stock Exchange GroupMicro Focus International
Marks & Spencer Group PlcMondi Plc
Melrose Industries PlcWm Morrison Supermarkets
National Grid PlcNmc Health Plc
Next PlcOcado Group Plc
Paddy Power Betfair PlcPrudential Plc
Persimmon PlcPearson Plc
Reckitt Benckiser Group PlcRoyal Bank Of Scotland Group
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A ShsRoyal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs
Relx PlcRio Tinto Plc
Rightmove PlcRolls-Royce Holdings PlcRsa Insurance Group Plc
Rentokil Initial PlcSainsbury (J) Plc
Schroders PlcSage Group Plc/The
Segro PlcSmurfit Kappa Group Plc
Standard Life Aberdeen PlcDs Smith Plc
Smiths Group PlcScottish Mortgage Inv Tr Plc
Smith & Nephew PlcSpirax-Sarco Engineering Plc
Sse PlcStandard Chartered Plc
St James’s Place PlcSevern Trent Plc
Tesco PlcTui Ag-Di
Taylor Wimpey PlcUnilever Plc
United Utilities Group PlcVodafone Group Plc
John Wood Group PlcWpp Plc
Whitbread Plc
2,189.00
2,667.00
2,300.00
2,591.00
908.60
586.40
411.10
7,736.00
641.60
175.40
3,388.00
806.20
1,834.40
5,460.00
576.80
2,074.00
482.80
2,154.00
175.00
2,758.00
3,598.00
93.18
1,923.50
5,090.00
2,923.00
6,432.00
3,230.50
336.90
397.50
2,647.00
1,531.50
7,116.00
635.60
234.65
1,820.00
914.80
1,952.00
1,810.00
2,119.00
581.30
1,367.00
635.00
4,978.50
1,122.00
1,951.20
835.80
6,024.00
144.50
2,802.00
212.20
958.40
312.20
57.97
7,970.00
1,099.80
187.55
1,631.00
244.10
185.50
995.10
1,414.00
7,058.00
1,343.50
0.00
1,407.00
3,015.00
576.20
6,082.00
223.00
2,190.50
2,194.00
2,002.00
4,628.00
670.60
653.00
554.80
473.90
208.00
3,257.00
762.20
902.40
2,732.00
320.70
356.80
1,741.00
595.50
1,900.00
9,110.00
1,504.50
689.80
1,136.00
2,558.00
242.40
839.40
216.80
4,404.00
996.60
153.64
392.60
1,011.00
4,451.00
-0.50
0.11
0.22
1.53
-4.36
-0.88
0.42
-1.12
-0.53
0.57
-0.73
-0.07
1.00
5.28
-0.35
0.19
-1.54
-4.82
-2.00
-0.76
-1.02
0.82
-0.67
-0.20
-0.75
-0.46
-0.66
1.41
-1.12
1.38
0.96
0.17
-0.09
-1.41
-0.98
1.94
-0.91
0.78
-0.47
-0.73
2.01
-0.44
0.27
0.04
-1.70
1.06
1.55
0.10
-0.71
-0.52
-0.79
1.50
-0.91
3.40
-0.49
0.67
1.40
0.99
-0.99
0.79
-4.91
0.97
0.64
0.00
0.18
1.28
0.03
-0.51
-0.76
-0.66
-0.93
0.28
0.42
0.51
-1.66
0.95
0.70
-2.07
0.15
3.84
0.96
0.44
1.52
-0.34
0.37
-0.25
-0.03
-0.71
1.48
-0.17
1.43
-0.16
-0.90
-5.26
1.17
-0.20
0.00
-0.81
0.33
-0.64
0.50
1,122,771
477,563
213,485
1,126,043
1,027,584
1,612,177
3,645,805
484,072
1,859,735
19,854,811
7,317,215
1,765,728
5,428,862
325,617
910,055
317,439
16,868,324
1,077,276
16,586,091
192,041
244,792
7,372,065
979,843
97,617
1,389,521
68,101
3,261,869
1,234,107
1,627,353
848,743
852,895
338,190
175,632
12,667,547
3,782,247
1,938,964
131,574
312,786
453,561
13,031,721
434,780
3,529,082
142,909
486,779
1,350,194
604,369
104,231
3,125,340
282,756
1,598,105
869,181
8,744,457
73,717,192
289,223
338,757
2,148,668
1,052,714
5,481,673
5,771,984
2,354,229
516,711
165,290
381,376
-
2,078,695
1,255,842
1,453,188
372,413
7,674,702
3,225,062
2,727,113
1,331,089
1,342,000
601,158
1,609,822
671,931
1,177,833
5,577,446
74,021
3,142,058
1,429,683
84,756
2,279,281
2,103,400
469,210
1,126,412
524,397
46,736
1,706,501
1,126,464
727,041
286,574
4,229,982
2,407,045
6,676,170
1,387,405
642,237
20,302,359
867,184
1,717,677
197,758
FTSE 100
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Japan Airlines Co LtdRecruit Holdings Co Ltd
Softbank CorpKyocera Corp
Nissan Motor Co LtdT&D Holdings Inc
Toyota Motor CorpKddi Corp
Nitto Denko CorpHitachi Ltd
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co LtdJfe Holdings IncSumitomo Corp
Canon IncEisai Co Ltd
Nintendo Co LtdShin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd
Mitsubishi CorpSmc Corp
3,292.00
4,353.00
1,478.50
7,693.00
631.50
1,290.00
7,823.00
3,281.00
6,360.00
4,535.00
4,407.00
1,457.00
1,668.00
3,071.00
8,341.00
43,320.00
12,760.00
2,890.50
52,810.00
-0.33
3.96
0.92
0.50
-0.46
0.00
-0.39
0.55
0.63
-1.24
-0.32
-1.62
0.39
-0.26
1.07
0.49
2.78
-0.50
1.97
3,080,200
5,131,100
5,520,400
688,500
8,153,700
2,343,200
4,439,200
3,613,400
564,000
2,998,600
2,777,000
2,780,800
3,131,600
2,180,500
664,000
702,200
1,126,300
4,591,600
157,500
TOKYO
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Nidec CorpIsuzu Motors Ltd
Unicharm CorpNomura Holdings Inc
Daiichi Sankyo Co LtdSubaru Corp
Sumitomo Realty & DevelopmenNtt Docomo Inc
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co LtdOrix Corp
Asahi Group Holdings LtdKeyence Corp
Mizuho Financial Group IncSumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin
Japan Tobacco IncSumitomo Electric Industries
Daiwa Securities Group IncSoftbank Group Corp
Panasonic CorpFujitsu Ltd
Central Japan Railway CoNitori Holdings Co Ltd
Ajinomoto Co IncDaikin Industries Ltd
Mitsui Fudosan Co LtdOno Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
Toray Industries IncBridgestone Corp
Sony CorpAstellas Pharma Inc
Hoya CorpNippon Steel Corp
Suzuki Motor CorpNippon Telegraph & Telephone
Jxtg Holdings IncMurata Manufacturing Co Ltd
Kansai Electric Power Co IncDenso Corp
Sompo Holdings IncDaiwa House Industry Co Ltd
Dai-Ichi Life Holdings IncMazda Motor Corp
Komatsu LtdWest Japan Railway Co
Kao CorpMitsui & Co Ltd
Daito Trust Construct Co LtdOtsuka Holdings Co Ltd
Oriental Land Co LtdSekisui House Ltd
Secom Co LtdTokio Marine Holdings Inc
Aeon Co LtdAsahi Kasei Corp
Kirin Holdings Co LtdMarubeni Corp
Mitsubishi Ufj Financial GroMitsubishi Chemical Holdings
Fanuc CorpFast Retailing Co Ltd
Ms&Ad Insurance Group HoldinKubota Corp
Seven & I Holdings Co LtdInpex Corp
Resona Holdings IncFujifilm Holdings Corp
Yamato Holdings Co LtdChubu Electric Power Co Inc
