Wednesday, March 27, 2019Rajab 20, 1440 AH

BUSINESSGULF TIMES 2018 RESULTS: Page 16

Qatar First Bank total income grows 24% to QR222mn

Europe calls for fairer trade ties

CHINA DEALS | Page 12

Nakilat utilises new Panama Canal to cut voyage durationNakilat’s LPG vessels have transited

through the newly expanded Panama Canal some 16 times, while its joint-ven-

ture conventional LNG vessels have completed as many as 38 transits.

As one of the world’s leading transporter of clean energy, Nakilat’s fl eet of 70 vessels deliver to more than 26 countries across the world.

Its four very large LPG carriers (VLGCs) de-livered 1,344,767MT (2,428,694 cbm) of gas to international markets in 2018, with most of them utilising the newly expanded Panama Canal to reduce voyage durations.

The Panama Canal is one of the most com-monly traversed waterways connecting the Pa-cifi c and Atlantic Oceans. Its expansion in 2016 allowed for bigger vessels (Neopanamax) such as LNG carriers to now transit through the canal locks as they make their journey from the East to the West and vice versa.

The passage through the canal allows vessels to shorten their voyage by about 13,000km or 7,000 nautical miles, leading to shorter delivery times as well as operational cost savings.

“The fl exibility of going through the new Pan-

ama Canal not only enables Nakilat to widen its international outreach and cement its position as a global leader of energy transportation, but also allows us to exceed customer satisfaction,” a company release yesterday said.

Nakilat has conducted compatibility studies and thorough assessments of Q-Flex class LNG carriers on safely transiting through the new locks in the near future.

Nakilat is a Qatari LNG transport company providing an essential transportation link in Qa-tar’s LNG supply chain. Its LNG shipping fl eet is the largest in the world.

DIG sees ‘promising’ reinsurance underwriting results in 2018By Pratap JohnBusiness Editor

Doha Insurance Group has seen “promising” underwriting results in reinsurance includ-

ing various liabilities, life and health insurance as it expanded into Leba-non and the UK, the company said in its annual report. Last year, the Qa-tar Stock Exchange-listed company opened representative offi ces in Leba-non and the UK.

“Like the previous year, 2018 pre-sented a number of challenges. Facing these challenges, the group has main-tained its strength and resilience in overcoming the negative eff ects risks imposed upon it by the blockade,” DIG said.

Meanwhile, at their extraordinary general meeting at the La Cigale on Monday, Doha Insurance sharehold-ers approved an amendment to its article of association that allows non-Qatari investors to hold up to a maxi-

mum 49% of DIG’s shares listed on the QSE. Under another amendment to the company’s article of association approved by the shareholders, DIG’s total shares shall be 500,000,000,00 with a par value of QR1 per share.

This, DIG said, has been done to comply with the decision of the Qatar Financial Markets Authority issued on December 16, 2018.

Under amended clause 3 of the ar-

ticle 22, a board member must own a minimum 500,000 shares, DIG said.

The shareholders at their ordinary general assembly approved the board of directors’ proposal to distribute 8% cash dividend to shareholders, which translates into Dh80 per share.

DIG chairman Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser bin Khaled al-Thani presided over the meetings.

Last year, DIG posted a net profi t

of QR60mn, compared to QR42mn in 2017. Written insurance premiums amounted to QR624mn compared with QR543mn in 2017.

Investment income amounted to QR80mn compared to QR50mn in 2017, an increase of 62%.

Net revenues of technical depart-ments amounted to QR69mn com-pared to QR71mn in 2017.

DIG has completed the process of transferring its Islamic subsidiary, Doha Takaful, to a limited liability company, wholly owned by the group after obtaining the approval of the Qatar Central Bank.

Doha Insurance Group has “re-structured the new company, im-proved its performance and increased the effi ciency of its staff , enabling it to gain a larger share of the takaful insur-ance market.”

In 2018, ratings agencies – Stand-ard & Poor’s and A.M.Best – deter-mined the strength of Doha Insurance Group’s fi nancial position to be main-tained at “A-” with a stable outlook.

Cyber insurance relevance increasing: DIG president

By Pratap JohnBusiness Editor

The relevance of cyber insurance is increasing

as major companies around the world face

huge Internet-based risks, says Doha Insurance

Group president Bassam Hussein.

“Recently, a major European company’s IT sys-

tem was attacked by cyber criminals. No matter

how big or eff icient your systems are, you can

still be targeted by cyber criminals,” Hussein

said in an interview with Gulf Times yesterday.

“Cyber insurance is fairly new. It has been

around for only a few years now. But it is

gradually gaining ground in view of increasing

Internet-based risks,” Hussein pointed out.

Cyber insurance is used to protect businesses

and individual users from Internet-based risks,

and more generally from risks relating to infor-

mation technology infrastructure and activities.

Asked how popular cyber insurance was in Qa-

tar and the region as a whole, the DIG president

said, “Young people are certainly aware of the

risks involved. But many seem to think their IT

systems and teams are good and can handle

cyber threats. Probably they are. But as cyber

criminals have done in many parts of the world,

they can still penetrate into what many consider

‘highly secure’ systems. These can be very

dangerous and often too costly.”

On the notion that cyber insurance is expensive,

Hussein said, “Actually it is not. It is worth the

investment if you take into account the losses

that can be inflicted upon by cyber criminals.”

“Even if

someone

is not

buying

a cyber

insurance

cover, it

makes

sense to

assess

one’s

systems

and find

out the vulnerabilities. Cyber insurance experts

can certainly highlight issues involved in one’s

IT systems,” Hussein pointed out.

He said DIG will certainly focus on capacity

building in cyber insurance as it gradually gains

ground in view of increasing Internet-based

risks. With IT now driving the industry, the cyber

risk exposure has also gone up.

On DIG’s performance in 2018, Hussein said,

“We have done well by posting a nearly 43% in-

crease in net profits and a substantial growth in

written insurance premiums. We have also seen

promising underwriting results in reinsurance

including various liabilities, life and health insur-

ance. We hope to maintain our performance this

year as well.”

He thanked the Government, Qatar Central

Bank and Doha Insurance board of directors

who wholeheartedly supported the group,

which helped it “maintain its strength and resil-

ience” in overcoming the negative eff ects of the

unjustified blockade on the country.

Qatar Airways opens new office in MuscatQatar Airways celebrated the opening of its new office in Muscat with a glittering gala dinner on Monday at the Kempinski Hotel in the Omani capital.The event was attended by Oman’s Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah; Qatar’s ambassador to Oman, Ali bin Fahad al-Hajri; Qatar Airways group chief executive, HE Akbar al-Baker, as well as many other prominent government representatives and business leaders.Qatar Airways also hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday to officially open the new office, attended by al-Hajri; chief executive officer of Oman Airports, Sheikh Aimen Ahmed Sultan al-Hosni; al-Baker, among other dignitaries.At the gala, al-Baker said, “We are here to celebrate the longstanding and important relationship Qatar Airways shares with the Sultanate of Oman. Oman has always been a key market for us, with 70 direct flights to three destinations in Oman, and will continue to be so in the future. “Tonight we reaffirm our commitment to the Omani market, as we celebrate the opening of our beautiful new office in Muscat. We could not be more proud to be here this evening with our Omani partners to mark this occasion.”Qatar’s national carrier has been flying to Oman since 2000, when it first began direct services to the Omani capital, Muscat. In 2013, Salalah was added to the airline’s expanding network as the second destination, followed by Sohar in 2017.A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways was named ‘World’s Best Business Class’ by the 2018 World Airline Awards, managed by international air transport rating organisation Skytrax. It was also named ‘Best Business Class Seat’, ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’, and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge’.Qatar Airways seamlessly connects passengers from Oman to more than 160 destinations across six continents via its award-winning Hamad International Airport in Doha. The carrier will launch a host of exciting new destinations in 2019, including Lisbon, Portugal; Malta; Rabat, Morocco; Davao, Philippines; Langkawi, Malaysia; Izmir, Turkey; and Mogadishu, Somalia.

HE al-Baker with al-Hajri; Qatar Airways acting chief commercial off icer Ehab Amin and other Omani dignitaries during the ribbon cutting event.

The passage through newly expanded Panama Canal allows vessels to shorten their voyage by about 13,000km or 7,000 nautical miles, leading to shorter delivery times as well as operational cost savings

Hussein: Cyber insurance is worth the investment.

Doha Insurance Group chairman Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser bin Khaled al-Thani and other directors and top executives at the company’s ordinary and extraordinary general assembly meetings at the La Cigale on Monday. PICTURE: Ram Chand

2 ISLAMIC FINANCE GULF TIMESWednesday, March 27, 2019

Islamic fi nance becoming a multi-faceted industryBy Arno MaierbruggerGulf Times Correspondent Bangkok

Two separate news announce-ments last week have shed a brilliant light on the Islamic

fi nance industry in Qatar. As re-ported by Gulf Times, Qatar will launch an energy-focused Islamic bank with a targeted capital of $10bn – the largest of its kind in the world – to fi nance both domestic and glo-bal projects starting from the fourth quarter of 2019. Besides that, Qatar also hosted the global launch of the “iDinar,” a brand new Islamic digital e-token platform backed by physical gold.

These remarkable events coin-cide with the release of a new re-port called “Global Islamic Finance Market Growth, Trends, and Fore-cast (2018-2024)” by India-based market research fi rm Mordor Intel-ligence, which comes to the conclu-sion that the global Islamic fi nance market will keep growing over the mentioned period owing to strong investments in the halal sectors, in-frastructure and energy, as well as sukuk bonds.

The trend will be underpinned by newly deployed electronic modes for all products and services and shows that Qatar is on the right way.

The value of the global Islamic fi nance market – in terms of com-bined assets under management – was seen to have crossed the $2tn-mark at the end of 2017 and having reached between $2.05tn and $2.4tn, marking growth of between 8% and 10% over the previous year, whereby the variation is owing to diff erent counting methods of research hous-es. Estimations are that the market has grown by another 8% to 10% in 2018 and will continue on that tra-jectory for the time being.

Global sukuk outstanding grew by a record 25.6% to close to $400bn at the end 2017 on the back of strong sovereign and multilateral issu-ances in key Islamic fi nance mar-kets to support respective budgetary expenditures. This included debut entries into the sovereign sukuk market by Nigeria, as well as by the pan-African multilateral develop-ment fi nance institution, Africa Fi-nance Corp.

Islamic banking remains the larg-est segment in the Islamic fi nance industry, the report notes. Islamic banks contribute 71%, or $1.72tn to overall assets. The sector as of end-2017 comprised of 505 Islamic com-mercial, wholesale and other types of banks, including 207 Islamic banking windows, whereby com-mercial banking remained the main contributor to the sector’s growth.

However, the number of players is not necessarily indicative of the size of the industry, at least in terms of assets. Islamic fi nance’s second-largest market, Saudi Arabia, has 16 Islamic banks, including windows, which is less than the smaller mar-kets of Malaysia.

In the Middle East and North Af-rican (Mena) region, Islamic bank-ing assets represented 14% of to-tal banking assets in the research period. In the Gulf Co-operation Council, the market share of Islamic banking crossed the 25%-threshold, which suggests that Islamic banks have become systemically important in these countries.

According to another research by consultancy Deloitte, Islamic fi -

nance is set for more growth as the widespread socio-economic devel-opment in the Mena region is ex-pected to continue. Growth is driven by multiple factors such as a globally growing Muslim population stand-ing at around 1.7bn, out of which 50mn in Europe are additionally looking at investment products ca-tered to their needs; the search for ethical investments by Muslim and non-Muslim investors; the need for Islamic project fi nancing for the infrastructure and energy projects in the region, as well as a rise in so-phistication in Shariah-compliant contracts and their utilisation in the development of modern fi nancial in-struments.

With the rapidly growing popu-larity of mobile banking, Islamic banks are also catching up on this trend, with a number of digital-only banks entering the space, as well as disruptive new players such as cryp-to fi nance fi rms and Islamic fi ntechs.

Islamic banking is also increas-ingly perceived of generally having higher standards than conventional banking; in a way Islamic banks would not take on irresponsible risks or pay disproportionate bonuses to their top bankers. Furthermore, the absence of opaque fi nancial instru-ments and interest payments and Is-lamic bank’s reliance on tangible as-sets that are paying off profi t is seen as another advantage.

EDUCATION/FAQ on Zakat

May I pay zakat to students of Sacred Law?Students of Sacred Law may be considered poor, and therefore eligible to receive zakat, if they fall below the nisab minimum and their pursuit of Sacred Law precludes their ability to earn a livelihood; though students of non-Islamic knowledge are only considered poor if they fall below the nisab minimum.

May I give all my zakat to a single person?It is permissible to give all of one’s zakat to a single person, but this becomes off ensive, though no less valid, if the recipient exceeds the nisab minimum as a result of having received this amount.

Is zakat due on wealth acquired

through unlawful sources?Zakat is due on both one’s lawfully and unlawfully acquired wealth, though it is obligatory to eliminate the impermissible portion of one’s wealth, regardless of how long ago it was acquired and whether one did so knowingly, unknowingly, mistakenly or was given to against one’s will.

What is the rate of zakat al-fitr payment?Zakat al-fitr payment equals 2.03 litres of the locality’s staple food (i.e. equal to or superior to the local staple’s quality), though it is also permissible to give its monetary equivalent in cash or in another staple.

Is zakat due on bad debts and unrecoverable loans?Zakat is not due on loans disbursed

when there is no reasonable expectation of repayment; if the loan is ever repaid, the creditor is obligated to retroactively pay zakat for each of the zakatable years the loan is outstanding.

In the event of advance payment of zakat, am I obliged to value my wealth on the termination of one lunar year?If zakat is paid in advance, the payer must still ascertain on the valuation date that his zakatable property, and therefore his zakat obligation, did not increase after the original payment for which he would still be liable to pay.

May I distribute zakat al-fitr among more than one eligible person?It is permissible to give all of one’s

zakat al-fitr to one person or to distribute it among many.

Is zakat due on disbursed loans?Zakat is due on loans that have been disbursed where there is a reasonable expectation of receiving repayment.

Is it permissible to authorise a third-party to distribute my zakat?Just as it is permissible to give zakat to those authorised to collect and distribute zakat, so too it is permissible to appoint a third party to distribute one’s zakat.

Is it permissible to give or take stolen property as zakat?It is impermissible to give or take stolen property as zakat when one is certain it is stolen; if there is doubt then it is permissible to give or take the

zakat, though it is always superior to avoid the doubtful.

When is zakat not paid on the deceased’s estate?Unpaid zakat is not taken from the estate of the deceased unless a bequest specifies that zakat should be paid posthumously, in which case zakat is paid on one-third of the estate, regardless of whether this amount covers the zakat obligation or not; it is permissible, though not obligatory, for the inheritors of the remaining two-thirds of the estate to fulfil the balance of the zakat obligation from their own portion.

When do I measure my nisab for zakat al-fitr payment?Unlike the nisab minimum for ordinary zakat, which must be possessed for

an entire year, the nisab minimum for zakat al-fitr is measured at dawn on ‘Eid day, the first of Shawwal (the day after the final day of Ramadan).

May zakat be given in the guise of a gift?Zakat may be paid in the guise of a gift rather than as an ostensible zakat payment.

Is zakat due on revenue-generating livestock?Zakat is not due on farm animals that constitute the means of production itself (e.g. there is no zakat on egg-laying chickens and dairy cows), but there is zakat on their product (e.g. egg and milk inventories).

Source: Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance via Bloomberg

Gulf TimesExclusive

Indonesia raises $1.5bn from retail Islamic bond saleBloombergJakarta

Indonesia raised 21.1tn rupiah ($1.5bn) from the sale of Islamic rupiah bonds to retail investors, a sign of growing

demand for Shariah compliant invest-ment products in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

The amount raised from the three-year notes was more than double the 10tn ru-piah target and the highest from retail sukuk bond sale since February 2016, ac-cording to data from the Finance Minis-try’s debt management offi ce. The minis-try set a return rate of 8.05% on the bonds to be paid out annually.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy, a regular borrower in the global market, is working to reduce foreign ownership of its securities after investors dumped the nation’s assets amid an emerging-market sell-off last year.

The government will double the sale of conventional bonds and sukuk to retail buyers to 10 times this year to reduce the share of multilateral and bilateral loans in

meeting the budget gap, according to the fi nance ministry.

The government has set a gross bond issuance target of 825.7tn rupiah this year as it seeks to bridge a budget defi cit forecast at 1.84% of the gross domestic product

Women made up a majority of the buy-ers at 56.4% and 50.5% of the total orders. The sale attracted 35,026 investors with the majority of them investing between 100mn rupiah to 500mn rupiah, the ministry said.

The money raised through sukuk sale will be used for funding various infra-structure projects, which will be under-taken by various ministries.

The government aims to raise 60tn ru-piah to 80tn rupiah from the sale of con-ventional and sukuk bonds to retail in-vestors this year, said Riko Amir, director of strategy and fi nancing portfolio at the Finance Ministry. Plans for retail bond and sukuk sale will remain as planned, he said.

“This is part of our eff orts to deepen domestic fi nancial market and get the public to invest in sovereign bonds,” Amir said.

Biggest Malaysia state fund weighs debut exchangeable sukuk sale

Battersea Station owner seeks capital for foreign investments; $69bn fund asks for proposals from investment banks

BloombergHong Kong/Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s biggest state-owned fund manager, which owns more than 10% of the local stock market, is considering its first sale of exchangeable bonds as it seeks to raise funds for overseas investments.Permodalan Nasional Bhd is exploring all options including an off ering of exchangeable bonds, or notes backed by shares in a listed company, a representative said last week in response to Bloomberg queries. PNB recently asked investment banks to submit proposals for the potential deal, people with knowledge of the matter said.The asset manager hasn’t made a final decision about what the underlying stock would be, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It holds a 48% stake in Malayan Banking Bhd, the country’s biggest lender, valued at more than $12bn based on last Thursday’s close, data compiled by Bloomberg show.PNB also owned about 18% of Axiata Group Bhd, the $9.4bn wireless carrier, at the end of 2017. Other major holdings include stakes in Sapura Energy Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd, according to its website.The fund is seeking capital in foreign currencies so it can boost its overseas investments, one of the people with knowledge of the matter said. PNB is following in the footsteps of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which usually hits the market once a year with a sale of US dollar exchangeable bonds backed by some of its stock-market holdings.If PNB decides to proceed, it would likely issue sukuk as it prefers financing methods complying with Islamic principles, according to one person. It could still opt for another form of fundraising, the people said.PNB managed 279bn ringgit ($69bn) of assets at the end of 2017, with around 70% invested in equities. It plans to diversify its global assets to ensure sustainable returns as part of its five-year strategy, according to the fund’s website.PNB recently joined hands with Malaysia’s biggest pension fund to buy the commercial property assets at the Battersea Power Station project, where Apple Inc plans to have its UK headquarters.

A Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) train travels along an elevated track in this aerial photograph taken in Jakarta (file). The money raised through sukuk sale will used for funding infrastructure projects, which will be undertaken by various ministries.

An employee serves a customer at the information counter inside a combined Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Maybank Islamic Bhd branch in Kuala Lumpur (file). Islamic banking remains the largest segment in the Islamic finance industry as Islamic lenders contribute 71%, or $1.72tn, to the overall assets.

BUSINESS3Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Lyft moves San Francisco IPO roadshow as drivers protestBloombergSan Francisco

Disgruntled drivers showed up at the Omni hotel in San Francisco hoping to make their feelings known to the executives, bankers and potential investors at Lyft Inc’s IPO roadshow meeting. No one was there.Lyft’s scheduled Monday meeting was held at the Olympic Club instead. It had originally been planned for the Omni, according to a term sheet reviewed by Bloomberg when the roadshow was announced.Dozens of drivers and their supporters nevertheless protested in the rain, decrying the cuts foisted upon them by Lyft while, they believed, the executives and bankers were hosting lunch for would-be investors inside.“I’m here to let them know how they

really treat their drivers and how unfair the wage cuts have been and how hard it is for us to earn a decent living, living in the most expensive city in the US,” said Rebecca Stack, a Lyft driver for a year and a half.The Lyft roadshow was moved from the Omni because a larger space was needed for the event, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because it wasn’t public.Lyft has a “strong track record of helping drivers increase their earnings,” company spokesman Adrian Durbin said in an emailed statement. “Drivers are integral to our mission of improving people’s lives through the world’s best transportation,” he said.The No 2 ride-hailing company in the US is set on Thursday to price its initial public offering. Lyft plans to raise about $2.1bn in what will be the biggest US listing so far this year

and the biggest tech offering since Snap Inc two years ago.Complaints about compensation have been a mainstay for Lyft drivers and those at larger rival Uber Technologies Inc, which is expected to file publicly in April for an IPO, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.Some drivers for the companies have also sued – unsuccessfully so far – to be treated as employees rather than independent contractors.Lyft reached total bookings last year of $8.1bn last year, with 1.9mn drivers providing more than 1bn rides in the US and Canada last year, according to the company’s IPO filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also reported that it lost $911mn on revenue of $2.2bn for 2018.Potential investors who attended

the lunch said the session was well attended and interest in the offering was high. Lyft’s management’s presentation took up most of the time, with only a few questions from the audience, they said.‘Or You’re Fired’ Jeff Perry, 38, a Lyft driver for almost three years, said outside the Omni that the company is “constantly” cutting payments to drivers.“I equate it to a traditional employee being called into the office every 60 days and being told hey your wages are getting cut, click here or you’re fired,” Perry said.He said he wants prospective investors to know that the “pretty picture” painted by Lyft executives and their bankers doesn’t exist.Shona Clarkson, an organiser for the group Gig Workers Rising, said the San Francisco protest coincides with a driver’s strike in San Diego and Los Angeles.

