PAGE | 24PAGE | 23Banks lure $30bn deposits as Indians struggle for cash

BUSINESSBUSINESSOil taking

on green sheen

Monday 14 November 2016

Dow & Brent before going to press

QDB’s financial support to firms exceeds QR6bnSachin KumarThe Peninsula

Various services offered by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has benefitted more than 5,000

Qataris. The bank has provided over QR6bn through its direct lending programme said Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer, QDB, yesterday.

“QDB has provided more than QR6bn as direct lending while our Al Dameen

programme- a partial guarantee scheme-has surpassed QR1bn mark. Our guarantees for exports have exceeded QR600m,” said Al Khalifa, speaking at the open-ing ceremony of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Qatar. “So far, over 5000 Qatari entrepreneurs have benefitted by various services offered by QDB,” he added.

The second edition of the week-long event is being organ-ised by QDB at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Cen-tre. Local entrepreneurs are displaying a wide range of prod-ucts, including accessories,

clothes, flowers, food, gifts, and perfumes.

“Under our Jahez programme, which is a joint initiative between QDB and the Ministry of Energy and Industry, we are building 46 factories and are focusing on five main sectors- electronics, plas-tic, chemical, wood and food. We are focused at creating next gen-eration of industrial Qataris,” he said.

QDB’s Jahez initiative focuses on leasing complete and equipped facilities to Qatari SMEs and entre-preneurs to encourage them to establish innovative and environ-mentally friendly businesses. The

initiative also aims to accelerate the trend towards a diversified and knowledge-based economy to achieve sustainable economic development, which is considered a key element of Qatar National Vision 2030.

QDB has awarded 86 con-tracts worth QR42m and another six contracts of 70m are in the final phase of award. This year’s GEW Qatar is the latest in a series of the bank’s initiatives to pro-mote the private sector.

Dr Maher Hakim, Managing Director, Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) also addressed the vent.,

Saudi oil minister says Opec production cut 'imperative'Algiers AFP

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said it was "imperative" that Opec nations finalise

an agreement over a cut in oil production aimed at boosting crude prices, Algerian media said yesterday.

Khalid al-Falih met his Alge-rian counterpart Noureddine Boutarfa on Saturday and called on cartel members to stick to the surprise cut deal, reached in Algiers in September.

"In this period marked by unstable oil prices it is impera-tive to reach a consensus between Opec nations and to agree on an effective mecha-nism and precise figures to

activate the historic Algiers accord," Falih was quoted as saying by Algeria's APS news agency.

The September meeting of Opec members produced an agreement to cut the cartel's output by 750,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to Bloomb-erg News. Oil rose on news of the deal, but crude prices are still more than 50 percent lower than their mid-2014 levels.

Falih said he was "optimis-tic" that the agreement would come into effect.

The Saudi minister was quoted as saying that a "fair and balanced" output deal would allow unrest-hit Libya and Nigeria, with a return of secu-rity, to raise production, while

reaching agreement with Iran on a freeze.

Falih and his Algerian coun-terpart Boutarfa called for the date an Opec preparatory meet-ing of experts ahead of the Vienna conference to be brought forward to November 21 from its scheduled date of November 25, APS reported.

Opec officials said in Sep-tember that the group would aim for a combined output of 32.5-33 million bpd.

On Friday, however, prices fell on news from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it had pumped oil in October at record levels of 33.64 million bpd, 236,000 bar-rels per day more than the previous month.

US regulator has opened Audi investigationCalifornia Reuters

A US government regula-tor has started investigating Volkswa-

gen's Audi brand over a reported discovery of a new cheat software device at the luxury carmaker, Bild am Son-ntag reported, without citing the source of the information.

The German weekly paper said a week ago that the Cali-fornia Air Resources Board (CARB) had this summer discov-ered cheating software in an automatic transmission Audi which is unrelated to the device that triggered last year's diesel emissions test-cheating scandal at parent VW.

The software in CARB's dis-covery lowered carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by detecting whether a car's steering wheel was turned as it would be when driving on a road, Bild had said.

The US Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) has initiated proceedings against Audi and will next week hear senior VW group engineers, without elaborating.

Spokespeople for the EPA as well as Audi's and VW's Ger-many-based headquarters declined comment. But two people briefed on the matter said the US government is ask-ing questions about it and whether it constitutes a defeat device in gasoline powered vehicles.

Citi to move 900 staff to Dublin US bank Citi (C.N) is preparing to move up to 900 jobs from London to Dublin as part of its contingency plans for Britain's exit from the European Union, the Sunday Times reported.

The bank held a board meeting in Dublin last month, and cited sources in the Irish capital as saying Citi was exploring options for office space there."They have been testing the Irish political and regulatory regime on a macro level," it quoted one source as saying.

Last month the UK head of Citi, which has 9,000 UK employees, said jobs in Lon-don's financial sector would move to other EU countries.

QCB Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani (second right), and QDB Chief Executive Officer Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa (right) cutting ribbon to mark the launch of GEW Qatar.Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

18,847.66 +39.78 PTS

0.21%DOW

9,871.73-89.22 PTS

0.90%

QE$43.12$43.12-1.25-1.25

6,730.43 97.55 PTS

1.43%

FTSE100 BRENT

22 MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

The Peninsula

With the high level of Inter-n e t penetration and strong

economic fundamentals, the GCC region has the potential to become the world’s fastest grow-ing e-commerce playground, finds a latest report by A T Kear-ney, a prominent global consultancy.