Mitsubishi Estate Co LtdMitsubishi Heavy Industries
Sysmex CorpShiseido Co Ltd
Shionogi & Co LtdTerumo Corp
Tokyo Gas Co LtdTokyo Electron Ltd
East Japan Railway CoItochu Corp
Ana Holdings IncMitsubishi Electric Corp
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr
15,700.00
1,225.50
3,658.00
576.00
7,480.00
2,851.50
3,838.00
3,110.00
3,415.00
1,876.00
5,108.00
39,830.00
166.30
4,164.00
2,382.50
1,612.50
573.40
4,884.00
1,119.50
11,090.00
21,955.00
17,230.00
1,820.00
16,300.00
2,773.50
2,621.50
762.20
3,984.00
7,959.00
1,892.50
11,065.00
1,670.00
5,034.00
2,843.00
492.10
6,728.00
1,223.00
4,921.00
4,285.00
3,559.00
1,742.50
972.00
2,644.00
9,417.00
9,194.00
1,987.00
13,215.00
4,944.00
15,385.00
2,467.50
9,711.00
6,126.00
2,333.00
1,184.50
2,457.50
824.90
582.00
819.00
20,650.00
63,180.00
3,694.00
1,785.50
4,233.00
1,103.50
466.70
5,721.00
1,876.00
1,460.50
2,120.50
4,262.00
7,963.00
7,574.00
6,857.00
3,954.00
2,543.50
25,120.00
9,991.00
2,595.00
3,584.00
1,592.00
3,957.00
1.49
0.45
0.03
1.37
2.85
-0.31
0.42
0.81
-2.15
0.48
2.86
1.22
0.42
-0.26
-0.60
0.47
0.42
0.18
1.31
0.96
-0.16
1.56
1.20
2.29
0.82
0.69
0.65
-0.57
0.19
0.40
1.56
-1.30
-0.79
0.18
-0.34
0.55
-1.01
-1.64
0.92
1.66
0.43
-1.52
-0.09
-0.41
2.63
0.13
-0.11
0.47
-0.16
1.61
1.58
0.76
0.84
0.94
0.70
-0.35
-0.10
-0.40
0.05
-0.24
0.87
0.93
-0.07
-0.90
-0.30
0.33
-2.29
-0.58
0.62
-0.70
2.25
0.99
-3.14
0.41
-0.95
2.11
-0.09
0.23
0.20
1.27
0.18
TOKYO
Company Name Lt Price % Chg
Ck Hutchison Holdings LtdHang Lung Properties Ltd
Ck Infrastructure Holdings LHengan Intl Group Co Ltd
China Shenhua Energy Co-HCspc Pharmaceutical Group Lt
Hang Seng Bank LtdChina Resources Land Ltd
Ck Asset Holdings LtdSino Biopharmaceutical
Henderson Land DevelopmentAia Group Ltd
Ind & Comm Bk Of China-HWant Want China Holdings Ltd
Sun Hung Kai PropertiesNew World Development
Geely Automobile Holdings LtSwire Pacific Ltd - Cl A
Sands China LtdWharf Real Estate Investment
Clp Holdings LtdCountry Garden Holdings Co
Aac Technologies Holdings InShenzhou International GroupPing An Insurance Group Co-H
China Mengniu Dairy CoSunny Optical Tech
Boc Hong Kong Holdings LtdChina Life Insurance Co-H
Citic LtdGalaxy Entertainment Group L
Wh Group Ltd
74.55
18.16
56.70
60.30
15.18
19.48
167.80
35.60
54.25
12.12
37.60
83.00
5.70
7.03
118.50
10.74
14.10
73.35
41.95
45.95
82.50
11.28
64.55
114.70
96.05
32.25
144.60
27.85
21.35
9.89
57.60
8.22
0.47
-0.44
0.71
2.38
1.07
2.53
0.66
2.74
-0.46
1.51
0.00
1.41
1.24
3.23
-0.17
0.37
0.28
0.41
2.32
-0.22
0.73
-0.35
3.61
4.65
1.75
2.71
5.01
0.36
1.18
1.23
1.50
0.37
5,551,781
6,726,330
937,273
3,299,350
22,558,943
42,945,736
1,272,859
14,046,176
4,709,673
37,834,301
4,514,008
19,611,637
123,310,375
10,673,132
4,853,177
10,369,292
93,602,259
1,282,332
19,680,981
5,055,952
1,537,766
40,554,589
12,393,798
1,512,071
33,172,669
10,912,641
8,912,191
7,417,331
38,970,379
7,770,679
20,895,912
28,148,228
HONG KONG
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Hong Kong & China GasBank Of Communications Co-HChina Petroleum & Chemical-HHong Kong Exchanges & Clear
Bank Of China Ltd-HHsbc Holdings Plc
Power Assets Holdings LtdMtr Corp
China Overseas Land & InvestTencent Holdings Ltd
China Unicom Hong Kong LtdLink Reit
Sino Land CoChina Resources Power Holdin
Petrochina Co Ltd-HCnooc Ltd
China Construction Bank-HChina Mobile Ltd
15.70
5.35
4.57
275.00
3.25
59.30
57.85
47.15
28.25
391.00
7.14
82.70
11.32
11.40
3.82
13.34
6.51
69.40
0.38
0.75
0.00
1.18
0.93
0.25
1.05
1.07
1.44
1.45
0.56
-0.96
0.18
3.83
0.79
2.62
1.09
3.66
12,446,036
15,441,983
80,073,667
3,526,956
174,335,362
13,123,069
2,059,174
3,920,617
15,884,349
18,682,305
29,500,158
7,401,779
6,502,534
5,091,690
44,628,832
41,156,549
200,650,403
25,270,491
HONG KONG
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Adani Ports And Special EconAsian Paints Ltd
Axis Bank LtdBajaj Finance Ltd
Bharti Airtel LtdBharti Infratel Ltd
Bajaj Auto LtdBajaj Finserv Ltd
Bharat Petroleum Corp LtdCipla Ltd
Coal India LtdDr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Eicher Motors LtdGail India Ltd
Grasim Industries LtdHcl Technologies Ltd
Housing Development FinanceHdfc Bank Limited
Hero Motocorp LtdHindalco Industries Ltd
Hindustan Petroleum CorpHindustan Unilever Ltd
Icici Bank LtdIndiabulls Housing Finance L
Indusind Bank LtdInfosys Ltd
Indian Oil Corp LtdItc Ltd
Jsw Steel LtdKotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
Larsen & Toubro LtdMahindra & Mahindra Ltd
Maruti Suzuki India LtdNtpc Ltd
Oil & Natural Gas Corp LtdPower Grid Corp Of India Ltd
Reliance Industries LtdState Bank Of India
Sun Pharmaceutical IndusTata Steel Ltd
Tata Consultancy Svcs LtdTech Mahindra Ltd
Titan Co LtdTata Motors Ltd
Upl LtdUltratech Cement Ltd
Vedanta LtdWipro Ltd
Yes Bank LtdZee Entertainment Enterprise
383.60
1,779.25
712.60
4,142.20
514.50
241.00
3,076.40
9,547.50
455.45
471.60
191.90
3,062.05
21,100.00
125.90
792.90
590.65
2,416.60
1,240.85
2,399.05
203.60
245.15
2,051.70
522.85
296.30
1,327.40
770.20
113.65
238.05
265.85
1,585.50
1,294.20
553.60
7,135.60
112.15
116.40
200.05
1,533.35
316.15
446.30
475.05
2,206.90
778.75
1,177.65
185.60
562.95
4,476.95
153.20
245.85
38.45
300.35
0.96
-1.74
-0.70
0.09
0.54
0.21
-0.67
0.14
-1.81
-0.38
-5.07
0.05
0.21
-0.67
2.75
1.13
-1.98
-0.28
0.01
-0.76
-1.72
-0.18
-1.54
-1.61
-0.67
1.01
-1.00
-0.17
-0.52
-2.44
-0.63
0.14
-2.29
-4.27
-5.17
-0.27
-0.04
0.78
-0.25
-0.23
1.65
-0.02
0.12
-3.03
-2.55
-0.15
-0.45
-0.51
0.26
5.72
SENSEX
Company Name Lt Price % Chg
WORLD INDICESIndices Lt Price Change
GCC INDICESIndices Lt Price Change