The Lyft application is displayed on an Apple iPhone in this arranged photograph taken in New York. Lyft plans to raise about $2.1bn in what will be the biggest US listing so far this year and the biggest tech off ering since Snap two years ago.

Lynas seen drawing higher bids after $1.1bn takeover off erBloombergMelbourne

The key rare earths producer outside China, Lynas Corp could attract rival bids after

Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers Ltd made a A$1.5bn ($1.1bn) takeover approach.

Lynas has a mine in Australia and a troubled processing plant in Malaysia, and is regarded as a critical supplier of the materials used in cars to smart-phones and missiles for customers in the US, Japan and Europe. The unso-licited move comes as China restricts domestic supply quotas to help sup-port prices.

Wesfarmers off ered A$2.25 cash a share – almost a 45% premium to

Monday’s close – and said it has po-tential to invest in the target’s mine and processing facility. Lynas, whose shares in Sydney have slumped in re-cent months on regulatory disputes with Malaysia and declining profi ts, halted trading and said it is assessing the proposal.

“It could attract a bid from anyone, because at A$1.5bn it’s way too cheap,” said Dylan Kelly, a Sydney-based ana-lyst at CLSA Ltd.

“This probably ultimately lives with a trading company.” CLSA, which has a target price of A$3.50 on the com-pany’s shares, sees Glencore Plc, Toy-ota Tsusho Co and Sojitz Corp, already a marketing partner with Lynas, as among potential rival bidders.

Glencore declined to comment, while a Sojitz spokesman said the

company was examining the Lynas announcement and Toyota Tsusho couldn’t immediately respond to re-quest for comments.

Kuantan, Malaysia-based Lynas has become vulnerable as its shares have fallen almost 40% since last May on the regulatory issues over its process-ing facility in the country and delays to some licensing renewals.

Local authorities have demanded Lynas make changes to its handling and disposal of some waste products, including some very low-level radio-active material.

The producer is continuing discus-sions with Malaysia’s government to resolve remaining issues, Lynas said last month.

China accounts for more than 70% of the world’s mined rare earths

and its dominance prompted the US and others to lobby the World Trade Organisation earlier this decade, hoping to pressure the nation to lift exports as prices spiked amid a glo-bal shortage. A new round of mine quotas announced this month is seeking to cut output, according to the China Rare Earth Industry As-sociation.

Australia’s Foreign Investment Re-view Board in 2009 blocked a bid by China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co to gain control of Lynas, citing concerns over supply to end us-ers outside of China.

“China plans to further regulate and consolidate its rare earth industry by raising barriers to entry on producers and capping output.

Higher average unit prices for Chi-

na’s rare earth exports suggest the gov-ernment’s consolidation of the indus-try and implementation of production quota have restored pricing power”, says Yi Zhu, Bloomberg Intelligence.

Aside from Lynas, the only other major source of rare earth elements outside China is the Mountain Pass mine in California, which resumed production last year after being moth-balled in 2015.

The operation’s material is a semi-processed product that’s still sent for refi ning in China.

Global trade tensions have increased the need for a supply chain outside of China, while rare earths are seen as key to the growth of the electric vehicle market, Lynas said in a January pres-entation.

Rare earth-based technologies

are used to help cut the size and cost of vehicle batteries, the com-pany said. “Their exposure to the EV demand thematic is relatively under-appreciated, compared to other EV-related commodities like lithium, graphite or copper,” CLSA’s Kelly said by phone.

A standard EV contains about five times the number of rare earth permanent magnets as in a com-bustion-engine vehicle, and they’re used in motors and sensors, ac-cording to Alkane Resources Ltd, a project developer.

Wesfarmers said its off er is subject to due diligence investigations, regu-latory approvals and agreements to ensure operating licenses in Malaysia will remain in force for a “satisfactory period” after any acquisition.

Citigroup faces fi ne for allegedly manipulating Japan bond futuresBloombergTokyo

Citigroup Inc faces a ¥133mn ($1.2mn) fi ne for allegedly manipulating

prices in the Japanese govern-ment bond futures market, its latest regulatory setback in Asia.

Japan’s securities watchdog said Citigroup placed orders in October for JGB futures con-tracts at the Osaka Exchange without intending to execute them, a practice known as spoofi ng.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission rec-ommended that the Financial Services Agency impose the fi ne on Citigroup Global Markets.

The allegation puts another spotlight on Citigroup’s trading in markets in Asia, where it has a major presence.

In Hong Kong, the US bank ousted eight equities traders following an investigation into whether staff properly disclosed the bank’s own fi nancial interest when facilitating stock trades, people familiar with the matter said last week.

An employee of London-based Citigroup Global Markets placed large buy and sell orders outside of Japan trading hours that weren’t executed, mislead-ing other investors into believ-ing that the 10-year JGB futures market was “thriving,” the SESC said in a statement on Tuesday. The watchdog reports to the FSA, which usually carries out its recommendations.

“Citi takes the recommenda-tion seriously and apologises for any inconvenience or concern the conduct that gave rise to to-day’s recommendation may have

caused,” the New York-based company said in a statement. It pledged to enhance governance and internal controls.

Similar Case The accusation bears similarities to a case in-volving Mitsubishi UFJ Finan-cial Group Inc’s joint venture with Morgan Stanley, which was found to have manipulated JGB futures prices last year. As well as receiving a 218mn yen fi ne from the FSA, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co was suspended from a key group of JGB dealers and dropped from managing several bond sales, hurting its reputation and fee income.

Citigroup is ranked 13th among underwriters of Japanese corporate bonds for the fi scal year ending March 31, data com-piled by Bloomberg show.

Local unit Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc is among 21 primary dealers in the JGB market that participate in bond auctions and exchange information with Finance Ministry offi cials, ac-cording to the ministry’s website.

The Wall Street fi rm had an-other recent regulatory setback in Asia. In India, it decided against seeking a new term for local chief Pramit Jhaveriafter the central bank signalled that it wouldn’t approve an extension, Bloomberg reported in Febru-ary. The RBI’s decision stemmed from personal investments by Jhaveri, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

In the US, Citigroup was fined $25mn in 2017 after reg-ulators found that five of its traders manipulated the US Treasury futures market more than 2,500 times. The fine was the biggest spoofing settle-ment on record at the time.

The headquarters of Citigroup in London. Citigroup is facing a $1.2mn fine for allegedly manipulating prices in the Japanese government bond futures market, its latest regulatory setback in Asia.

Goldman sees attacks on corporate buybacksgoing nowhere, for nowBloombergNew York

With lawmakers poised to step up scrutiny on corporate buy-backs this week, Goldman

Sachs has a message for anyone con-cerned US companies are about to lose their preferred channel for returning cash: It’s too early to worry.

“Politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed support for measures aimed at curtailing share repurchases,” Goldman strategists led by David Kostin wrote in a note dated March 22.

But, investors should “discount the headlines by the likelihood that these proposals become law and the time it would take for such laws to be written

and passed,” they said. The perspective comes as Democratic senators are set to weigh in on buybacks at a hearing.

Tammy Baldwin, Debbie Stabenow, Chuck Schumer and others plan to dis-cuss “reining in corporate stock buybacks and giving workers a voice on corporate boards,” Baldwin’s press offi ce said in a statement.

Voices against buybacks are getting louder as politicians focus on corporate governance as an election issue. Re-publican Marco Rubio, several Demo-cratic senators and presidential candi-date Bernie Sanders have lashed out at buybacks and proposed related legisla-tion. Last month, Schumer and Sanders penned a New York Times opinion piece about limiting buybacks.

Stock repurchases have gained trac-

tion in recent years, with corporate ap-petite dwarfi ng all other investors as the biggest source of demand for US stocks. Net purchases from Corps totalled $1.6tn during the past three years while inves-tors from pensions to mutual funds to in-dividuals were sellers, according to data from Goldman Sachs.

Since there are no specifi c policy pro-posals, it’s hard to quantify how poten-tial legislation might aff ect share repur-chases or how companies might redirect cash toward other uses, according to Goldman. In the long run, however, any restrictions on buybacks would mean higher dividends and lower debt, the strategists said.

“The most obvious substitute for buy-backs is dividends,” Kostin said, noting that spending has recently shifted toward

share repurchases. “A restriction on buy-back activity would likely shift the pen-dulum back towards dividends.” Buying stocks with the fastest dividend growth is one of the fi rm’s top recommendations in 2019. But the trade has failed to deliver as a Goldman basket of such stocks has performed in line with the S&P 500.

Any clampdown on buybacks would boost the allure of the dividend trade, Kostin said. Right now, the dividend swap market implied just a growth rate of 2.5% a year in payouts during the next decade, trailing Goldman’s estimate of 3.6%.

“We believe long-dated S&P 500 dividends are currently underpriced and any restrictions on buybacks would only increase their attractive-ness,” Kostin wrote.

A pedestrian passes the European headquarters of Goldman Sachs Group in London. With lawmakers poised to step up scrutiny on corporate buybacks this week, Goldman Sachs has a message for anyone concerned US companies are about to lose their preferred channel for returning cash: It’s too early to worry.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, March 27, 20194

Most Asian markets end higherAFPHong Kong

Asian markets mostly rose yesterday after the previous day’s steep losses, though investors trod cautiously as they grow in-

creasingly anxious about the state of the global economy.

With a mixed lead from Wall Street, there were few catalysts to drive buying, while safe-haven fl ows saw the dollar edge up against high-yielding currencies.

Attention is also back on London, where MPs essentially wrested control of the Brexit debate from Prime Minister Theresa May with a vote that will allow them to decide on a number of possi-bilities for how to proceed.

Investors slowly edged back to the mar-ket but they were suffering a hangover from Monday’s pummelling, which came on the back of a drop in benchmark 10-year Treas-ury bond yields below those for three-month bills for the first time since before the global financial crisis.

This so-called inverted yield curve shows in-vestors are more willing to buy long-term debt — usually viewed as a higher risk — as they consider the short-term outlook more hazardous.

Such a scenario has preceded several recessions in recent decades.

“Recession worries may be premature for the US, but the negative signals are consistent with the recent data,” said OANDA senior market ana-lyst Edward Moya.

Tokyo led gains, jumping more than 2% — hav-ing dived 3% on Monday — while Hong Kong edged 0.2% higher, Sydney added 0.1%, Singa-pore put on 0.4% and Seoul was up 0.2%. Wel-lington, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai and Jakarta also rose, while Bangkok barely moved as rival camps

jostled for position, hoping to form a govern-ment after Thailand’s fi rst election since a coup. However, Shanghai tumbled 1.5%. In Britain, the Brexit saga took a new twist when lawmakers in-fl icted yet another defeat on May by voting to take control of parliamentary business that will see them hold a series of ballots on diff erent options for leaving the EU.

They will now choose whether to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit, hold another referendum, vote for a deal including a customs union and sin-gle market membership, or leave the EU without a deal. However, even if they decide a majority course of action, the government is not legally bound to follow their instructions.

The move came after the premier admitted she

still had not secured the votes needed to get her Brexit deal through parliament. EU leaders last week delayed the divorce but warned that unless May can push her withdrawal deal through, Brit-ain must come up with a new plan by April 12 — or leave its closest trading partner with no deal at all.

While uncertainty reigns, the sterling was holding its own against the dollar, with investors still hopeful Britain will avoid a no-deal Brexit, which some warn could be an economic calamity for the country.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed up 2.2% to 21,428.39 points; Hong Kong — Hang Seng ended up 0.2% to 28,566.91 points and Shang-hai — Composite closed down 1.5% to 2,997.10 points yesterday.

Sensex rebounds from sharp fall; rupee rises marginallyBloombergMumbai

Indian equities rose as the key indexes rebounded from their steepest drop in more than six weeks yesterday. The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 1.1% to 38,233.41 in Mumbai, the seventh time this year the benchmark has closed above 1%. The NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced by the same magnitude. Both the gauges fell 0.9% on Monday, their steepest retreat since February 8.The equity gauges yesterday dropped below technical overbought levels after eight days above them following a surge in foreign fund inflows. The prospect that the ruling coalition government will get another five-year term in a national poll has boosted equities, although investors will have to wait for the actual outcome on May 23 for a clearer picture.“India is such a great longer-term story with many investable companies that elections are nothing more than short-term noise,” said Jonathan Schiessl, a fund manager at IIFL Capital in Singapore. “However, we embrace volatility as occasionally value does emerge in quality stocks.” Seventeen of the 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE climbed, led by a gauge of lenders. Ten of those indexes rose by at least 1%.Twenty-three of the 31 Sensex members and 39 of the 50 Nifty stocks gained. State-owned power generator NTPC’s 4% rise was the steepest among Nifty members, touching its highest level in nearly six

months. Jet Airways India climbed 6.6% to its highest in two months, after the debt-laden airline yesterday said Chairman Naresh Goyal stepped down.DLF rallied 3.9% as terms showed the property developer plans to raise as much as $460mn by selling shares to institutions.Hindustan Construction Co jumped 8.7% to its highest since May last year after agreeing to sell some of its arbitration awards and claims to BlackRock for Rs17.5bn.Meanwhile the rupee yesterday was trading marginally higher against the US dollar, tracking gains in Asian currencies market. The rupee was trading at 68.88 a dollar, up 0.05% from its previous close of 68.94. The home currency opened at 68.90 a dollar.The 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.322%, as compared to its Monday’s close of 7.324%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.So far this year, the rupee has gained 1.30% against the US dollar, while foreign investors have bought $6.32bn in equity and $455.10mn in debt market.Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.23%, Indonesian rupiah 0.11%, Philippines peso 0.1%, China Off shore 0.06%, Malaysian ringgit 0.05%. However, Thai baht was down 0.12% and Japanese yen 0.06%.The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.518, down 0.05% from its previous close of 96.566.

Visitors look at the share prices inside the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei 225 closed up 2.2% to 21,428.39 points yesterday.

China oil firm sweetens bond offer ahead of maturityBloombergHong Kong

Chinese oil exploration company

MIE Holdings Corp extended the

deadline of its bond exchange

off er and added incentives for

investors to participate as it strug-

gles to repay a dollar bond next

month.

The Beijing-based firm pushed

back the expiration date on the

exchange off er for its $315.9mn

senior notes by one week

to March 29, according to a

company filing. It also agreed to

purchase as much as $30mn of

the new notes after it completes

disposing some of its assets.

The exchange off er for the

2019 notes is necessary to avoid

payment default by April, Fitch

Ratings said in a note earlier this

month. The bonds have plunged

about 30 cents on the dollar in

the past year to be indicated at

57.2 cents on Monday, indicat-

ing investor concern on debt

payments. If the exchange off er

is unsuccessful, MIE will pursue

alternative arrangements which

may include a restructuring,

according to in the filing. “The

extension of the off er dead-

line could signal that existing

investors are pushing for better

terms, and that there is insuf-

ficient interest among holders to

tender under current terms,” said

Leonard Law, an analyst at Lucror

Analytics in Singapore.

Law said the added clause as

sweetener is not binding due

to the vague wording and the

company’s ability to carry out the

buyback still depends on its asset

disposal.

An MIE Holdings finance

department off icial didn’t imme-

diately reply to an email seeking

comment.

MIE on March 1 announced its

off er to exchange the existing

7.5% notes with new three-year

bonds paying 13.75%.

This follows an earlier move to

amend the put option date on its

HK$340mn ($43.3mn) convertible

bond to after March 15.

The company has bled cash

in the past 12 months and it

generated net losses for three

straight semi-annual period to

June 30, according to Bloomberg-

compiled data.

Emerging equities steady, but global growth fears lingerReutersLondon

Emerging-market stocks steadied yesterday, but Chinese shares fell over 1%

as the outlook for global growth remained murky before the next round of trade talks between the United States and China.

Currencies in the develop-ing world weakened as the dol-lar rebounded after US Treasury yields edged higher.

US yields pulled back from 15-month lows they reached on Monday when weak European and US data caused the US yield curve to invert, a signal of a pos-sible recession.

“We reiterate that growth concerns may be overblown,” said analysts from Maybank in a note. “Though global growth momentum is easing, this does not mean there is no growth.”

MSCI’s index for emerging-market stocks rose after two days of losses. Most Asian mar-kets gained, except for mainland China, which extended losses from the previous session.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.2% as foreigners turned net buy-ers following the previous day’s losses.

Samsung Electronics Co slipped 0.5% after the company blamed a fi rst-quarter profi t warning on declining chip prices

and slowing demand for display panels.

Stocks on Moscow’s MOEX index rose, led by gains in shares of energy companies as oil prices rose and the results of an inves-tigation into Russian interfer-ence in the 2016 US election continued to lift sentiment.

Most emerging-market cur-rencies slipped. South Africa’s rand led losses as investors awaited Thursday’s central bank meeting, which is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at 6.75%. Turkey’s lira contin-ued its recovery after slumping as much as 6% on Friday after Turks bought more dollars until the central bank stepped in to maintain price stability.

The cost of insuring expo-sure to Turkey’s sovereign debt soared to a six-month high on Monday, after the country’s fi -nancial regulators opened in-vestigations into JP Morgan and other banks accusing them of providing misinformation that stoked FX volatility.

India’s rupee was among the few gainers on track for its best month of gains since November last year.

In emerging Europe, Hun-gary’s forint was weaker against the euro before its central bank meets.

A slim majority of analysts ex-pect the bank to start tightening monetary policies.

Masala bonds are back as rupee gains and tax cut lures buyersBloombergMumbai

A rebound in the Indian rupee and a government policy to boost the currency are helping to resusci-

tate sales in the small market for Masala bonds.

Housing Development Finance Corp, India’s largest mortgage lender, last week raised Rs10bn ($145mn) through a sale of the off shore rupee notes, the fi rst in the market since November.

Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board is also marketing its fi rst such

benchmark-sized Masala, in a market that has struggled since its emergence in 2015. After a rout in emerging-market currencies last year, the Indian govern-ment in September unveiled a tax break for non-resident buyers of Masala bonds as part of measures to boost the local currency.

A rebound in the rupee following the US Federal Reserve’s pause in rate hikes, and the expiration of the tax exemption at the end of March, is helping boost the appeal of the notes.

“The central bank has ensured the cur-rency is stable, which has given interna-tional investors the confi dence to buy In-

dian assets including Masala bonds,” said Ajay Marwaha, portfolio manager at Sun Global Investments Ltd in London.

He is “hopeful” that the government in power after India’s general election, which concludes in May, will continue the exemption from withholding tax for Masala bonds. The rupee has gained 5.2% since the end of September against the dollar, making it Asia’s second best performer during that period.

Measures to develop an off shore yield curve for rupee bonds would boost confi -dence among international investors for Indian assets, according to Marwaha.

Standard Chartered Bank expects

Masala issuance to be largely driven by state-owned companies and doesn’t see a lot of private corporate or non-invest-ment grade names raising funds via this route.

“That’s because there is no dedicated real money investor base which can take rates, currency plus credit risk,” said Bharat Shettigar, head of Asia ex-China corporate credit research at Standard Chartered.

“Therefore we haven’t seen off shore local bonds take off even in other emerg-ing markets. CNH was an exception due to the huge amount of CNH deposits ly-ing off shore,” he said.

Japan bank’s hunger for CLOs shows no signs of abating amid diffi cult Q1BloombergLondon

A Japanese lender has this year bought the lion’s share of top-rat-ed bonds that are backed by pools

of European corporate loans, propping up the region’s market for collateralised debt obligations amid a very diffi cult fi rst quarter.

Norinchukin Bank, starved of yields thanks to Japan’s negative interest rates, is expected to keep buying AAA-rated tranches in Europe until at least the sum-mer, even as Japanese authorities scru-tinise how the region’s fi nancial institu-tions operate in the global CLO market.

“The Japanese bid for AAAs remains strong and there are no signs of them pulling back anytime soon,” Aza Teeu-wen, a portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management LLP, said in a March 20 client note.

He added that equity investors need this bid at the moment “as arbitrage is far from ideal.”

This has provided a boon to those managers able to bank on the certainty of selling the biggest slice of bonds from their CLO. Consequently, Norinchukin’s participation has kept deal fl ow mov-ing in Europe, helping arrangers to clear away the backlog of older, uneconomical vehicles from their balance sheets.

A spokesman for the Japanese lender declined to comment on its investment policy.

Ten out of this year’s 15 new issues have been anchored by Norinchukin Bank, equating to a 66%% hit rate in the fi rst quarter. This follows a particularly active second half for the bank.

But without the bank’s investments European managers would have strug-gled even more to print deals this quarter. New issue spreads at the top of a vehi-cle’s liability stack would undoubtedly be higher, putting yet more pressure on managers looking to balance funding costs with cash fl ows from the underly-

ing loan assets. The advantage of “No-chu” is that it is there throughout the cycle, according to a London based CLO manager.

The entry of Japanese banks into Eu-rope a little over three years ago marked an expansive phase of the post-crisis market for CLOs. From roughly €14bn ($15.8bn) in 2015, supply soared to €20bn in 2017 and reached almost €28bn last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Norinchukin works with a pre-ap-proved list of managers, providing all or almost all of the AAA tranches for these issuers at a predetermined price.