However, the report titled ‘Getting in on the GCC E-com-merce Game’, suggests that despite strong economic funda-mentals, the GCC is one of the most under penetrated e-com-merce markets in the world. However, with high levels of dis-posal income, world-leading Internet and smart phone pen-etration, and changing consumer preferences, there is robust potential in the region, and some companies are beginning to seize the opportunities.

Currently, the e-commerce market in the region is much

smaller compared to mature markets with similar economic fundamentals. With an estimated market size of $5.3bn (QR19.29bn) in 2015, e-com-merce contributes only about 0.4 percent to the region’s GDP– a miniscule amount which is 4-8 times lower than other compa-rable markets. According to the report, there are several obsta-cles preventing e-commerce in

the GCC region from reaching its potential, including consumer trust and awareness, gaps in payment systems, distribution and logistical infrastructure, gov-ernment policies, data security and fraud. Furthermore, e-com-merce offerings from the retailer side are also lacking. The A T Kearney study reveals 34 per-cent of major GCC retailers have an e-commerce channel, com-pared to 58 percent in the United States.

However, there are signifi-cant opportunities to overcome these challenges and facilitate growth in the sector, with the

study expecting, the market to quadruple its value to $20bn by 2020 if the right set of enablers are put in place.

Commenting on the report, Laurent Viviez (pictured), Part-ner, A T Kearney said: “We expect the growth of e-com-merce in the GCC to transform the future of businesses, eco-nomics and lives across the region – but only with the right set of enablers in place. And it doesn’t rule out traditional retailers, who can be on the win-ning side of e-commerce by adopting an omni-channel approach. We see the future for the sector as not digital-only but ‘physical with digital’ –tradi-tional retailers can really tap into this.”

The report states that online payments and wary shoppers are among the biggest factors hold-ing back e-commerce growth in GCC. As a result of these factors, 60 percent of online orders are still paid in cash at the time of delivery. Cash on delivery is not only expensive for retailers as they bear transaction and cash

transportation risks, but also affects negatively impacts cash flow.

“This should be a focus area for retailers as they select best payment options to ensure trans-action security as well as enjoyable customer experience. They need to form payment eco-systems to ensure inter operability, and forge strategic partnerships with the best-of-breed providers that are already active in this space and also ena-ble mobile-based payments collaborating with telecom play-ers and taking advantage of the region’s high mobile penetra-tion,” commented Adel Belcaid, Principal, A T Kearney.

With opportunities galore, it is prime time for the GCC to take the plunge and drive growth in its e-commerce sector. As con-sumers become more tech-savvy and embrace e-commerce, e-tailers will have the first-mover advantage. Traditional retailers that took a wait-and-see-approach will need to act now to reserve a share of this fast-growing market.

GCC e-trade sector set for giant leap Barriers

$5.3bn

60%

With a market size of $5.3bn in 2015, e-trade contributes only about 0.4% to the GDP.

60% of online orders are still paid in cash at the time of delivery.

The Peninsula

International Standard Asset Management (ISAM), a lead-ing global Alternative

I n v e s t m e n t M a n a g e r , announced yesterday that it has received the 2016 Hedge Fund Award from AIM Summit for “Best Managed Futures Provider with assets under management (AUM) in excess of $1bn."

The accolade was presented to Antoine Massad, Chief Exec-utive Officer of ISAM Middle East, Africa and the Indian Sub-continent, during the awards ceremony which was held in Dubai and attended by over 250 hedge funds managers, inves-tors and industry experts. The AIM 2016 Awards celebrates leadership, performance and excellence in the hedge funds industry. Winners are selected

by a panel of independent judges of industry professionals from private and public institu-tional investors for their outstanding work within the asset class.

Antoine Massad said: “We are delighted to receive this award which is another testa-ment to our proven track record that can be traced back to 1983. Our Systematic Trend fund has one of the oldest and most suc-cessful heritage in the industry. This accolade recognises our team’s focused approach in offering clients the ability to diversify their portfolios using instruments and tools that offer risk-adjusted returns away from traditional markets.”

ISAM is recognised for its leadership in Systematic Trad-ing within Managed Futures. The company has won numerous international Hedge Fund

awards for its excellence in Managed Futures. Its flagship fund, ISAM Systematic Trend, uses managed futures to trade in over 200 global and com-modity futures markets, capturing profits from market divergence.

It is a systematic, statistically based investment strategy designed to have a low correla-t ion with tradit ional investments, including stocks and bonds, and which aims to profit primarily from both ris-ing and falling market trends.

ISAM is an alternative investment manager which spe-cialises in quantitative investing.

The management team has amassed over 150 years of expe-rience in the institutional alternative asset management space and,particularly, in sys-tematic investing.

ISAM wins Hedge Fund Award Officials during the award distribution ceremony.

The Peninsula

VODAFONE shared its global expertise in tackling cyberwarfare at the recent Qatar Central Bank (QCB) 3rd annual ‘Information Security Conference’ for the financial sector. This is also the second time Vodafone participates as a sponsor of the event.

Vodafone Qatar’s Director of Information Security Shaik Abdulkhader (pictured)deliv-ered a presentation on Cyberwarfare and showcased Vodafone’s cyber security portfolio for both the con-sumer and enterprise segments such as its DDoS mitigation Service and Secure Device Management.

Vodafone’s Chief Business Officer Mahmud Awad said, “Cyberwarfare is the number 1 national security threat ahead of terrorism and espio-nage with cyber-attacks continuing to evolve in the region and show a continua-tion of extremely high volume of attacks posing a huge risk to organisations and govern-ments. Vodafone is committed to bringing our global exper-tise and leading edge technology to Qatar to help protect organisations and peo-ple whilst contributing to the development of a knowledge based economy.”