Dow Jones Indus. AvgS&P 500 Index
Nasdaq Composite IndexS&P/Tsx Composite Index
Mexico Bolsa IndexBrazil Bovespa Stock Idx
Ftse 100 IndexCac 40 Index
Dax IndexIbex 35 Tr
Nikkei 225Japan Topix
Hang Seng IndexAll Ordinaries Indx
Nzx All IndexBse Sensex 30 Index
Nse S&P Cnx Nifty IndexStraits Times Index
Karachi All Share IndexJakarta Composite Index
29,253.29
3,337.52
9,422.10
17,665.53
45,834.69
117,878.50
7,585.18
6,032.45
13,553.44
9,584.20
24,031.35
1,744.13
28,341.04
7,249.04
1,988.03
41,115.38
12,106.90
3,253.93
29,561.63
6,233.45
+57.25
+16.73
+51.29
+93.25
+197.37
+852.50
-25.52
-13.54
-2.43
-27.10
+166.79
+9.16
+355.71
+68.50
+13.17
-208.43
-62.95
+6.76
-174.32
-4.70
Doha Securities Market
Kuwait Stocks Exchange
Oman Stock Market
10,680.64
4,902.54
4,056.42
-13.72
-10.51
-3.55
“Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended as an off er or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on this data.”
976,600
2,365,600
2,037,000
11,217,800
1,674,900
2,997,300
725,500
3,175,500
1,408,300
4,806,400
2,014,500
420,500
46,103,600
634,600
4,531,400
1,554,800
4,439,200
7,155,400
6,961,100
462,700
188,700
268,300
1,074,000
1,000,200
2,017,900
1,038,700
3,211,700
1,925,600
5,092,900
4,150,500
901,600
3,332,300
1,623,300
3,062,500
11,785,900
2,616,600
2,583,900
2,625,600
637,500
1,167,200
2,932,800
4,100,500
2,091,500
308,400
1,388,200
2,828,500
210,500
809,800
453,100
2,720,700
547,200
1,171,100
1,594,400
2,018,000
2,098,700
4,214,000
33,064,100
3,758,900
482,200
503,400
1,073,300
2,825,600
1,306,100
3,389,200
7,385,000
1,013,300
2,094,000
1,949,400
2,058,800
801,600
407,500
3,956,100
1,954,200
1,300,600
1,537,200
1,053,900
565,400
3,359,100
1,000,800
4,780,200
2,786,600
1,817,459
3,415,306
13,321,307
797,901
19,911,947
9,193,629
269,339
139,525
3,730,432
2,380,518
19,096,395
559,798
78,681
5,781,553
3,081,732
4,402,650
3,356,004
9,184,155
346,888
6,268,889
2,680,161
983,169
17,527,408
12,620,677
3,038,713
9,733,935
71,728,557
7,654,918
3,334,351
5,479,162
2,449,753
1,862,669
1,048,435
19,388,739
23,639,592
31,942,726
4,719,245
24,994,911
3,412,716
7,662,171
1,773,686
1,192,201
902,471
32,952,072
7,453,773
359,444
15,503,961
3,400,424
62,400,795
52,316,203
Volume
Volume
A trader works at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The DAX 30 was down 0.3% to 13,515.75 points yesterday.
BUSINESS7Gulf Times
Thursday, January 23, 2020
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Thursday, January 23, 202010
Trump threatens big tariff s on car imports from EUReutersDavos, Switzerland
US President Donald Trump yes-terday threatened to impose high tariff s on imports of cars
from the European Union if the bloc doesn’t agree to a trade deal.
Trump has previously made threats to place duties on European auto-mobile imports, with the intent of receiving better terms in the US-Eu-rope trade relationship. Trump has delayed imposing the tariffs a number of times.
“I met with the new head of the European Commission, who’s ter-rific. And I had a great talk. But I said, ‘look, if we don’t get something, I’m going to have to take action’ and the action will be very high tariffs on their cars and on other things that come into our country,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Former German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker at the end of 2019 as the EU’s top offi cial, becoming the fi rst woman to hold the post.
Mike Manley, the head of European car industry lobby group ACEA, said businesses need certainty and hoped that a clash with Trump could be avoided.
“If you look at President Trump’s track record I think he is incredibly se-
rious. If the parties involved approach those discussions in a serious manner it
will be possible for an amicable conclu-sion to be reached,” Manley, who is the
chief executive of Fiat Chrysler, told an industry event in Brussels. “An escala-
tion of the tariff s is not to the benefi t of anyone,” he added.
The United States has also threatened duties of up to 100% on French goods, from champagne to handbags, because of a digital services tax that Washington says harms US tech companies.
Trump told CNBC that the European Union had to make a deal on trade.”They have no choice,” Trump said.
In a separate interview in Davos with Fox Business News, Trump said the tar-iff s on EU cars could amount to 25%.
“Ultimately it will be very easy be-cause if we can’t make a deal, we’ll have to put 25% tariff s on their cars,” Trump told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview.
The United States struck a Phase 1 trade deal with China in January, soothing some of the worries which have hampered the world economy in recent time.
Asked if a trade pact with Britain could come next, Trump told CNBC he was ready to make a deal with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Boris and I are friends, and he wants to make a deal, and that’s ok with me,” he said.
Britain is due to leave the EU at the end of January, the Johnson has stated that one of the main advantages of be-ing outside the bloc would be the abil-ity for Britain to negotiate its own trade deals, including with the United States.
“We’re starting.We’ve already started negotiating”
with Britain, Trump said.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, delivers a speech during a special address on day two of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos yesterday. She succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker at the end of 2019 as the EU’s top off icial, becoming the first woman to hold the post.