That list has expanded recently to as many as 16 of the region’s 46 issuers. 10 of those are said to have tapped into the investor during the fi rst quarter to an-chor their AAA-rated paper, amounting to roughly €2.5bn based on an average AAA tranche size of €250mn.

These managers benefi t from being

able to lock in the coupon on the triple-A rated tranche ahead of pricing to protect against any volatility, as well as securing liability costs that are inside spreads of-fered by other investors.

Nochu has set the level for AAA pric-ing this year as the cheapest buyer in the market. European issuers working with Nochu this year have priced their senior AAA-rated tranche at 108-108.5 basis points, although in return managers say they have to price within a specifi c win-dow and agree to more restrictive terms. Issuers away from Norinchukin have priced their most senior tranche wider at 114-116 basis points.

Its presence also benefi ts those not on its platform, since it frees up other in-vestors for these deals, and also contains spreads, according to a CLO manager based in London.

Norinchukin’s dominance of Europe’s CLO AAA market has drawn concern from some loan arrangers about the mar-

ket’s over-reliance on one investor, and the potential for AAA spreads to widen if such a large buyer stepped back from the market.

While that might hamper future sup-ply – and make it harder to refi nance the underlying loan assets – existing CLO investments are locked up for the life of the vehicle, removing any material im-pact on the current market. In addition, the more conservative stance the likes of Nochu adopt with respect to CLO deal documentation benefi ts debt investors in the form of greater protections.

The current concentration will how-ever be diluted as the year progresses, and as managers with with other in-vestors bring deals to market. Just fi ve managers have syndicated their top-rated tranches among a broader range of investors so far this year, but more are in the pipeline.

Last year’s statistics show that of the 40 issuers that priced 66 new transac-tions in 2018, roughly half syndicated their AAA-tranche to the non-Japanese (or “syndicated”) investor base, which includes European commercial banks, insurance fi rms, pension funds, as well as some US banks.

This year’s new issuance has been front loaded with Nochu deals because deals with better execution capacity have jumped to the front of the queue, but more syndicated transactions will emerge during the next quarter, the CLO manager said.

Nochu isn’t the only Japanese bank with a presence in the European CLO market. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Daiwa Next Bank and Sony Bank are among those who have also invested in the region’s AAA debt tranches in recent years.

Japan Post Bank Co – which has been active in the US market doubling its CLO portfolio to 1tn yen since March 2018 – is a conspicuous absentee from Europe’s primary market, although managers say they would welcome more competition in the form of another anchor investor.

BUSINESS5Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Argentina mining gets Macri boost as tough election loomsBloombergSantiago

Argentina is eyeing its first major new mining project in two decades, nudged forward by President Mauricio Macri’s market-oriented policies. But there’s no guarantee he’ll be around to take credit.Argentina’s economy is tanking with the central bank hiking interest rates to ease inflation and save the peso, the worst-performing currency in emerging markets. That could put Macri on shaky ground as he heads towards a presidential election in October where he could face his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a populist who may peel back many of the policies Macri has undertaken.No matter who wins in October, the ground’s now tilled for a series of mining investments, said Mariano Lamothe, Argentina’s Undersecretary for Mining Development. Two weeks ago, Yamana Gold Inc, Goldcorp Inc and Glencore Plc said they’re studying a plan to jointly develop the Agua Rica gold and copper project in the country’s northwest. A

decision to invest could come within months, Lamothe said.“We’ve built a solid base,” Lamothe said in an interview in Buenos Aires. “So when President Macri’s term ends, it won’t be subject to the sharp turns that populism has generated in the past.” The three companies will complete a feasibility study next year. The plan is to combine Glencore’s Alumbrera mine, which began operations in 1997, with the Agua Rica project, with estimated reserves of about 4.5mn tonnes of copper and 6.5mn ounces of gold. The hoped-for result is an estimated life of 25 years with an annual production of 236,000 tonnes of copper-equivalent metal for the first 10 years.Macri has created a safer investment climate for miners by improving ties with authorities in provinces, which own the minerals in their territory, Lamothe said, adding that there’s also been eff orts to reduce costs and red tape for prospectors.Moves to improve regulatory frameworks, push transparency and address environmental issues were “important work, and it makes Argentina’s mining sector more

attractive,” said Fiona Mackie, Latin America director at the Economist Intelligence Unit. But potential shifts in currency policy or a return to capital controls have investors on edge, she said.“The first thing investors ask you

is what will happen with Argentina, and that’s an unsolved mystery,” said Gustavo Koch, executive director at Argentina’s mining chamber Caem. “We’re hoping for some kind of continuity of sensible policies.” Argentina hasn’t seen a significant new

mining project since 1997, when work started on Glencore’s Alumbrera gold and copper mine. A new large project in the South American nation would come at a moment when supply is tight and few new mines are being built. Morgan Stanley listed copper as its top pick among metals in a quarterly report and said it expects the market will post a deficit of 406,000 tonnes this year and of 187,000 tonnes next.Now, along with Agua Rica, which would make use of Alumbrera’s infrastructure, Canada’s First Quantum Minerals is mulling Taca Taca, a $3bn gold and copper project in Salta province. Company executives will decide whether they develop Taca Taca or another project in Peru after construction finishes on a mine in Panama.“Taca Taca would be the easiest one, and it’s more advanced,” First Quantum President Clive Newall said in an interview last month. But that affirmation came with a caveat: “Argentina politically is still not entirely straightforward. Elections are coming up. So clearly there’s this political decision: Do we want to invest there?” Macri’s best chance of

re-election will come if its only Macri and Fernandez de Kirchner running, pollsters say.But the outlook becomes more complex if a third candidate emerges, luring voters who are disillusioned with Macri but unwilling to turn back the clock. In that case, Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister, may be another option.No matter who governs at the federal level, one ally for miners in Argentina could be provincial off icials looking for revenue from royalties and employment opportunities, the mining chamber’s Koch said. He pointed to San Juan, home to Barrick Gold Corp’s Veladero gold mine.At the same time, local governments can add an additional layer of complexity that worries investors. The clearest case in point is Chubut, where provincial mayors have been in talks to lift a prohibition on open-pit mining that’d pave the way for a $1.2bn silver project.“The past four years have been about building a base,” according to Victor Rodriguez, a senior consultant for CRU Group in Santiago, Chile. “We should start to see the results of that over the next four years.”

Brazil’s central bank defends a cautionary approach to its monetary policy

BloombergBrasilia

Brazil’s central bank de-fends a cautionary ap-proach to monetary policy,

while economic reforms remain uncertain and the external sce-nario continues to pose chal-lenges.

“Copom members assessed that caution, serenity, and per-severance in conducting mon-etary policy decisions, in the face of uncertainties regarding economic scenarios, is the best way of keeping on a trajectory towards the targets,” the minutes to the March 19-20 interest rate meeting stated.

March’s meeting was the first run by new central bank governor Roberto Campos Neto, who was sworn in earlier this month.

The board signalled a degree of continuity in its thinking with the statement’s refer-ence to “caution, serenity, and perseverance” – three of the watchwords of the last central bank president, Ilan Goldfajn.

Policy makers also said that the chances of infl ation picking up or slowing down are even or “symmetric” – a sign that the next move could in theory be a rate cut if Brazil’s economic re-covery continues to disappoint.

However the minutes of the meeting also appeared to be slightly less dovish than the statement that accompanied last week’s decision to hold the benchmark interest rate at 6.5%.

“By emphasising that growth will depend on the reforms (and its eff ect on confi dence), Copom downplays the role of an interest rate cut in reviving growth.

In all, this all suggests that, while Copom might be open to cut rates at some point, it sees no reason to do it now”, says Adriana Dupita, Latin America economist.

Bank offi cials reiterated that reforms and adjustments to the Brazilian economy are “essential to maintain low infl ation in the medium and long run, for the reduction of its structural inter-est rate, and for sustainable eco-nomic recovery.”

Since the committee’s meet-ing last week the outlook for economic reforms has dark-ened a little, following a pub-lic spat between President Jair Bolsonaro and the lower house speaker, Rodrigo Maia, Brazil’s most powerful lawmaker.

The central bank board also suggested in its minutes that any rate move would not come quickly, as any assessment about the economy “takes time and should not be completed in the short run.”

Analysts surveyed by the cen-tral bank see the key interest rate remaining unchanged through-out this year.

They have also reduced their forecast for a rate increase in 2020 to 7.5%, from 7.75% a week previously.

Fund that survived 25 years of Brazil crises is wary of the hypeBloombergSao Paulo

Two presidential impeachments, three currency changes and hy-perinflation as high as 2,500%

a year have made Fabio Alperowitch a cautious man.

The co-founder of Brazil’s FAMA Investimentos, a Sao Paulo-based asset-management firm that’s been around for more than two decades, is more conservative than many of his competitors about prospects for Bra-zil’s much-delayed pension reform. Investors swept up in the enthusiasm about the election of President Jair Bolsonaro last year have pushed stock prices to record highs, betting he’ll succeed in advancing market-friend-ly policies.

“I’ve just hit my head against the

wall so many times,” Alperowitch said in an interview. “I’m open-minded about this ‘new Brazil,’ but I’ll be-lieve in broad reform when I see it.” His caution doesn’t mean FAMA is staying on the sidelines, only that it’s less willing to take chances on riskier companies.

Alperowitch says the fund, which has about 2bn reais ($517mn) under management, is “practically 100%” invested in firms that would survive even if reform goes wrong, but that would also benefit from a ramp-up in economic growth.

On that list are larger companies that were able to get cheap and easy credit during the crisis years. Localiza Rent a Car SA, drugstore chain Raia Drogasil SA, paper maker Klabin SA and health-diagnostics firm Fleury SA are among the fund’s current holdings.

Picking stocks even though stocks are near record levels, companies tied to domestic consumption have lagged behind others such as banks and the oil giant Petrobras.

“So if there are any setbacks on re-forms, those stocks that climbed the most will suffer more,” he said. “And if the reforms progress, those con-sumption companies will rally.”

The manager’s flagship equity fund has returned roughly 8,400% since its inception two decades ago – about four times the return on Brazil’s benchmark stock index during the period.

FAMA’s stock fund was one of the first run by an independent asset manager in the early 1990s, according to Alperowitch, who ran it from his parents’ house with a college friend, Mauricio Levi. The firm’s name is a combination of the first syllable

of the partners’ names. The lack of structure and money at the beginning – Alperowitch says the pair were net-ting $20 a month in revenue – meant they had no cash to pay for real-time trading data and research or access to top-tier executives. Instead, they did field work, hanging out at supermar-kets to talk to customers, and focus-ing on smaller companies where they might get a chance to meet with mid-dle management.

Alperowitch has stuck to that strat-egy. The firm doesn’t invest in com-panies with a market value higher than 50bn reais, or those that are in regulated sectors or depend too much on factors outside of management’s control, like utilities.

More surprisingly, Alperowitch says he’s never – “under no circum-stances” – invested in a state-owned stock in his 25 years in the market.

Many of Alperowitch’s competitors are less pessimistic than he is. A Bank of America survey of 32 money man-agers showed 80% believe an overhaul of the nation’s costly pension system will be approved in the second half of the year, with savings of about 700bn reais over 10 years.

Alperowitch said he’s “not that op-timistic about a robust reform,” and thinks it’s unlikely before year-end. His views are somewhat similar to Rogerio Xavier’s, one of Brazil’s most revered hedge fund managers, who also believes investors are underesti-mating obstacles to reform.

Read more about Rogerio Xavi-er’s views on reforms “If the reform doesn’t happen now, I don’t know when we’ll have such a confluence of factors like we do today,” Alperowitch said. “I like to look at longer terms, but in Brazil I just can’t.”

Naspers CEO bets on Dutch listing to fi x Tencent stake discountBloombergJohannesburg

Naspers Ltd chief executive offi c-er Bob van Dijk has been work-ing for years to solve a problem

rivals might envy – getting investors to value his South African fi rm nearer to its $133bn stake in Tencent Hold-ings Ltd. A plan for a Dutch listing is his boldest step yet.

By carving out its international In-ternet businesses, including the 31% holding in the Chinese tech giant, for a listing on Euronext Amsterdam, van Dijk hopes to tap a bigger pool of capital and shrink a discount that’s been wors-ened by Naspers’ outsize presence on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

“This will be the largest consumer Internet business,” in Europe and the third-largest company on the Amster-dam exchange, van Dijk said in a phone interview, noting that he expects to attract €2bn ($2.26bn) of investment just from index funds. The value of the Naspers off spring would likely trail only Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Unilever NV on the Dutch market.

The move makes sense, and might narrow the gap between Naspers’ 1.42tn rand ($100bn) market capitalisation and the Tencent stake, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Davies. But the bigger challenge for van Dijk will be to show that the fi rm can strike gold with more of its investments.

“The transfer doesn’t indicate whether Naspers can demonstrate a track record of investment success” after the transaction, Davies said in a note.

Bob van Dijk, CEO at Naspers, dis-cusses the company’s listing of Internet assets on Euronext Amsterdam.

Naspers might have remained a lit-tle-known publisher of newspapers and operator of pay-TV services if not for the decision in 2001 to invest $32mn in an obscure Chinese web fi rm. While the success of the Tencent investment made Naspers the most valuable com-pany in Africa, its market value sug-gests investors assign no worth to its other businesses.

Naspers’ quandary is similar to those faced by other companies that made hugely successful investments in tech-nology startups that eventually over-

shadowed their operating businesses, such as the winning bets Yahoo! Inc and SoftBank Group Corp made on Ali-baba Group Holding Ltd.

Van Dijk, CEO since 2014, has fo-cused much of his attention on In-dia and Europe and on e-commerce, delivery and online payments in his search for the next brightest ideas. He has about $9bn of cash to spend after he trimmed Naspers’ stake in Tencent last year and received proceeds from the sale of Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart to Walmart Inc.

Among the holdings in Internet busi-nesses that will be included in the Am-sterdam-listed entity are Russian social network Mail.ru, German food delivery

business Delivery Hero and Indian e-commerce startup Swiggy. Naspers will still control the new Internet unit by keeping a 75% stake, with the remain-der making up its free fl oat.

The carve-out alone may not be enough to give Naspers the valuation bump van Dijk is seeking. The shares continued to slump for a second day on the Johannesburg stock exchange, trading 0.85% lower yesterday. Tencent was down 1.5% in Hong Kong.

Ken Rumph, an analyst at Jeff eries Group LLC in London, said in an e-mail that Naspers’ investment record out-side of Tencent has been good, but that the company “will continue to struggle to persuade investors to value its man-

agement of assets at anything other than a discount.” Still, the value of the newly listed company, yet to be named, could bump up against Europe’s largest tech fi rm, German software developer SAP SE, which has a market capitalisa-tion of 121bn euros.

Some investors have encouraged van Dijk to pursue listings, and he said on Monday he will look at other opportu-nities. His separation of pay-TV com-pany MultiChoice this month focused Naspers entirely on consumer Internet businesses.

Van Dijk said he chose Amsterdam partly because it’s a “great place to at-tract talent.” The listing requirements are very similar to Johannesburg and

the company can keep the same man-agement and board. Naspers’ execu-tives are largely based in the Nether-lands and travel extensively, as they seek to replicate the Tencent bet.

Amsterdam has become attractive to companies as Brexit uncertainties weigh on the UK, including listings on the London Stock Exchange.

Thanks to its Tencent holding, Naspers accounts for almost a quarter of the Johannesburg exchange’s bench-mark index, up from 5% just fi ve years ago. As a result, many South African institutional investors have had to sell the shares because the weighting ex-ceeds their limit for single stock hold-ings, the company said.

Visitors approach the entrance to the headquarters of Naspers in Cape Town, South Africa. Naspers accounts for almost a quarter of the Johannesburg exchange’s benchmark index, up from 5% just five years ago.

Zad Holding CoWidam Food CoVodafone Qatar

United Development CoSalam International Investme

Qatar & Oman Investment CoQatar Navigation

Qatar National Cement CoQatar National Bank

Qatar Islamic InsuranceQatar Industrial Manufactur

Qatar International IslamicQatari Investors Group

Qatar Islamic BankQatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)Qatar General Insurance & ReQatar German Co For Medical

Qatar Fuel QscQatar First Bank

Qatar Electricity & Water CoQatar Exchange Index Etf

Qatar Cinema & Film DistribAl Rayan Qatar Etf

Qatar Insurance CoOoredoo Qpsc

National LeasingMazaya Qatar Real Estate Dev

Mesaieed Petrochemical HoldiAl Meera Consumer Goods Co

Medicare GroupMannai Corporation Qsc

Masraf Al RayanAl Khalij Commercial Bank

Industries QatarIslamic Holding Group

Investment Holding GroupGulf Warehousing Company

Gulf International ServicesEzdan Holding Group

Doha Insurance CoDoha Bank Qpsc

Dlala HoldingCommercial Bank Pqsc

Barwa Real Estate CoAl Khaleej Takaful Group

Aamal Co

121.00

64.05

7.82

13.50

4.20

5.70

65.36

70.39

177.10

58.94

38.98

69.98

25.24

151.11

19.78

39.70

6.12

190.00

4.05

171.75

101.85

20.39

25.45

34.80

65.16

8.22

7.54

19.85

146.49

66.17

49.00

36.66

11.34

121.90

22.20

5.20

41.72

15.00

11.90

11.50

21.13

9.59

42.94

36.30

11.17

9.95

0.00

-0.82

2.22

1.12

1.45

1.60

-1.68

0.01

-1.59

0.75

-0.03

1.72

0.56

-0.91

0.15

0.00

0.66

-1.04

0.25

-0.15

0.00

9.92

0.00

-0.46

-1.29

0.98

0.00

4.20

0.26

-0.12

1.05

-0.60

1.16

0.49

-0.36

0.00

-0.71

7.14

0.42

-6.28

1.68

0.84

-0.62

0.83

9.94

0.81

-

43,891

2,987,410

983,965

53,109

5,357

20,201

88,589

401,813

25,765

5,755

377,844

112,772

29,600

265,858

-

25,773

244,370

307,693

12,796

-

30,776

6,236

76,967

98,999

31,930

238,809

1,100,490

90,216

27,217

11,598

160,472

7,309

137,158

32,947

168,538

20,089

845,830

218,213

32,991

336,625

7,739

20,996

264,798

322,167

246,480

QATAR

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

SAUDI ARABIA

United Wire Factories CompanEtihad Etisalat Co

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate DevAlawwal Bank

Rabigh Refining And PetrocheBanque Saudi Fransi

Saudi Enaya Cooperative InsuMediterranean & Gulf Insuran

Saudi British BankRed Sea International Co

Takween Advanced IndustriesSabb Takaful

Saudi Arabian Fertilizer CoNational GypsumSaudi Ceramic Co

National Gas & IndustrializaSaudi Pharmaceutical Industr

ThimarNational Industrialization C

Batic Investments And LogistSaudi Electricity Co

Saudi Arabia Refineries CoArriyadh Development Company

Al-Baha Development & InvestSaudi Research And MarketingAldrees Petroleum And Transp

Saudi Vitrified Clay Pipe CoJarir Marketing Co

Arab National BankYanbu National Petrochemical

Arabian CementMiddle East Specialized Cabl

Al Khaleej Training And EducAl Sagr Co-Operative Insuran

Trade Union Cooperative InsuArabia Insurance Cooperative

Saudi Chemical CompanyFawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & C

Bupa Arabia For CooperativeWafa Insurance

Jabal Omar Development CoSaudi Basic Industries Corp

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical CoEtihad Atheeb Telecommunicat

Co For Cooperative InsuranceNational Petrochemical Co

Gulf Union Cooperative InsurGulf General Cooperative Ins

Basic Chemical IndustriesSaudi Steel Pipe Co

Buruj Cooperative InsuranceMouwasat Medical Services Co

Southern Province Cement CoMaadaniyah

Yamama Cement CoJazan Energy And Development

Zamil Industrial InvestmentAlujain Corporation (Alco)

