BUSINESSWednesday 28 March 2018

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Qatar’s trade surplus at QR14.1bn

Greece to get ¤5.7bn in

bailout cash

Blockade sees huge jump in new factoriesMOHAMMAD SHOEB

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The number of new factories that started production since the beginning of the unjust siege has witnessed a significant double-digit growth. The number of new factories during the period has surged by 17 percent, the Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada told reporters yesterday.

The Minister, speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the second phase of Qatar Inter-national Cables Company’s (QICC) expansion project in Mesaieed noted that the gov-ernment is paying special attention to the private sector’s initiatives and has set a goal to reach the rate to at least 20 percent, which is expected to be

achieved within the next couple of months.

“The growth in the industrial sector is taking place at a very fast pace as a result of the soli-darity of the private sector with the government which led to a rise in the scale of production through expansion as well as the opening of new factories. The high quality Qatari products are

hitting the domestic and inter-national market,” said Dr Al Sada.

He pointed out that the gov-ernment continues to support the private sector, adding that the doors of all concerned gov-ernment agencies are open to private companies which are planning to expand their opera-tions to achieve a robust and diversified industrial base.

Commenting on QICC’s expansion, Dr Al Sada, said: “I am pleased to see QICC, a national company with international business exposure, expanding its operations in the State of Qatar. We are proud to see such a huge investment in the electricity industry in our domestic market, which reflects the strength of the Qatari economy.”

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THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Commercial Bank, Qatar’s first private bank, has announced changes in the leadership roles that have responsibility for Commercial Bank’s High Net Worth and VIP customers.

Bouchra Sebbata (pic-tured), previously AGM, Head of Sadara Wealth Man-agement, has been appointed to now lead a combined unit comprising both Private Banking and Sadara as AGM and President of High Net-worth clients at Commercial Bank.

The appointment under-scores Commercial Bank’s commitment to developing and promoting home-grown talent and provide opportu-nities to skilled and high potential individuals to increasingly take up more challenging roles in the bank.

Sebbata’s appointment will allow Commercial Bank to serve it’s most prestigious customers under a more unified platform.

Sebbata has 19 years banking experience, of which 14 years have been dedicated to Commercial Bank. She has served in a range of senior roles across Retail and Cor-porate Banking. She holds a post graduate certificate in management and leadership from London Metropolitan University in the UK, and a BA in Mathematics and Physics from Qatar University.

Commercial Bank EGM, Head of Retail and Consumer Banking, Amit Sah said: “Growing our Wealth Man-agement business is a stra-tegic priority for Commercial Bank. Under Bouchra’s lead-ership, our Sadara business has grown tremendously, and her first-hand knowledge and experience dealing with these customers has enabled this expansion. Bouchra’s appointment will help bring our Wealth Management business to the next stage of development.” Bouchra Sebbata said: “It is an honor to be entrusted with this opportunity, to serve our most valued customers and to lead the great people that work so hard to ensure we deliver the highest of service standards to them.”

H E Dr Mohammad bin Saleh Al Sada (second right) Minister of Energy and Industry; Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani (second left), Chairman of the Board, Qatar Islamic Bank; Anoud Ponpant La Fange (centre), CEO of Nexans- France; and Eric Chevallier, French Ambassador to Qatar; with other officials cutting a ribbon at the launching of the expansion of QICC’s cable factory in Mesaieed, yesterday. PIC: KAMMUTTY VP/ THE PENINSULA

QICC is a joint venture between Al Mirqab Capital and Nexans from France, which is a global leader in advanced cabling and connectivity solutions.

Economy Minister meets NUSACC headH E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani (right), Minister of Economy and Commerce, holding discussion with the visiting President and CEO of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC), David Hamod, yesterday.

Waymo & Jaguar team up on self-driving luxury rideAFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover yesterday announced they have joined forces on a posh, self-driving electric car tailored for a ride-hailing service run by the Google-owned firm.

Waymo and Jaguar said they aim to develop a “premium self-driving electric vehicle” based on a new I-PACE model.

Testing of an I-PACE equipped with Waymo self-driving technology will begin later this year, and the goal was to make it part of a Waymo driverless transpor-tation service, according to Jaguar.

The companies forecast that as many as 20,000 I-PACE vehicles could be built in the first two years of pro-duction and made available for a Waymo service that lets people summon autonomous rides. “This is just the beginning,” the Waymo team said in an online post.

“The ultimate goal: with Waymo as the driver, products tailored for every purpose and every trip.”

For example, self-driving vehicles could be designed for various needs such as working while commuting; celebratory nights out, or napping, according to Waymo.

QNB announces Internet & Mobile Banking campaign winners THE PENINSULA

DOHA: QNB has announced 60 active users to win 80,000 Life rewards points. The Bank has recently launched this campaign to encourage customers to take advantage of its Internet and Mobile Banking services.

Customers were eligible to enter the raffle draw to win 80,000 Life rewards points after completing bank transfers to beneficiaries inside and outside of Qatar, Western Union remit-tances, PayPal transfers, bill payments, and payment of

prepaid vouchers for any of the following partners: Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, QPost, QatarCool, or Kahrama. All newly registered customers to QNB Internet and Mobile Banking got a chance to enter the raffle.

The campaign aims to reward customers for their trust in QNB’s online banking services and is a part of the Bank’s ongoing efforts to provide the best experiences for its cus-tomers. The campaign also falls within the Bank’s determination to provide banking services that

combine today’s needs with future aspirations.

QNB aims to provide the best digital banking services for its customers, including flexible transfers worldwide, scheduling recurring transfers, bill pay-ments, in addition to innovative and secure solutions for Internet and Mobile Banking services.

QNB Group’s presence through its subsidiaries and associate companies extends to more than 31 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of advanced products and services.

Commercial Bank announces new leadership changes

8,693.98 -17.93 PTS0.21%

QSE FTSE100 DOW BRENT7,000.14 +111.45 PTS1.62%

24,210.11 +7.51PTS0.03% Dow & Brent before going to press

$65.18 -0.37

22 WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018BUSINESS

Qatar Financial Centre takes part in Asia FDI ForumTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida (pictured), Chief Exec-utive Officer, QFC Authority, one of the world’s leading and fastest growing onshore business and financial centres, spoke at the fourth Asia FDI Forum, which was held in Hong Kong from 22-23 March.

The forum, which was attended by participants from academic, government and private sector institutions, focused on special economic zones, designated areas that have economic regulations different from those of the countries that surround them. Discussions at the forum centred on the

opportunities and challenges these zones present to their host nations.

Speaking at the event, Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida (pictured), Chief Executive Officer, QFC Authority stated: “The rela-tionship between Qatar and our partners in Asia continues to grow year on year. As a matter of fact, over 22 percent of the firms registered under the Qatar Financial Centre in 2016 were from the Asia Pacific region. These include regional power-houses such as the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, among many others. This further highlights the close ties between Qatar and its

partners in Asia,which we hope to continue to strengthen in the years to come.” QFC’s partici-pation comes as part of its con-tinued efforts to promote Qatar as a lucrative destination for companies looking to expand their operations to the Middle East and tap into Qatar’s multi-billion dollar infrastructure programme.

Similar to firms in special eco-nomic zones, QFC firms enjoy competitive benefits, such as operating within a legal envi-ronment based on English common law, the right to trade in any currency, 100 percent foreign ownership, 100 percent repatri-ation of profits, 10 percent cor-porate tax on locally sourced

profits, and an extensive double tax treaty agreement network with 60+ countries.

Qatar is experiencing a flour-ishing relationship with Hong Kong and China as trade relations continue to grow, and Chinese companies look to expand their businesses to the Middle East. Bilateral trade between Qatar and Hong Kong stood at USD$196 million in 2016, and the One Belt, One Road initiative is further helping to strengthen the relations between both regions.

MEC hosts seminar on family businessesTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: In cooperation with Qatar Stock Exchange and Qatar University, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC)organied a seminar on the trans-formation of Family businesses into public shareholding companies.

The seminar brought together owners and represent-atives of family companies, busi-nessmen, private sector com-panies, entrepreneurs and inter-ested parties.

The event is part of the min-istry’s efforts to streamline business activities in Qatar and to provide flexibility and support for commercial companies, which will increase the level of confidence in the Qatari business environment and enhance part-nerships with the private sector in a bid to promote a diversified and sustainable competitive

economy in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

Speakers outlined the advan-tages of turning family businesses into public shareholding com-panies, noting that it would help founders ensure business conti-nuity and the transfer of own-ership from one generation to another while enabling share-holding companies to secure more financing options to expand and implement new projects, issue sukuk or bonds and sell franchises as an alternative to bank borrowing, in addition to enhancing investment opportu-nities in financial markets.

Discussions also touched on the procedures and requirements for converting family businesses into public shareholding com-panies, in accordance with the Commercial Companies Law No. 11 of 2015.

Participants also elaborated on the process of listing family

businesses on the Qatar Stock Exchange after they became public shareholding companies, outlining the motives, key con-siderations, steps and listing model. Discussions also touched on the legislative framework for

the transformation of these com-panies, the importance of listing a company on the stock market and the necessary procedures,.