Citigroup CEO says many branch jobs are still safe from machines
BloombergNew York
Citigroup Inc spends about
$8.5bn a year on technology,
but the bank’s boss says that
doesn’t mean branch workers
will all be replaced by machines
anytime soon.
Modernising the bank’s app
and digital-banking experi-
ence won’t necessarily result in
Citigroup needing fewer people
in its retail bank, chief executive
off icer Michael Corbat said in a
Bloomberg Television interview
at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.
Instead, it will mean “being
smarter” about how those em-
ployees are used, he said.
Corbat, who said the pace of
change is happening slower
than most people think, said one
goal is for Citigroup’s mobile
application to look and feel more
like popular ride-sharing or retail
apps. Those eff orts don’t mean
abandoning the branch model
because many consumers still
want both experiences, he said.
Digital banking needs to resem-
ble the best ride-hailing or retail
apps, Corbat said during a panel
discussion in Davos. “We have a
large cohort of people that want
their ‘I want it now’ mentality in
terms of their digital banking on
their app, and they want to come
in our branch and they want to
speak to people,” Corbat said.
The biggest US banks have
been consolidating their branch
presence — a move that can
sometimes result in job cuts. US
Bancorp, the country’s largest
regional lender, last year cut 2%
of its workforce as part of its
eff orts to reduce branch jobs.
Citigroup has long had a smaller
branch presence than many
of its larger rivals. But the
company has said it’s open to
having a larger physical pres-
ence in the US.
Why digital taxes are the new trade war flashpointBy William Horobin and Aoife WhiteParis
Big Internet companies have long been the target of complaints
that they don’t pay enough in taxes. Fed up, France imposed a 3%
levy on the digital revenue of companies that make their sales
primarily in cyberspace, such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s
Google. Other countries also are targeting companies, many of
which are American, that have multinational earnings that often
escape the taxman’s grip. The US isn’t taking this sitting down.
1. How does a digital tax work?
The French law imposes the 3% levy on companies with at least
€750mn ($845mn) in global revenue and digital sales of €25mn in
France. Of about 30 businesses aff ected, most are American, but
the list also includes Chinese, German, British and even French
firms. The idea is to focus taxation where users of online services
are located, rather than on where companies base their European
headquarters or book their earnings. Targeting revenue rather
than profit gets around techniques many companies use to shift
their earnings to lower-tax jurisdictions.
2. Who else is imposing a digital tax?
Italy enacted a tax similar to France’s; it took eff ect on Janu-
ary 1. Turkey’s government has proposed a digital tax of 7.5%.
Legislation proposed in the UK last July would impose a 2% levy
on the revenues of search engines, social media platforms and
online marketplaces that “derive value from UK users.” Austria,
Spain and Belgium are also considering digital levies. Plans being
floated would generally emulate the French model by taxing sales
of electronic data, online advertising and the services of interme-
diaries such as Uber Technologies Inc and Airbnb Inc that connect
users to products.
3. How is the US fi ghting back?
The US government, saying France’s tax discriminates against
American companies, proposed tariff s on roughly $2.4bn
in French products and says it’s exploring whether to open
investigations into the digital taxes proposed in Austria, Italy
and Turkey. The US is relying on Section 301 of the US Trade Act
of 1974 — the same tool President Donald Trump used to impose
tariff s on Chinese goods due to alleged theft of intellectual
property. France says the European Union will retaliate against
any US sanctions.
4. Could this be amicably resolved?
France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said on January 7 that
he and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had resolved “to
try to find a compromise.” France had said it would drop its tax if
the US and others agree to a global eff ort for a uniform approach
under the stewardship of the Paris-based Organisation for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Development. Long before adopting its
digital tax, France had pushed for a European Union-wide digital
levy that was scrapped when four countries — Sweden, Finland,
Denmark and Ireland — declined to sign off on it. Resolving the
dispute without escalating trade tensions is a goal of Phil Hogan,
the EU’s new trade commissioner.
5. What’s the case for a digital tax?
Because they’re often domiciled in other countries — including
low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland or Bermuda — and shift
money seamlessly across borders, companies that sell online can
easily avoid paying taxes in countries where they nevertheless
make significant sales. More fundamentally, France argues that
the structure of the global economy has shifted to one based
on data, rendering 20th century tax systems archaic. Accord-
ing to 2018 figures from the European Commission, global tech
companies pay a 9.5% average tax rate compared with 23.2% for
traditional firms.
6. Why tax revenue instead of profi t?
The short answer is that it’s simpler to tax revenue. Taxing prof-
its requires establishing where earnings actually accrue, which
is hard enough for any global company but even more so in the
digital sector; you might book a taxi in London, for instance, but
your payment could be settled in Amsterdam. Politicians also ar-
gue that taxing revenue may be the best way to squeeze money
out of companies like Amazon.com Inc that report large sales
but paltry earnings. Still, it’s not straightforward to work out
which revenue is linked to a specific country. To do that, French
tax collectors propose to tax internet companies proportionally
to their “digital presence” in the country relative to the rest of
the world.
7. How did this become an issue?
Transatlantic tax wars aren’t new. Apple Inc was slapped with a
13bn-euro bill for back taxes by the European Commission three
years ago, which Chief Executive Off icer Tim Cook called “political
crap.” The US Treasury tried and failed to sway the EU’s Apple
investigation, which alleged that the company got an illegal
subsidy in Ireland due to rules there governing the transfer of
sales booked elsewhere in Europe. The Commission has also
probed Google’s Irish tax arrangements and ordered Amazon to
pay €250mn in back taxes to Luxembourg. Other US companies,
including non-technology firms such as Starbucks Corp and Nike
Inc, have also been targeted in tax probes. The EU insists that the
common thread isn’t that they’re American but that they’ve used
complex legal structures and intellectual property licensing to
limit their tax payments.
8. How are tech fi rms responding?
Tax is only part of a bigger EU backlash against big tech. Internet
firms have been put on notice over issues ranging from privacy
to market dominance — and they’re fighting back with lobby-
ing and court cases. Google won a legal fight against a $1.2bn
French tax bill in April. Apple and Amazon are contesting their
respective European tax decisions in EU courts, and a legal vic-
tory could halt that part of the bloc’s crusade. Some companies
may be changing their tax structures or moving income outside
of the EU to stay ahead of the curve, as some European lawmak-
ers alleged about Apple.
Bloomberg QuickTake Q&A
ECB hits fifth anniversary of QE, still puzzled by inflation gapBloombergFrankfurt
Five years to the day since the European
Central Bank announced massive cash
injections to stave off deflation, President
Christine Lagarde wants to know why price
growth is still so lacklustre.
Economist Milton Friedman’s decades-old
dictum that inflation is “always and every-
where a monetary phenomenon” — imply-
ing that prices will rise if you create enough
money — is under strain. The ECB has failed
to sustainably hit its goal, much of the
rest of Europe has similarly struggled, and
Japanese prices have been in the doldrums
for a generation.
While the US Federal Reserve has fared a
little better, with fiscal help, policy makers
there are scratching their heads in a strate-
gic review. Now Lagarde intends to agree
on the ECB’s own wider anging review
at a two-day policy meeting that started
yesterday, half a decade after her predeces-
sor, Mario Draghi, announced quantitative
easing as the ultimate tool for restoring
price stability.