Tabuk Agricultural DevelopmeUnited Co-Operative Assuranc

Qassim Cement/TheSaudi Advanced Industries

Kingdom Holding CoSaudi Arabian Amiantit Co

Al Jouf Agriculture DevelopmSaudi Industrial Development

Riyad BankThe National Agriculture Dev

Halwani Bros CoArabian Pipes Co

Eastern Province Cement CoAl Gassim Investment Holding

Filing & Packing Materials MSaudi Cable Co

Tihama Advertising & PublicSaudi Investment Bank/The

Astra Industrial GroupSaudi Public Transport Co

Taiba Holding CoSaudi Industrial Export Co

Saudi Real Estate CoSaudia Dairy & Foodstuff Co

National Shipping Co Of/TheMethanol Chemicals Co

Chubb Arabia Cooperative InsMobile Telecommunications Co

Saudi Arabian Coop Ins CoAxa Cooperative Insurance

Alsorayai GroupBank Albilad

Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker CoWataniya Insurance Co

Abdullah Al Othaim MarketsHail Cement

Saudi Re For Cooperative Rei

16.58

21.88

10.80

16.78

20.00

36.10

13.22

15.84

37.00

15.52

8.97

17.24

82.40

12.96

20.32

30.80

27.60

23.20

18.00

37.65

16.60

42.15

20.86

21.82

79.60

27.25

48.70

155.40

36.90

73.80

25.15

11.78

13.66

11.86

0.00

16.32

33.10

24.92

82.00

9.50

32.50

123.40

14.14

5.35

58.90

26.35

13.50

12.22

23.38

24.40

21.30

78.40

45.65

17.96

15.60

13.92

18.02

23.58

10.10

11.18

39.65

13.84

8.81

6.52

22.90

8.78

23.90

27.60

43.75

10.44

24.20

11.80

33.35

45.20

45.20

18.66

16.28

14.34

28.30

78.40

13.02

103.80

30.25

10.02

17.92

10.86

11.12

21.94

13.04

29.00

8.85

22.08

71.00

8.39

7.89

-0.24

1.30

-0.18

1.45

-0.10

0.42

-4.62

-1.00

1.37

-0.26

-1.54

-1.93

0.61

-0.15

-1.36

-0.32

0.36

0.00

1.58

1.76

0.12

-0.35

-0.38

-0.18

0.76

-1.27

0.41

1.30

0.96

0.82

0.00

0.17

-0.44

-1.82

0.00

-0.61

0.30

0.48

-1.80

0.00

1.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.01

0.96

0.75

-1.77

-1.68

0.91

-0.47

0.00

0.33

0.56

0.78

-0.85

-0.77

-1.17

-0.20

-1.06

0.38

-0.86

0.57

-2.83

0.53

1.27

1.19

0.18

-1.46

-0.38

-1.14

-1.01

-1.04

-0.88

0.44

0.32

-0.73

-0.14

0.71

-1.51

0.15

0.39

-0.33

0.20

-0.88

-1.27

-1.77

-1.17

-1.21

-0.34

-1.12

-4.99

1.43

-0.59

-0.75

98,087

2,557,419

5,575,503

368,835

962,198

201,341

1,481,512

491,556

517,269

143,999

281,693

86,335

219,288

290,703

112,726

127,351

106,185

76,318

5,103,140

263,587

669,035

173,874

237,554

98,200

250,730

165,496

2,029

135,846

316,860

161,732

168,453

99,764

371,276

192,138

-

94,958

39,035

861,538

219,449

-

1,165,575

1,888,828

9,020,059

-

112,621

200,679

64,125

68,940

284,108

571,605

78,299

38,804

13,378

251,489

532,752

346,956

82,807

305,269

116,572

51,581

23,655

307,050

1,736,482

4,734,828

160,651

1,845,744

582,810

116,414

48,689

432,800

167,018

379,793

61,537

499,157

688,277

76,859

156,924

498,291

72,811

210,786

1,194,239

87,193

329,510

864,512

77,008

3,086,724

121,870

132,581

182,043

299,566

307,313

229,347

219,548

166,922

438,864

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Solidarity Saudi Takaful CoAmana Cooperative Insurance

Alabdullatif Industrial InvSaudi Printing & Packaging C

Saudi Paper Manufacturing CoAlinma Bank

Almarai CoFalcom Saudi Equity Etf

United International TranspoHsbc Amanah Saudi 20 Etf

Saudi International PetrocheFalcom Petrochemical Etf

Walaa Cooperative InsuranceBank Al-Jazira

Al Rajhi BankSamba Financial Group

United Electronics CoAllied Cooperative Insurance

Malath InsuranceAlinma Tokio Marine

Arabian Shield CooperativeSavola

Wafrah For Industry And DeveFitaihi Holding Group

Tourism Enterprise Co/ ShamsSahara Petrochemical Co

Herfy Food Services CoSaudi Ind Investment Group

Salama Cooperative InsuranceEmaar Economic City

Alahli Takaful CoAnaam International Holding

Saudi Telecom CoAl Alamiya Cooperative Insur

Saudi Industrial Services CoAl-Ahsa Development Co.

National Co For Glass In/TheDur Hospitality Co

Tabuk Cement CoSasco

Saudi CementAseer Trading Tourism & Manu

Nama Chemicals CoSaudi Arabian Mining Co

Yanbu Cement CoSaudi Fisheries

Ash-Sharqiyah Development CoMakkah Construction & Devepl

Al Jouf CementAbdullah A.M. Al-Khodari Son

Knowledge Economic CityAl-Ahlia Cooperative Insuran

Al Rajhi Co For Co-OperativeAdvanced Petrochemicals Co

Al Babtain Power & TelecommuAllianz Saudi Fransi Coopera

Najran Cement CoAl Tayyar Travel Group

National Commercial Bank

-2.50

-3.33

-0.49

-0.12

-0.82

0.16

-0.36

0.59

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.64

-0.25

-0.19

-1.46

-1.61

1.26

-0.71

-0.90

-2.24

-0.16

-1.90

0.54

-0.16

0.98

2.13

-1.04

-1.43

-0.20

-0.18

-2.71

-0.37

-4.72

-0.44

-1.53

-0.33

-0.89

-1.13

-0.36

0.17

-0.53

-0.38

0.18

0.00

-1.08

-0.39

-1.19

0.00

0.16

-1.13

-1.82

-3.07

0.73

0.43

-1.33

-0.12

9.98

0.77

105,937

1,064,276

45,941

335,229

218,466

5,170,516

207,162

271,047

241,957

11

263,597

46

239,043

1,385,237

1,929,463

622,697

251,628

52,925

656,135

107,146

355,313

197,244

609,299

87,957

31,757

2,178,952

148,580

788,979

114,644

917,618

37,075

179,779

280,297

81,902

773,944

364,417

28,032

26,686

120,760

751,850

62,736

183,551

62,811

204,715

89,211

144,486

51,275

43,989

352,848

11,171,137

269,973

423,309

623,249

132,632

160,066

17,805

604,774

24,946,607

1,354,931

SAUDI ARABIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Sultan Center Food ProductsKuwait Foundry Co Sak

Kuwait Financial Centre SakAjial Real Estate Entmt

Kuwait Finance & InvestmentNational Industries Co Ksc

Kuwait Real Estate Holding CSecurities House/The

Boubyan Petrochemicals CoAl Ahli Bank Of Kuwait

Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)National Bank Of Kuwait

Commercial Bank Of KuwaitKuwait International Bank

Gulf BankAl-Massaleh Real Estate Co

Al Arabiya Real Estate CoKuwait Remal Real Estate Co

A’ayan Real Estate Co SakInvestors Holding Group Co.K

Al-Mazaya Holding CoAl-Madar Finance & Invt CoGulf Petroleum Investment

Mabanee Co SakcInovest Co Bsc

Al-Deera Holding CoMena Real Estate Co

Amar Finance & Leasing CoUnited Projects For Aviation

National Consumer Holding CoAmwal International InvestmeEquipment Holding Co K.S.C.C

Arkan Al Kuwait Real EstateGfh Financial Group Bsc

Energy House Holding Co KscpKuwait Co For Process PlantAl Maidan Dental Clinic Co KNational Shooting CompanyAl-Ahleia Insurance Co Sakp

Wethaq Takaful Insurance CoSalbookh Trading Co Kscp

Aqar Real Estate InvestmentsHayat Communications

Soor Fuel Marketing Co KscTamkeen Holding Co

Burgan Co For Well DrillingKuwait Resorts Co KsccOula Fuel Marketing Co

Palms Agro Production CoMubarrad Holding Co Ksc

Shuaiba Industrial CoAan Digital Services Co

First Takaful Insurance CoKuwaiti Syrian Holding Co

National Cleaning CompanyUnited Real Estate Company

AgilityKuwait & Middle East Fin Inv

Fujairah Cement IndustriesLivestock Transport & Tradng

International Resorts CoNational Industries Grp Hold

Warba Insurance CoFirst Dubai Real Estate Deve

Al Arabi Group Holding CoMobile Telecommunications Co

Eff ect Real Estate CoTamdeen Real Estate Co KscAl Mudon Intl Real Estate Co

Kuwait Cement Co KscSharjah Cement & Indus Devel

Kuwait Portland Cement CoEducational Holding Group

Asiya Capital Investments CoKuwait Investment Co

Burgan BankKuwait Projects Co Holdings

Al Madina For Finance And InKuwait Insurance Co

Al Masaken Intl Real EstateIntl Financial Advisors

First Investment Co KsccAl Mal Investment Company

Bayan Investment Co KsccEgypt Kuwait Holding Co Sae

Coast Investment DevelopmentPrivatization Holding Compan

Injazzat Real State CompanyKuwait Cable Vision Sak

Sanam Real Estate Co KsccIthmaar Holding Bsc

Aviation Lease And Finance CArzan Financial Group For Fi

Ajwan Gulf Real Estate CoKuwait Business Town Real Es

Future Kid Entertainment And

52.80

250.00

91.00

141.00

40.90

184.00

24.50

50.00

950.00

347.00

329.00

895.00

540.00

305.00

312.00

37.20

29.70

45.20

65.00

10.60

61.50

170.00

26.90

579.00

84.50

16.80

46.40

34.20

440.00

30.00

59.90

24.10

76.00

76.70

39.50

240.00

1,198.00

15.90

435.00

35.70

35.20

60.00

64.00

115.00

10.90

95.00

57.80

115.00

50.00

73.90

180.00

16.00

44.60

60.00

59.50

59.90

854.00

49.40

55.60

167.00

20.00

193.00

65.80

35.00

71.90

477.00

15.00

326.00

25.00

312.00

76.50

1,340.00

315.00

36.40

132.00

348.00

221.00

22.50

424.00

66.00

22.00

35.50

17.90

40.90

460.00

38.50

57.50

80.00

16.10

31.80

22.30

259.00

28.00

14.30

42.70

135.00

-1.31

7.76

-2.15

-0.70

2.51

-7.54

-8.92

1.01

1.06

0.29

-0.60

-2.41

-2.70

0.33

-1.89

1.92

-2.62

-2.80

1.56

-3.64

-2.23

-1.16

1.51

0.52

0.00

1.82

-0.22

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

6.64

0.00

-0.13

-2.71

0.00

10.93

9.66

0.00

0.00

-2.22

0.00

-7.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.40

0.00

0.00

-0.14

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.17

-4.03

3.99

0.35

0.00

-2.80

0.60

0.00

-0.52

7.69

-1.41

1.99

-0.42

0.00

0.31

-0.79

0.00

-4.38

-0.07

-0.94

0.83

0.76

-0.85

0.45

0.45

0.00

0.00

-1.35

0.85

4.07

2.25

2.22

0.00

4.55

-5.88

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.78

2.94

0.70

-1.84

19.47

160,400

524,304

110,500

24,087

137,200

13

5,350

634,280

138,897

112,185

547,207

6,135,332

10

5,288,283

7,332,361

40

304,000

240,000

1,028,000

4,872,408

2,509,426

1,010,200

371,655

341,713

125,249

20

1,207,284

30,198

2,140

19,995

400

51,001

37,750

774,729

81,200

8,001

35,334

285,540

87,677

92,000

10,504

38

1,160

10,430

10,000

13,738

59,500

4,421

116,056

100,314

100

7,851,098

260

4,576,175

22,035

144,878

719,125

349,080

210,712

50,500

100

12,779,150

98,796

690,418

66,139

2,152,309

330,000

1,000

316,100

1,118

3,100

8,268

31,000

151,161

211,016

1,842,928

656,740

159,100

400,000

25

874,987

3,298,319

343,004

53,202

5,000

21,292

6,263,200

205,000

2,193

4,068

370,104

245,410

750,377

675,101

562,224

11

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Voltamp Energy SaogVision Insurance Saoc

United Power/Energy Co- PrefUnited Power Co Saog

United Finance CoUbar Hotels & Resorts

Takaful OmanTaageer FinanceSweets Of OmanSohar Power Co

Smn Power Holding SaogShell Oman Marketing - Pref

Shell Oman MarketingSharqiyah Desalination Co Sa

Sembcorp Salalah Power & WatSalalah Port Services

Salalah Mills CoSalalah Beach Resort Saog

Sahara HospitalityRenaissance Services Saog

Raysut Cement CoPhoenix Power Co Saoc

Packaging Co LtdOoredoo

OminvestOman United Insurance Co

Oman Telecommunications CoOman Refreshment Co

Oman Qatar Insurance CoOman Packaging

Oman Oil Marketing CompanyOman National Engineering An

Oman Investment & FinanceOman Intl Marketing

Oman Flour MillsOman Fisheries Co

Oman Europe Foods IndustriesOman Education & Training In

Oman ChromiteOman Chlorine

Oman Ceramic CompanyOman Cement Co

Oman Cables IndustryOman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%

Natl Aluminium ProductsNational Real Estate Develop

National PharmaceuticalNational Mineral Water

National Life & General InsuNational Gas Co

National Finance CoNational Detergent Co Saog

National Biscuit IndustriesNational Bank Of Oman Saog

Muscat Thread Mills CoMuscat Insurance Co Saog

Muscat Gases Company SaogMuscat Finance

Muscat City Desalination CoMajan Glass Company

Majan CollegeHsbc Bank Oman

Hotels Management Co InternaGulf Stone

Gulf Mushroom CompanyGulf Investments Services

Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-SharGulf International Chemicals

Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co LtdGlobal Fin Investment

Galfar Engineering&ContractGalfar Engineering -Prefer

Financial Services Co.Financial Corp/The

Dhofar TourismDhofar Poultry

Dhofar Intl DevelopmentDhofar Insurance

Dhofar Generating Co SaocDhofar Fisheries & Food Indu

Dhofar CattlefeedDhofar Beverages Co

Construction Materials IndComputer Stationery Inds

Bankmuscat SaogSohar International Bank

Bank NizwaBank Dhofar Saog-Rts

Bank Dhofar Saog

0.21

0.13

1.00

3.30

0.08

0.13

0.14

0.10

0.55

0.11

0.19

1.05

1.06

0.31

0.13

0.60

0.68

1.38

3.09

0.34

0.31

0.10

2.21

0.50

0.34

0.26

0.65

1.70

0.11

0.27

1.10

0.16

0.08

0.52

0.57

0.07

1.00

0.23

3.64

0.40

0.42

0.27

0.93

0.09

0.34

5.00

0.00

0.09

0.29

0.24

0.14

0.70

3.92

0.18

0.08

0.80

0.15

0.08

0.12

0.18

0.18

0.12

1.25

0.12

0.31

0.06

0.11

0.14

9.50

0.08

0.09

0.39

0.18

0.10

0.49

0.18

0.29

0.17

0.19

1.28

0.07

0.26

0.03

0.26

0.40

0.12

0.09

0.00

0.16

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-9.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.60

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.25

0.00

0.35

3.17

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.14

0.00

0.00

0.00

-9.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.38

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.30

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-9.09

0.00

-2.15

0.00

0.65

-

-

-

-

20,000

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

60

-

-

-

-

-

-

150,200

-

80,825

-

-

-

66,630

118,046

-

-

-

-

-

1,041,502

-

22,200

978,673

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

152,324

-

-

-

812,032

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

9,180

-

-

-

80,000

-

-

-

-

1,369,266

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

740,035

-

348,485

-

99,183

OMAN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Arabia Falcon Insurance CoAloula Co

Al-Omaniya Financial ServiceAl-Hassan Engineering Co

Al-Fajar Al-Alamia CoAl-Anwar Ceramic Tiles Co

Al Suwadi PowerAl Sharqiya Invest Holding

Al Maha Petroleum Products MAl Maha Ceramics Co SaocAl Madina Takaful Co Saoc

Al Madina Investment CoAl Kamil Power Co

Al Jazerah Services -PfdAl Jazeera Steel Products Co

Al Jazeera ServicesAl Izz Islamic Bank

Al Buraimi HotelAl Batinah PowerAl Batinah Hotels

Al Batinah Dev & InvAl Anwar Holdings Saog

Al Ahlia Insurance Co SaocAhli Bank

Acwa Power Barka SaogAbrasives Manufacturing Co S

A’saff a Foods Saog0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref

0.11

0.53

0.15

0.02

0.75

0.08

0.09

0.08

0.89

0.20

0.09

0.03

0.38

0.55

0.27

0.11

0.09

0.88

0.09

1.13

0.09

0.09

0.36

0.14

0.66

0.05

0.60

0.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.30

0.00

-2.60

0.00

0.00

1.10

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

5.66

1.18

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.72

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-

-

-

10,000

-

164,939

186,475

27,186

-

61,960

392,458

54,600

-

-

1,000

128,250

21,600

-

-

-

-

10,000

-

180,040

-

-

-

-

OMAN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Waha Capital PjscUnited Insurance Company

United Arab Bank PjscUnion National Bank/Abu Dhab

Union Insurance CoUnion Cement Co

Umm Al Qaiwain General InvesSudatel Telecome Group Ltd

Sharjah Islamic BankSharjah Insurance Company

Sharjah GroupSharjah Cement & Indus DevelRas Al-Khaimah National Insu

Ras Al Khaimah White CementRas Al Khaimah Ceramics

Ras Al Khaimah Cement Co PscRas Al Khaima Poultry

Rak PropertiesOoredoo Qpsc

Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%National Takaful Company

National Marine Dredging CoNational Investor Co/The

National Corp Tourism & HoteNational Bank Of Umm Al Qaiw

National Bank Of Ras Al-KhaiNational Bank Of Fujairah

Methaq Takaful InsuranceManazel Real Estate Pjsc

Invest BankIntl Holdings Co Pjsc

Insurance HouseGulf Pharmaceutical Ind Psc

Gulf Medical ProjectsGulf Cement Co

Fujairah Cement IndustriesFujairah Building Industries

Foodco Holding PjscFirst Abu Dhabi Bank Pjsc

Finance HouseEshraq Properties Co Pjsc

Emirates Telecom Group CoEmirates Insurance Co. (Psc)

Emirates Driving CompanyDana Gas

Commercial Bank InternationaBank Of Sharjah

Axa Green Crescent InsuranceArkan Building Materials Co

Alkhaleej InvestmentAldar Properties Pjsc

Al Wathba National InsuranceAl Qudra Holding Pjsc

Al Khazna Insurance CoAl Fujairah National Insuran

Al Dhafra Insurance Co. P.S.Al Buhaira National Insuranc

Al Ain Ahlia Ins. Co.Agthia Group Pjsc

Abu Dhabi Ship Building CoAbu Dhabi Natl Co For Buildi

Abu Dhabi National Takaful CAbu Dhabi National Oil Co Fo

Abu Dhabi National InsuranceAbu Dhabi National Hotels

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co

1.25

2.00

1.30

5.59

0.90

0.00

0.88

0.38

1.09

2.84

1.00

0.98

2.90

1.05

1.65

0.70

1.75

0.42

58.00

0.50

0.69

3.41

0.58

1.40

2.61

4.32

4.80

0.71

0.42

2.49

1.00

0.85

1.58

1.50

0.65

1.25

1.19

3.71

15.22

1.62

0.45

16.88

7.50

7.34

0.92

0.66

0.94

0.50

0.51

1.26

1.91

12.76

0.81

0.25

300.00

3.55

1.99

33.30

3.80

1.04

0.43

3.25

2.21

3.70

2.80

0.93

-2.34

0.00

0.00

1.27

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.94

0.00

0.00

-0.70

-9.23

0.00

0.00

-2.57

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.91

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.13

0.00

-2.17

-0.12

0.00

0.00

1.43

-8.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.53

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.52

2.31

0.00

0.00

0.00

476,243

-

-

2,270,217

-

-

-

-

21,000

-

-

-

-

-

268,000

-

-

4,569,039

7,500

-

-

10,000

-

-

-

-

-

-

1,213,015

-

10,000

-

32,179

-

-

-

-

-

3,059,326

-

18,489,078

573,625

-

-

11,068,739

100

-

-

-

-

10,586,367

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

625,894

-

-

20,000

16,193,646

-

-

6,000

UAE

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Zain Bahrain BsccUnited Paper Industries Bsc

United Gulf Holding BscSolidarity Bahrain Bsc

Seef PropertiesNational Bank Of Bahrain Bsc

Nass Corp BscKhaleeji Commercial Bank

Ithmaar Holding BscInvestcorp Bank -$Us

Gulf Hotel Group B.S.CGfh Financial Group Bsc

Esterad Investment Co B.S.C.Eskan Bank Realty Income Tr

Bmmi BscBbk Bsc

Bahrain Telecom CoBahrain National Holding

Bahrain Kuwait InsuranceBahrain Islamic Bank

Bahrain Duty Free ComplexBahrain Commercial Facilitie

Arab Banking Corp Bsc-$UsAluminium Bahrain Bsc

Albaraka Banking GroupAl-Salam Bank

Ahli United Bank B.S.C

0.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.22

0.62

0.00

0.07

0.05

10.00

0.00

0.26

0.12

0.09

0.80

0.41

0.33

0.00

0.32

0.12

0.79

0.92

0.44

0.43

0.31

0.09

0.87

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.77

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.89

0.00

0.00

0.00

-6.82

0.00

0.00

0.00

6.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.57

100,000

-

-

-

206,550

10,000

-

30,000

2,287,548

375,000

-

440,000

66,373

20,000

50,000

10,000

106,000

-

437,169

22,028

50,000

20,000

36,500

19,953

25,000

52,450

932,975

BAHRAIN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Specialities Group Holding CAbyaar Real Eastate Developm