The seminar also featured a panel discussion that brought together a number of experts to

discuss the practical aspects of the transformation of family business-es into shareholding companies as well as case studies of some companies that u n d e r w e n t t h i s transformation.

The speakers at the seminar on family businesses organised by Qatar Stock Exchange and Ministry of Economy and Commerce.

Leading construction firms to participate in Building Services Qatar expoTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Construction in Qatar will thrive as 2018 government budget allocates an estimated QR42bn (21 percent of the budget) to transport and infra-structure projects, according to the latest report by Re-search and Markets for Building Services Qatar by The Big 5.

Major projects listed in the ‘Analysis and Future Growth Dynamics of Qatar’s Economy’ report include the Lusail City Development Project ($45bn), The Doha Metro project (approx. 300 km), Hamad International Airport Expansion ($15.5bn), and the Msheireb Downtown Doha Regeneration Project.

“Qatar has been on the roadmap towards becoming an advanced society capable of sus-tainable development,” com-ments Omar Hallawa, Business Development In-Charge at

Tadmur Trading WLL. Tadmur Contracting has executed nearly 100 multi-million Qatar Riyal government and private projects and support Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 as Platinum Sponsor. They conclude that “sustain-able trends should in essence be the hallmark of modern construction.”

V Satyanarayana, CEO of concrete solutions provider SMEET – Qatar, said that “the construction industry plays a very important role in achieving the expansive infrastructure goals set by Qatar’s 2018 budget.”

SMEET joins a pool of eight exhibiting Founding Partners at this year’s launch of Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 event, held from September 24 to 26, 2018 at the Doha Exhi-bition & Convention Centre. He adds that “presenting our products to the international

community at Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 will show how far a Qatari company can go by producing high quality and unique products.”

The Founding Partners, all local companies and leaders in their specific fields, will align to their product sectors and reflect the Qatar building industry across all stages of the con-struction lifecycle.

SMEET Precast, the largest and most advanced single factory in the MENA region, will head the Concrete sector alongside Al Sehmiah, constant innovator of outdoor concrete with their own testing laboratory in Qatar.

Leading environmental innovator and the largest land-scape provider in Qatar, Palmera Landscapes support the Building Envelope & Special Construction sector with their superior land-scape solu-tions.Founding

Partner for Plant Machinery & Vehicles Qatar Building Company - Heavy Equipment Divi-sion will showcase their international calibre at the event - the brand have established partner-ships with leading man-ufacturers such as Hyundai Heavy Industries and more.

The Construction Tools & Building Materials sector will be represented by Qatar’s first local Alumin-ium Extrusion plant, Qatar Aluminium Extrusion Co. (QALEX) and Industrial Equipment & Services Co. (IESCO).

With 43 years market expe-rience IESCO offer solutions for the most challenging supply projects and requirements.

With equity interest in 13 operational projects including construction materials, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) is a Founding Partner for the Building Interiors

& Finishes product sector along with provider of faultless security management systems CHIP International.

Manateq, Economic Partner of the event, serves as a key component to the county’s stra-tegic vi-sion in economic diversity comments on their role at the exhibition, “We are glad to take part in the first Building Services Qatar exhibition which would be ideal platform to present our invest-ment oppor-tunities,” Fahad Rashid Al Kaabi, Manateq CEO.

“To have such an esteemed body of Founding Partners show their support for the launch edition of Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 is essential. As we invite international com-panies and de-cision-makers to the country it adds great value to reflect the high standard of construction in Qatar,” com-ments Senior Vice President of

dmg events, Andy White A unique event for the building community, Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 does more to bring together exhibitors and serious buyers through dedi-cated product sectors, live product de-mos, and CPD (con-tinuing professional devel-opment) workshops and seminars.

Exhibitors can also tap into the extensive market experience of event organisers, dmg events Do-ha. Part of an international group producing of 50+ market leading exhibitions and confer-ences re-ceiving 250,000+ vis-itors annually, the event offers access to affiliated buyers and strategic partner-ships.

Building Services Qatar by The Big 5 is brought to Qatar by official supporter Qatar Tourism Authority as a part of their effort to develop a leading MICE industry.

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“ With the expansion of QICC’s production facility, Qatar’s power sector will have a reliable supplier of high quality cables to serve the country’s various strategic and develop-mental projects.”

QICC is a joint venture between Al Mirqab Capital and Nexans from France, which is a global leader in advanced cabling and connectivity solu-tions. The French electric giant brings energy to life through an extensive range of best-in-class products and innovative services.

The opening ceremony was also attended by dignitaries and senior diplomats and top

officials of companies, including Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, rep-resenting Al Merqab Capital; Issa bin Hilal Al Kuwari, President of Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAH-RAMAA), and representatives from several government agencies.

Commenting on the opening the QICC’s expanded facility, Sheikh Jassim said: “This is an important step in Qatar’s drive towards self-sufficiency and will contribute to the development of a strong and stable infra-structure benefiting projects across the country.”

“The expansion of QICC’s factory in Mesaieed marks the completion of a decade of our

presence in Qatar and the beginning of a new chapter for Nexans in the Middle East.”

Since the establishment of Qatar International Cables in 2008, we have been able to bring Over 100 years of expe-rience in the area of cables to the region, and with the continued demand for power cables in Qatar, our role is to support and accelerate the transformation of the country through our tech-nological knowledge and the highest standards of customer service. “

The plant was established in 2010 and supplied its products, including high quality power cables to some of the largest projects in Qatar and the region, which include KAHRAMAA

projects for the expansion of the Qatari power grid, as well as the Doha Metro, Umm Al Houl power plant, oil and gas projects, road, infrastructure and con-struction projects.

The company recently won a contrct worth QR640m from KAHRAMAA for the supply of low voltage and medium voltage power cables, providing a sus-tainable basis for its expansion and development.

With the expansion and development of its facilities, Qatar Cables is now in a position to supply high-voltage cables at highly competitive prices based on the unique combination of Nixsan’s technology and its expertise with local capacity and customer-centric capacity.

Qatar’s trade surplus at QR14.1bnTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar’s trade balance showed a surplus of nearly QR 14.1bn, an increase of about QR 2.7bn or 23.7 percent in February 2018, on Year-on-Year.

In February the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR 22.4bn, showing an increase of 14 percent from a year ago, according to preliminary numbers released by the Min-istry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS).

On month-on-month, the trade balance was decreased by nearly QR 1.7bn or 10.7 percent and total exports of goods declined by 11.6 percent.

The Y-o-Y increase in total exports was mainly due to higher exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydro-carbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.) reaching QR13.7bn in February, an increase of 12.8 percent. Petroleum oils & oils from bitu-minous minerals (crude) reached QR3.9bn , up 12.6 percent, and the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reached QR1.9bn, an increase by 49.4 percent.

In February, South Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR 4.8bn, a share of 21.3 percent of total exports,

followed by Japan with almost QR 4.1bn and a share of 18.5 percent; and India with about QR3bn, a share of 13.5 percent.

The group of “ Motor cars & other passenger vehicles “ was at the top of the imported group of commodities, with QR0.5bn, showing a decrease of 1.9 percent from a year ago, fol-lowed by ‘Parts of balloons etc.; parts of aircraft, spacecraft etc.” with QR0.3bn, showing an increase by 9.3 percent, and in third place was ‘Turbojets, Turbo propellers & Other Gas Turbines’, with QR0.3bn, increase of 4.1 percent.

China was the lead country of origin of Qatar’s imports with about QR1.0bn, accounting for 12.0 percent of total imports, followed by the US with QR1.0bn almost, a share of 11.8 percent, and India with QR 0.6bn, a share of 7.4 percent.

Blockade triggers double-digit jump in new factories

In February, S Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR 4.8bn, followed by Japan with almost QR4.1bn and India with about QR3bn.

easyJet expands push into long-haul connectionsREUTERS

BERLIN: British budget airline easyJet said it was expanding its long haul connections business, adding seven new airports and airline Thomas Cook, to offer more customers the chance to buy connecting flights through its platform.

easyJet also said yesterday that it expected to add more partners over the course of this year as talks with Middle East and Asian carriers were “far advanced”.easyJet set up its platform “Worldwide by easyJet” last year, partnering with long-haul low cost airline Norwegian, to enable travellers to buy two flights, via a single transaction.

23WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018 BUSINESS

Growth strategies to reinforce role of Qatari capital market, says QSE’s Al MansooriTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar’s ongoing strat-egies to transform the compet-itive dynamics of the country’s capital market is set to expand the role of the local market in financing business ventures, widening ownership of assets and generate returns on long-term savings. In this free-wheeling interview to the Arabic business daily Lusail, published today, Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rashid bin Ali Al Mansoori (pictured) shares his vision how QSE is set to transform itself as one of the leading bourses in the region. Following is the translated version of the interview:

Rashid bin Ali Al Mansoori, CEO of the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) has said the bourse is in the process of listing several companies in the coming years. In fact, the QSE has prepared a list of 35 companies that are expected to be listed for the next five years, he said.

He said that three companies are expected to be listed during this year. Nearly nine companies are expected to increase their foreign ownership upto 49 percent.

Qatar Stock Exchange was able to overcome impact of blockade in few days, said Al Mansoori adding that foreign stock exchanges knew very well the value of Qatari economy which was demonstrated by strong trading in previous months.