The Peninsula

KPMG in Qatar has recently become an accredited training provider for the

Institute of Chartered Account-ants in England and Wales’ Chartered Accountant qualifi-cation - the ACA.

The ACA is one of the most advanced learning and profes-sional development programs available. It provides

participants with an in-depth understanding across account-ancy, finance and business, helping build the technical knowledge, professional skills and practical experience par-ticipants need to become an ICAEW Chartered Accountants. Omar Mahmood, Audit Partner and ICAEW’s Qatar represent-ative said “At KPMG in Qatar we are committed to continually providing our people with

opportunities to develop their skills and attain professional qualifications. By enabling our people to take the ACA qualifi-cation, we are not only enriching their personal skills but also ensuring that our cli-ents have the most qualified and technically able teams support-ing them.”

KPMG in Qatar currently employs around 30 chartered a c c o u n t a n t s a n d

several people are currently undertaking professional qual-ifications to achieve this. To become a chartered account through taking the ACA, partic-ipants are required to complete a minimum of 450 days of prac-tical work experience from an authorised training employer, as well as completing 15 mod-ules across a variety of topics.

Omar currently leads the Doha Chapter of ICAEW and

will be the ‘Qualified Person Responsible for Training (QPRT)’ for all KPMG employ-ees intending to pursue the course. The ICAEW promotes, develops and supports more than 146,000 members world-wide. The institute provides members with knowledge and guidance, and ensure ICAEW Chartered Accountants are meeting the highest ethical and technical standards.

KPMG in Qatar becomes accredited ACA training provider

Vodafone shares expertise in tackling cyberwarfare

23MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

Banks lure $30bn deposits as Indians struggle for cash

Emerging Market rout extends to Gulf stocks on Trump policy riskDubai Bloomberg

The biggest emerging-mar-ket stock selloff in more than a year extended to

the Gulf on concern US Presi-dent-elect Donald Trump will change oil agreements and his nation’s relationships with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The DFM General Index in Dubai, which counts Iran as a trading partner, dropped for a third day, losing 1.5 percent as of 12:58pm local time. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index fell 1 percent. Qatar’s QE Index retreated 0.7 percent.

Trump this year promised independence from OPEC and vowed to dismantle a nuclear deal with Iran that unlocked the nation’s crude exports. He also said he would approve a

pipeline from Canada to the US, which would curb demand for oil from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, most of whose governments rely on energy revenue to fund spending.

“No one knows what Trump’s policies toward the Middle East will be, and that kind of uncertainty keeps inves-tors away,” said Talal Touqan, the head of research at Abu Dhabi-based Al Ramz Capital LLC, a brokerage and invest-ment bank. “Will he increase production from Canada and break oil agreements? What will his policies be toward Iran and Saudi Arabia?”

Stocks across emerging markets fell for a third day through Friday on concern that Trump’s plan to boost spending will raise inflation, leading to

more frequent Federal Reserve interest-rate increases. The rout extended to bonds and curren-cies, including all three of Saudi Arabia’s U.S. dollar bonds, which fell every day since he won the election.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian stocks have continued to rally after the government sold $17.5bn of bonds last month, an emerging-market record.

The Tadawul All Share Index, which entered a bull mar-ket last week, gained for a seventh straight day on Sunday, adding 1.5 percent. The gauge has advanced 16 of the past 18 days.

Kuwait’s SE Price Index slipped 0.2 percent. The Bah-rain Bourse All Share Index fell 0.1 percent and the Muscat Securities MSM 30 Index was lit-tle changed.

Mumbai Bloomberg

Indian government’s sur-prise move to ban high-denomination ban-knotes on November 8 has seen lenders lure 2 trillion

rupees ($29.8bn), as customers across the nation queue for hours to deposit the old bills.

The decision has also put tre-mendous pressure on the banking system to replenish the funds, as the banned bills accounted for 86 percent of money in circulation. More than 70 million transactions were recorded up to mid-day of November 12, the Ministry of

Finance said in a statement late Saturday. There’s adequate money in the currency chests at more than 4,000 locations and re-configuration of dispensing

machines to disburse new notes will be completed within two weeks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

Lenders have been caught out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unexpected and widely-praised announcement of the withdrawal of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, part of a crackdown on tax evasion and the underground economy. The Reserve Bank of India yesterday urged the public not to be anxious and avoid going to banks repeatedly to draw and hoard cash.

“A big regret is that people are getting inconvenienced, but currency replacement of this magnitude will cause some prob-lems,” Jaitley said at a press

conference in New Delhi on Sat-urday. “There are long, but orderly queues. Such a big cur-rency replacement can’t be done overnight.”

Jaitley urged people to wait for a few days and to conduct financial transactions using elec-tronic transfers, checks and credit and debit cards. Modi is seeking to fulfill his election promise of recovering illegal income, locally known as black money.

The government will take more steps to curb tax evasion, includ-ing action against benami property, he said at an event in Goa on Sun-day. Benami is property actually owned by someone but held in the name of a third party. Even so, the cash crisis has seen people

standing for hours in long lines to exchange the now-defunct notes, and political rivals of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party relaying images of the chaos on social

media. The government deliber-ately didn’t reconfigure the more than 200,000 cash machines beforehand to help keep the announcement a secret, Jaitley said.

Daimler boss shares vision of zero-emission carsBerlin Reuters

The chairman of Germa-ny’s largest luxury carmaker, Daimler-Benz,

braved boos and a frosty recep-tion as guest speaker at a Greens party congress yester-day to tell delegates he too wants CO2-free cars on the roads. Dieter Zetsche, whose company is demonised by many Greens, said the firm had not missed the boat developing electric cars and said it backs climate protection goals.