Kgl Logistics Company KsccCombined Group Contracting

Jiyad Holding Co KscBoubyan Intl Industries Hold

Gulf Investment House KscBoubyan Bank K.S.C

Ahli United Bank B.S.COsos Holding Group Co

Al-Eid Food KscQurain Petrochemical Industr

Ekttitab Holding Co SakReal Estate Trade Centers Co

Acico Industries Co KsccKipco Asset Management CoNational Petroleum Services

Alimtiaz Investment GroupRas Al Khaimah White Cement

Kuwait Reinsurance Co KscKuwait & Gulf Link Transport

Humansoft Holding Co KscAutomated Systems Co Kscc

Metal & Recycling CoGulf Franchising Holding Co

Al-Enma’a Real Estate CoNational Mobile Telecommuni

Unicap Investment And FinancAl Salam Group Holding Co

Al Aman Investment CompanyMashaer Holding Co Ksc

Manazel HoldingTijara And Real Estate Inves

Jazeera Airways Co KscCommercial Real Estate Co

National International CoTaameer Real Estate Invest C

Gulf Cement CoHeavy Engineering And Ship B

National Real Estate CoAl Safat Energy Holding Comp

Kuwait National Cinema CoDanah Alsafat Foodstuff Co

Independent Petroleum GroupKuwait Real Estate Co Ksc

Salhia Real Estate Co KscGulf Cable & Electrical Ind

Kuwait Finance HouseGulf North Africa Holding Co

Hilal Cement CoOsoul Investment Kscc

Gulf Insurance Group KscUmm Al Qaiwain General Inves

Aayan Leasing & InvestmentAlrai Media Group Co KscNational Investments CoCommercial Facilities CoYiaco Medical Co. K.S.C.C

Munshaat Real Estate ProjectNoor Financial Investment Co

Al Tamdeen Investment CoCredit Rating & Collection

Ifa Hotels & Resorts Co. K.SSokouk Holding Co Sak

Warba Bank KscpViva Kuwait Telecom Co

Mezzan Holding Co Kscc

70.00

14.90

42.40

285.00

71.50

0.00

43.80

595.00

270.00

107.00

55.00

382.00

18.00

33.00

161.00

75.00

1,035.00

126.00

70.40

140.00

90.00

3,250.00

100.00

47.90

99.00

40.80

731.00

68.00

32.50

51.40

79.40

25.30

49.80

795.00

91.00

66.10

35.80

64.50

385.00

89.40

29.50

900.00

35.00

390.00

62.10

325.00

393.00

0.00

50.10

120.00

60.00

665.00

73.10

50.00

47.00

98.10

189.00

66.50

89.10

88.50

310.00

20.00

60.00

35.20

234.00

837.00

480.00

-1.41

1.36

1.19

0.00

2.14

0.00

0.46

1.54

-0.74

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.62

1.35

2.99

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.11

-1.07

-6.54

0.00

0.00

1.49

-0.27

-11.69

5.86

0.78

0.51

-0.78

0.00

1.27

1.00

-1.34

-1.65

1.10

-0.52

-0.56

0.00

0.00

2.94

0.00

2.64

0.00

1.03

0.00

0.00

9.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.20

-8.56

-0.30

1.07

0.00

-1.00

-1.12

3.68

0.00

-2.44

-2.22

-1.27

-1.53

0.21

154,318

1,219,292

1,305,194

5,050

455,160

-

220,651

2,770,660

10,851,479

5,100

5,010

180,045

51,242

40,600

88,820

25,122

8,536

329,012

8,520

19,050

250,585

6,940

37,226

79

71

5,062,400

49,184

1,652,858

859,710

804,722

652,510

1,338,010

500

100,141

15,000

30,100

4,097,367

20

229,737

200,150

600

19,755

403

16,312

10,860,892

3,000

88,697

-

127,000

1

67,394

100

131,100

4,244,559

4,260

217,202

6,000

4,000

305,418

4,138,237

1,104

10,005

500

2,247,454

2,981,834

14,363

18,034

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES

15.60

13.92

12.12

16.20

12.04

24.98

54.80

33.90

31.95

30.60

20.34

33.30

24.84

16.22

103.20

37.20

61.00

22.58

11.12

15.40

17.48

31.20

15.48

11.12

30.85

16.46

52.70

24.64

15.18

9.79

27.55

12.20

106.60

32.30

13.64

10.32

18.40

20.12

12.26

16.54

58.60

9.46

26.20

54.80

28.30

64.20

50.60

74.80

8.05

6.13

9.60

11.90

66.30

54.90

23.46

29.60

8.53

28.65

52.30

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, March 27, 20196

CURRENCIESDOLLAR QATAR RIYAL SAUDI RIYAL UAE DIRHAMS BAHRAINI

DINARKUWAITI

DINAR

Europe stock markets, poundrebound on Brexit deal hopesAFPLondon

Sterling rallied yesterday on fresh hope that British Prime Minister Theresa May would avoid a cha-

otic no-deal Brexit, while global stock markets recovered.

The pound jumped as high as $1.3262 in London morning deals, before tem-pering the gains by the afternoon.

The European single currency fell as low as 85.25 pence on hopes of an orderly departure from the European Union on April 12.

The long-running saga took a fresh twist after Brexit hardliner Jacob Rees-Mogg declared on Twitter: “The choice seems to be Mrs May’s deal or no Brex-it”.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,196.29 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 jumped 0.6% to 11,419.48 and Paris’s CAC 40 was up 0.9 % at 5,307.38 at close yesterday.

Rees-Mogg, head of the European Research Group of eurosceptic law-makers and an MP for May’s Conserv-atives, also said in a political podcast interview that “the PM will not deliver a no-deal Brexit.”

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said it had been clear for months that “May’s

strategy has been to corner sceptics into backing her deal”.

“The idea that the risk of no deal or no Brexit would be enough to win enough votes may be starting to bear fruit just as parliament seeks to wrest control of the process,” he told AFP.

“Securing the backing of a high pro-fi le ERG member like Rees-Mogg – al-beit reluctantly – could dramatically improve May’s numbers.

It’s now just a question of whether it’s too little too late.”

The remarks came one day after Britain’s parliament seized the initia-tive from May in a historic vote to give MPs a broader say on what happens next.

“Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared to be responsible for the pound perking up,” said Spreadex analyst Connor Camp-bell.

Monday’s vote creates parliamen-tary time for MPs to come up with their own Brexit proposals as Britain tries to stave off a messy divorce in two weeks.

They will now choose whether to re-voke Article 50 and cancel Brexit, hold another referendum, vote for a deal including a customs union and single market membership, or leave the EU without a deal.

However, even if they decide a ma-

jority course of action, the government is not legally bound to follow their in-structions.

The move came after May admit-ted she still had not secured the votes needed to get her Brexit deal through parliament.

Meanwhile global stocks rebounded after the previous day’s losses in many markets, though dealers trod cau-tiously, still reeling from Monday’s pummelling which came on the back of a drop in benchmark 10-year Treas-ury bond yields below those for three-month bills for the fi rst time since be-fore the global fi nancial crisis.

This so-called inverted yield curve shows investors are more willing to buy long-term debt – usually viewed as a higher risk – as they consider the short-term outlook more hazardous.

Such a scenario has preceded several recessions in recent decades.

Paris stocks outperformed their peers after the French government re-ported its lowest budget defi cit as a percentage of GDP in 12 years, and the Insee national statistics offi ce upped its forecast for French growth.

London, meanwhile, was held back by sterling’s strength which tends to penalise multinationals generating much of their earnings in foreign cur-rencies.

A trader works at the London Stock Exchange. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,196.29 points yesterday.

Apple IncAmerican Express Co

Boeing Co/TheCaterpillar Inc

Cisco Systems IncChevron Corp

Walt Disney Co/TheDowdupont Inc

Goldman Sachs Group IncHome Depot Inc

Intl Business Machines CorpIntel Corp

Johnson & JohnsonJpmorgan Chase & Co

Coca-Cola Co/TheMcdonald’s Corp

3M CoMerck & Co. Inc.

Microsoft CorpNike Inc -Cl B

Pfizer IncProcter & Gamble Co/The

Travelers Cos Inc/TheUnitedhealth Group Inc

United Technologies CorpVisa Inc-Class A Shares

Verizon Communications IncWalgreens Boots Alliance Inc

Walmart IncExxon Mobil Corp

190.97

109.75

370.40

131.57

53.21

123.76

109.91

52.97

189.85

189.88

140.13

53.11

138.84

99.16

46.65

187.40

206.43

83.01

117.47

83.58

42.48

103.06

134.89

245.31

126.04

155.04

60.45

62.42

98.28

80.80

1.18

0.65

-0.02

0.14

0.91

0.71

1.97

-0.56

0.71

0.11

0.68

0.63

1.63

0.23

1.35

0.90

1.58

0.80

-0.16

1.52

1.41

1.08

-0.04

-0.63

0.51

1.31

0.62

1.18

0.11

1.10

3,626,444

164,162

503,447

145,970

1,832,066

262,798

1,206,067

599,899

178,489

266,987

192,201

1,678,004

345,606

1,551,519

862,155

202,358

97,330

621,498

3,433,893

924,599

1,558,181

615,914

112,382

318,856

154,377

447,073

951,755

638,051

487,458

1,073,988

DJIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Anglo American PlcAssociated British Foods Plc

Admiral Group PlcAshtead Group Plc

Antofagasta PlcAuto Trader Group Plc

Aviva PlcAstrazeneca PlcBae Systems Plc

Barclays PlcBritish American Tobacco Plc

Barratt Developments PlcBhp Group Plc

Berkeley Group Holdings/TheBritish Land Co Plc

Bunzl PlcBp Plc

Burberry Group PlcBt Group Plc

Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-DiCarnival PlcCentrica Plc

Compass Group PlcCroda International Plc

Crh PlcDcc Plc

Diageo PlcDirect Line Insurance Group

Evraz PlcExperian Plc

Easyjet PlcFerguson Plc

Fresnillo PlcGlencore Plc

Glaxosmithkline PlcGvc Holdings Plc

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PlcHargreaves Lansdown Plc

Halma PlcHsbc Holdings Plc

Hiscox LtdIntl Consolidated Airline-Di

Intercontinental Hotels Grou3I Group Plc

Imperial Brands PlcInforma Plc

Intertek Group PlcItv Plc

Johnson Matthey PlcKingfisher Plc

Land Securities Group PlcLegal & General Group PlcLloyds Banking Group Plc

London Stock Exchange GroupMicro Focus International

Marks & Spencer Group PlcMondi Plc

Melrose Industries PlcWm Morrison Supermarkets

National Grid PlcNmc Health Plc

Next PlcOcado Group Plc

Paddy Power Betfair PlcPrudential Plc

Persimmon PlcPearson Plc

Reckitt Benckiser Group PlcRoyal Bank Of Scotland Group

Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A ShsRoyal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs

Relx PlcRio Tinto Plc

Rightmove PlcRolls-Royce Holdings PlcRsa Insurance Group Plc

Rentokil Initial PlcSainsbury (J) Plc

Schroders PlcSage Group Plc/The

Segro PlcSmurfit Kappa Group Plc

Standard Life Aberdeen PlcDs Smith Plc

Smiths Group PlcScottish Mortgage Inv Tr Plc

Smith & Nephew PlcSpirax-Sarco Engineering Plc

Sse PlcStandard Chartered Plc

St James’s Place PlcSevern Trent Plc

Tesco PlcTui Ag-Di

Taylor Wimpey PlcUnilever Plc

United Utilities Group PlcVodafone Group Plc

John Wood Group PlcWpp Plc

Whitbread Plc

1,988.80

2,383.00

2,139.00

1,815.00

938.00

514.00

405.30

6,425.00

453.30

153.62

3,095.00

593.60

1,784.00

3,767.00

593.60

2,435.00

551.60

1,880.50

222.35

2,631.00

3,800.00

118.20

1,751.50

4,952.00

2,290.00

6,585.00

3,130.00

351.80

609.00

2,037.00

1,122.50

4,806.50

872.60

308.55

1,564.60

515.00

1,753.50

1,793.50

1,658.00

613.60

1,561.00

512.40

4,546.00

956.60

2,586.50

733.40

4,780.00

127.15

3,113.00

229.70

909.00

268.30

61.76

4,591.00

1,952.50

269.90

1,660.00

181.20

224.55

891.00

2,374.00

5,498.00

1,310.50

5,920.00

1,545.00

2,163.00

829.40

6,392.00

247.00

2,401.50

2,411.00

1,625.00

4,315.50

505.50

891.00

502.60

346.20

236.10

2,700.00

686.40

662.00

2,126.00

258.30

325.20

1,383.00

491.00

1,505.00

7,035.00

1,222.50

575.90

1,000.50

2,049.00

229.00

778.40

175.65

4,371.00

843.20

142.74

511.60

803.00

5,030.00

1.62

2.98

-0.37

-0.68

-0.02

0.27

-0.90

0.77

-0.85

-1.23

0.70

0.61

0.64

-0.55

0.54

-0.57

0.62

1.95

0.38

1.19

-8.46

0.13

0.52

1.27

-1.93

1.70

1.31

-0.82

2.39

1.70

-2.81

-7.03

2.66

-0.50

0.95

1.48

2.75

1.30

0.12

-0.10

0.06

-1.65

0.24

0.61

1.09

1.27

0.74

0.20

1.30

1.06

0.00

-0.07

-0.44

1.17

0.77

0.63

-0.72

1.00

0.36

1.25

1.19

2.27

4.38

2.07

0.06

0.37

0.44

1.22

-0.36

0.78

0.88

1.18

0.37

1.02

-0.45

-0.08

-0.23

0.55

1.01

0.76

0.18

-1.39

0.21

-1.48

-1.36

1.03

0.64

0.64

0.41

-0.83

0.82

0.99

-1.63

0.96

0.11

0.96

0.69

0.75

1.51

-0.25

1.47

1,757,362

255,939

132,218

1,536,704

793,785

1,864,016

5,956,318

785,721

4,763,364

25,679,477

1,566,461

2,411,609

2,273,754

142,094

1,369,207

1,073,147

11,803,656

381,997

9,968,414

281,426

1,233,427

6,678,327

1,322,540

159,962

1,130,262

82,343

1,970,922

1,962,481

826,370

820,677

1,418,064

2,217,612

863,981

16,050,240

3,536,244

1,154,067

169,775

285,432

482,763

7,908,733

113,141

3,501,953

147,322

731,846

896,415

585,258

132,373

4,682,752

244,419

4,120,107

915,715

5,628,415

109,796,428

298,524

568,904

1,769,896

1,278,512

5,254,154

2,312,143

2,712,050

780,891

373,736

1,446,271

108,875

1,686,982

725,802

571,959

585,791

6,961,035

3,155,866

2,201,494

1,879,910

1,713,090

1,518,131

2,773,845

840,663

1,557,470

2,588,093

109,519

1,139,877

1,260,255

461,059

3,278,884

5,797,435

524,793

1,837,876

813,180

52,256

993,912

3,102,756

865,726

293,904

8,118,338

1,209,203

8,011,804

1,117,146

1,390,502

35,611,456

1,729,062

1,829,718

320,038

FTSE 100

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Hitachi LtdTakeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd

Jfe Holdings IncSumitomo Corp

Canon IncNintendo Co Ltd

Eisai Co LtdIsuzu Motors Ltd

Unicharm CorpShin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd

Smc CorpMitsubishi Corp

Asahi Group Holdings LtdKeyence Corp

Nidec CorpNomura Holdings Inc

Daiichi Sankyo Co LtdSubaru Corp

Ntt Docomo Inc

3,568.00

4,710.00

1,932.50

1,601.50

3,211.00

31,900.00

6,293.00

1,497.00

3,580.00

9,239.00

41,850.00

3,252.00

4,838.00

70,100.00

13,770.00

406.40

4,452.00

2,781.50

2,508.00

1.39

2.41

1.93

1.94

2.26

4.76

3.76

2.32

1.76

1.43

4.49

2.20

2.94

1.46

3.07

1.85

4.75

3.79

3.06

4,551,200

8,626,300

4,155,300

8,520,300

4,415,100

3,896,700

10,829,600

3,100,000

1,615,600

1,665,100

408,200

5,925,100

1,654,200

654,000

1,255,800

18,642,400

2,913,400

5,161,300

8,485,900

TOKYO

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Sumitomo Realty & DevelopmenSumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd

Orix CorpDaiwa Securities Group Inc

Softbank Group CorpMizuho Financial Group Inc

Central Japan Railway CoNitori Holdings Co Ltd

T&D Holdings IncToyota Motor Corp

Hoya CorpSumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin

Japan Tobacco IncOsaka Gas Co Ltd

Sumitomo Electric IndustriesOno Pharmaceutical Co Ltd

Ajinomoto Co IncMitsui Fudosan Co Ltd

Daikin Industries LtdToray Industries Inc

Bridgestone CorpSony Corp

Astellas Pharma IncJxtg Holdings Inc

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo MetaSuzuki Motor Corp

Nippon Telegraph & TelephoneSompo Holdings Inc

Daiwa House Industry Co LtdKomatsu Ltd

West Japan Railway CoMurata Manufacturing Co Ltd

Kansai Electric Power Co IncDenso Corp

Dai-Ichi Life Holdings IncMazda Motor Corp

Mitsui & Co LtdKao Corp

Sekisui House LtdOriental Land Co Ltd

Secom Co LtdTokio Marine Holdings Inc

Aeon Co LtdFanuc Corp

Daito Trust Construct Co LtdOtsuka Holdings Co Ltd

Resona Holdings IncAsahi Kasei Corp

Kirin Holdings Co LtdMitsubishi Ufj Financial Gro

Marubeni CorpMitsubishi Chemical Holdings

Fast Retailing Co LtdMs&Ad Insurance Group Holdin

Kubota CorpSeven & I Holdings Co Ltd

Inpex CorpSumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr

Ana Holdings IncMitsubishi Electric Corp

Honda Motor Co LtdTokyo Gas Co Ltd

Tokyo Electron LtdPanasonic Corp

Fujitsu LtdEast Japan Railway Co

Itochu CorpFujifilm Holdings Corp

Yamato Holdings Co LtdChubu Electric Power Co Inc

Mitsubishi Estate Co LtdMitsubishi Heavy Industries

Shiseido Co LtdShionogi & Co Ltd

Recruit Holdings Co LtdJapan Airlines Co Ltd

Nitto Denko CorpKddi Corp

Rakuten IncKyocera Corp

Nissan Motor Co Ltd

4,653.00

3,290.00

1,647.50

561.60

10,615.00

174.70

25,765.00

13,970.00

1,166.00

6,760.00

7,382.00

4,115.00

2,767.50

2,298.00

1,517.50

2,224.50

1,820.00

2,841.00

12,780.00

731.90

4,282.00

4,769.00

1,684.50

538.90

2,008.00

5,063.00

4,866.00

4,140.00

3,592.00

2,603.00

8,540.00

16,385.00

1,744.00

4,478.00

1,596.50

1,271.50

1,808.00

8,718.00

1,838.00

12,630.00

9,600.00

5,462.00

2,333.50

19,120.00

15,850.00

4,442.00

496.10

1,194.00

2,597.00

561.60

805.00

828.10

52,760.00

3,435.00

1,595.00

4,351.00

1,051.00

4,005.00

4,072.00

1,453.00

3,055.00

3,097.00

16,345.00

978.60

7,947.00

10,910.00

2,085.50

5,147.00

2,983.00

1,801.50

2,031.00

4,630.00

7,905.00

6,741.00

3,111.00

3,903.00

5,915.00

2,480.00

1,047.00

6,494.00

958.50

-0.02

3.79

1.82

2.35

-0.84

0.63

4.82

3.48

2.33

2.27

1.18

1.53

2.41

0.13

2.67

2.87

3.76

2.54

4.54

1.70

1.71

3.00

3.25

2.30

2.34

1.71

2.23

3.24

4.30

1.90

3.54

2.31

1.99

1.91

2.57

2.58

2.55

3.27

2.14

2.68

2.82

1.75

3.80

1.70

1.60

2.21

1.93

3.42

1.68

1.48

2.50

2.86

0.25

2.45

2.87

2.62

1.50

2.30

2.57

3.56

3.12

0.81

0.90

4.10

1.70

3.61

3.06

2.86

3.96

2.30

1.88

0.63

1.24

4.54

3.18

1.96

2.50

1.37

1.36

3.00

1.39

TOKYO

Company Name Lt Price % Chg

Ck Hutchison Holdings LtdHang Lung Properties Ltd

Ck Infrastructure Holdings LHengan Intl Group Co Ltd

China Shenhua Energy Co-HCspc Pharmaceutical Group Lt

Hang Seng Bank LtdChina Resources Land Ltd

Ck Asset Holdings LtdSino Biopharmaceutical

Henderson Land DevelopmentAia Group Ltd

Ind & Comm Bk Of China-HWant Want China Holdings Ltd

Sun Hung Kai PropertiesNew World Development

Geely Automobile Holdings LtSwire Pacific Ltd - Cl A

Sands China LtdWharf Real Estate Investment

Clp Holdings LtdCountry Garden Holdings Co

Aac Technologies Holdings InShenzhou International GroupPing An Insurance Group Co-H