He said that despite exiting of three stock holders of blockading countries from Qatari market, more than 100 stockholders and investors from all over the world entered the market.

When asked about what hap-pened to Qatar Stock Exchange at the beginning of blockade and how it reacted over the exiting of GCC financial institutions he said, on the first day of blockade, we were shocked because we did not expect a blockade to be imposed by a brother on his brother.

We witnessed what usually happens in such situation as the market was shocked in the beginning but from second day onwards we overcame the blockade very fast. And there were many reason for this, the biggest reasons included that Qatar Stock Exchange is the biggest emerging market in the region listed at the global index and second biggest market in term of the capital market.

Such international index that Qatar Stock Exchange is enjoying is tantamount to a sort of flexibility and resistance for any shock due to international weight, said Al Mansoori.

Other factors that helped Qatar Stock Exchange to cope up with the impact of blockade are trust of local and international investors in the national economy that proved its ability globally in the economic and political index and its pretty good growth even during the blockade, he added.

Regarding the movements of GCC fund in the first week of blockade, he said the exchange saw proportionally high liquidity by a funds. Actually, there was a fund from a blockading country that tried to bring negative impact on Qatar Stock Exchange. And this fund was tracked clearly pumping money intentionally to create neg-ative impact on the market. We have advanced technology to track such unusual trading. He said the bourse acted quickly to thwart the attempt to disrupt the market.

We the management of Qatar Stock Exchange believe in trans-parency and free trading because of the trust of local and interna-tional investors in the Stock Exchange of Qatar and its economy. So we left the market to trade naturally for the time being. We noticed huge increase of liquidity at the beginning of the

blockade that reached an average QR400m to QR500m in a trading session from QR200m to QR250m before the siege in a session.

We saw that the investors spe-cially the international index did not affect only some portfolios and institutions from blockading coun-tries exited from the market.

However, remaining share-holders from GCC countries were trading comfortably like Qataris.

The money that was pulled out from Qatar Stock Exchange during those days was little – not more than from QR350 to QR400m and failed to make any impact on stock exchange due its large size.

Pretty good number of foreign companies entered the market after the blockade as they know very well about value and power of Qatari Economy and Qatar Stock Exchange. To recall, entire market was affected by the falling prices of petrol. Now the index returned to its natural level but we expect more improvement because actually the current trading value does not reflect the real value of Qatari market.

Now we need new listings that offer shares to foreign investors, help them to enter the market by increasing percentage of shares for foreigners. In addition, to activate the tools offered by Qatar Stock Exchange to the market like margin trading, market maker and index funds to ensure that our strategies continue and unaffected by blockade.

We have strong cooperation with GCC stock exchanges and there is The Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE) and we have cooperation with our brothers there. The meetings with them were suspended due to current sit-uation that hindered the inter-action. But as we noticed that Qatar Stock Exchange has strategy and reacted accordingly. So you found we added new products during the blockade, like index fun and new mechanism. Few days ago, we successfully added index fund of Al Rayan Bank that is con-sidered the biggest one in the world. And launched some products like margin trading and

liquidity provider.Since the beginning of the

blockade, we held many meetings with investors and companies in Qatar and abroad, even if two or three funds exited since the blockade we enabled to open accounts of more than 100 new funds and investors. The number of new investors are growing and we are receiving investors weekly from all over the world; Asia, Europe, America. But still we are needed to support the stock exchange through new listings that we considered real fuel for the market.

About the new listings he said

three new companies applied for listing during this year. At least one of them is expected to be listed during first half of this year but we expect more as our technical capa-bility can accommodate more listing companies.

In the same context, through an initiative launched by Qatar Stock Exchange, we made a list of a number of companies that can be listed. The list includes 35 com-panies that would bring strength to Qatar Stock Exchange once they will be listed. The list is an initi-ative of Qatar Stock Exchange to help list these companies during next five years. The list includes the company from various sectors for diversification.

Qatari Market is able to accommodate listing a company on monthly basis and this drive our attention towards a very important issue; the mechanism of listing and easing its procedures. We should get rid of bureaucracy in Qatari Market as we found the world is switching to online listing. The law of 20th century would not keep pace with 21st Century so we should make smart law and be flexible and able to attract the investments and to ease the listing procedures. In some countries, listing does not take more than a week. The Stock Exchange should be given more power to help speed up in listing and licensing. Qatar

Stock Exchange is currently working to launch more ETFs as it is one of the most important products that are popular among local and foreign investors. We are currently developing the services, laws and activating the single window mechanism for listing, developing the licensing mech-anism for intermediaries in coop-eration with Qatar Financial Markets Authority.

In order to offer services in single window for the investors, to serve them fast and to connect through modern technology, we are currently trying to provide the state-of-the-art technology.

When we look at other insti-tutions in Qatar, such as the Min-istry of the Interior and the imple-mentation of Metrash, we find many services available through the application in an easy and secure way, although the infor-mation and services provided by the application is larger in size and more sensitive, yet progress in such advanced framework is smooth and easy. So why we do not use the same system to sim-plify the process of listing of com-panies so that the process takes only months or even a few weeks instead of years.

If the information concerning the company wishing to list on the Stock Exchange is complete and fulfill all requirements, then there is no reason to reject the listing. There are some countries in the region where direct listing the companies is allowed if the number of investors reaches a certain level such as 100 investors for example and fulfill all requirements.

He urged all stakeholders to simplify trading procedures the call of simplifying procedures is directed to all parties involved in the Qatari capital market who are responsible for supporting this transformation, including the Qatar Exchange itself, and coop-eration is required among all those parties to achieve this on the ground.

Now we have started initia-tives through the Market Devel-opment Committee and we will soon find solutions for such ideas that find strong cooperation and welcome.

When asked about low presence of shareholders in the meeting of general assembly meetings of some listed com-panies in addition to the weak discussion he said, listed com-panies are committed to dis-closure and transparency pro-cedures and to invite all share-holders to attend. It is necessary for the Assembly to achieve a quorum, which is sometimes done through delegations. The Qatar Exchange has an educa-tional program at all levels, both at the corporate level and investor relations. We also have programs to educate schools, universities and individual investors, and thousands benefit each year from stock exchange programs for training and education.

When asked about the cash dividends distributed by listed companies for 2017 he said, the distributions came within the continuous direction of the Qatari companies, which are usually generous with their investors and their financial position and their huge capabil-ities are making them to offer huge dividends.

Qatar is now a global eco-nomic center, being the largest exporter of liquid natural gas, and Qatari companies benefit from all these political and eco-nomic capabilities.

In a message to retail investors he said, Qatari stock market is based on a strong economy char-acterized by high growth rates and sustainable development, and our financial market is one of the best

international markets and the largest market in the Middle East within the index of MSCI, and the next is best.. My second advice to them is to enter the market with knowledge and awareness and study the companies.

Sharing his thoughts on why some companies are still trading below the listing price, he said, there is no market in the world where all companies are equal, and this is the nature of the stock exchange, which is not always on a continuous rise or decline and fluctuation in the market is a pos-itive thing, because the investor must see this fluctuation to exploit opportunities.

He said that there are com-panies that have to raise the rates of foreign ownership to stay within the global indices, and recently we found a number of companies that have been directed to this recently, and we are encouraging all com-panies to do so, currently we are working on 7-9 companies that intend to raise ownership of foreigners.

On the performance of Qatari stocks listed in global indices, especially with the news of the entry of more markets in the region for these indicators, and the possibility of deducting part of the weight of the investment of Qatari companies, Al Mansoori said: “We are currently working on sup-porting the Qatari stock exchange by raising foreign ownership ratios to 49 percent, secondly increasing the percentage of individuals’ ownership and thirdly increasing the turnover rate by activating the mechanism of liquidity provider and eliminating any restrictions or laws restricting foreign investment and facilitating opening the accounts and fifth promotion of the Qatari market and this is the role of the Qatar Exchange.” When asked why do we find this discrepancy between trading values of the two ETFs on QSE, he said these funds need more marketing, which has not happened yet, because there are financial institutions in Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indo-nesia and even in Europe want to invest in index funds, especially the Islamic funds that are popular in those countries.

In April we will visit some countries to meet some investors to promote in Asia and Europe.

We have continued cooper-ation with the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) about the “Single Window System”, which has greatly facilitated listing of companies. There is already discussion going on in this regard within the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Qatar Financial Markets Authority, Qatar Central Bank, Qatar Financial Centre and Qatar Stock Exchange.

This committee, in its regular meetings, discusses important topics and initiatives related to the development of the market. They are already serious about pushing forward and we are con-tinuously cooperating with them. The Qatar Stock Exchange has an important role in developing the market.

When asked about the most prominent markets targeted by

the Qatar Stock Exchange during the next phase in order to attract more investments he said, the Qatar Stock Exchange contributes significantly to the development of the Qatari market and attract investors through visits, confer-ences and discussions with major funds.

We now have a strong trend towards Asia, which is one of the most important markets because of the strong opportunities there which we can benefit from, but they have some restrictions on the transfer of capital from their countries, which we are currently seeking to find solutions. We have great cooperation with them in this area. There is also direct cooperation with stock exchanges around the world and exchange of experiences.

The Qatar Stock Exchange looks to do its part and see the strong cooperation of all those who play a big role in attracting foreign investment to Qatar.