But he dismissed their call to ban the sale of new cars powered by petrol or diesel by 2030.

“Many of you probably thought ‘Letting the Daimler boss talk about transportation here is like letting (Donald) Trump talk about women’s

policies’,” Zetsche joked to 800 delegates at the environmen-talist party’s annual congress in Muenster. Yet Zetsche disarmed the Greens by saying he backed one of their central policies for the 2017 election, namely that the car industry’s future depends on developing emis-sion-free cars.

“It might surprise some of you but I agree entirely,” said Zetsche, who appeared tie-less and in the same sort of running shoes many Greens wear even on formal occasions.

“The decarbonisation of industrial nations is necessary and carmakers will have to play a role,” he added. Even though demand for cars keeps rising globally, “we’ll have to cut the CO2 emissions of all the cars we manufacture. We’ll live up to o u r c l i m a t e p o l i c y responsibilities.”

Saudi bourse lists first real estate fundSAUDI Arabia's stock exchange listed its first real estate fund yesterday and said it expects more listings to follow in com-ing months, as authorities try to stimulate the non-oil econ-omy to offset a slump in energy revenues.

Riyad REIT, launched by Riyad Capital, the investment arm of the kingdom's fourth-largest listed bank by assets, Riyad Bank, was capitalised at SR500m ($133m) and aims to invest in revenue-gener-ating real estate in four Saudi cities. The fund, whose fair value is 10 riyals for each of its 50 million units, rose its 10 percent daily limit yesterday, closing at 11 riyals per unit.

In October, the capital markets regulator approved rules for exchange-listed real estate funds as part of efforts to ramp up investment.

India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

Dry ATMsGovernment deliberately didn’t reconfigure the more than 200,000 cash machines to keep the move secret.

Machines are being re-calibrated so that they can dispense new notes.

The empennage of two Falcons 7X aircrafts in maintenance inside the Dassault Falcon Service (DFS) facility, in Merignac. The French aircraft manufacturer new facilities can handle any type of Falcon aircrafts

Oil taking on green sheen; companies take stake in renewablesParis AFP

The companies that drill black gold are going a lit-tle bit green: taking stakes

in renewable energies that are growing rapidly, enabling oil firms to diversify revenue and show commitment to fighting cli-mate change.

In the past, such swings have been written off by environmen-tal campaigners as greenwash, and just as likely to be reversed once low oil prices go up again.

But analysts say that, even though only a tiny percent of oil

majors' investment goes into renewables, the interest this time seems to be sustained, and underpinned by solid profit. "It is not a purely economic trend" driven by low crude prices, said Francis Perrin, president of SPE, which publishes a number of energy-related publications.

"It's more profound: it's the adaption of certain oil industry majors to a certain number of energy and economic upheav-als." Perrin suggested oil companies were more cognisant of the threat posed by climate change and the potential that renewable energy will become

big business. Already present in the manufacturing of solar pan-els via its unit Sunpower, France's Total earlier this year invested in a US company that installs mini wind turbines for homes and businesses. Italy's ENI plans to invest $1.1bn over the next three years in solar projects, while Shell, BP and Statoil are concen-trating on wind power. In the US, Chevron is switching its bets from geothermal to biofuels, although ExxonMobil remains lagging in the green energy field.

With the price of crude in the doldrums, "the priority for oil com-panies is creating value" said

Jerome Sabathier, head of the eco-nomics department at IFPEN, a French government body that sup-ports research into the renewable energies, the environment and

transportation. Most oil companies are trying to cut costs and reduce their debts, selling off non-strate-gic assets. While oil companies have been slashing investment as they seek to cut costs, the chief execu-tive of Total, Patrick Pouyanne (pictured) noted the company has continued to allocated $500 mil-lion per year on renewable energies. And often their efforts are supported by public funds.

"There are a certain number of financing mechanisms and subsi-dies for renewable energy that create a real financial interest for companies," said IFPEN's Sabathier.

Gulf money won't leave TrumpDubai Reuters

Gulf executives who were upset by Don-a l d T r u m p ' s campaign trail com-m e n t s a b o u t

Muslims took a conciliatory tone following his election victory and said they were open for business with the United States.

In Dubai, boards displaying the President-elect's name and his support for a DAMAC project to build a gated community, spa and Trump-branded golf course can be seen from a road on the edge of the city.

Gulf business links with Trump and other US firms are strong. The United States imported $32.4bn of goods including oil from the six Gulf countries in 2015 and the region is the most important client base for Boeing and a number of US defence firms.

The Gulf's sovereign wealth funds also have hundreds of bil-lions of dollars of US investments.

Nevertheless, Arab business figures were angry about Trump's campaign calls for Mus-lims to be banned from entering the United States, following the

murder of 14 people in San Ber-nardino, California, by a Muslim couple in December 2015.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, head of investment firm Kingdom Holding which has stakes in US firms including Cit-igroup and Twitter was among those wishing him well on Wednesday, tweeting: "President elect @realDonaldTrump what-ever the past differences, America has spoken, congratu-lations & best wishes for your presidency." Another billionaire businessman, Khalaf Al-Habtoor, who worked with Trump on a construction project that was halted in 2008, wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper in August last year backing Trump for the presidency.

But Habtoor backtracked after Trump's Muslim comments and said Gulf money would quit the US if he won.

Speaking to Arabian Busi-ness on Wednesday, Habtoor insisted Trump's comments on Muslims "were for the election only" and he would now tone down his rhetoric, something that would open the door to re-establishing good relations with the Gulf.