China Mengniu Dairy CoSunny Optical Tech

Boc Hong Kong Holdings LtdChina Life Insurance Co-H

83.00

18.92

63.45

67.85

17.96

14.12

191.40

32.65

68.45

6.95

47.90

75.65

5.80

6.44

129.90

12.22

14.84

98.60

37.50

57.45

90.70

11.96

47.15

104.20

84.90

26.50

92.80

32.20

20.25

0.06

1.28

0.16

1.72

-1.86

-1.53

0.95

1.56

1.03

-0.71

0.95

0.33

-0.34

1.74

-0.08

0.33

0.82

0.10

0.40

0.44

0.39

-0.33

-2.98

3.37

0.53

1.15

1.87

-0.77

-0.98

4,977,482

3,400,254

3,386,325

1,995,735

24,368,161

23,919,369

1,006,604

10,349,939

6,363,647

31,243,754

3,828,666

23,342,214

235,664,053

16,401,048

2,579,332

14,074,168

34,561,152

1,580,426

6,526,702

1,564,860

2,473,967

27,048,770

12,327,724

2,618,233

25,728,325

8,389,595

4,193,296

11,080,067

38,915,440

HONG KONG

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Citic LtdGalaxy Entertainment Group L

Wh Group LtdHong Kong & China Gas

Bank Of Communications Co-HChina Petroleum & Chemical-HHong Kong Exchanges & Clear

Bank Of China Ltd-HHsbc Holdings Plc

Power Assets Holdings LtdMtr Corp

China Overseas Land & InvestTencent Holdings Ltd

China Unicom Hong Kong LtdLink Reit

Sino Land Co

11.50

51.80

8.42

18.36

6.42

6.31

265.80

3.58

63.90

53.90

47.50

28.30

351.40

10.22

88.50

14.52

-0.17

0.48

0.84

0.77

-0.62

0.32

0.15

-0.28

0.31

0.28

1.50

0.00

-0.68

0.79

0.11

0.00

11,352,240

6,165,374

76,141,757

10,973,819

13,403,637

63,930,678

4,033,667

223,891,896

14,538,300

3,950,520

3,466,577

10,206,018

16,227,292

27,314,806

3,302,239

2,777,050

HONG KONG

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Adani Ports And Special EconAsian Paints Ltd

Axis Bank LtdBajaj Finance Ltd

Bharti Airtel LtdBharti Infratel Ltd

Bajaj Auto LtdBajaj Finserv Ltd

Bharat Petroleum Corp LtdCipla Ltd

Coal India LtdDr. Reddy’s Laboratories

Eicher Motors LtdGail India Ltd

Grasim Industries LtdHcl Technologies Ltd

Housing Development FinanceHdfc Bank Limited

Hero Motocorp LtdHindalco Industries Ltd

Hindustan Petroleum CorpHindustan Unilever Ltd

Icici Bank LtdIndiabulls Housing Finance L

Indusind Bank LtdInfosys Ltd

Indian Oil Corp LtdItc Ltd

Jsw Steel LtdKotak Mahindra Bank Ltd

Larsen & Toubro LtdMahindra & Mahindra Ltd

Maruti Suzuki India LtdNtpc Ltd

Oil & Natural Gas Corp LtdPower Grid Corp Of India Ltd

Reliance Industries LtdState Bank Of India

Sun Pharmaceutical IndusTata Steel Ltd

Tata Consultancy Svcs LtdTech Mahindra Ltd

Titan Co LtdTata Motors Ltd

Upl LtdUltratech Cement Ltd

Vedanta LtdWipro Ltd

Yes Bank LtdZee Entertainment Enterprise

368.60

1,485.05

757.10

2,934.35

327.80

312.85

2,952.80

6,987.85

383.90

529.30

236.45

2,782.35

21,382.00

359.35

836.70

1,034.60

1,946.30

2,311.35

2,574.45

208.50

277.05

1,683.80

394.10

729.70

1,714.65

727.75

161.80

293.40

281.35

1,342.95

1,372.80

669.60

6,585.70

140.80

160.05

202.85

1,367.25

303.50

469.80

519.35

1,982.65

770.75

1,115.75

173.10

903.30

3,925.60

173.60

255.00

253.70

421.00

2.01

1.89

1.53

2.97

0.24

2.04

-0.17

1.02

0.05

0.47

-0.32

0.05

1.09

2.19

2.61

1.67

0.03

1.32

-0.05

1.48

1.02

0.59

2.76

2.29

1.85

-1.02

-1.55

-0.56

0.91

2.62

-0.29

0.75

0.97

4.03

0.88

0.42

3.23

3.23

1.11

0.82

-0.08

-2.39

1.42

1.05

-1.03

1.41

3.18

-0.58

2.61

1.09

SENSEX

Company Name Lt Price % Chg

WORLD INDICESIndices Lt Price Change

GCC INDICESIndices Lt Price Change

Dow Jones Indus. AvgS&P 500 Index

Nasdaq Composite IndexS&P/Tsx Composite Index

Mexico Bolsa IndexBrazil Bovespa Stock Idx

Ftse 100 IndexCac 40 Index

Dax IndexIbex 35 Tr

Nikkei 225Japan Topix

Hang Seng IndexAll Ordinaries Indx

Nzx All IndexBse Sensex 30 Index

Nse S&P Cnx Nifty IndexStraits Times Index

Karachi All Share IndexJakarta Composite Index

25,682.75

2,818.09

7,702.78

16,139.49

42,869.64

94,794.19

7,207.60

5,306.99

11,419.99

9,184.60

21,428.39

1,617.94

28,566.91

6,213.13

1,641.34

38,233.41

11,483.25

3,200.28

28,061.69

6,470.00

+165.92

+19.73

+65.23

+73.63

+166.26

+1,132.18

+30.02

+46.35

+73.34

+4.70

+451.28

+40.53

+43.56

+4.40

+8.63

+424.50

+129.00

+17.36

+148.72

+58.75

Doha Securities MarketSaudi Tadawul

Kuwait Stocks ExchangeBahrain Stock Exchage

Oman Stock MarketAbudhabi Stock MarketDubai Financial Market

9,935.47

8,678.88

4,851.77

1,408.04

4,049.40

5,126.86

2,615.17

-13.55

+12.19

+6.65

-7.96

-78.44

+8.91

-19.12

“Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended as an off er or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on this data.”

3,015,700

1,606,500

12,025,800

15,211,600

6,347,300

188,826,800

741,900

693,700

4,409,200

8,255,700

1,647,700

1,677,000

5,946,300

1,687,700

2,912,800

2,077,900

3,277,500

3,697,300

1,093,200

9,740,400

2,581,800

12,663,100

8,109,500

27,825,100

4,093,100

2,000,400

4,565,900

1,521,700

2,943,900

7,368,500

2,103,400

1,324,200

3,126,300

2,853,700

10,656,300

4,285,400

9,145,700

1,776,500

3,827,500

1,769,200

1,000,700

2,983,100

3,579,400

1,061,100

319,900

2,514,600

14,196,400

5,849,000

3,986,200

67,552,200

9,104,700

10,838,800

744,800

2,263,700

3,889,300

3,803,700

5,224,000

9,291,200

3,721,000

6,578,800

5,911,200

1,613,600

1,806,800

13,996,000

1,272,700

1,527,100

8,515,800

1,834,100

1,656,800

2,649,100

4,452,900

2,356,100

2,675,600

1,568,400

5,354,800

4,645,900

1,164,800

11,275,500

19,269,100

1,697,300

24,346,400

2,657,710

1,630,147

7,300,104

1,570,637

3,827,846

2,393,663

322,020

221,597

4,257,821

3,044,792

7,475,564

484,102

109,883

4,617,787

1,077,359

1,655,723

2,621,669

2,946,712

555,742

5,069,088

5,389,939

1,452,899

14,063,632

4,967,164

2,216,791

9,406,261

26,397,138

10,763,629

6,247,666

2,051,170

2,021,089

2,434,715

909,087

23,510,777

16,694,599

4,708,995

9,479,288

18,303,791

3,843,580

3,329,825

2,316,539

3,169,827

1,851,505

7,820,112

3,647,229

336,761

8,106,156

3,850,516

20,571,726

8,873,124

Volume

Volume

BUSINESS7Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, March 27, 201912

ReutersParis

Europe’s top leaders told President Xi Jinping yesterday they wanted a fairer trading relationship with

China, signalling an openness to engage with Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infra-structure project if it meant more ac-cess to the Chinese market.

The Europe Union, the world’s largest trading zone, has become increasingly frustrated by what it sees as the slow pace of economic opening in China, even after years of granting China al-most unfettered access to EU markets for trade and investment.

As he seeks to forge a common Eu-ropean front to challenge China’s rise, French President Emmanuel Macron invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to talks with Xi in Paris.

“We, as Europeans, want to play an active part (in the Belt and Road project),” Merkel said after the talks. “That must lead to a certain reciproc-ity, and we are still wrangling over that a bit.”

Juncker, who will host an EU-China summit in Brussels next month, rein-forced EU calls for better trade reci-procity so that “European businesses could have the same degree of access to the Chinese market as Chinese busi-nesses have in Europe.”

The Belt and Road Initiative, cham-pioned by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Cen-tral Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network along the lines of the old Silk Road.

France says any Silk Road-style co-operation must work in both direc-tions.

Even as he presided over the signing of trade deals with China worth tens of billions of dollars this week, includ-ing an Airbus deal to sell 300 aircraft to China’s state buying agency, Macron pushed back against Beijing’s rights record and ambitions.

“The European Union is based on respect for individual freedoms and fundamental rights,” Macron, said on

Monday, referring to Beijing’s alleged mistreatment of Muslim Uighurs.

“That’s why France brings this issue up in its dialogue with China to express concerns that are ours and those of Eu-rope on the question of respecting fun-damental rights in China.”

Europe’s quest to hold a common line on China’s advances became more dif-fi cult after Italy on Saturday became the fi rst major Western country to endorse the Belt and Road initiative.

The rapprochement between Rome and Beijing has alarmed Italy’s Euro-pean allies, who consider it a strategic error to let Chinese companies acquire EU infrastructure such as ports.

In a sign the European Union wants to tighten conditions on access for Chi-nese businesses, it is about to introduce a system to screen foreign investments, particularly those aff ecting strategic in-frastructure or technology.

It has also urged leaders to back its

plan to limit access to EU public ten-ders.

Sat beside Xi, Macron said competi-tion and cooperation were natural but that Europe and China should strength-en multilateralism through deeper co-operation.

“We must.. accelerate work under-way between China and the European Union on modernising the WTO to bet-ter respond to issues around transpar-ency, overcapacity, state subsidies and

dispute settlement,” Macron said yes-terday.

“What’s at stake is demonstrating that cooperation yields more than con-frontation.”

Seeking to reassure his European counterparts, Xi said both sides should “increase the positive energy”.

“Co-operation is greater than com-petition,” Xi said. “We shouldn’t be al-ways worried about watching our back with suspicion while moving forward.”

Europe leaders press for fairertrade relationship with China

French President Emmanuel Macron, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hold a news conference at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris yesterday. Europe’s top leaders told President Xi Jinping yesterday they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China, signalling an openness to engage with Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure project if it meant more access to the Chinese market.

China’s Huawei sees little impact on sales from US broadsideReutersHong Kong

The US campaign against China’s Huawei

is having little impact on the company’s

sales and it is unlikely many countries

will follow the United States in banning

Huawei from building next-generation

mobile networks, its rotating chairman

Eric Xu said.

“Recently we are seeing a large number

of countries making their own decisions,”

Xu said during an interview at Huawei

Technologies’ headquarters in Shenzhen.

While Australia has banned Huawei

from 5G networks over security concerns,

European Union countries such as Ger-

many and France have indicated they are

likely to ignore the US call to shut out the

telecoms giant.

“Maybe it’s only Australia,” Xu told Reu-

ters reporters after a tour of the campus.

Xu aff irmed that Huawei’s revenue

jumped 36% over the first two months of

2019 and was set for a 15% annual spike to

$125bn, underlining strength in its smart-

phone business and sales of computing

and communications networks.

Huawei has been facing mounting

scrutiny, led by the United States, amid

worries its equipment could be used by

Beijing for spying. The company, however,

says the concerns are unfounded.

Xu said he does not expect the United

States to intensify its attack on the com-

pany by barring sales of US components

to Huawei, a move that almost put its

compatriot ZTE Corp out of business last

year before US President Donald Trump

lifted the ban.

Huawei is the world’s third-largest

buyer of computer chips, many of which

come from US companies, and a sales ban

would be disruptive to the global tech

industry, Xu said.

Xu’s comments come at a time when

Huawei has sued the US government over

a law that restricts its market access.

In Canada, lawyers for Huawei CFO

Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of founder

Ren Zhengfei, have sued the government

over her December 1 arrest at the behest

of the United States.

She was charged with bank and wire

fraud to violate US sanctions against Iran.

Campus tour

Huawei, a privately held firm that

offers few details about its internal

operations, has in recent months

offered media interviews and invited

journalists to tour its facilities as part of

a counter-attack against the allega-

tions of spying. Reuters reporters were

invited on Monday to peruse files in

Huawei’s “share registry room” where it

keeps records on tens of thousands of

employee shareholders.

Its ownership structure shows the Chi-

nese government has no stake in the firm

and that its 74-year-old founder Ren owns

just over 1% of the company.

Much of the global scrutiny of Huawei

stems from Ren’s background with China’s

People’s Liberation Army, where he was a

civilian engineer for nearly a decade until

his departure in 1983 after helping to build

its communications network.

Reuters also toured Huawei’s new cam-

pus in Dongguan, near Shenzhen, that

features buildings modelled on European

cities including Paris and Heidelberg, con-

nected by a special train imported from

Switzerland. However, there was little

activity on the campus, which is designed

to house 18,000 workers, save a couple of

black swans flitting about a lake.

In contrast, another Huawei facility

nearby bustled with workers assembling

smartphones on automated production

lines.

New growth drivers

Huawei’s growth is mainly being driven

by its booming smartphone business and

sales of computing and communications

networks to government and business

customers.

Future growth will also come “prima-

rily” from these, Xu said, with sales of

equipment to telecom carriers growing at

single digit rates.

Huawei is the world’s top producer of

telecoms equipment and second-biggest

maker of smartphones. On Huawei’s semi-

conductor operations, HiSilicon, Xu said

the unit produced more than $7.5bn worth

of chips last year. That compares with

an estimated $21bn of chips that Huawei

acquired from outside vendors.

HiSilicon produces chip designs for

Huawei’s equipment mainly, with the man-

ufacturing handled by so-called “foundry”

companies such as Taiwan’s TSMC.

It does sell chips to others for use in

video cameras, television set-top boxes

and some low-cost Internet-connected

devices, Xu said.

Huawei will report its 2018 financial

results at a press briefing on Friday, which

over a hundred journalists are expected

to attend, far more than in past years.

“The United States should take quite

a lot of the credit for making advertise-

ments for Huawei,” Xu quipped.

India’s central bank accepts $5bn at forex-swap auction

BloombergMumbai

India’s central bank accepted

the $5bn it targeted from banks

at its currency swap auction

to ease liquidity ahead of the

financial year-end this month.

The authority said it received

240 bids worth $16.31bn.

The cutoff was set at a pre-

mium of 776 paise, according to

a statement.

“The amount received has

been very decent and that

shows it has been a successful

move,” said Paresh Nayar, head

of currency and money markets

at FirstRand Ltd in Mumbai.

“This also leads to belief that

the RBI might be prompted to

come out with more of such

liquidity injections in future.”

In an unusual move, the Re-

serve Bank of India earlier this

month said it would buy dollars

from banks for three years and

off er them rupees in return.

The swap will bulk up India’s

foreign-exchange reserves

while injecting as much as

Rs345.6bn into the financial

system to ease a cash crunch

typically seen before the fiscal

year-end.

The announcement also led

to concerns among traders

that the central bank may scale

down its purchases of bonds

that have been a key support

for the market at a time when

concerns about the govern-

ment’s record $100bn borrow-

ing plan has cooled demand

for debt.

The RBI has bought Rs3tn of

debt this fiscal.

The premium is not too far

from market levels and the cut-

off isn’t disruptive, said Nayar.

“It gives a signal that forward

premium will not shoot up in

the inter-bank market.”

StanChart sees trade war fears receding, eyes digital pushReutersHong Kong

Fears over a slowdown in Chi-nese economic growth and the impact of the Sino-United

States trade tensions are “receding a bit”, the chief executive of London-based bank Standard Chartered, which makes the bulk of its revenue in Asia, said.

Last month, the lender unveiled plans to double returns and divi-dends in three years by cutting $700mn in costs and boosting in-come, even though it missed its pre-vious targets in tough market condi-tions.

The 150-year-old group’s lat-est plans, however, coincided with a risk of a slowdown in its core emerging markets due to the trade war as well as economic uncertain-ties in China and Britain, two of its main markets.

“We had plenty of concerns in the second half of last year looking at the market data in China – slow-ing growth and the impact of trade wars,” StanChart CEO Bill Winters said yesterday at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

“Those fears are receding a bit, partly because it looks like a deal is achievable and partly because Chi-na has taken relatively modest ac-

tions to re-stimulate its economy,” he said. “We feel quite good about China.”

Global investors are closely

watching Beijing’s policy reaction as economic growth cools further from last year’s 28-year low, amid months of intense negotiations between

Washington and Beijing aimed at ending their trade dispute.

Since July 2018, the United States has imposed duties on $250bn worth of Chinese imports, including $50bn in technology and industrial goods at 25%, and $200bn of other prod-ucts at 10%.

China has hit back with tariffs on about $110bn worth of US goods, including soybeans and other com-modities.

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies has raised costs, roiled financial markets and has also triggered analyst concerns about its impact on Asia-focused global banks that handle the bulk of the trade finance related businesses.

Winters said StanChart’s trade banking business had been under pressure with “severe” margin com-pression.

StanChart has seen its fortunes slump as restructuring under Win-ters repaired a balance sheet hit by excessive lending in the previous decade, but left the bank struggling to lift profit.

Under the new growth strategy, the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank plans to bolster its in-vestments in digital technology to accelerate its retail banking growth

across its key markets. StanChart submitted in August last year an application for a licence to launch in Hong Kong an online-only retail bank, or virtual banks.

The Hong Kong Monetary Au-thority is expected to award the li-censes as soon as this month.

Winters said StanChart was aim-ing to launch its Hong Kong virtual bank later this year, subject to regu-latory approval.

The bank, which launched its first African online-only bank in Ivory Coast last year, joins a wave of lend-ers seeking to use new technologies to reach customers and aims to ex-pand its digital banking footprint in that region, he said.

“Between the bank we have built in Africa and the bank we are build-ing now in Hong Kong and the pure digital experience we are creating in India, we have got three things on the shelf,” Winters said, referring to the retail banking business.

“Can we end up being a disruptor in Indonesia using digital platforms either alone or in partnership with an e-commerce platform? Yes, we can.

Will there be opportunities to launch a digital bank in China...? Maybe.”

Bill Winters, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered, reacts during a Bloomberg Television interview in London. StanChart has seen its fortunes slump as restructuring under Winters repaired a balance sheet hit by excessive lending in the previous decade, but left the bank struggling to lift profit.

BUSINESS13Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

ReutersSeoul

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said yesterday fi rst-quarter profi t would likely miss market expec-

tations due to falls in chip prices and slowing demand for display panels, in an unprecedented statement ahead of its earnings guidance.

The announcement came after the Apple Inc supplier and rival told share-holders last week that slack global eco-nomic growth and softer demand for memory chips, its core business, would weigh on operations in 2019.

“The company expects the scope of price declines in main memory chip products to be larger than expected,” Samsung said in a regulatory fi ling pre-empting its earnings guidance due next week.

Samsung did not elaborate on the purpose of its fi ling.

A company offi cial confi rmed the global leader in smartphones, televi-sions and computer chips had not pre-viously provided comment before its offi cial earnings estimate.

The fi rm was forecast to post a 7.2tn won ($6.4bn) operating profi t for the January-March period, according to Refi nitiv SmartEstimate, more than 50% below the 15.6tn won recorded in the same period a year ago.

Its sales were expected to fall to 53.7tn won from 60.6tn won a year ago, Refi n-itiv shows.

“Inventories piling up on its memory chip side and the weak performance of its display panels business due to bad sales of Apple’s iPhones are hurt-ing profi tability for Samsung,” said Lee Won-sik, an analyst at Shinyoung Se-curities.

DRAM chip prices fell more than 20% on average in the fi rst quarter, according to DRAMeXchange, a unit of Trendforce that traces memory chip prices.

Daiwa Securities forecast Samsung’s display panel division to swing to an operating loss of 620bn won in the fi rst

quarter, while the semiconductor busi-ness’s operating profi t would shrink.

Uncertainties over US-China trade tensions and China’s sluggish economy are clouding the outlook for global elec-tronics makers, analysts say.

Chipmakers in particular have been hit hard by a glut in the global semi-conductor industry triggered by weak-ening smartphone sales and falling in-

vestment from data centre companies. Samsung told shareholders at its annual general meeting last week that sales of memory products would likely revive in the second half of the year after a tough fi rst half.

Investors also took heart when US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc forecast a recovery in the memory chip market around the middle of the year.

Daiwa Securities yesterday reaf-fi rmed a buy rating on Samsung, say-ing it expected demand for memory chips and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels to improve from the sec-ond half of 2019.

Samsung Electronics shares were down 0.2% as of 0237 GMT while the broader market was 0.3% higher.

“Samsung is giving a signal to the

market so that investors can be pre-pared and there will be no surprise when Samsung posts its fi rst-quarter earning guidance next week,” said Park Jung-hoon, a fund manager at HDC As-set Management that owns Samsung Elec shares.