All listings entered the stock exchange have been studied care-fully, especially with regard to the readiness of these companies for listing, and there is no notes from the concerned authorities regarding the companies which get approve to be listed.

The listings related to com-panies which can be privatized is very important for the market, because if we look back to the time of listing the company of “Mesaieed” we found that the average trading jumped to QR860m per day, and index reached to a high level of 12,640 points.

Therefore, if we include such companies, the market can again return to activity both in terms of trades or performance indicators, and Qatar Petroleum promised to list a group of companies during a specific period after Mesaieed and we are waiting for these listings.

It is up to Qatar Petroleum, but we in the Qatar Stock Exchange encourage it, because if we look at some of the neigh-boring countries, one of them listed 16 companies in one year, while the Qatar Stock Exchange has not listed a major company for a long time.

The companies that will be listed this year are mostly family owned, and it is good and we encourages it because it is important for family companies to list in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which is the best way to ensure continuity, sustaina-bility and capital development.

Most of the new companies which will be listed are industrial companies, and we want to see at a minimum to see 6-7 listings annually.

The amount of trading cur-rently at Qatar Stock Exchange does not reflect the reality of the Qatari economy, because to achieve this, the trading should not be less than QR1bn per day, because it the second largest market in the region.

To achieve this, we need two things, first is the a specified and clear schedule for privatization and listing and the second is to develop laws to attract investment, but to continue for years without a listing is not pos-itive in terms of activating the market and support the values of trading.

When asked about the volume of trading despite the launch of the margin trading he said, the reason is the brokerage companies. Despite the launch of the initiative for a while, we still have only one brokerage company benefitting from this service which is The Group. Therefore we encourage inter-mediaries always to develop their services and exploit these new mechanisms, and not only rely on to buy and sell shares, They should develop their services in cooperation with the QSE and Qatar Financial Markets Authority.

We are currently working on sup-

porting the Qatari stock exchange

by raising foreign ownership ratios

to 49%

The companies that are being listed this year are mostly family owned, and it is good. We encourage it be-cause it is important for family companies to list on QSE, which is the best way to ensure continuity, sustainabil-ity and capital develop-ment

24 WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018BUSINESS

Greece to get ¤5.7bn in bailout cashAFP

BRUSSELS: Eurozone author-ities will make a fresh ¤5.7bn cash injection to Greece, putting Athens further down the road to leaving its painful bailout programme later this year.

The new tranche agreed by the EU’s bailout fund on Tuesday is the latest from Greece’s third financial rescue package since 2010, when its debt crisis brought the European single currency close to collapse.

A final sum of ¤1bn will be held back until Greece makes final reforms, and will be not be paid out until May at the ear-liest, the European Stability Fund said in a statement.

Portuguese Finance Min-ister Mario Centeno, who heads the Eurogroup of finance min-isters from the 19-country eurozone, welcomed the latest payout.

“A chunk of the funds will be pumped into the Greek economy and will help Greece build up its cash buffer. That’s good news,” Centeno tweeted.

European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said it was “another positive signal for strengthening the confidence in Greece’s economy” as it prepares to end its bailout.

“Moving closer to the end of programme, Greece’s interest is to show that it has reached the point of no return,” Dom-brovskis said.

An overall tranche of ¤6.7bn, yesterday’s payment plus the one billion to come, was formally agreed by the Eurogroup in January. But the ministers delayed final approval of the funds at their meeting on February 19, calling on Greece to begin implementing elec-tronic bidding for property seized from overdue debtors.

The payout marks the formal closure of the third review by Greece’s creditors under the current bailout programme.

The current programme, which was worth a total of 86 billion euros and agreed in 2015, runs until August this year, after which the southern European nation hopes to fully return to market financing and get back on its own two feet.

Greece earlier this month launched talks on what measures it should adopt before quitting the bailout programme, with a deal being targeted for a June summit.

Indonesia levies extra capital requirements on top banksBLOOMBERG

JAKARTA: Indonesia ordered the nation’s biggest lenders to set aside additional capital to bolster their ability to absorb losses and protect against any bank failures.

The Financial Services Authority, known as OJK, told the country’s systemically important banks to create a tier-1 capital surcharge of between 1 percent and 3.5 percent of risk-weighted assets, depending on the size and perceived riskiness of the lender, the regulator said in a statement on its website yesterday. Banks have until January 1 to meet the addi-tional requirement, it said.

The move may conflict with government efforts to reverse a slowdown in lending and bolster the economy. Credit growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy has fallen to single digits in the past two years from a more than 20 percent average in the decade before, as weak private investment weighs on demand for loans. President Joko Widodo early this month urged banks to take more risks as he seeks to accelerate economic growth before a re-election bid in 2019.

“While we can under-stand the intention of Indo-nesian regulators to safe-guard the system, they should also consider the impact this stricter capital rule might have on the lenders’ ability to extend loans at a time when the country needs lots of financing for its infrastructure development,” said Taye Shim, head of research at Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia.

OJK classified the coun-try’s systemically important banks into five categories when deciding the size of the new capital surcharge. Together with Bank Indo-nesia, the regulator will revise the classification in March and September every year based on the lenders’ per-formance data, OJK said. The methodology used to identify systemically important banks will be revised at least once every three years, the authority added.

“Banks can meet the requirement through many ways, including raising fresh capital, but they must lay out the plan to us and get approval,” Heru Kristiyana, banking commissioner at OJK, said by phone. “It’s not a burden because in other countries, systemic banks are required to have buffer as well for prudence. This is an international practice.”

British VW drivers kick off ‘dieselgate’ claim in High CourtREUTERS

LONDON: Lawyers for more than 50,000 British car owners kicked off a lawsuit against Volkswagen in London’s High Court yesterday in a battle for compensation over a diesel emis-sions scandal that has engulfed Europe’s largest carmaker since 2015.

The three-day hearing will determine whether the claims can be managed collectively under a Group Litigation Order (GLO) and will set a deadline for claimants to sign up to what lawyers say could become the largest group action in British legal history.

Volkswagen has said that about 11 million cars worldwide - and 1.2 million in the UK - were fitted with software that cheated

diesel emissions tests designed to limit noxious car fumes and carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution.

VW agreed to pay up to $25bn in the United States to settle claims from owners, envi-ronmental regulators, states and dealers and offered to buy back 500,000 polluting US vehicles.

But it has not reached a similar deal in Europe, where it faces billions of euros in claims from investors and customers in the worst business crisis of its 78-year history, dubbed “dieselgate”.

British law firm Slater and Gordon, which represents more than 40,000 claimants in Britain, alleges that VW deceived people into buying cars that breached emissions regulations by installing “defeat devices”, illegal engine management software

designed to mask true pollution levels.“The lawyers will argue that VW profited by lying about the compliance of their cars and betrayed the trust of consumers who thought they were pur-chasing a car that met emissions standards and which was fit to be sold to UK customers when this was not the case,” the firm said in a statement.

The German company has offered to fix UK vehicles, and has said it broke no British laws and that drivers suffered no loss. German and British VW officials were not immediately available for further comment.

Slater and Gordon said it had surveyed more than 11,600 affected car owners who had agreed to the VW fix, which amounts to a software update of the engine management system.

Over 50 percent of respondents regretted having it carried out, the lawyers said.

It said more than one in ten car owners told its survey that vehicles lost power at high speed, exposing them to danger after VW fixed their car. Drivers also reported poorer fuel efficiency and engine power and car jud-dering, it said.

“VW’s only response has been

to offer consumers in the UK a fix that our clients are telling us doesn’t work,” said Gareth Pope, a lawyer at Slater and Gordon.

Slater and Gordon is one of at least three law firms hoping to be granted the GLO. Lawyers have said that they expect the suit to come to trial next year if it is not settled. If the GLO is granted, all past and present owners of affected cars can join the claim.

The logo of German car maker Volkswagen (VW) outside the main administrative building of the Volkswagen brand at VW plant in Wolfsburg, central Germany.

Amazon targets French grocery market with Monoprix dealREUTERS

PARIS: US e-commerce giant Amazon has made further inroads into food retail in France as Casino’s upmarket Monoprix chain became the first local retailer to agree to sell groceries via Amazon.

Future cooperation could extend beyond France.

A source familiar with the talks said yesterday that Amazon and Casino were in talks to either partner in Brazil as they did in France or reach a deal for the outright sale of Casino’s appliance and electronics chain Via Varejo SA .

The French move, which is set to shake up the competitive local food retail market, lifted Casino shares as much as 9.7 percent in morning trade amid speculation that it could lead to a bigger deal later on.

Amazon’s purchase of the bricks-and-mortar retailer Whole Foods Market Inc for $13.7 billion last year, and a deal for Amazon Prime to sell products

from the British supermarket chain Morrisons, raised expec-tations that it would bid for a retailer or form a partnership in France.

Casino and Amazon said late on Monday that groceries sourced from Monoprix would be available in the Amazon Prime Now app and website through a dedicated virtual store.

The deal is limited to the lucrative Paris market and its suburbs, though Monoprix CEO Regis Schultz told a conference call that an extension to other parts of France could not be ruled out.

Asked if the partnership paved the way to other deals with Amazon, Schultz said: “We do not discuss the future.”