Policy makers want a convincing explana-
tion for why it hasn’t turned out that way,
and how they can respond. At least they
don’t have to start from scratch. Research-
ers have off ered multiple explanations
including globalisation, digitalisation and
the demise of trade unions.
Weaker Workers
Perhaps the biggest quandary is why tight
labour markets haven’t generated wage
increases big enough to push up consumer
prices. The US and UK have the lowest
unemployment in decades.
One argument in the eurozone, where
joblessness is the lowest since 2008, is that
the European Union’s eastern expansion led
to an influx of cheaper workers. The threat
that companies might move factories also
restrained pay, especially in Germany, ac-
cording to a 2017 paper by Christian Oden-
dahl of the Center for European Reform.
The decline in organised wage bargaining
may also have a role. The share of French
workers that are members of a trade
union is down to 9% from 23% in 1975. In
Germany, it fell to 17% from 35%. That trend
has aff ected “real disposable incomes,
consumption growth and, ultimately, infla-
tion,” ECB Executive Board member Benoit
Coeure said in his final speech before his
term ended last month.
“Those looking for the causes of low infla-
tion in the euro area would do well to start
with Germany. There, slow price gains are
nothing new – core inflation has averaged
just 1.1% since 2000. In part, that reflects an
agreement between employers and work-
ers that secured jobs in exchange for pay
restraint. It’s hard to see inflation picking up
sustainably until that dynamic sees radical
change,” said Jamie Rush, Bloomberg
economist.
Even in nations where wages are picking
up, the eff ect on inflation has been muted,
casting doubt over the relationship be-
tween prices and economic slack known as
the Phillips curve. ECB research has sought
to prove the curve still holds, even if it’s
flatter than it used to be. Perhaps key is a
study in July showing inflation expectations
to be the most important determinant of
underlying price growth.
AXA economist Gilles Moec says the
implication is that “core inflation today is
influenced by past episodes of very low
or very high headline inflation.” For price
growth to really kick in, the ECB needs
plenty of patience and the willingness to let
inflation to run above its target.
Still, a Bundesbank paper last month sug-
gested it’s not so simple — perceptions
about living costs also diff er depending on
factors such as earnings, education and
job type.
Globalisation is frequently blamed for de-
pressing wages and inflation, as companies
move production and services to cheaper
locations, such as laptop assembly in China
or call centres in India. Former Bank of Eng-
land policy maker Kristin Forbes concluded
in a paper last year that economic models
need to do a better job of including global
factors.
Technology, such as ride-sharing app Uber,
may also be a factor, aiding the rise of
the gig economy with its low job security.
The “Amazon eff ect” has intensified retail
competition, forcing companies to compete
globally while central banks operate within
their currency area. ECB board member
Yves Mersch has described how technology
makes it diff icult to get an accurate reading
on inflation, as companies like Google off er
services for free while extracting profits
from advertising.
A working paper by the Irish central bank
last year found a correlation between the
euro area’s current-account surpluses after
2011 and low inflation, a link acknowledged
by ECB chief economist Philip Lane.
That may signal European manufacturers
are too reliant on foreign demand. While
the services sector is growing faster than
manufacturing, even that trend brings an-
other problem. Coeure said services prices
are considerably “stickier” because they
have a high wage component, increasing
the lag between monetary policy and price
changes.
Finally, it’s possible inflation hasn’t gone
missing but is simply being overlooked. The
gauge used by the ECB only gives housing
costs a weight of 6.5%, well below what
most people pay.
Oil chiefs at Davos debate tougher CO2 cuts as pressure mountsBloombergDavos
The bosses of some of the world’s biggest oil companies discussed adopting much more ambitious carbon targets at a closed-door meeting in Davos on Wednesday, a sign of how much pressure they’re under from activists and investors to address climate change.The meeting, part of the World Economic Forum program, included a debate on widening
the industry’s target to include reductions in emissions from the fuels they sell, not just the greenhouse gases produced by their own operations, said people familiar with the matter.The talks between the chief executive off icers of companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp, Total SA, Saudi Aramco and BP Plcshowed broad agreement on the need to move toward this broader definition, known as Scope 3, the people said, asking not to be named because the session was closed to the press. The executives didn’t take any final decisions.
Media representatives for Shell, Chevron, Total, Aramco and BP weren’t immediately able to respond to requests for comment.Targeting Scope 3 emissions would be a big shift for an industry that accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gases. Several companies have already pledged reductions in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gases, which come directly from pumping and refining hydrocarbons. Yet these account for less than 10% of total emissions from the life cycle of oil and gas.Among major energy groups, only Shell, Total
and Repsol SA have publicly announced that they are either targeting or monitoring Scope 3 emissions. BP CEO Bob Dudley, who retires later this year, has previously opposed such a target.The executives debated a document produced by the World Economic Forum on “neutralising emissions at the pump,” a reference to the gasoline and diesel sold to customers. There’s an urgent need to shift the industry’s target from oil production to emissions from end users, said one person.
BUSINESS11Gulf Times
Thursday, January 23, 2020
QSE witnesses strong buying interests from foreign fundsBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday witnessed strong buying interests from foreign funds; yet its key barometer declined about 14 points.The industrials, consumer goods, real estate and insurance counters experienced higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.13% lower at 10,680.64 points, amidst weakened trading activities.The Gulf funds were seen bearish and there was also increased net selling from the Gulf individuals on the market, which is however up 2.45% year-to-date. Market capitalisation saw QR56mn or 0.09% decline to QR593.76bn mainly owing to microcap segments.Islamic stocks were seen declining faster than
the other indices on the bourse, where local retail investors continued to be net sellers but with lesser intensity.Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where banking and realty sectors together accounted for more than 66% of the total volume.The Total Return Index shed 0.13% to 19,653.28 points, All Share Index by 0.06% to 3,169.82 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.21% to 2,354.95 points.The industrials index declined 0.71%, consumer goods (0.52%), real estate (0.22%) and insurance (0.18%); while banks and financial services gained 0.23%, telecom (0.09%) and transport (0.06%).More than 53% of the traded constituents were in the red with major losers being Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and
Water, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Doha Insurance, Doha Bank and Alijarah Holding; even as Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar First Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance were among the gainers.The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking expanded considerably to QR6.96mn compared to QR0.44mn on January 21.The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR4.17mn against net buyers of QR0.41mn the previous day.Domestic institutions’ net buying declined significantly to QR12.2mn compared to QR55.18mn on Tuesday.However, non-Qatari funds were net buyers to the extent of QR31.15mn against net sellers of QR8.97mn on January 21.