“Its shares are not reacting a lot, though, as concerns over its fi rst quar-ter have been refl ected.”

Samsung fl ags earnings miss as chip prices slide

Samsung Electronics said yesterday first-quarter profit would likely miss market expectations due to falls in chip prices and slowing demand for display panels, in an unprecedented statement ahead of its earnings guidance.

NPS to oppose Korean Air CEO’s re-election to boardSouth Korea’s National Pension Service to vote against extending Cho Yang-ho’s term on board; Cho’s position undermines corporate value: NPS; Korean Air says NPS decision “very regrettable”; shareholders to hold vote today

ReutersSeoul

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) said yesterday it will vote against extending Cho Yang-ho’s term as a

board director at scandal-hit Korean Air Lines Co Ltd.

Cho controls South Korea’s top airline, and is its CEO and chairman.

NPS’s opposition to his staying on the board is the latest example of shareholder activism in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, long dominated by corporate giants accused of benefi ting family owners at the expense of minority investors. Proxy adviser ISS has also

recommended investors to vote against the reappointment of Cho, who is on trial over charges of embezzlement and breach of trust.

Cho has denied the charges against him.“We have decided to oppose the election,

believing that he has records of undermining corporate value and infringing upon share-holder rights,” NPS said in a statement.

Korean Air said it found the state fund’s de-cision “very regrettable.”

“The fund should have been more pru-dent in (making) its decision as its action implicitly affects investors’ take on the is-sue,” the airline said in a statement, adding that the decision ignored the principle of the benefit of doubt.

If other shareholders support NPS’s decision in a vote today, it will end Cho’s 27-year tenure on the board and make him the fi rst controlling shareholder of any South Korean corporate gi-ant to be forced off a board, analysts say.

A two-thirds majority of votes by those present at the annual shareholder meeting is needed if Korean Air’s proposal to re-elect

Cho for another three-year board term is to pass. That means NPS, which has an 11.56% stake, needs to garner support from other shareholders.

Two South Korean civil groups have urged minority shareholders to vote against Cho’s term extension, but they will be challenged by Cho, who controls nearly 30% of the airline through its parent Hanjin Kal Corp.

The airline’s reputation has been hit by other scandals involving Cho family mem-bers.

In April 2018, Cho’s youngest daughter Emily Cho faced a storm of public criticism for allegedly throwing a drink at a business meeting attendee.

She was later cleared of all charges related to the incident.

Cho’s elder sister, Heather Cho, made headlines over a notorious “nut rage” inci-dent in 2014, when she lost her temper over the way she was served nuts in fi rst class and ordered the Korean Air plane return to its gate at a New York airport.

InternewsKarachi

Following the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) has also suggested to Paki-

stan to leave its currency free from state control to let it fi nd equilibrium against the dollar and other major currencies in a bid to help domestic economy grow to its true potential.

“The (rupee-dollar) exchange rate should be based on market system,” World Bank Group country director for Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan said while ad-dressing at C100 Think Tank here.

He added that state’s control over cur-rency restricted export growth, resulting into partial consumption of the State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves to fi nance international payments mainly on import and debt repayment counters and created balance of payment defi cit.

“If you had retailed the 2005 market share of export globally (then) today you would have been exporting four times more than what you should be today,” he said, “Pakistan’s exports would have been worth over $108bn today instead of around $25bn in actual.”

Earlier, the IMF urged Pakistan to leave rupee free from the state’s control

as a measure to help the economy fl our-ish. To recall, Pakistan has been in talks with the international monetary institu-tion to obtain a bailout for covering fi -

nancing gaps on external front and fi xing the faltering economy through structural reforms.

Giving reference to the World Bank’s recently launched report “Paki-stan@100: Shaping The Future 2047”, Illangovan said the government has ap-preciated the anticipation which sug-gests Pakistan economy’s potential at $2tn by 2047, subject to controlling pop-ulation growth rate and massive policy making and structural reforms.

The country director further said Pa-kistan can achieve the projected eco-nomic potential much before 2047 if it removes gender inequality by encourag-ing women to play their part in economic development.

“Pakistan’s economy has a potential to grow at 30%-35% per annum if gender gap is narrowed close to equal,” he said.

He, however, simultaneously urged private sector to equally play their im-portant role in shaping Pakistan’s future.

“Targets (in the report) are achievable. Government cannot do it all alone as the private sector needs to come forward create investment climate,” he said, add-ing Pakistan outperformed its regional peers till the 1960s.

Later on, however, the rate of invest-ment in Pakistan fell to a historical low of about almost half of what other coun-

tries maintained in South Asia. The World Bank country director further remarked Pakistan had done a remarkable job in promoting ease of doing business and poverty alleviation in recent years but it needs to further progress on these fronts.

He urged parliamentarians to devise a policy to fi ght against water scarcity in the country.

Meanwhile, World Bank Group chief economist Hans Timmer said fi nan-cial crisis comes after every 40 years at a global level and reshapes the world economy.

“The 2008 recession shifted economic power to the US while China is becoming a dominant player,” noted Timmer, urg-ing nations, particularly Pakistan, to de-ploy technology for achieving economic growth.

KASBL CEO and former chairman of Pakistan Stock Exchange Munir Kamal said Pakistan’s economy has lagged be-hind India, Bangladesh and Vietnam because they grew their exports through taking full advantage of economic growth in China.

He urged Pakistan to do the same through linking supplies to China from three under construction special eco-nomic zones which are part of the great-er China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China says most IADB members support its stance

ReutersBeijing

China said yesterday that most

members of the Inter-American

Development Bank backed its

stance on not “politicising” its

annual meeting, which was can-

celled in a spat over Venezuela’s

participation.

The bank on Friday called

off this week’s meeting of

its 48 member countries in

China after Beijing did not let a

representative of Venezuelan

opposition leader Juan Guaido

participate, two sources with

knowledge of the decision said.

The sources said the decision

was made in Washington at a

meeting of the executive board

of the bank, after China refused

to change its position.

The IADB is Latin America’s

largest development lender.

Speaking at a daily news

briefing, Foreign Ministry

spokesman Geng Shuang said

that China “had diff iculty allow-

ing” Guaido’s representative to

attend as Guaido himself lacked

legal standing.

China had called on all the

participants to avoid the meet-

ing being “politicised”, but some

countries had tried to force the

participation of Guaido’s repre-

sentative, meaning the event

could not go ahead, he added.

Most of the bank’s members

endorsed China’s position and

believed the meeting should

focus on financial co-operation

and should not be “disturbed

by controversial political topics,

and are very clear about who

thwarted the successful holding

of the meeting,” Geng said.

China believes that its co-

operation with the bank and

the majority of Latin American

countries won’t be disturbed,

he added.

Last Thursday, the United

States threatened to derail the

March 26-31 meeting unless Bei-

jing granted a visa to Guaido’s

representative, Harvard econo-

mist Ricardo Hausmann.

The meeting, slated to bring

together finance and devel-

opment ministers from the

lender’s members, was meant

to mark the bank’s 60th an-

niversary.

Guaido invoked the constitu-

tion to assume Venezuela’s

interim presidency in January,

saying the re-election of Presi-

dent Nicolas Maduro was not

legitimate.

Most Western countries have

recognised Guaido as head of

state, but Russia and China,

among others, back Maduro.

The Washington-based bank

was the first multilateral lender

to replace a Maduro-selected

representative with one backed

by Guaido.

The move would eventu-

ally open lines of credit to

Venezuela should Maduro step

down.

The International Monetary

Fund and World Bank have

so far not made a decision on

whether to recognise Guaido

off icially as head of state.

Pakistan urged to set currency free of state control

Cho: Facing shareholder activism.

Illangovan: Pakistan can achieve the projected economic potential much before 2047 if it removes gender inequality by encouraging women to play their part in economic development.

Ease of doing business likely to improve in Pakistan: BoI

InternewsIslamabad

The Board of Investment (BoI) of Pakistan is optimistic about the country’s ranking in Ease of Doing Business would show considerable improvements and come down below 100 in the next World Bank rankings scheduled to be released in May.The BoI is evaluating performance of ease of doing business reforms in Karachi and Lahore and subsequent reports will be presented in cabinet for discussion and finally submitted to the World Bank for approval, the official said.He said the government wants Pakistan’s ranking improved from its current 136 position to below 100 in the coming year, which in return would enhance the prospects of foreign and local investment and promote economic growth.As per the last World Bank

report, Pakistan’s ranking, in different indicators for ease of doing business, remained around 100.The country ranked 26 in resolving insolvency, 53 in protecting minority investors among the 190 countries surveyed.However, Pakistan ranks 173 in paying taxes indicator and was ranked lower in indicators like provision to electricity, property registrations, contracts enforcement and trading across borders.The official said Pakistan is focusing to evolve strategy on areas where it can improve and evolving short, medium and long term strategies to implement reforms.Moreover, the government is also working to develop a communication strategy to build effective feedback mechanisms so that bottlenecks in implementation are identified in a timely manner and dealt accordingly.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, March 27, 201914

Euro-area banks can expect ECB loan details by June, Rehn saysBloombergFrankfurt

Euro-area banks will know by June how generous the terms of the European Central Bank’s new loans are going to be, according to Governing Council member Olli Rehn.Policy makers have yet to pass judgement on the severity of the current slowdown that prompted that measure, the Finnish central bank governor told Bloomberg in an interview. They are determined to keep

lending conditions favourable with record-low interest rates and the new round of long-term funding announced earlier this month. “We will take the decisions in due time, well in advance of the start of the operations, so that the general public and the banks are early enough aware of their precise nature,” he said, when asked about details of the ECB’s so-called TLTRO-3 programme. “We have the next meetings in April and June.”Banks in the euro area have slowed lending in recent months as companies reined in investments amid uncertain

business prospects. The ECB announced on March 7 that it will off er fresh liquidity to banks starting in September to spur credit growth, arguing this will improve the economy’s resilience to a weakening global environment.Rehn said the terms of the new operations “should be close” to TLTRO-2, which provided the industry with more that €700bn ($792bn) in loans between 2016 and 2017.To banks, low profitability poses another key challenge, and some say that nearly five years of keeping the ECB deposit rate negative haven’t

helped. It requires financial institutions to pay interest on excess liquidity held at the central bank, which Deutsche Bank says costs European lenders some €8bn per year.Rehn says those complaints have to be seen in the context of how ECB stimulus has helped the economy and benefited the financial industry.“You have to take into account that the policy of negative rates and more broadly unconventional measures for the accommodative monetary policy stance of the last couple of years has supported growth and employment,”

he said. “This has in turn increased loan demand and thus facilitated also the better development also for banks.”Rehn added that interest rates below zero shouldn’t “become a new normal” and will be raised eventually. Yet policy makers “don’t want to do it prematurely because clearly the slowdown in the world economy and in the European economy indicates we need to maintain an accommodative monetary policy stance still for quite some time.”Off icials will keep a close eye on incoming economic data, according to the 56-year old, who is seen as a key

contender to succeed ECB. President Mario Draghi after his term ends in November. A recession isn’t the ECB’s baseline scenario, he added.“While exports and to some extent investments are slowing down, domestic demand and services are holding up, which will help us to maintain positive economic growth,” he said. “Compared to what many people expected at the end of last year — that this would be a short and temporary slowdown — it seems from many indicators that this is more durable than a short-term slowdown. But the jury is still out.”

Tech fi rms, activists suff er copyrightdefeat after EU voteEuropean Parliament backed new copyright rules in vote yesterday; Google, Facebook will have to pay creators for use of content

BloombergBrussels

Alphabet Inc’s Google, Fa-cebook Inc and freedom of speech activists suf-

fered a blow after the European Parliament rubber-stamped new rules that could curb access to online media in Europe.

Once in effect, the rules will likely set off publishers, music and movie producers chasing online platforms for money in exchange for displaying their content. But web activists fear the rules will lead to censor-ship as platforms will likely

block user uploads of content they don’t have licences for, and could restrict press infor-mation that turns up in search results.

Under the law’s so-called ar-ticle 13, tech platforms will have to negotiate licences for songs or video clips before publish-ing user uploads of content that incorporates them. They’ll also have to make “best eff orts” to obtain authorisation in situ-ations where no licences are concluded. Unauthorised con-tent will have to be removed or blocked.

“This is an unprecedented victory for European creators, who will now be able to exer-cise their rights and receive fair remuneration from platforms such as YouTube,” said Anders Lassen, president of GESAC, a European umbrella association

of authors and composers. The law also grants publishers new legal rights to help them seek compensation from all types of online services that display longer fragments of their ar-ticles. The provision excludes very short snippets and indi-vidual words.

The agreed copyright rules improved on earlier drafts but will “still lead to legal uncertain-ty and will hurt Europe’s creative and digital economies,” a Google spokesman said.

“The details matter, and we look forward to working with policy makers, publishers, crea-tors and rights holders as EU member states move to imple-ment these new rules.”

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for com-ment. Siada El Ramly, director-general of Edima, an association

representing web platforms in-cluding Google and Facebook, said the legislation “tries to force a licensing business model on open platforms, and weakens the fundamental privacy and freedom of speech rights of EU citizens.”

The European Parliament yesterday passed the legislation with 348 lawmakers in favour, 274 against and 36 abstaining. The legislation still needs to be rubber-stamped by the bloc’s member states before it enters into force.

The outcome of the vote is a major defeat for freedom of speech activists, including Ger-man MEP Julia Reda who called it a “dark day for Internet free-dom.” Around 200,000 people across 45 cities in Germany had taken to the streets over the weekend in a last-ditch eff ort to

protest the controversial provi-sions of the new rules, and more than 5mn people have signed a petition against Article 13.

The copyright legislation has faced heated lobbying from all sides, including from publishers and music producers who say it’s needed to get fair compensation for online use of their work. But some in the creative industries have expressed concerns that, under the new rules, platforms could still try to exploit loop-holes to get around paying for content.

Technical experts from the European Union’s three law-making institutions — the Euro-pean Commission, the European Parliament and the bloc’s mem-ber states — agreed to the new draft rules in February after it was fi rst proposed two and a half years ago.

Google signage is displayed on an off ice building inside the Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California. Web activists fear the new EU rules will lead to censorship, as platforms will likely block user uploads of content they don’t have licences for, and could restrict press information that turns up in search results.

Tesla’s Model 3 shatters record in electric car crazy NorwayModel 3 registrations in March 65% higher than previous record; Norway has the most electric cars per person in the world

BloombergOslo

Just weeks after Tesla Inc started rolling out its Model 3 in Europe, the electric-car

maker has beaten the monthly sales record in its key Norwe-gian market by a wide margin.

As many as 3,593 Model 3s have been registered so far in March, according to independ-ent website Teslastats.no. Even with a few days still left in the month, that’s 65% more than a previous high set in March 2018 by the Nissan Leaf, Norway’s most sold car last year.

Teslas are fl owing into Nor-way, the California-based company’s fourth-biggest market worldwide, as it steps up deliveries of the Model 3, a car designed to be more aff ord-able than previous models. The roll-out will be a test for chief executive offi cer Elon Musk as he tries to make the company profi table and turn the page on a bumpy 2018.

Norway received what was likely its biggest shipment of Teslas earlier this month.

Generous incentives such as tax breaks and free or discount-ed road tolls have made Norway the world’s biggest market per capita for emission-free cars, turning the country of 5.3mn into a focal point for Tesla and other electric-car makers. It was Tesla’s fourth biggest mar-ket by revenue in 2018, behind the US, China and the Nether-lands.

Tesla has sold 3,964 cars of all models in Norway so far this month, according to Teslastats.no, which bases its fi gures on updates from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. That beat Volkswagen AG’s record of 3,017 set in April 2016, ac-cording to the Norwegian Road Federation, an independent organisation that compiles data going back to 1992 and lobbies authorities on road policy.

Volkswagen still holds the annual sales record by mod-el and manufacturer. It sold 16,388 Golfs in 2015 and 26,574 cars in total in 2016, the fed-eration’s head of statistics, Pal Bruhn, said in an e-mail.

Did big tech get too big? More of the world is askingBy David McLaughlinWashington

The rise of global technology superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google created new challenges for the competition watchdogs who enforce antitrust laws around the world. The companies dominate markets in e-books and smartphones, search advertising and social-media traffic. The European Union has been the most aggressive jurisdiction so far in trying to regulate Big Tech. The US has largely been hands off, though that may be changing.

1. Are the tech giants monopolies?

They’re powerful, for sure. Google and Facebook Inc together controlled 60% of mobile ad revenue and 51% of digital ad revenue globally in 2018, according to eMarketer. In the US, Apple Inc has about 45% of the smartphone market; about 47% of all US e-commerce sales go through Amazon.com Inc. But under modern antitrust enforcement, those percentages alone aren’t enough to alarm regulators in the US, which long ago stopped equating big with bad. (Standard Oil’s market share got as high as 88%

late in the 19th century.) What’s illegal is for a monopoly to abuse its market power to prevent rivals from threatening its position. US courts ruled Microsoft Corp did so in the 1990s.

2. What would actually worry regulators?

In the US, they’re primarily focused on the harm to consumers from reduced competition. When two companies want to merge, for example, could the deal result in higher prices? That’s usually not an issue in high-tech tie-ups, because big firms are often gobbling up much smaller rivals or buying companies for the purpose of entering new markets. The EU has been more aggressive, as evidenced by three antitrust actions against Google in as many years carrying penalties that total $9.3bn.

3. Why are tech companies having a tougher time in Europe?

EU law sets a lower bar for finding abuse of dominance by a company, so it’s easier to run afoul of antitrust restrictions. (The US chose not to bring charges against Google for the same conduct the EU found illegal.) EU enforcers also have been more wary of big companies

collecting consumers’ personal data. Strict new privacy rules that took eff ect in the EU last May under the General Data Protection Regulation gave regulators unprecedented powers to protect people from having their data misused by companies doing business there. Already, Google has been fined €50mn ($56.8mn) for privacy violations — the highest such penalty ever in the EU. (Google has appealed.)

4. How oft en does the US go aft er monopolies?

The Microsoft lawsuit was the last major monopolisation case brought by the US. The ensuing 20-year dry spell is often cited by those who argue enforcement has been too timid. President Barack Obama’s administration vowed to get tough on dominant companies in 2009 but didn’t follow through. The number of monopoly cases brought by the US dropped sharply from an average of 15.7 cases per year from 1970 to 1999 to less than three between 2000 and 2014.

5. What about Asia?

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission says Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon need to be examined for possible abuse of their market

dominance. South Korea’s commission was reported last year to be looking into whether Google Korea was abusing its market position to pressure local game companies to upload their products only onto the Google Play platform. In China, censorship and government control over Internet access have made it diff icult for US tech companies to compete with the likes of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.

6. Is antitrust thinking outdated?

Some lawyers and economists think it’s time to move past conventional antitrust enforcement to consider harmful eff ects from increased concentration such as lower private investment, weak productivity growth, rising inequality and declining business dynamism, or the rate at which firms enter and exit markets. They’ve gained a high-profile backer in US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who is seeking her party’s 2020 presidential nomination and who has proposed dismantling tech giants like Facebook and Google.

7. Have the tech giants abused their power?

As the middlemen for today’s essential products and services, platforms like Amazon and

Facebook have leverage over both producers and consumers. Amazon used its power over the book market in 2014 to block pre-orders for some Hachette Book titles during a dispute with the publisher over pricing. The tech giants are also growing by snapping up potential rivals that might threaten market share. Data compiled by Bloomberg show the big five — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft — have made 431 acquisitions worth $155.7bn over the last decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The companies also have control over vast amounts of data about their customers, raising concerns about threats to privacy.

8. What do the companies say?

They argue that their dominance is hardly durable because barriers to entry are low for new competitors. As Google is fond of saying, competition is just “one click away.” Due to the nature of competition in the digital marketplace, tech platforms benefit from network eff ects: As more people use them, the more useful — and dominant — the platforms become. Network eff ects can give a company scale quickly and create what investor Warren Buff ett calls competitive moats.

Bloomberg QuickTake Q&A

A Tesla car drives past other automobiles produced by Tesla at the Port of Oslo. Norway received what was likely its biggest shipment of Teslas earlier this month.

BUSINESS15Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal joins Apple’s ‘Netflix of News’BloombergNew York

Rupert Murdoch is again betting on Apple

Inc.

Eight years after launching an ill-fated

digital newspaper for Apple’s iPad, News

Corp is making articles from its flagship

newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, avail-

able on a new service called Apple News+,

which debuted on Monday. Selling access

to dozens of publications for $10 a month,

Apple’s service has been called the “Netflix

of News.”

“It’s going to get our journalism into

the hands of millions of Americans who

otherwise might not be able to get access

to it,” Journal Publisher William Lewis said

in an interview.

The decision to join Apple’s service is

risky — the company is adding several

dozen people to support a venture that

could cannibalise existing readership. The

move also runs counter to the popular

thinking among publishers who prefer

a direct relationship with readers. By at-

tracting customers to their own websites

instead of those run by a third party like

Apple, newspapers get information that

helps them sell subscriptions and other

products.

Partly for that reason, the New York Times

has limited how many stories that it makes

available on Apple News, a separate free

service on the iPhone, and Facebook’s

Instant Articles, which lets users read arti-

cles on that platform. Both the Times and

the Washington Post decided not to join

Apple’s paid news service. They declined

to comment on Monday.