Monoprix is one of France’s best-known store chains, with a network of nearly 800 upmarket stores in more than 250 cities.

It has a strong focus on quality and fresh products in the mould of Whole Foods, and is a key contributor to Casino group profit.

“We consider the Monoprix product selection as excep-tional,” Amazon France CEO Fre-deric Duval said during the call.

Financial terms were not dis-closed, but Schultz said a model where Monoprix does the picking of the order in store and Amazon takes care of delivery was a “profitable” one for Monoprix.

Casino already has a delivery partnership with UK online retailer Ocado, signed last year.

The two deals were comple-mentary as the Ocado tech-nology will allow Monoprix to address the needs of its tradi-tional clients with a bigger basket and seeking next-day delivery. Clients of Amazon Prime, set up in Paris in 2016, are looking for fewer items and want express delivery.

Since the purchase of Whole Foods Market, expectations that

Amazon could focus next on Europe have spurred French retailers to try to improve their own online offerings.

Carrefour announced in January that it would invest 2.8 billion euros in digital commerce over the next five years, six times its current investment.

Leclerc, France’s biggest food retailer by market share, privately held operator Systeme U and Casino have all been linked in recent months with Amazon, which has steadily been building its presence in France.

Leclerc launched its own home delivery service in Paris on Monday.

“Since the deal with Ocado will not start working until 2019, Casino needs to protect Monoprix from Leclerc, which has started home delivery in Paris,” wrote Kepler Cheuvreux analysts.

Customers seen entering the French suparmarket chain Monoprix in Paris in this file picture.

Africa CEO forum 2018Laureates of the Africa CEO forum 2018 pose with their awards on stage in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The cash injection was “another positive signal for strengthening the confidence in Greece’s economy” as it prepares to end its bailout.

China’s big banks escape profit doldrumsAFP

SHANGHAI: Two of China’s big state-owned banks said Tuesday their profits rebounded in 2017 after a pair of moribund years thanks to an accelerating domestic economy, and analysts expect further gains as a government credit clampdown favours big lenders.

The Industrial and Com-mercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s biggest lender in terms of total assets, said full-year profit grew 2.8 percent to 286.05 billion yuan ($45bn).

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) said its net income grew 4.9 percent to 182.97 billion

yuan. Their earnings were reported in filings to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where both have shares listed.

The remaining half of the “Big Four” Chinese banks -- Bank of China and China Con-struction Bank -- are expected to also release positive earnings news later in the week.

China’s economy grew a forecast-beating 6.9 percent in 2017, picking up steam for the first time since 2010.

The crackdown is seen as hitting smaller lenders and wealth management companies hardest, driving them to seek loans from the established banks in order to clean up their balance

sheets. China’s banking regu-lator is also believed to have recently lowered bad-loan pro-visions for banks, according to a Bloomberg News report, which frees up more cash for lending.

“China’s banks have shaken off the doldrums,” Richard Cao, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

“Their earnings growth will accelerate for the next two to three years.”

The big banks’ profit growth was largely flat in the preceding two years as concerns grew over rising bad loans. But both ICBC and ABC reported lower non-performing loans (NPLs) for 2017.

25WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018 BUSINESS

Euro falls as concerns about low inflation resurfaceREUTERS

LONDON: The euro fell yesterday, as concerns about weak inflation and a slowdown in company borrowing raised questions about the momentum of the euro zone’s economic expansion.

After a big gain on Monday, the euro had added another 0.3 percent to hit $1.2476 in early European trading, less than a cent off the three-year highs it hit in mid-February. Receding worries about a trade war had supported euro bulls.

But it went into reverse after data showing that lending to eurozone companies slowed last month, and comments by European Central Bank Gov-erning Council member Erkki Liikanen that underlying eurozone inflation may remain

lower than expected even if growth is robust.

The single currency declined 0.3 percent to $1.2405 by 1105 GMT. The dollar, measured against a basket of currencies, used the euro’s weakness to rally 0.4 percent to 89.424, bouncing off the five-week lows hit on Monday.

“The (eurozone) economy has been doing extremely well, but inflation is still lagging. The market has been focused on the economy, now the economy is stalling, this is adding to investors’ doubt,” said Commerz-bank’s Frankfurt-based FX strat-egist Thu Lan Nguyen.

“The market is pricing in rate hikes as soon as spring next year, in our view it’s too optimistic. We assume the market will price these hikes out in the course of this year and because of that the euro will weaken.”

With many traders betting on

prolonged dollar weakness this year because of the United States’ trade and budget deficits, and investors expecting to allocate more money to the eurozone as its economy strengthens, the single currency has performed well in 2018.

Global markets were shaken this month after US President Donald Trump moved to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threatened similar measures. But fears of a trade war eased on hopes that the United States and China would begin negotiations.

Valentin Marinov, head of G10 FX strategy at Credit Agricole, said that reduced trade fears had allowed investors to re-focus on when the ECB would tighten monetary policy, and for large institutional investors to resume allocations to the region

after years of being underweight.

“You have the fact eurozone inflation may be recovering plus the old theme of (investor) diver-sification back into euros,” he said, adding that for the euro to move much higher you would need to see stronger evidence the ECB will in fact shrink its balance sheet.

Comments from Jens Wei-dmann, Germany’s likely can-didate to become the ECB’s next president, that market expecta-tions of a rate hike towards the middle of next year were “not completely unrealistic” had also helped bolster the euro on Monday.

Elsewhere, the safe-haven Japanese yen sagged as trade war worries abated.

The yen fell 0.3 percent to 105.74 yen versus the dollar,

giving up some of its large gains last week when investors had fretted about trade tensions.

The euro in Asian trading rose 0.3 percent against the yen to 131.69 yen, after surging 1.4 percent on Monday for its biggest one-day percentage gain since June 2017. It later fell back, leaving the yen up 0.1 percent at 131.13 yen per euro.

Asian currencies such as the Korean Won and Chinese Yuan, which hit a new 2-1/2 year high, were also big winners overnight as both had been expected to fare badly if trade tensions ratcheted up.

The offshore yuan strengthened to a high of 6.2364, the firmest level since Aug. 11, 2015, before falling back.

The Malaysian ringgit earlier hit a two-month high of 3.8700 against the US dollar.

Spain’s Rajoy unveils budgetBLOOMBERG

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy unveiled a budget with reduced taxes for workers on lower incomes and raised payments for pensioners in a bid to boost support for his minority government that’s been leaking support since Catalo-nia’s independence crisis.

His spending plan approved in cabinet yesterday includes increases that will benefit 5.7 million pensioners and widows. It’s based on forecasts that the economy will grow 2.7 percent this year, up from a previous estimate of 2.3 percent given in October, and that unem-ployment will fall to 15 percent as sustained growth creates about 500,000 jobs.

Rajoy is trying to kick-start

his policy agenda after a string of opinion polls showed his Peo-ple’s Party losing support to the liberals of Ciudadanos. While Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera has said he’ll back the budget, it won’t pass without the votes of the Basque PNV party, which has so far withheld support amid anger over a legal crackdown on leaders of Catalonia’s inde-pendence movement.

“The government aims for the recovery to reach all Span-iards with no one left on the sidelines,” Government Spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said in a news conference. “Not approving them would hurt everyone and not benefit anyone.”

Approval of the budget is a major test for Rajoy’s ability to keep governing until 2020,

when new elections are due. With a budget in place before summer, the premier would have sufficient support to govern for at least another year. He’ll take the budget to par-liament on April 3, Budget Min-ister Cristobal Montoro said.

The government is currently facing nationwide protests from pensioners demanding a raise as inflation bites into their spending power. While luring voters with new concessions, Rajoy has to square that with pressure to narrow the budget deficit and nurture a five-year recovery.

He’s betting that ongoing economic growth will translate into more jobs, something he needs to see to meet one of his core aims -- reaching 20 million people at work by 2020.

Spain’s Economy Minister Roman Escolano (left) and Spain’s Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro arrive to a news conference after the cabinet meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, yesterday.

Deutsche Bank stock gains on reports of new CEO searchAFP

FRANKFURT: Shares in Germany’s biggest lender Deutsche Bank gained yesterday after a newspaper reported that the troubled financial giant was seeking a new chief executive as it struggles to right itself.

The stock added 1.0 percent to trade at 11.30 euros ($14.06) by 0830 GMT, after British newspaper The Times reported chairman Paul Ach-leitner had been sounding out senior industry figures to take over from John Cryan (pic-tured), at the helm since 2015.

“It is quite clear the rela-tionship is broken between the chief executive and the chairman,” a senior source told the paper.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the report.

According to his contract, Cryan is slated to stay on until May 2020. But The Times said Deutsche has approached Goldman Sachs vice-president Richard Gnodde -- unsuccess-fully -- and has considered offering the top job to Unicredit chief Jean-Pierre Mustier or Standard Chartered boss Bill Winters.

Cryan has launched the bank on a massive restructuring at the same time as trying to

clear up the legacy of its massive global expansion in the years before the financial crisis, which has cost Deutsche bil-lions in fines and compensation. But investors have grown impa-tient, with shares in Frankfurt-based Deutsche losing almost a third of their value since the start of the year.

Earlier this month the bank reported it had made a higher loss than initially thought in 2017, at ¤751m, its third annual loss in a row.