Local retail investors’ net selling weakened substantially to QR29.25mn compared to QR42.86mn the previous day.Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking shrank marginally to QR2.12mn against QR3.33mn on Tuesday.Total trade volumes fell 39% to 86.2mn shares, value by 12% to QR241.13mnm and transactions by 13% to 4,221.The banks and financial services sector saw 53% plunge in trade volume to 34.79mn equities, 14% in value to QR153.58mn and 23% in deals to 1,676.The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 46% to 22.13mn stocks, value by 40% to QR21.71mn and transactions by 25% to 612.The consumer goods sector reported 15% shrinkage in trade volume to 6.34mn shares
but on 72% increase in value to QR22.81mn and 57% in deals to 628.However, the insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.93mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR1.83mn and doubled transactions to 108.There was 39% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 14.29mn stocks, 41% in value to QR23.87mn and 1% in deals to 745.The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded 9% to 3.82mn shares, whereas value tanked 50% to QR6.7mn and transactions by 51% to 259.The transport sector witnessed 6% jump in trade volume to 3.9mn equities but on 14% contraction in value to QR10.64mn despite 36% higher deals at 193.In the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
Institute of Internal Auditors hold workshop on ‘systems thinking’The Institute of the Internal Auditors (IIA), Doha Chapter, conducted a workshop on “Systems thinking: The power of data-driven organisation” at Hotel Oryx Rotana Doha recently. Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system’s constituent parts interrelate and how systems work overtime and within the context of larger systems. Dr Hisham Abu-Naba’a, executive director (Operations) at Sidra Medicine, made the presentation. He is an expert in information technology system integration, performance benchmarking and data management.Dr Abu-Naba’a began his talk by explaining concepts of general systems theory related to analytical thinking, initiative thinking, systems thinking and design thinking. Systems today are exponentially increasing in complexity, and data-driven technologies are converging to transform and disrupt industries. He explained the diff erence between traditional thinking vs systems thinking, the Process of Decision Making, Business Analytics Models and Roadmap for Intelligent Decision Support Systems (DSS). “Data analytics is as an emerging tool for compliance and legal risk management to generate the insights
and metrics needed to address fraud and compliance-related challenges. The optimised digital maturity level is “Cognitive” where the leadership of a
company is passionate for analytically driven decision making. Dr Hisham dwelled deep into his own research related theory that explores
the Organisational digital maturity levels where data is used as an information, descriptive use, diagnostic use, predictive use, prescriptive use and
cognitive use These maturity levels are the roadmap for intelligent decision support systems.Internal auditors have to keep pace
with the complex world of data analysis. Linear/Nonlinear Programing, Decision theory/decision modelling, Sensitivity Analysis, Simulation etc. are now commonly used by the large companies in the world and Internal Auditors have to audit the results of these analyses. Sundaresan Rajeswar, IIA Qatar Board member, in his opening address, highlighted “Five Internal Audit Resolutions for 2020 and Beyond” based on a blog by Richard Chambers, President of the IIA. The resolutions included speaking candidly with the Board about the organisations true capacity to manage risks, assessing the organisations sustainability risk, enhancing the method of communication with stakeholders on how Internal Audit has added value to the organisation, improving use of robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) in Internal Audit assignments and finally highlighting and assessing risks related to data ethics.Fahad Hussien al-Marri, senior vice president, IIA Qatar, requested members to ensure attendance to all knowledge-sharing events. Board members Christain Adonis, Kurien, Muralikrishna, Girish Jain and Felix, attended the event besides more than 70 members.
Senior off icials who attended the workshop on ‘Systems thinking: The power of data-driven organisation’ at Hotel Oryx Rotana Doha recently.
IPOs in Arab region could see ‘healthy’ activity this year, says Kamco reportBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter
Initial public off erings (IPOs)
in the Arab region could see
“healthy” activity this year as
more corporates and state firms
are set to make their debut on
the respective markets, accord-
ing to Kamco.
“The (region’s) IPO markets in
2020 could see healthy activity,
given that corporates who were
waiting for state-owned enter-
prises to provide leadership in
primary equity markets, could
enter the market,” it said in its
latest report.
However, the secondary equity
markets would continue to be a
key for valuation, along with sta-
ble geopolitics in the backdrop
of the impending US elections
and a resolution to Brexit.
The region’s IPO market
witnessed a landmark year in
2019, despite a lower number of
primary market issuances year-
on-year from 2018. Total number
of corporate IPOs in the region
declined to nine issuances in
2019 from 17 issuances and 28
issuances witnessed in 2018 and
2017, respectively.
In 2019, Qatar witnessed the
IPO of its dairy farm major
Baladna, which raised as much
as QR1.43bn through its 75%
off er, of which as much as 52%
was off ered to local retail and
corporate houses and 23% to the
existing institutional stakehold-
ers as Qatar General Retirement
Authority, Al Meera, Mwani
Qatar and Hassad Food.
On the international front, the
IPOs were down year-on-year,
despite secondary markets
witnessing gains in 2019, as the
primary equity markets were
aff ected by US-China trade
issues, geopolitical issues such
as Brexit and the social issues in
Hong Kong.
The global IPO volumes report-
edly declined 19% year-on-year
from 2018 to reach 1,115 IPOs in
2019, while IPO proceeds fell by
4% year-on-year from 2018, as
$198bn was raised in 2018, as
per the estimates of Ernst and
Young.
“The IPO proceeds should
have crossed $201bn in our
view. The median deal size of
main market IPOs according
to EY; reportedly rose by 13%
year-on-year to $76mn in 2019,
ascribed to a higher number
of mega IPOs,” the Kamco
research note said.
Asia Pacific continues to lead the
IPO activity globally; account-
ing for close to 60% of deal
numbers and over 45% of the
proceeds, based on the EY statis-
tics. However, on a year-on-year
basis, the number of deals fell
marginally by 1% and proceeds
were down by 8% over the same
period.
QIMC is Diamond Sponsor for ‘Made in Qatar 2020’ in KuwaitQatar Industrial Manufacturing Com-
pany (QIMC) is supporting the ‘Made in Qatar 2020’ exhibition as Diamond
Sponsor.Qatar Chamber director general Saleh
bin Hamad al-Sharqi and QIMC CEO Ab-dul Rahman Abdulla al-Ansari signed the sponsorship agreement in a ceremony held in Doha yesterday.
The expo, slated from February 19 to 22 at the Kuwait International Fair in Kuwait, will be organised by Qatar Chamber, in co-op-eration with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Qatar Development Bank as strategic partner, in co-ordination with the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The third edition of ‘Made in Qatar’ will be held outside Qatar and is expected to witness the participation of more than 220 compa-nies and factories from Qatar.
Al-Ansari said, “QIMC is very keen to support the exhibition whether held inside or outside the state. The expo has succeeded in promoting local products abroad, even as Kuwait is an important market for Qatari businessmen and manufacturers. The expo provides a signifi cant opportunity for par-ticipants to enhance their co-operation ties and forge new partnerships.”
Al-Sharqi lauded the role played by the company in developing the industry sector in the country. He noted that the company’s sponsorship emphasises its interest in sup-porting the national industry, especially since the expo has become an ideal platform that brings together Qatari businessmen and manufacturers with their counterparts from various countries.
He said Qatari and Kuwaiti private sectors “are very close,” and assured that the expo would open the way for exhibiting compa-nies to establish partnerships, transactions, and alliances with Kuwaiti companies.
The four-day expo aims at fostering co-operation and exchanging expertise between Qatari and Kuwaiti companies, in addition to informing the Kuwaiti business community on Qatar products, as well as opening new markets to Qatari companies in its various large and small industries.
Qatar Chamber director-general Saleh bin Hamad al-Sharqi and QIMC CEO Abdul Rahman Abdulla al-Ansari exchanging agreements after the signing ceremony held in Doha yesterday.
In 2019, Qatar witnessed the IPO of its dairy farm major Baladna, which raised as much as QR1.43bn through its 75% off er, of which as much as 52% was off ered to local retail and corporate houses and 23% to the existing institutional stakeholders.