Political ties between the United States and the Gulf, in

particular Saudi Arabia, have been strained by President Barack Obama's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, which has led to opinions that Amer-ica has abandoned its long-term allies in favour of their regional rival. Relations were also dam-aged by the US Congress's approval in September of legis-lation which paves the way for families of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

Some Gulf firms reassessed their links with Trump at the end of last year: DAMAC temporar-ily removed references to his name from advertising, and regional retailer Landmark

Group pulled a Trump-branded line of homeware from its Life-style chain of department stores.

But a spokeswoman for DAMAC told Reuters on Thurs-day that Trump-linked projects still carried his name. Landmark Group declined to comment.

Mohammed Al-Ardhi, exec-utive chairman of alternative investment firm Investcorp, which has billions of dollars in US real estate and other invest-ments, was complementary about Trump.

"Investcorp knows that Mr. Trump is fair because we com-peted against him on the Tiffany acquisition and he did not mind us winning that deal," Ardhi told an investor event on Wednes-day, referring to its 1984 purchase of the New York jew-ellery firm. Gulf sovereign wealth funds have invested huge sums of cash into the American economy.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has the largest geo-graphical weighting for its estimated-$792bn portfolio in North America at between 35 and 50 percent. It owns signifi-cant amounts of real estate for example, including a number of high-end hotels in major US cities.

Billionaire Wang bets $14.7bn on Wanda City & Malls Hong Kong Bloomberg

Dalian Wanda Group Co. is investing 100bn yuan ($14.7bn) to build a

theme park complex and series of commercial centers in Chi-na’s central Hunan province, as its chairman Wang Jianlin tar-gets to surpass Walt Disney Co. to build the world’s largest tourism company by 2020.

The Beijing-based conglom-erate has signed an agreement with the local government to plow 50 billion yuan in a Wanda City project in Changsha, the provincial capital, with the remainder of the investment to build 15 Wanda Plaza malls in cities such as Yueyang and Changde.

Wanda plans to have 15 Wanda City projects in China by 2020, betting on strength in numbers to become the biggest Chinese theme parks operator amid rising competition from overseas investors such as Dis-ney. The $5.5bn Shanghai Disney, which opened in June, attracted four million visitors in its first four months and will be close to breaking even in its first full year of operations, the US company said.

Wang, China’s second-rich-est person, earlier this year challenged Disney saying he

would drive his theme parks rival out of China. The billion-aire has since sought to mend ties, visiting the Shanghai resort last month and calling on Dis-ney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger on a trip to the US.

The Changsha investment follows two Wanda City projects which opened earlier this year in Hefei and Nanchang, eastern cities that are within four-hour’s train ride from Shanghai. Wang also plans to open five of the resorts overseas. Building more of the Wanda Plaza commercial complexes would add to the 133 that the company already owns in the country, boosting its prop-erty portfolio.

Slowdown in UK house-price growthLondon Bloomberg

London’s priciest neighbor-hoods are weighing down house-price growth in the

UK, according to Acadata and LSL Property Services Plc.

The average value of a British home rose 3 percent in the year to October, the groups said in a report published on Saturday. Excluding London and the southeast, average prices rose 3.6 percent. From a month earlier, national prices gained 0.4 percent in October to

294,351 pounds ($366,000).London’s property market

has been hardest hit by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the imposition of a stamp duty surcharge on invest-ment properties in April. Price growth is at its lowest since Feb-ruary 2012, while another report on Thursday highlighted that home values in the capital had fallen for eight consecutive months. Prices outside of Lon-don have continued to rise however, supported by an imbalance between supply and demand.

“In the short-to-medium term, the outlook for the hous-ing market remains modest,” Acadata chairman Peter Wil-liams and housing analyst John Tindale said in the report. “In the longer term, the strength of the underlying demand/supply imbalance comes through more strongly.”

In the capital’s five most expensive boroughs -- includ-ing the City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, and Camden -- prices on the year fell 8.6 percent, equivalent to 108,050 pounds.

PetroRabigh to shut ethane cracker for 21 daysDubai Reuters

SAUDI Arabia's Rabigh Refin-ing and Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh) will shut its ethane cracker for 21 days effective from November 14 for maintenance, the com-pany said in a bourse filing on yesterday.

The suspension, which aims to improve the plant's safety and efficiency, will impact the firm's fourth-quarter earnings by around 375 million riyals ($100 mil-lion), the statement added.

It is the second time in recent months that the firm, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has shut the unit. PetroRabigh shut the cracker down as a precaution on June 23 to work on damage to one of the unit's turbines, restart-ing it on July 14.

Saudi Aramco and Sum-itomo Chemical started the Petro Rabigh Project with the aim of building integrated oil refining and petrochemical operations by way of upgrad-ing Saudi Aramco’s oil refinery and constructing a new petrochemical complex. A joint venture agreement was signed between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical in August 2005.

Zain Saudi to pay $58.5m to MobilyDubai Reuters

Saudi Arabia's third-biggest telecom operator Zain Saudi has been ordered to

pay Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) 219.46 million riyals ($58.51mil-lion) following an arbitration award, the companies said yesterday.

The kingdom's second-big-gest operator, Mobily asked for arbitration in December 2014 over money it said was owed related to services to Zain Saudi, an affiliate of Kuwait's Zain Group , which included domestic roaming and site sharing.

At the time, Mobily did not disclose how much money it was seeking from Zain Saudi in arbitration but noted that it was owed 2.2 billion riyals as of November 30, 2013.