It has blamed the red figures on President Donald Trump’s corporate tax reforms in the United States, which it said hit it with a one-off loss.

Meanwhile the partial stock market flotation of its highly-regarded asset management unit DWS, which raised around ¤1.4bn last week, was over-shadowed when finance director James von Moltke warned of headwinds for the struggling investment banking division.

Nestle’s Milkybar targets healthy sweet spot with designer sugarREUTERS

YORK: Nestle is launching a lower-sugar Milkybar made with a new version of the sweetener which could help ease the $185bn confectionery industry’s growing public health headache.

Milkybar Wowsomes, a new more expensive take on the 81-year-old white chocolate made famous by the gun-slinging Milkybar Kid ads, will be on shelves in Britain and Ireland in coming weeks.

The world’s largest packaged food company says the new bars have 30 percent less sugar than a typical chocolate bar, helped by the use of Nestle’s new ingredient, sugar that has been physically altered to be lighter and dissolve faster. But they have only 3 percent fewer calories, due to extra natural ingredients.

The new sugar, first discussed publicly in 2016, partly addresses one of Big Food’s toughest chal-lenges - how to make junk food healthy but keep it tasty.

“Health is important, but... many consumers are not ready to give up taste,” Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said. “If you could have a tablet of choc-olate with the same taste with 30

percent less sugar, I think con-sumers would jump on it.” Nes-tle’s marketing chief says the aim of the new chocolate, which underwent more than 300 recipe tweaks, is to give parents the option of a better treat for their children.

Unlike the original plain white Milkybar chocolate, Wow-somes have a chocolate shell around a creamy centre con-taining both the lighter sugar and crisped oat cereal.

“We felt it was important to signal that this brand is evolving and answering new consumer trends,” Patrice Bula, head of marketing, told Reuters.

Nestle shares were up 1.4 percent yesterday.Nestle is under shareholder pressure to accel-erate sales after six years of slowing growth, with the sector struggling as consumers seek fresher foods and flock to new, independent brands seen as healthier or more ethical.

Governments are also cracking down on sugar to help fight obesity, but taxes, like the one coming into effect in Britain next week, generally concentrate on soft drinks.

Nestle’s new invention is not for use in drinks and for now, it

is just in confectionery - one of the toughest categories to refor-mulate, as chocolate can be up to 55 percent sugar.

Nestle executives said it was too early to specify how much this development would curb sugar purchases, although the company is looking to cut back over time.

Although the move by one of the world’s largest sugar buyers will not impact demand over-night, it may serve as a litmus test for other manufacturers, industry sources said.

Nestle’s business in the UK and Ireland has already taken out 10,400 tonnes of sugar from its portfolio since 2015. A long-term move away from sugar could spell disaster for farmers in top producing countries like India and Brazil, which together produce over 65 million tonnes of the sweetener each year.

Global production continues to rise, outstripping demand and hurting prices. Benchmark raw sugar prices have slid 17 percent so far this year, after falling over 22 percent last year.

Following the UK test, Nestle hopes to roll the sugar out else-where, focusing first on chil-drens’ confectionery brands.

“We have quite a few brands in a lot of markets in Latin America, but also in Europe and Asia that could use that tech-nology,” Bula said.

The company declined to say how much the project had cost, but for Jas Scott de Martinville, head of confectionery research and development and the product technology centre in the northern English city of York, where the chocolate was developed, it was money well spent.“Every time you create something as break-through as this, you learn so much... Our

scientists in Switzerland will use the knowledge gained to help us advance in other categories.” In 2016, Nestle said the product had the potential to reduce total sugar by up to 40 percent in con-fectionery. Milkybar Wowsomes have only a 30 percent reduction, partly because the chocolate shell utilizes regular sugar.

Nestle says the new sugar is made by spraying a mixture of sugar, milk powder and water into warm air which forms a porous sugar structure that melts more quickly.

Bars of Nestle’s new ‘Milkybar Wowsomes’ are displayed on a table at their Product Technology Centre in York, Britain.

Morocco not planning to sell Maroc Telecom stakeREUTERS

LONDON: Morocco is not planning to sell its remaining 30 percent stake in Maroc Telecom, its finance minister said yesterday, adding that the government had not yet made a decision on other potential privatisations.

Maroc Telecom, is the North African country’s largest telecoms operator.

“The government has a 30 percent stake left... This is not now on the table for selling,” Finance Minister Mohammed Boussaid told Reuters on the sidelines of a UK-Morocco trade and investment forum in London.

Asked about potential pri-vatisations of other com-panies, Boussaid said: “No decisions have been made yet.” In 2016, Morocco sold a 40 percent stake in state-owned port operator Marsa Maroc through an initial public offering.

Morocco has undertaken a series of reforms in recent years, including moving its dirham currency to a flexible exchange rate system in January.

The new system widened the band in which the dirham can trade against a euro and dollar basket to 2.5 percent either side of a reference price, from the previous 0.3 percent.

Boussaid the market had reacted “very positively” to this change, with the dirham staying within its historical range.

The new currency regime was part of the reforms rec-ommended by the Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF) to safeguard its reserves and protect the economy from external shocks.

In 2016, the fund also granted Morocco a two-year $3.5bn precautionary liquidity line (PLL), which runs out in June. The kingdom plans to negotiate a new form of pre-cautionary credit, but Boussaid said talks had not yet started and declined to give a date. “This new form will be under negotiation... We have time to make the evaluation, we are not in a hurry, the Moroccan economy is very strong and the reforms are going very well,” he said.

Boussaid added Morocco was looking at a possible Eurobond issue in London, adding it was in a “good position” to do so. “But we study the opportunities in the market as we need to make a trade-off with other resources,” he said. “If we do it, it’s not just for raising money, but also to tell the good story of the Moroccan economy.”

Euro fell after data showing that lending to eurozone companies slowed last month, and comments by European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen that underlying eurozone inflation may remain lower than expected even if growth is robust.

26 WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018BUSINESS

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 8,693.98 0.21 %

QE Total Return Index 15,307.93 0.03 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic

Index - Price 2,226.06 0.70 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,590.57 0.06 %

QE All Share Index 2,560.47 0.23 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 2,848.04 0.18 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,943.73 0.14 %

QE All Share Transportation 1,815.96 0.47 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,871.54 0.46 %

QE All Share Insurance 3,070.72 3.02 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,094.98 1.02 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 5,333.42 0.30 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

27-03-2018Index 8,693.98

Change 17.93

% 0.21

YTD% 2.00

Volume 7,303,845

Value (QAR) 189,591,099.78

Trades 2,415

Up 22 | Down 21 | Unchanged 226-03-2018Index 8,711.91

Change 40.75

% 0.47

YTD% 2.21

Volume 6,777,036

Value (QAR) 158,744,196.78

Trades 3,159

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR158.0755 per grammeSILVER QR1.9526 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

All Ordinaries 5943.7 42.3 0.72 6256.5 5881

Cac 40 Index/D 5137.14 70.86 1.4 5567.03 5043.27

Dj Indu Average 24202.6 669.4 2.84 26616.71 20379.55

Hang Seng Inde/D 30790.83 242.06 0.79 33484.08 29129.26

Iseq Overall/D 6522.33 75.88 1.18 7257.41 6410.26

Kse 100 Inx/D 45004.19 -79.38 -0.18 45494.52 40169.62

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 2872.87 2532.69

Currency Buying SellingUS$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 5.1075 QR 5.1798

Euro QR 4.4884 QR 4.5508

CA$ QR 2.8017 QR 2.8574

Swiss Fr QR 3.8174 QR 3.8709

Yen QR 0.03414 QR 0.0348

Aus$ QR 2.7811 QR 2.8365

Ind Re QR 0.0556 QR 0.0566

Pak Re QR 0.0311 QR 0.0319

Peso QR 0.0688 QR 0.0702

SL Re QR 0.0231 QR 0.0236

Taka QR 0.0432 QR 0.0442

Nep Re QR 0.0347 QR 0.0354

SA Rand QR 0.3089 QR 0.3153

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

Aarti Drugs-B/D 516 13.25 4343

Aban Offs-A/D 163.25 1.7 175919

Acc Ltd-A/D 1517.25 -14.3 9166

Ador Welding-B/D 383 3.85 2401

Aegis Logis-A/D 261.75 7.3 18655

Alembic-B/D 56 0.4 37581

Alkyl Amines-B/D 609.5 9.6 3592

Alok Indus-T/D 2.85 0.13 787288

Apollo Tyre-A/D 274.65 7 156457

Asahi I Glass-/D 332.2 1.25 2020

Ashok Leyland-/D 144.65 0.5 3467227

Bajaj Hold-A/D 2611 -20.65 1316

Ballarpur In-B/D 12.72 0.13 188609

Bata India-A/D 739.35 -3.4 43853

Beml Ltd-A/D 1060.05 3.65 29957

Bhansali Eng-B/D 167.75 2.45 126173

Bharat Bijle-B/D 1539.6 -10.3 1189

Bharat Ele-A/D 143.1 0.35 378060

Bharat Heavy-A/D 82.7 0.3 367898

Bharatgears-B/D 174 3.5 5217

Bhartiya Int-B/D 408 12.6 1389

Bom.Burmah-X/D 1176.2 47.2 46190

Bombay Dyeing-/D 242.2 5 675311

Canfin Homes-A/D 508.25 -14.85 142166

Caprihans-X/D 86.35 1.85 1824

Castrol India-/D 202.35 1.3 43375

Century Enka-B/D 301.55 5.4 6565

Century Text-A/D 1154.45 6.5 33103

Chambal Fert-A/D 163.9 1.3 76474

Chola Invest-A/D 1467 42.9 12395

Chowgule St-Xt/D 12.8 -0.65 5924

Cimmco-T/D 79.4 3.75 9163

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LONDON

Align Clinical CRO will create open technology standards intended to help increase sponsor and CRO productivity, reduce operational costs, and run trials faster.

27WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018 BUSINESS VIEWS

DINO GRANDONI

THE WASHINGTON POST

Meet the cicada. That’s the nickname within the Interior Department for Randal Bowman, who has worked there for more than three

decades.He got that moniker, referring to the insect

famous for reemerging every 13 or 17 years, for being a proponent of limited federal regulation who goes underground during Democratic administrations only to surface under Republican presidents to work on their energy and environmental agendas.

Outside observers on both the right and left note the resistance among government insiders to the seismic policy changes under President Donald Trump. But not every member of the “deep state” is a Democrat.

Career officials with conservative leanings within the Interior Department, the Environmental Pro-tection Agency and other federal offices are wielding newfound power in the Trump administration, often working to roll back policies they had previously helped craft.

The Post’s Juliet Eilperin and I found in a report yesterday several examples at the EPA and Interior, which are leading the charge in limiting federal power and curtailing the focus on climate change.

Bowman, who is now a special assistant to the National Park Service’s deputy director, is helping

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke choose which national monuments to recommend Trump shrink.

The president has reduced the extent of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both in Utah, by about 85 percent and 46 percent, respectively, drawing the ire of environ-mental and Native American groups. Bowman is also scrutinising whether agreements struck with some of those same politi-cally active nonprofit groups mesh with Zinke’s priorities.

Al McGartland, a career official who heads the EPA’s National Center for

Environmental Economics, argued unsuccessfully under the previous administration that Obama administration officials had overestimated the financial benefits of extending the jurisdiction of federal clean-water limits.

The regulation, called the Waters of the United States rule, proved to be dramatically unpopular in rural states with farms that would be burdened with complying with rules regulating agricultural runoff. Now under Trump, McGartland helped crunch the numbers justifying the proposed withdrawal of that 2015 rule.

And then there’s Indur Goklany, another longtime Interior employee at the department’s Office of Policy Analysis, who found himself in the depart-ment’s inner circle of leadership weeks after Trump’s inauguration.

Through the George W Bush and Barack Obama years, Goklany regularly worked with conservative think tanks skeptical of climate change, including publishing two books with the Cato Institute and speaking on panels held by the Heartland Institute. Now under Trump, he has repeatedly scrutinised the department’s climate research.

Last April, Goklany marked up an Obama-era Park Service brochure on the effects of global warming throughout the parks at the request of one of Trump’s appointees, describing a page titled “Responding to Climate Change” as “propaganda for a favored option.”

Outside observers on both the right and left note the resistance among government insiders to the seismic policy changes under President Donald Trump. But not every member of the “deep state” is a Democrat.

The switch by Elon Musk’s Tesla to the heavier-but-cheaper metal highlights how steel is fighting back against aluminium.

Aluminium wrestles with steel over electric vehicle market

ERIC ONSTAD

REUTERS

When electric car-maker Tesla Inc launched its first

mass market model last summer, it sent a shockwave through the aluminium industry by largely shifting to steel and away from the lighter weight metal it had used in its first two luxury models.

The switch by Elon Musk’s Tesla to the heavier-but-cheaper metal highlights how steel is fighting back against aluminium, which had widely been expected to be the bigger beneficiary of the electric vehicle revolution.

Aluminium had been seen as the key to offsetting the weight of batteries in order to extend the range of electric vehicles, crucial to increased consumer acceptance.

But as makers of battery-powered cars look to tap into bigger markets with cheaper

vehicles - and embrace tech-nological devel-opments in bat-teries and com-ponents - many are increasingly looking to steel to cut costs. The price of Tesla’s mass-market o r i e n t a t e d Model 3 is around half of the £70,000 luxury Model S.

“Before the aim was ‘Let’s

get the (electric vehicles) developed’, now it’s ‘Let’s get them developed at the right price point,’” says Mauro Err-iquez, a partner at McKinsey & Company in Germany who specialises in the auto sector.

It is the latest tussle in a decades-long battle between

steel and aluminium for market share among auto-makers, seeking to cut the weight of vehicles to help slash emissions and meet tough government pollution standards.

Steel is also winning back some market share among gasoline vehicles, such as the Audi A8. The latest model abandoned its heavy use of aluminium and shifted to a mix of steel, aluminium, mag-nesium and carbon fiber.

The competition between the metals has intensified amid rapidly growing demand for battery-powered cars.

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles are due to surge to 30 percent of the global auto market by 2030, according to metal consultants CRU, up from 4 percent of the 86 million vehicles sold last year.

In China, the world’s largest auto market, sales of new energy vehicles are due to grow by 40 percent this year to top 1 million vehicles, according to the China Asso-ciation of Automobile Manufacturers.

Tesla declined to comment, but in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month it said it designed the Model 3 “with a mix of mate-rials to be lightweight and safe while also increasing cost-effectiveness for this mass-market vehicle”.

Other makers of mass market electric vehicles that have also chosen steel over aluminium include Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s Leaf, the world’s best-selling all-electric vehicle, and Volkswa-gen’s e-Golf.

The e-Golf has 129kg of aluminium and the Leaf uses 171 kg while Tesla’s luxury Model S contains 661 kg of the metal , according to

Automotive Benchmarking. A detailed breakdown was not available for the Tesla 3.

Aluminium is still expected to benefit greatly from the electric vehicle rev-olution, however, especially from hybrids because they have two engines.

Both the combustion engine block and transmission are typically made of alu-minium while the metal is also often used for housing the battery and motor in electric vehicles, according to auto metals specialist AluMag in Germany.

And, because it is expected to be years before pure electric vehicles become widely used - in part due to the lack of power charging networks - the growth of hybrids in the interim is expected to benefit aluminium.

According to CRU Con-sultant Eoin Dinsmore, demand for aluminium from electric and hybrid vehicles is forecast to increase ten times to nearly 10 million tonnes by 2030.

Aluminium was used in the first electric London black cab, which launched last year, spurring the reopening of a UK aluminium plant in Wales owned by Norway’s alu-minium producer Norsk Hydro.

“We chose aluminium as a material as it is nearly three times lighter than steel in its raw form, and it absorbs twice as much energy in a crash,” said Chris Staunton, chief engineer of body structures for the firm that developed the taxi for the London Electric Vehicle Company.

Both Staunton’s firm and the London Electric Vehicle Company are owned by China’s Geely Automotive Holdings Ltd.

But aluminium remains

more expensive than steel. Benchmark aluminium futures on the London Metal Exchange are around $2,050 per tonne, more than three times the cost of LME steel rebar at $585 a tonne.

The price gap between the types of aluminium and steel used in autos was not as wide, but still represented signif-icant savings by using steel, industry experts said.

Meanwhile, stronger and cheaper batteries for electric vehicles as well as develop-ments in the components that generate power and overall structural design have lessened the need for alu-minium to cut weight to extend the range.

Since 2010, the cost of batteries have tumbled to as low as $114 per kilowatt hour from $1,000/kwh and are expected to drop further in coming years, according to AluMag.

“I think car makers are finding that as battery costs fall they can achieve their range requirement with an all-steel solution,” said George Coates, technical director for WorldAutoSteel, the auto-motive arm of the World Steel Association.

Improvements in the powertrain - the main com-ponents in a car that generate power - have also had a big impact.

The 2017 model of the Nissan Leaf extended its range by nearly 50 percent to 172 km compared to the 2011 version mainly by improving the pow-ertrain, consolidating four separate systems into one, said McKinsey’s Erriquez.

At the same time, the steel industry has developed Advanced High Strength Steel products, which are stronger and lighter than normal steel, and importantly, cheaper than aluminium.

Government insiders shaping Trump’s energy & environment agenda

A file picture of Tesla’s automated car manufacturing facility in Prüm, Germany.

Industry leaders join hands to accelerate drug developmentAFP

Six leading Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and Veeva Systems yesterday

introduced Align Clinical CRO, a new industry standards group dedicated to making it easier for sponsors and CROs to work together during clinical trials. Founding members, with input across the industry, plan to help create open technology standards intended to improve trial exe-cution and collaboration with life sciences companies.

For the first time, leading CROs, including ICON plc, Medpace, Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD), PRA Health Sciences,

Syneos Health, and UBC are coming together to develop open technology standards to transform clinical trial operations across the entire industry to speed product development.

“There is tremendous potential to enhance clinical trial execution with common tech-nology standards that benefit the entire industry,” said Henry Levy, president of Align Clinical CRO. “The assembly of Align Clinical CRO represents an important industry collaboration to improve the trial process and how the industry works together to accel-erate drug development.”