Airline industry braces as China’s virus outbreak sparks fear globallyBy Pratap John
Fears that China’s latest coronavi-rus outbreak could disrupt travel industry, aviation in particular, are widespread, even as airlines gear up following the threat of a new corona-virus originating from Wuhan, China.No travel ban has been placed on travellers from or to China as yet, but authorities worldwide have raised an alert on the possible new coronavirus infection.Many countries have reminded their airlines operating to and from China that a universal protective kit be made available anytime onboard, and also screen passengers, particularly from Wuhan.If anybody is found ill, authorities concerned don’t let them board the plane. Travellers with additional symptoms such as fever, cough or diff iculty breathing will have an additional health assessment.Airlines have been advised to make in-flight announcements requesting passengers, in case they develop Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, with a history of fever and cough and history of travel to Wuhan City in last 14 days to self-declare at the port of arrival or to health authorities.Passengers in most Southeast Asian countries are now being asked about their health and checked for symptoms. People who show symptoms will undergo a secondary screening to determine whether they might have some other respiratory infection — a strong possibility during cold and flu season — or need to be
tested for the coronavirus.Many airlines have directed their cabin crew to follow the operational procedures recommended by International Air Transport Association (IATA) with regard to managing the suspected communicable disease onboard an aircraft.Travel is unusually heavy right now as people take trips to and from China to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Nations across the Asia-Pacific region have stepped up checks of passengers at airports to detect the Sars-like coronavirus, which first
emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.They have introduced screening measures to try to identify infected passengers and have stepped up screening of travellers arriving from China.Thermal imaging scanners used at airports can potentially detect if a person has fever, experts say.Fears of a bigger outbreak rose after a prominent expert from China’s National Health Commission confirmed recently that the virus can be passed between people.Authorities previously said there was no obvious evidence of person-to-person transmission and animals were suspected to be the source, as
a seafood market where live animals were sold in Wuhan was identified as the centre of the outbreak.Hundreds of millions of people are criss-crossing China this week in planes and in packed buses and trains to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Reports citing China’s National Health Commission (NHC) say almost 80 new cases have been confirmed; bringing the total number of people hit by the virus in China to 291, with the vast majority in Hubei, the province where Wuhan lies.Other cases have also been confirmed in Beijing and Shanghai
plus Guangdong, Zhejiang and Henan provinces.Most people with the infection are believed to have contracted it through exposure to animals at a market that sells seafood and meat in Wuhan.Wuhan Tianhe international airport said that a temperature checkpoint would be installed at the entrance of its main terminal and all passengers would be checked. Those found to have fevers would be placed under quarantine.Authorities in Hong Kong have also stepped up detection measures, including temperature checkpoints for inbound travellers.Thailand has been monitoring incoming passengers at four airports
receiving daily flights from Wuhan, including Bangkok, Phuket, Don Mueang and Chiang Mai, since January 3. Two people have died in Thailand from the virus. One was detected at Bangkok airport by thermal surveillance equipment.Many other countries too have introduced mandatory health screening of passengers from China.Airport screenings are part of an eff ort to better detect and prevent the virus from the same family of bugs that caused an international outbreak of Sars and Mers that began in 2002 and 2012.The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that not enough is known about the novel coronavirus to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of the disease, or the extent to which it has spread.“The source also remains unknown,” it said while urging all countries to be prepared to tackle the spread of the virus. “WHO encourages all countries to continue preparedness activities on the novel coronavirus,” the global health body had tweeted.According to some medical professionals, Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from common cold to more severe ones lie the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars-CoV).
Pratap John is Business Editor at Gulf Times.
The Boeing crisis: Time to rebrand?
By Alex Macheras
In the latest of developments with Boe-
ing’s troubled single-aisle jet, Boeing has
now informed 737 MAX customers that
the grounded jet will not be approved to
return to service until mid-2020, at the
earliest.
The new expectations mean that Boeing
737 MAX will miss the busy summer
travel season for the second straight year,
adding to the compensation that the US
plane maker will have to pay airlines.
The grounding has already cost Boeing
more than $9bn, and the consequences
are starting to spread, with at least one
major supplier announcing layoff s.
Boeing and the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration have continued to find new
flaws with the MAX that go beyond an
automated software system known as
MCAS — the software responsible for two
accidents, in late 2018 and early 2019,
that killed 346 people and led to the
worldwide grounding of the jet last year.
Boeing tumbled 5.5% to $306.27 at
2:12pm in New York, before trading was
halted for pending news.
“Boeing need to drop the damaged 737
‘MAX’ brand to avoid it undermining the
aircraft value” said Air Lease boss this
week. The company is one of the largest
aircraft lessors in the world, and a 737
MAX customer with around 150 jets on
order. He’s not alone with his think-
ing that the ‘MAX’ brand ought to be
dropped from the aircraft.
Kenya Airways — a 737 MAX opera-
tor — CEO Sebastian Mikosz told media
“Renaming the Boeing 737 MAX will help
restore the public’s trust in the aircraft
when the global fleet is flying again”.
Qatar Airways Group — also a 737 MAX
customer, but not operator (Qatar’s
ordered 737 MAX jets were transferred
to Air Italy, which is 49% owned by
Qatar) — CEO HE Akbar al-Baker echoed
Mikosz’s thoughts, saying, “I think Boe-
ing will have to come up with something
to re-name this aeroplane”.
Even President Trump has previously
weighed in on the rebrand debate. “If I
were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737
MAX, add some additional great features,
& REBRAND the plane with a new name”,
tweeted Trump, following the second
deadly 737 MAX accident last year.
Public opinion on a 737 MAX rebrand is
wide-ranging. Recently, in a broadcast
on the topic of rebranding the 737 MAX
with Al Jazeera anchor Kamahl San-
tamaria, he told me, “If I got on a plane
called ‘737-greatest-plane-in-the-world’
but I knew it was still a 737 MAX, I’d still
feel concerned.” Many have since taken
to twitter to say that a rebrand would
do nothing to settle their concerns over
the aircraft — in fact, it may add diff iculty
in being able to know which aircraft is
a 737 MAX, for those that may choose
to avoid flying the jet upon its return to
commercial service.
For Boeing, rebranding the 737 MAX due
to bad publicity could still be somewhat
unprecedented. The Boeing 727 — still
in commercial service today, albeit only
with a small number of airlines — suff ered
four fatal crashes following its entry into
service in the mid-1960s. However, pas-
sengers continued to fly on 727 jets for
the decades that followed, and it remains
in service with the same name.
Derek Kerr, the CFO of American Air-
lines, promised passengers who didn’t
want to fly on a MAX could be rebooked
onto another aircraft. “Over time, I hope
that goes away and people understand
that this is a very safe and reliable
plane,” he said. “But we’ll have to deal
with some customers. There are some
customers that have no idea what plane
they’re on, there are some customers
that know exactly what plane they’re on
and what number plane it is. We’ll work
through that as well.”
It’s worth pointing that the ‘MAX’ phrase
is not referenced anywhere on off icial
documentation submitted to regulators,
which instead uses its numeric variant.
The name change, introduced in 2016,
was designed to diff erentiate a new
iteration of 737s from its predecessor,
the 737 Next Generation.