Shares in Mobily jumped 6.4 percent in the first few min-utes of trading on the news of the arbitration award, and Zain KSA's stock was 0.6 percent higher. Mobily, an affiliate of Abu Dhabi's Etisalat, said it intended to start the necessary procedures to collect the

award, which was communi-cated to the company on November 10, with the award "final and binding on both parties".

Zain Saudi said the judge-ment was not enforceable for 60 days, during which time the company had the right to apply to the competent court for invalidity of the judgement.

The company has not yet taken a decision on such an appeal, according to its state-ment. An industry source said Zain Saudi was unlikely to launch such an action.

Doing businessThe United States imported $32.4bn of goods including oil from the six Gulf countries in 2015.

Some Gulf firms , including DAMAC, reassessed their links with Trump at the end of last year.

Investments

$500m

$1.1bn

Total has continued to invest in renewable energies. Its efforts are supported by public funds.

ENI plans to invest $1.1bn over the next three years in solar projects.

ArbitrationMobily asked for arbitration in December 2014. It did not disclose how much money it was seeking.

Shares in Mobily jumped 6.4 percent in the first few minutes of trading on the news.

City projectsWanda plans to have 15 Wanda City projects in China by 2020, betting on strength in numbers to become thebiggest Chinesetheme parks operator.

Wang, earlier this year challenged Disney saying he would drive his theme parks rival out of China.

24 MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

Innovation

Egyptian stock market rises further Dubai Reuters

EGYPT'S stock market rose sharply early yes-terday in heavy volume, heading for a 12th straight session of gains following the International Mone-tary Fund’s approval of a three-year, $12bn loan for the country.The IMF has already disbursed an initial installment of $2.75bn to Egypt’s Central Bank. The IMF loan approval had been widely expected, but this plus Egypt’s deci-sion to float its currency on November 3 has made investors optimis-tic that the market can look forward to major inflows of foreign money. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch recommended buy-ing Egyptian Treasury bills unhedged, reviving a trade that had been popular among foreign investors before polit-ical upheaval in 2011 ushered in years of eco-nomic instability.

Toyota to pay $3.4bn for settling dispute San Francisco AFP

TOYOTA has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit and pay approxi-mately $3.4bn to owners of trucks and SUVs in the United States who complained that their vehicles lacked proper rust protection.The agreement relates to some 1.5m Toy-ota Tacomas, Sequoias and Tundras sold in the United States by the Japanese manufacturer between 2005 and 2010. Plaintiffs allege that the frames in the vehicles did not undergo proper rust prevention during man-ufacturing, causing them to corrode prematurely.Toyota admitted no wrongdoing.However it has offered to inspect the affected vehicles and replace their frames free of charge. It will also reimburse owners who have already made the replacement at their own expense.

NEWS BYTES

25MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

New York AFP

Donald Trump's (pic-tured) shock win of the US presidency sparked a surprising rally on Wall Street

this week that some believe could be a prelude to further gains. The response, which sent the Dow Jones Industrial record to all time highs on Thursday and Friday, reflected expectations that pro-business policies and ramped-up public works spend-ing would spur greater economic growth.

Traders also shrugged off the worries many talked about prior to the election, including ques-tions about the Republican mogul's temperament and his

protectionist trade policies.Analysts said the market's

optimistic response was reason-able, but that there are also risks ahead. "There's a lot of expecta-tions built into this rally," said Jack Ablin, chief investment

officer at BMO Private Bank. But he said that for stocks to go higher, companies will have to show much stronger profit and revenue growth.

The Dow had its best week in five years, ending Friday at 18,847.66, to take its gain since January above 8 percent.

The broader S&P 500, pulled down by energy stocks, was still about 1 percent below its all-time high. That was a far cry from the cataclysmic reaction to a Trump upset that some analysts predicted.

"I expected a Brexit-like pull-back on an unlikely Trump victory because I felt that selling would be fuelled by emotion," Ablin said. "It seems that just opposite type of emotion may be behind some of the buying."

Analysts attributed the

surprise rally to signals from President-elect Trump and his camp that highlighted public works spending and deempha-sised protectionist measures.

Especially benefitting in the rally were banks and pharma-ceutical companies, in anticipation that Trump and a Republican Congress will lighten regulatory pressures on both.

Tuesday's results marked an overnight shift in the economic policy universe that has domi-nated since 2008, said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex.

"Since the financial crisis, capital markets have only had to focus on one question, What are central banks doing?" he said.

"In one day, that playbook is over. Now the playbook is what is a new US government going to do under a Donald Trump presidency."

The shift likely hearkens more volatility in the months ahead, as news and rumors drib-ble out about Cabinet posts and policy decisions, Colas said.

He said stocks could still rise two to four percent, although he cautioned that higher interest rates could weigh on the

housing market and consumer spending. Another risk is a return to Trump's punitive trade stance, which is generally loathed by investors. Trump has said he would raise tariffs on goods coming from China, block the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Friday one of Wall Street's most powerful voices, billionaire investor Warren Buf-fett, said that he had backed Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump because he thought she had better "temperament and judgment."

But he also said that he was "100 percent" confident in the US, believing the country would ultimately move beyond the vit-riolic campaign.

Rally on Wall Street could persist: ExpertsTrump effect

Traders shrugged off the worries prior to the election. Analysts believe the rally could be a prelude to further gains.

Analysts also said the market's response was reasonable, but that there are also risks ahead.

IslamabadAP

Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders trav-elled to the country's

southwest yesterday to open a new international trade route by seeing off a Chinese ship that's exporting goods to the Middle East and Africa from the newly built Gwadar port.