Align Clinical CRO will create open technology standards intended to help increase sponsor

and CRO productivity, reduce operational costs, and run trials faster. The group’s first standard is anticipated to be an Opera-tional Data Exchange standard to facilitate seamless information sharing between sponsors and CROs. This is expected to include the definition of a technical standard for data to be exchanged between a sponsor and a CRO relating to the operational exe-cution of a trial, including key metrics and milestone information.

CROs play an integral role in supporting drug development, with clinical outsourcing expected to increase to 50 percent by 2020. As sponsors run a growing number of trials

with multiple CROs, developing pre-competitive industry standards will help bring more consistency to trial management and address the complexity of trial oversight to make drug development processes more efficient.

Align Clinical CRO will post its Operational Data Exchange standard for public review and input later this year, which will also be reviewed and considered as part of the adoption of pro-posed standards. Visit AlignClin-icalCRO.org to learn about the group’s mission and stay up-to-date on the standards in development.

“Leading experts are coming together in Align Clinical CRO to

streamline how data is shared between CROs and sponsors during trials,” said Thomas O’Leary, chief information officer at ICON plc. “We look forward to contributing to the group and creating standards that drive greater speed and pro-ductivity across the industry.”

“Align Clinical CRO will play an important role in helping the industry accelerate innovation and get new treatments to patients faster,” said Mark Roseman, senior vice-president of clinical operations at Medpace. “We are excited to join forces with like-minded CROs that want to move the industry forward and make clinical trial execution more efficient.”

28 WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018

INsightback to BUSINESS

CAPITALCOMMENT

As Novartis bets on new drugs, Glaxo for $13bn consumer push LONDON/BLOOMBERG

The new bosses of two of Europe’s largest drugmakers are pivoting in different directions, with GlaxoSmithKline Plc doubling down on consumer health as Novartis AG

focuses on finding new prescription medicines.Glaxo Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley’s $13bn deal

for Novartis’s stake in a joint venture that includes Panadol pain relievers and Theraflu cold medicine comes only days after the UK company abandoned its pursuit of Pfizer Inc.’s consumer unit. The deal gives Novartis’s Vas Narasimhan more firepower for the Swiss giant’s drug business and acquisitions.

Narasimhan, who rose to the top spot last month, has said the over-the-counter business is no longer central to the strategy as he focuses on breakthroughs for cancer and other diseases. Walmsley, who took over last year, has emphasized the benefit of combining the more steadily performing con-sumer and vaccine businesses under the same roof as the more volatile pharmaceutical operations.

Glaxo’s three-pronged strategy means being “leaders in each of those businesses,” said Tara Raveendran, an analyst at Shore Capital in London. “In consumer in particular you need scale, and there aren’t that many assets out there that would have given them momentum to achieve that.” Glaxo shares rose as much as 4.7 percent yesterday in London, while Novartis rose as much as 2.1 percent in Zurich.

The consumer health sector’s pricing has come under pressure as drugstores and other retailers vie for shoppers. Glaxo’s investors balked last year when Walmsley mentioned interest in the Pfizer unit, fearing that it might endanger the British drugmaker’s dividend. The new CEO has said that strengthening Glaxo’s pharma business remains her top priority.

Removing Uncertainty Novartis had the right, starting this month, to require Glaxo to purchase its stake in the venture. The new agreement removes uncertainty surrounding that option, Glaxo said yesterday.

The consumer business expects operating margins to improve and approach “mid-20s” per-centages by 2022, Glaxo said. The sale of the 36.5 percent stake in the venture, which was formed in 2015, will strengthen Novartis’s ability to drive shareholder returns and make acqui-sitions, Narasimhan said Tuesday in a statement. The deal should close in the second quarter, Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis said.

“While our consumer health-care joint venture with GSK is progressing well, the time is right for Novartis to divest a noncore asset at an attractive price,” Narasimhan said.

Narasimhan is focusing on its pharma business and R&D. Novartis reiterated in January that a decision on whether to spin off the Alcon eye-care division probably won’t come before the first half of 2019.

The deal with Glaxo may have been prompted by an “imminent bolt-on deal,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note.

Glaxo is starting a review of its Horlicks unit and other con-sumer-health nutrition products to help fund the transaction and increase focus on the over-the-counter and oral-health categories.

The company expects to conclude that process around the end of 2018. Indian Subsidiary Glaxo said it will examine selling the stake it holds in its publicly traded Indian consumer health subsidiary, worth about $3.1bn, as it looks for ways to finance the Novartis buyout.

Sergei StrigoHead of Emerging Market Debt and Currencies Amundi Asset Management

We still like Russia as an in-vestment opportunity. With oil

prices at these levels, macr-oeconomic indicators in Russia

remain very strong.

Iraq may build oil storage in Japan to drive Asian salesREUTERS

BAGHDAD: Iraq is studying the possibility of building crude oil storage facilities in South Korea and Japan as part of a plan to increase sales to Asian clients, the head of the Iraqi state-oil marketer SOMO, Alaa al-Yasiri, said on Tuesday.

“SOMO’s new strategy is to form trade arms in Asian markets to maximise profits and boost crude shipments to Asian markets,” he told reporters in Baghdad.

SOMO received offers from Exxon Mobil, Total, Japan’s Sumitomo and China’s Unipec, to take part

in marketing Iraqi crude, he said.

“We are studying building crude storages in South Korea and also Japan and we’re also studying options to have partnership between SOMO and companies which are ready to help with building the storages,” Yasiri said.

Iraq plans to stop loading crude from its southern port of Basra for three to four days in early April due to mainte-nance, he said. During the halt of loading operations at Basra port, Iraq will divert production to storage depots in south. Once the mainte-nance work is done, it will pump at maximum capacity

to make up the shortfall. Opec’s second-largest pro-ducer, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq exports most of its crude from the Basra region, on the Gulf.

The Basra port loading capacity is estimated at around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd). Iraq has 10 million barrels in oil storage capacity in the southern region, Yasiri said.

Iraq’s crude output should not exceed 4.360 million barrels per day in compliance with a deal between oil exporting nations to curb supply in order to lift prices, he also said. March oil exports won’t exceed 3.426 million bpd, he said.

Nasser H. Al Ansari, CEO, Just Real Estate (JRE) at his office/Picture on special arrangement.

Affordable luxury is new normal in Qatari property market: JRESATISH KANADY

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: After almost a decade of runaway prices, Qatar’s real estate market is turning a corner. The shift is bringing in a new investment theme to the market -affordable luxury. The prices have moved to a point that the luxury units have become very affordable, believes Just Real Estate (JRE) CEO Nasser H. Al Ansari.

Qatar’s real estate market is still dynamic, but the speculative businesses used to thrive in the market for the past ten years are no longer going to stay here.The prices have moved to a point that even the luxury units became very affordable. Easy availability of lands, a series of government decisions to support the industry and a steep fall in construction costs; allhave helped strike a realistic chord with Qatar’s real estate industry, he told The Peninsula in an interview.

“The character of the market has changed. If you think, you

can lease and rents units the same way you used to do five years ago when the market was short of supply.... it’s not going to be there anymore. If you think you can buy a land for a million riyal and can flip it for 10 million riyal.. I bet, that’s not going to work anymore in the market.But,the market is still dynamic and there are many areas where investments are st i l l attractive.”Al Ansari said . Though affordable luxury is still a niche market in Qatar’s real estate industry, it is fast expanding its base in Qatar. An affordable luxury home has all the attributes of a premium property, but is affordable to larger segment of population.

JRE sees a radical shift in the consumer behaviour in local market as well. With prices coming down more and more families are showing a tendency to join fresh units. This is creating a momentum in the market.

JRE, the developers of over nearly a dozen iconic projects in Qatar and an equal number of

properties in international market, is now looking to further reinforce its presence in London and Turkey. While there is a general post-Brexit slump in market sentiment towards the UK, JRE continues to see value in real estate across the UK, especially in London.

There is growing appetite for Qataris in the London property market. The investors see attractive returns even in this risk-off climate, says Al Ansari.

The beauty of the London market is that the way the City of London con trolls the supply and demand and the way they approve projects. Investment in certain areas will ensure that your properties are appreciated at least from 1.5 to 2 percent annually. The steep fall in sterling is additional attraction for Qatari investors.

There is a growing appetite for Qataris in the London property market. Qataris are now increasingly investing in London and Turkey. There are

lots of entrepreneurial Qataris who are now investing in Georgia and Bosnia and exploring new markets in Europe, he said. Al Ansari believes it is time to take the JRE to next level and the company is in the process of setting up a huge real estate fund.The idea is to set up the fund in associ-ation with an investment bank. He said JRE is still studying on the size of the fund. “The idea is to raise the fund from domestic market,” he said.

Armed with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Miami, and an MBA from the esteemed HEC Paris, Al Ansari is a strong believer in Qatar’s ongoing economic diversifi-cation programme. As visionary property development leader, Al Ansari, who is also the former CEO of Qatari Diar,played critical role in the management of Qatar’s several prestigious projects, including Doha Inter-national Airport, Doha Port, Lusail City project and the iconic West Bay Lagoon project.

Glaxo’s three-pronged strategy means being “leaders in each of those businesses,” said Tara Raveendran, an analyst at Shore Capital in London.