This week the chairman of Air Lease
added “Airlines are still trying to gauge
passengers’ reluctance to fly on the
MAX, and how long this will last?” Udvar-
Hazy said. “Will it be two months, will
it be six months, will it be diff erent in
diff erent parts of the world?”
“Will people in the US after a few months
forget about the accidents and think ‘oh,
it’s just another 737’, or are there going to
be parts of the world where people are
going to be more superstitious and it will
take longer for them to erase that stigma?”
The chief executive of another major
aircraft lessor, Firoz Tarapore of Dubai
Aerospace Enterprises (DAE), told the
same conference he was worried he
had not seen Boeing “addressing in a
proactive way” the issue of customer
confidence in the aircraft.
Prolonged grounding could result in
$32bn crisis costs composed of missed
airline profits and missed production
profits for Boeing. As we head towards
the end of the first of twelve months of
2020, the Boeing crisis continues – with-
out light at the end of the tunnel, for now.
The author is an aviation analyst.
Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
AVIATIONBUSINESS
Gulf Times Thursday, January 23, 202012
Travellers wearing face masks walk through the arrival hall at the Hong Kong International Airport on Wednesday. No travel ban has been placed on travellers from or to China as yet, but authorities worldwide have raised an alert on the possible new coronavirus infection.
Beyond the Tarmacac
Air France-KLM denies it aimsto buy stake inMalaysia Airlines
South African Airways should be saved, says ruling ANC
Bombardier said to explore combining rail unit with Alstom
BloombergHong Kong
Air France-KLM said it isn’t participating in the sale of Malay-
sia Airlines, eff ectively denying a report that it is seeking to
buy as much as 49% of the Asian flag carrier.
“Air France-KLM had previously been in contact with Malaysia
Airlines’ shareholders but at this stage Air France-KLM is not
a current party to the sales process of Malaysia Airlines,” the
French company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Paris-based carrier is studying opportunities to be an “ac-
tive yet pragmatic” player in industry consolidation, it added.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed’s government
is considering a handful of suitors for the airline. In addi-
tion to Air France-KLM, Reuters reported earlier that Japan
Airlines Co is looking at a 25% stake. While Air France-KLM
proposed establishing a maintenance, repair and overhaul
services hub in Malaysia, Japan Airlines off ered to make the
country its regional hub for Southeast Asia, the report said.
Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd. and Malindo Airways Sdn., a
unit of PT Lion Mentari Airlines, also submitted proposals.
Spokespeople for Japan Airlines and AirAsia weren’t im-
mediately able to comment. A representative for Lion wasn’t
immediately reachable.
Mahathir said at a media briefing in Langkawi on Monday that
the government had received about five proposals to turn
around the airline, but that a few of them were “just no go.”
Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. took Malaysia
Airlines private in late 2014 by buying the remaining 30.6% of
its outstanding stock for 1.38bn ringgit ($340mn) as part of a
6bn ringgit pledge to return it to profitability.
The fund said on Tuesday it is working with the government
and Malaysia Airlines to find a solution. “While there have
been several proposals in this regard, a review of the options
available to us is still ongoing,” it said in a statement.
Last October, Japan Airlines rejected a report in The Edge
newspaper that said it was planning to take a stake in Ma-
laysia Airlines, saying it was instead waiting for approval to
begin a tie-up with the company.
ReutersJohannesburg
Heavily-indebted South African Airways (SAA) should be retained as a national airline but needs substantial restructuring, a top off icial in the governing African National Congress (ANC) party said yesterday.SAA is running out of cash after the government failed to provide 2bn rand ($138mn) of emergency funding it promised when the airline entered a form of bankruptcy protection last month.Government off icials say they still want to give SAA the promised funds, but Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is insisting the transfer be done in a way that avoids increasing the country’s budget deficit.Time is running out for potential options that include the sale of state assets.
“SAA should be retained as a national airline, which will require substantial restructuring. The Cabinet should take the operational decisions needed to achieve this,” ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule told reporters.
Magashule, one of the ANC’s top six off icials, was among those who attended a four-day meeting of ANC leaders to debate the economy and struggling state firms that ended on Monday.SAA is among several South African state entities, including power company Eskom, that are mired in financial crisis after nearly a decade of mismanagement.State companies’ financial problems are seen as one of the biggest threats to Africa’s most industrialised economy and have helped to push the country’s credit rating to the brink of junk status.On Tuesday, SAA said it had cancelled more than 20 domestic flights between its Johannesburg hub and Cape Town and Durban this week, and 10 international flights to and from Munich, to save dwindling cash reserves.The airline has not made a profit since 2011 and has received more than 20bn
rand in bailouts over the last three years.Last year the government’s patience ran out.Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan allowed SAA to enter “business rescue,” a bankruptcy protection process that shields the airline from creditors’ demands while an independent adviser takes over.Since then, SAA has burned through 2bn rand of funds from lenders.Finance Minister Mboweni told state broadcaster SABC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos that off icials from his ministry were “working feverishly” to secure the extra 2bn rand SAA urgently needs.“It’s very important that happens in a fiscally-neutral way because we don’t have an appropriations bill that can find an additional 2bn rand,” he said. “We will try to support SAA as much as we can.”
BloombergLondon
Bombardier Inc, the embattled Canadian train and plane maker, is exploring a combination of its rail business with French rival Alstom SA, according to people familiar with the matter.The two companies have held preliminary talks about a rail deal in the past few months, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Representatives for Alstom and Bombardier declined to comment.Alstom rose as much as 2.1% in early trading in Paris on Wednesday. The latest considerations between Bombardier and Alstom could face antitrust scrutiny, and there’s no certainty
they will lead to a transaction, the people said. A rail deal is among several options the Canadian company is exploring to stabilise its portfolio, which also includes business jets, they said.The deliberations started before Bombardier shocked the market last week by warning of disappointing fourth-quarter sales, according to the people. Bombardier also said at the time that it may exit a joint venture with Airbus SE that makes the A220 jetliner and potentially take a major write-down. Bombardier shares dropped as much as 39% on the news, a record decline.A takeover of Bombardier’s rail business by Alstom would mark the latest attempt by some of the world’s biggest train makers to counter growing competition from China. Bombardier in 2017 held
talks to combine its rail operations with competitor Siemens AG until the German company suddenly opted to pursue a deal with Alstom.The European Union then in February 2019 blocked the Franco-German merger, which would have created a European rail champion, after regulators refused to cave in to warnings about the looming threat of Chinese competition. Alstom is unlikely to pursue a merger with Bombardier due to antitrust considerations, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.“Revenue is similar and a merger would create a significant concentration of sales in the European rolling-stock sector, akin to the recently rejected Alstom-Siemens Mobility deal,” said Mustafa Okur, European Industrials analyst.While historically best known as a
manufacturer of metro, commuter and regional trains, Bombardier has collaborated in high-speed projects including Alstom’s high-speed TGV. The Canadian company generated sales of $8.9bn from the rail transport business in 2018 while Alstom’s reached €8.1bn ($9bn) in its latest fiscal year.The potential end of Bombardier’s involvement in A220 manufacturing, combined with new stumbles in the company’s rail business, have undermined a once-great name in manufacturing — just when investors thought they were poised to reap the rewards of a diff icult turnaround eff ort. Walking away from the A220 would close the book on Bombardier’s work on an aircraft programme in which the company invested more than $6bn.
Magashule: For restructuring.