The first convoy of Chinese trucks carrying goods for sale abroad has arrived in Pakistan amid tight security using a road linking Gwadar to Chi-na's northwestern Xinjiang

region, the government said in a statement. Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan will provide best pos-sible security to foreign investors to enable them to use the Chinese-funded port for international trade.

Amid security concerns for foreign workers, the Pakistani army has created a special force to guard the new trade routes and the port, which is located in insurgency-wracked Baluchistan province where an overnight blast at a shrine killed nearly 50 people.

The attack was claimed by

the Islamic State group and Pakistani officials said it was aimed at harming the Chinese-funded projects in the southwest and elsewhere in the country.

China is building a net-work of roads and power plants under a project known as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that is expected to absorb $46bn in Chinese investment in the coming decades.

China and Pakistan have long maintained close politi-cal and military relations, based partly on mutual antip-athy toward neighbour India.

Chinese ship opens trade route via Pakistani port

Hong Kong Reuters

While Beijing has been busily damming up official channels for

money to leave China, more than ever is leaking out through shady means as investors flee the country’s slowing economy and weakening currency.

China’s official foreign exchange reserves fell more than half a trillion dollars last year and are still falling, with a loss of nearly $46bn in October alone, and the International Institute of Finance think-tank estimates outflows doubled in the September quarter to more than $200bn.

To stem the flows, Beijing has frozen or restricted its main schemes allowing wealthy indi-viduals (QDLP) and financial institutions (QDII) to invest overseas, and lawyers have noted a sharp slowdown in the approval process for large over-seas direct investment (ODI) deals.

“Fresh new QDII quotas have been broadly halted, ODI investments involving large amounts of foreign exchange remittance are taken on a case-by-case basis, and the QDLP scheme is undergoing a slow-down,” said Yin Ge, counsel and head of financial services prac-tice at Clifford Chance in Shanghai.

Industry executives say there is no likelihood of any thaw in the coming months, so investors are seeking other means to get their cash out,

such as faking trade transac-tions through Hong Kong.

“The growth in the sheer volume of such transactions going through such channels means that even though more suspicious transactions are being caught by financial insti-tutions, they represent a tiny fraction of the overall volumes of fake trade invoicing,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist at Natixis in Hong Kong.

Two executives at separate fund management companies in Hong Kong said the QDLP programme, halted since March this year, is likely to stay that way until mid 2017, according to briefings with government officials.Outbound Chinese mergers and acquisitions in the September quarter have fallen by more than half to $38.4bn from the March quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Investors dodge China’s superficial outflow curbs

Wellington AFP

US Secretary of State John Kerry refused to call last rites on the Trans-

Pacific Partnership (TPP) yesterday, expressing hope President-elect Donald Trump will drop his opposition to the contentious free trade deal.

Kerry said international trade was critical to US inter-ests and the TPP could help grow the economy. "I think as people examine it and begin to get beyond the campaign and

begin to dig into it, my hope is it can summon the support that it needs," he told reporters dur-ing a trip to New Zealand. It has been signed but is yet to be rat-ified by lawmakers in the US.

Kerry said he and President Barack Obama remained "deeply committed" to the deal but would not try to push it through in the so-called "lame duck" legislative session before Trump takes over.

"The fact that it may not be taken up in the lame duck ses-sion isn't indicative of where the country may go, that's for sure," he said.

Kerry hopes to revive TPP trade deal

People walk in front of a Marks and Spencer store at the Champs Elysee, yesterday, in Paris. British retailer Marks and Spencer said recently that it will shut more than 100 stores, among them many foreign shops including its Champs Elysees branch in Paris, in order to cut costs after posting a first-half loss.

Cost-cutting plans

Vintage cameras, of German camera manufacturer Leica, are on display at the Leica headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany.

Vintage cameras

Big fall

$46bn

$200bn

China’s official foreign exchange reserves are still falling, with a loss of nearly $46bn in October.

It was estimated that the outflows doubled in the September quarter to more than $200bn.

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

26 MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

QE Index 9,871.73 0.90 %

QE Total Return Index 15,971.81 0.90 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,640.16 1.25 %

QE All Share Index 2,722.73 0.82 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 2,757.33 0.30 %

QE All Share Industrials 3,002.89 1.64 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,419.58 0.50 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,211.02 1.79 %

QE All Share Insurance 4,368.17 0.92 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,158.52 0.04 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 5,660.25 0.75 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

13-11-2016 Index 9,871.73

Change 89.22

% 0.90

YTD% 5.35

Volume 7,802,383

Value (QAR) 269,808,688.13

Trades 3,173

Up 05 | Down 31 | Unchanged 0410-11-2016 Index 9,960.95

Change 13.65

% 0.14

YTD% 4.49

Volume 8,671,958

Value (QAR) 361,306,133.09

Trades 3,820

GOLD QR150.7286 per grammeSILVER QR2.1524 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year LowAll Ordinaries 5342.224 11.304 0.21 5691.8 4762.1

Cac 40 Index/D 4461.63 0.42 0.01 4607.69 3892.46

Dj Indu Average 18259.6 371.32 2.08 18668.4 15450.6

Hang Seng Inde/D 22909.47 108.07 0.47 24364 18278.8

Iseq Overall/D 6092.24 62.48 1.04 6791.68 5286.65

Karachi 100 In/D 42113.91 -19.63 -0.05 42204.53 29785

Nikkei 225 Ind/D 17171.38 -5.83 -0.03 18951.12 14864.01

S&P 500 Index/D 2131.52 46.34 2.22 2193.81 1810.1

EXCHANGE RATECurrency Buying SellingUS$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.4910 QR 4.5541

Euro QR 3.9987 QR 4.0542

CA$ QR 2.6952 QR 2.7481

Swiss Fr QR 3.7064 QR 3.7614

Yen QR 0.0345 QR 00352

Aus$ QR 2.7783 QR 2.8329

Ind Re QR 0.0542 QR 0.0552

Pak Re QR 0.0345 QR 0.0352

Peso QR 0.0742 QR 0.0757

SL Re QR 0.0244 QR 0.0249

Taka QR 0.0459 QR 0.0469

Nep Re QR 0.0339 QR 0.0345

SA Rand QR 0.2696 QR 0.2751

London Reuters

Five months to the day after Britain voted for Brexit, its finance minister will out-

line how the government plans to cope with the economic fall-out and voters’ frustrations which had echoes in Donald Trump’s US election triumph.

Philip Hammond (pictured), the Chancellor of the Excheq-uer, is due on November 23 to announce spending and tax plans until the end of the dec-ade in his first budget update since taking office after the June vote to leave the European Union.

His speech to parliament is likely to build on Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s pledge to serve families that are “just managing”—a response to discontent with the political establishment and income dis-parity that was exposed by the referendum.

Her promise leaves Ham-mond with a difficult challenge: how to ease the squeeze on liv-ing standards and reduce inequality when the public finances are deep in the red and the economy is likely to slow sharply next year, reducing tax revenues.

Hammond has hinted at m o r e s p e n d i n g o n

infrastructure, building more homes and giving companies incentives to overcome their Brexit nerves and invest.

But after a decade of stag-nant incomes the issues of living standards and inequality are at the top of the agenda—as in the United States and other Euro-pean countries.

“You ignore the distribution of income at your peril,” said John Llewellyn, a former global chief economist at Lehman Brothers who now runs a con-sultancy, Llewellyn Consulting and is on the advisory panel of Britain’s independent budget office. “It doesn’t affect political outcomes one year to the next. But, as we have seen, it can pro-duce very big outcomes. It creates a sense of injustice and we know that always ultimately bites hard,” he said.

Trump’s victory in the US

presidential election on Nov. 8 was an illustration of what can happen when voters lose faith in their politicians and feel left out. A political novice who has not held elected office, Trump rode a wave of anger towards Washington insiders, promising to create jobs, revive the econ-omy and “make America great again”. Hammond, who was for-eign minister under the previous prime minister, David Cameron, will have taken note.

Hammond has no shortage of priorities after the vote to quit the EU, which has increased economic uncertainty in Britain though May has yet to launch the formal process for leaving the 28-nation bloc. She says she will do so by the end of March.

The immediate impact of the Brexit vote has not been as severe as many economists warned. But inflation is likely to rise to around 3 percent or more next year, outpacing growth in pay, because the pound has slumped since the June 23 referendum.

The Bank of England expects economic growth in 2017 and 2018 of 1.4 and 1.5 percent respectively, half the average pace of the 10 years before the global financial crisis.

But May has made helping the “just managing” families a top priority, and Hammond’s speech will be used by

opponents, voters and interest groups to gauge her commit-ment to her promises.

“While the choices are hard, what appears clear is that the Chancellor does have options: the extent to which he utilises them will go a long way to determining just how serious the government’s focus on the ‘just managing’ is,” the Resolution Foundation, a think tank which works on issues facing lower-earning households, said in a report this month.

The main way that Ham-mond’s predecessor as finance minister, George Osborne, tried to help households cope with slow earnings growth was to increase the threshold at which workers start to pay income tax, and to raise the minimum wage.

James Dowling, a former British Treasury official who worked on budgets, said Ham-mond might be tempted to accelerate the pace of raising the threshold for paying income tax.

“I can see how that would fit into the narrative,” Dowling, who is now head of public pol-icy at consultancy Lansons, said.

A less expensive alternative would be to cut fuel duty or “sin taxes” on beer, wine, spirits and tobacco, something the govern-ment could do immediately without having to wait for the new financial year to start in April, he said.

UK minister to ease voters’ frustrationsDubai Reuters

Dubai’s largest bank, expects loan growth within its retail business

to halve next year to around 5 percent as the market slows, its retail and wealth management head said yesterday.

The bank’s consumer lend-ing book has grown by 10 percent since the end of 2015. ENBD is aiming for full-year loan growth of mid to high sin-gle digits next year across the bank.

“Single digit for next year is what most in the industry expects and I expect us to lead the industry and I hope we will continue to gain market share,” Suvo Sarkar, senior executive vice president and group head of retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD, said in an interview.

“That’s pleasing for us in a situation of a relatively slow market.” Banks in the United Arab Emirates have been hit by tougher operating conditions following the collapse in oil prices that has fed through into higher levels of bad loans and also a squeeze on net interest margins. Speaking during the

bank’s third-quarter results call, ENBD group chief executive Shayne Nelson said the bank was seeing a higher incidence of impairment charges in its micro- small- and medium-sized business and retail divisions.

Sarkar said he did not expect a further rise in impair-ments within the SME sector. “There will be another 12 months of a difficult situation for the SME sector. There’s some pain to go but the worst is over.”

He said data from the UAE’s federal credit bureau, set up last year, had helped the bank to navigate the uncertain econ-omy. Since launching in November 2014, Al Etihad Credit Bureau has allowed banks to access data on con-sumers at other financial institutions when making lend-ing decisions, giving banks a clearer picture of the level of indebtedness and financial his-tory of borrowers.

“For the new business we’ve booked in the past four quarters, we’ve seen far better delinquency behaviour,” he said. Sarkar also said that mak-ing use of the information was also a reason for the lower new lending growth rates., he said.

ENBD expects retail lending growth to fall