“We want, wherever possible, to draw

users to experience Times journalism

in our environment, where they have a

direct relationship with us,” New York

Times chief executive officer Mark

Thompson said at an investor confer-

ence last month.

For the Journal, the question is whether

it can make money with Apple without

cutting into its current audience of 2.6mn

subscribers, including 1.7mn digital cus-

tomers. Apple plans to keep about half of

the $10 monthly subscription price for the

service, the Journal reported. Publishers

will likely share the remaining revenue

based on how much time Apple subscrib-

ers spend reading their articles. The Los

Angeles Times and Bloomberg Business-

week, owned by Bloomberg LP, are among

the other publishers signing up.

The risk is that some current subscribers

of those publications cancel and get Ap-

ple’s cheaper service. A digital subscrip-

tion to the Journal can cost close to $500

a year.

News Corp hopes to avoid that scenario

by creating a diff erent look and feel, and

by controlling what Apple readers get.

In a note to staff on Monday, Lewis said

they will “experience a specially curated

collection of general interest news” from

the Journal. The Los Angeles Times will

limit access to some content, including its

archive, a statement said.

While Apple will have “some business”

coverage from the Journal, including “the

key business stories,” it will be displayed

less prominently in Apple News+, he said.

Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray will

decide whether articles will be available to

Apple subscribers or Journal subscribers

or both, Lewis added.

To keep current subscribers happy, Lewis

said people who get the Journal directly

will see “an enhanced service,” with added

perks and potentially more business news.

The Journal already off ers newsletters and

access to live events.

The publisher will hire about 50 more

journalists to write articles, some of which

could run exclusively on Apple’s service,

Lewis said. They’ll focus on non-financial

beats, like sports, politics, culture and

lifestyle. The Journal will likely expand its

sports coverage specifically for the service

and hire more political reporters, he said.

A few years ago, several media compa-

nies hired staff to create live videos for

Facebook, then stopped after the social

network stopped paying for them. In 2011,

News Corp launched an online newspaper

called The Daily that published exclusively

on Apple’s iPad. It shut down after less

than two years.

“The era of one-size-fits-all media is either

at an end or fast coming to an end,” Lewis

said.

Bristol-Myers faces test as ISS weighs $74bn Celgene dealDeal spread may narrow to $4 or widen to $20 on recommendation; Starboard jockeys for position ahead of shareholder vote

BloombergNew York

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s plan to buy Celgene Corp will face its next hurdle in the coming

days when advisers from Institutional Shareholder Services Inc issue their recommendation on how investors should vote on the deal.

An endorsement from the proxy advisory fi rm would serve as a major clearing event and compress the spread between Celgene’s current share price and the implied value to between $4 and $7, according to nine deal special-ists surveyed by Bloomberg.

However, a negative recommenda-tion from ISS or peer Glass Lewis & Co would probably stoke panic on Wall Street and widen it to $20 or more, they said.

While the shares have been rela-tively volatile as the companies traded barbs with activists, the deal spread narrowed to $9.57 on Monday, down from a peak of $18.54, after Welling-ton Management followed Starboard Value’s move last month to oppose the transaction.

The companies and a number of shareholders with notable positions met with members of the advisory fi rms last week to discuss pros and cons of the tie-up, which at a $74bn

announced value in January would be the largest ever between two drug makers.

“While we applaud arguments on both sides, our view is ISS will likely vote in favour of the transaction” and

the deal will probably go through, Jef-feries analyst Michael Yee wrote after Starboard and Bristol-Myers man-

agement published presentations last week. He stressed that there was “no smoking gun” in Starboard’s argument, which many on Wall Street viewed as necessary to persuade advisers to push back on the deal.

Some analysts and investors have said Starboard Value needed to present a “Plan B” for Bristol-Myers. However, the fund’s chief executive, Jeff Smith, told CNBC last week that the drug maker doesn’t need to do anything and definitely doesn’t need to buy Celgene.

In an open letter to shareholders on Monday, Bristol-Myers said it disagrees with recent suggestions that it aggres-sively cut research and development and reiterated the rationale behind the transaction, saying the decision to buy Celgene came after it evaluated a “full range of business development oppor-tunities.”

While Bristol-Myers bulls haven’t been as vocal as the critics, some ana-lysts like BMO Capital Markets’ Alex Arfaei have praised the combination.

“We believe Celgene’s core business and the merger’s cost synergies limit downside risk for BMY shareholders,” Arfaei, who rates the shares at out-perform, wrote in a note to clients. He views the deal as “the right step at the right time” and doesn’t see much cer-tainty for a potential buyer of Bristol-Myers, which some analysts have spec-ulated about.

The advisory fi rms are likely to give their fi nal recommendation to inves-tors sometime this week before Bristol-Myers shareholders vote on April 12.

A box of Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co Coumadin medication is seen at a pharmacy in Princeton, Illinois. In an open letter to shareholders on Monday, Bristol-Myers said it disagrees with recent suggestions that it aggressively cut research and development and reiterated the rationale behind the decision to buy Celgene, saying the decision came after it evaluated a “full range of business development opportunities.”

Trump’s new Nafta running out of room to fi nd path in congressBloombergWashington

For President Donald Trump’s new North American trade accord to become law, he’ll need the help

of a political rival with a track record of blocking such deals.

In 2008, Nancy Pelosi was House Speaker when Democratic lawmak-ers denied President George W Bush’s request for a vote within 90 days on a trade pact with Colombia. The rejec-tion delayed approval of deals the Bush administration negotiated with South Korea and Panama, though all three were later ratifi ed.

Once again Speaker, Pelosi will play a pivotal role for Trump’s renegoti-ated accord with Mexico and Canada, renamed the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which isn’t one of her leg-islative priorities. It’s a change of pace from the frenetic year of negotiations that led to the deal being signed by

leaders from all three countries in No-vember. “If the House doesn’t want to move on this, it doesn’t have to move. So it’s really up to her,” said Edward Alden, a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Pelosi is expected to only move the deal through the House if she can fi nd a critical mass of her caucus support-ing it and if she extracts concessions unrelated to trade from the White House in return, senior congressional aides say.

Asked to comment, Pelosi’s of-fi ce referred to remarks she made this month in which the speaker said she and other Democrats are still weigh-ing USMCA’s provisions on the envi-ronment, labour, pharmaceuticals and enforcement before deciding whether to support it.

With 60 new Democratic members who still have to familiarise themselves with their districts’ priorities and the content of the trade deal, the biggest challenge is educating lawmakers, the

aides said. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is expected to meet with freshman members in the coming weeks to make his case.

Lighthizer has been wooing Demo-crats to support the updated version of the North American Free Trade Agree-ment. Sympathetic groups could in-clude the New Democrat Coalition, which includes 100 lawmakers who back pro-growth policies.

He may face a tougher challenge on the party’s left fl ank. Outspoken rookie lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who identifi es as a democratic socialist and backs a sweeping spend-ing plan to reduce carbon emissions called the “Green New Deal,” have driven the Democratic agenda since the November election.

“That’s the most amorphous piece of this: When is the caucus happy enough that she feels confi dent moving this? Hard to say,” said the National Foreign Trade Council’s Vanessa Sciarra, refer-ring to Pelosi.

Some Democrats are calling for changes to sections of USMCA deal-ing with labour standards and drug patents. The pact commits Mexico to reform its labour laws to allow workers to engage in collective bargaining. But senior Democrats have said the com-mitments are lacking teeth without ad-equate enforcement provisions.

America’s biggest federation of la-bour unions, the AFL-CIO, has said it won’t support USMCA in its current form, and would oppose it if the busi-ness community forced a “premature” vote. “What we hear on the Hill is the same thing we’re saying: It’s not ready to be voted on,” AFL-CIO President Ri-chard Trumka said on Bloomberg TV on Friday.

Democrats also aren’t enthusias-tic about a drug patent provision that would force Mexico and Canada to extend protection for biologic drugs, warning it could raise prices for con-sumers. Mexico and Canada have warned they may not ratify USMCA

unless the US lifts tariff s on steel and aluminium. The duties are also unpop-ular with lawmakers from Trump’s own Republican Party.

Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate fi nance committee, said the agreement wouldn’t be considered as long as the duties remain in place.

The administration is considering replacing the tariff s with quotas, which are equally, if not more, unpopular with many lawmakers as well as Mexico and Canada. The Trump administration can make tweaks to the agreement to mollify concerns. But major revisions would require reopening talks with Mexico and Canada, a scenario Light-hizer has ruled out.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrys-tia Freeland met with Lighthizer and Democratic lawmakers Monday in Washington, where she discussed US-MCA and urged for the removal of metals tariff s. Time may also not be on Trump’s side. A report on the pact’s economic impact is expected in mid-

April. In the weeks that follow, the ad-ministration has to submit legislation to implement the agreement. But if the deal isn’t passed by Congress’s August recess, it may be doomed to languish until after the presidential election in November 2020.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wiscon-sin said Republicans tried to press the administration to ratify the deal when his party controlled the House because passage would become more difficult once Democrats took over at the start of this year. “It’s going to be a heavy lift, I fear,” Johnson told Fox News.

The president has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the ex-isting Nafta to pressure lawmakers to approve his new deal, a plan that Pelosi made clear is “not a good idea.” On Friday, Trump said if congressional Democrats don’t ratify USMCA, his alternative would be to “maybe go pre-Nafta” with trade practices in North America.

McDonald’s $300mn tech deal is its largestin 20 years

BloombergChicago

McDonald’s Corp, in its largest acquisition in 20 years, is buying a

decision-logic technology com-pany to better personalise men-us in its digital push.

The world’s biggest restau-rant chain is spending more than $300mn on Dynamic Yield Ltd, according to a person fa-miliar with the matter. With the new technology, McDon-ald’s restaurants can vary their electronic menu boards’ display of items, depending on factors such as the weather — more coff ee on cold days and McFlur-ries on hot days, for example — and the time of day or regional preferences. The menus will also suggest add-on items to customers.

Since taking the helm in 2015, chief executive offi cer Steve Eas-terbrook has pushed technology — including self-order kiosks, digital menus boards and de-livery — to boost sales and help McDonald’s stand out among rivals. Since McDonald’s seldom carries out acquisitions, the pur-chase of Dynamic Yield shows the company’s desire to leverage technology to speed growth in the fi ercely competitive restau-rant industry.

“Technology is a critical el-ement of our velocity growth plan,” Easterbrook said in a statement. He said McDonald’s is expanding the role that tech-nology will play in the compa-ny’s future “and the speed with which we’ll be able to implement our vision of creating more per-sonalised experiences for our customers.”

McDonald’s tested Dynamic Yield’s technology in the US in 2018, and will more widely in-troduce it this year for drive-thru menus once the deal closes. The company also plans to ex-pand the capability to markets abroad. This is the largest deal for the Chicago-based chain in about 20 years, when it became an investor in Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. It has since divested its stake in the burrito chain.

With the agreement, McDon-ald’s becomes the sole owner of Dynamic Yield, which is based in New York and Tel Aviv.

Nike fined $14mn for blocking cross-border sales of soccer merchandiseReutersBrussels

US sportswear maker Nike was hit with a €12.5mn ($14.14mn) fine on Monday for blocking cross-border sales of soccer merchandise of some of Europe’s best-known clubs, the latest EU sanction against such restrictions.The European Commission said Nike’s illegal practices occurred between 2004 to 2017 and related to licensed merchandise for FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, AS Roma and the French Football Federation.The European Union case focused on Nike’s role as a licensor for making and distributing licensed merchandise featuring a soccer club’s brands and not its own trademarks.The sanction came after a two-year

investigation triggered by a sector inquiry into e-commerce in the 28-country bloc.The EU wants to boost online trade and economic growth.European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Nike’s actions deprived soccer fans in other countries of the opportunity to buy their clubs’ merchandise such as mugs, bags, bed sheets, stationery and toys.“Nike prevented many of its licensees from selling these branded products in a diff erent country leading to less choice and higher prices for consumers,” she said in a statement.Nike’s practices included clauses in contracts prohibiting out-of-territory sales by licensees and threats to end agreements if licensees ignored the clauses.Its fine was cut by 40% after it co-operated with the EU enforcer.

A man enters a Nike Inc store in Bangkok. The European Commission said Nike’s illegal practices occurred between 2004 to 2017 and related to licensed merchandise for FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, AS Roma and the French Football Federation.

BUSINESSWednesday, March 27, 2019

GULF TIMES

Qatar First Bank total income grows 24%to QR222mn in 2018Shariah-compliant QFB posted a net loss of QR482mn last year

Qatar First Bank (QFB) posted a net loss of QR482mn in 2018, the

bank said yesterday. The Shariah-compliant

bank’s total income (exclud-ing disposal loss and loss on fair value remeasurement of equity investments) showed a “growth momentum” last year with an increase of 24.1% at QR222mn, compared to QR178mn in 2017.

This was mainly driven by the fee income from the struc-tured products and a reduction of 26% in returns to unrestricted investment account holders (the cost of funding) due to the better management of its loan to de-posit ratio.

QFB is regulated by QFCRA and listed on the Qatar Stock Ex-change (QSE).

QFB’s management con-tinued to raise its effi ciency through the implementation of its cost rationalisation plan that resulted in reduction of total expenses of the bank by 10%, as compared to the previous year. This was mainly driven by reduction in staff cost by 18% and other operating expenses by 16%.

Treasury and investment arm has initiated an ambitious plan to continue increasing the as-sets under management through multiple deal-by-deal transac-

tions and direct sourcing, struc-turing and placement of these deals.

The asset and liability man-agement desk continues its of-fering of innovative products and solutions to the Qatari Cor-porate client base while adher-ing to prudent liquidity man-agement measures that enables the bank to maintain its cost of funding and generate positive net profi t margins.

The bank also reported a dis-posal loss and loss on fair value remeasurement of equity in-vestments of QR331mn during the year, compared to QR119mn in the previous year.

This was mainly driven by global and regional headwinds resulting in prevailing market uncertainties that aff ected the performance of the bank’s alter-native investments portfolio.

Despite the challenges faced by QFB previously, the bank said it “looks forward to the future today with positive considered forecasts”.

In 2018, the bank underwent a “comprehensive exercise” to identify weaknesses and strengths. The exercise revealed internal strategic capabilities that, in private banking and real estate investment that could over a competitive edge that would enhance future returns in search of lucrative business opportunities that would have a positive impact on the bank’s fu-ture growth.

The QFB building in Doha. QFB’s total income (excluding disposal loss and loss on fair value remeasurement of equity investments) showed a “growth momentum” last year with an increase of 24.1% at QR222mn, compared to QR178mn in 2017.

COO of NNPC to deliver GECF lecture tomorrowA Nigerian petroleum engineer, Saidu Aliyu Mohamed, currently the chief operating off icer (COO) of the Gas and Power Directorate of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will deliver the 36th edition of the Gas Exporting Countries (GECF)’s series of lectures in Doha tomorrow afternoon. Mohamed’s lecture will be on the following topic: ‘Natural Gas – Catalyst for Africa’s Economic Development and Integration.’Mohamed is an expert in the field of natural gas and an authority in the energy sector in his home country and beyond. The Gas and Power Directorate at NNPC was created as part of Nigeria’s ambition to become a major player in the gas industry globally and to create a solid

framework for the expansion of the gas infrastructure. The NNPC is Nigeria’s state petroleum corporation, but its areas of responsibility cover the entire spectrum of oil industry operations: regulation, exploration and production, gas development, refining, distribution, petrochemicals, engineering, and commercial investments.A chemical engineer by trade, Mohamed’s experience covers both upstream and downstream, from technical to the top levels of management, domestically in Nigeria and abroad, e.g. as general manager of N-GAS Bermuda.Nigeria was one of the founding members of the Doha-based Gas Exporting Countries Forum, now an organisation of some 19 member countries, which includes Qatar.

Mohamed: An authority in the energy sector.

EU demands scrutiny of 5G risks but no bloc-wide Huawei banReutersStrasbourg

EU nations will be required to share data on 5G cybersecurity risks and produce measures to tackle them by the end of the year, the European Commission said yesterday, shunning US calls to ban China’s Huawei Technologies across the bloc.The aim is to use tools available under existing security rules plus cross-border cooperation, the bloc’s executive body said, leaving it to individual EU countries to decide whether they want to ban any company on national security grounds.Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Portugal are all preparing to auction 5G licences this year while six other countries will do so next year.The European Union move came despite US pressure to boycott Huawei, citing fears of China using the company’s equipment for espionage.Huawei has strongly rejected the allegations and launched a lawsuit against the US government.The EU provided additional detail on the plans first reported by Reuters on March 22, with European digital chief Andrus Ansip saying that the measures announced on Tuesday aimed to address concerns about foreign governments using companies for espionage.Last week French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe was wakening up to potential Chinese dominance in the region.Ansip said that 5G technology would transform the economy and society, but that this cannot happen without full security built in.“It is therefore essential that 5G infrastructures in the EU are resilient and fully secure from technical or legal backdoors,” Ansip said in a statement.EU countries have until the end of June to assess

cybersecurity risks related to 5G, leading to a bloc-wide assessment by October 1.Using this, EU countries would then have to agree measures to mitigate risks by the end of the year.Such measures could include certification requirements and tests of products or suppliers regarded as potential security risks.The bloc will decide by October 1, 2020, whether to take further action.The EU has already passed a new law to give permanent status to the EU Cybersecurity Agency and to guide on cybersecurity certification.Huawei described the EU’s approach as objective and proportionate.Its comments were echoed by telecoms lobby group GSMA, which includes 300 operators worldwide, while the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association emphasised the importance of a fact-based and harmonised policy.Deutsche Telekom, meanwhile, said it is open to exchanging data with other operators to improve network security as the industry moves towards super-fast 5G technology.Large telecoms operators, which view 5G as the next big moneyspinner, oppose a Huawei ban, saying that such a move could set back 5G deployment by years.World No.1 telecoms equipment maker Huawei, which competes with Sweden’s Ericsson and Finnish company Nokia, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with the Chinese government and US-led allegations that its equipment could be used for spying.Australia and New Zealand have stopped operators using Huawei equipment in their 5G networks.But in a separate boost for Huawei yesterday, it was announced that Bahrain, headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, plans to roll out a commercial 5G mobile network by June, partly using Huawei technology.

US housing, consumer confidence data point to slowing economyHousing starts drop 8.7% in February; single-family starts decline 17%; building permits fall 1.6%; consumer confidence index slips 7.3 points in March

ReutersWashington

US homebuilding fell more than expected

in February as construction of single-family

homes dropped to near a two-year low, of-

fering more evidence of a sharp slowdown in

economic activity early in the year.

Concerns over the economy were also

underscored by other data yesterday show-

ing consumer confidence ebbing in March,

with households a bit pessimistic about the

labour market.

The economy is facing rising headwinds,

including slowing global growth, fading fiscal

stimulus, trade tensions and uncertainty over

Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Those concerns contributed to the Federal

Reserve’s decision last week to bring its

three-year campaign to tighten monetary

policy to an abrupt end, as it abandoned pro-

jections for any interest rate hikes this year.

“The sugar high is just about over,” said Joel

Naroff , chief economist at Naroff Economic Ad-

visors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “The risks are

more toward the downside than the upside.”

Housing starts decreased 8.7% to a season-

ally adjusted annual rate of 1.162mn units last

month, the Commerce Department said.

The percentage of decline was the largest in

eight months, and bad weather could have

contributed to the sharp drop in homebuild-

ing last month. Homebuilding fell in three of

the four regions in February.

Housing starts data for January and Decem-

ber were revised higher.

Building permits fell 1.6% to a rate of 1.296mn

units in February.

While that was the second straight monthly

drop in permits, they are now outpacing

starts, which suggests a pickup in home-

building in the months ahead.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast

housing starts falling to a pace of 1.213mn

units in February.

The housing market hit a soft patch last year,

squeezed by higher mortgage rates, pricier

lumber, and land and labour shortages,

which led to tight inventories and more

expensive homes.

But borrowing costs have eased in the wake

of the Fed’s signalling of a long pause in

hiking rates.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to

an average of 4.28% last week, the lowest in

more than a year, from 4.31 in the prior week,

according to data from mortgage finance

agency Freddie Mac.

House price inflation is also slowing.

A report from S&P/Case-Shiller yesterday

showed house prices in the 20-metro area

increased 3.6% from a year ago in January,

the smallest gain since September 2012,

after rising 4.1% in December.

The moderation in mortgage rates and

house prices is likely to improve aff ordability,

especially for first-time homebuyers who

have been largely priced out of the market.

But homebuilders remain constrained in

their ability to construct more homes for the

lower end of the market.

A survey last week showed confidence

among homebuilders was steady in March,

with builders still complaining about the

scarcity of skilled workers and land, as well

as zoning restrictions in many major metro

areas.

“The run-up in interest rates last year did

some real damage,” said Mark Vitner, a

senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities

in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Even with the

recent slide in interest rates, which reflects

weakening economic conditions, we do

not feel we will see a rebound in housing

demand until the storm clouds emanating

from slower global economic growth clear

later this year.”

The dollar was little changed against a

basket of currencies, while US Treasury

prices fell.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher.

Single-family homebuilding, which accounts

for the largest share of the housing market,

tumbled 17.0% to a rate of 805,000 units in

February, the lowest level since May 2017.

The percentage drop in single-family home-

building was the largest since February 2015.

Permits to build single-family homes

were unchanged in February at a pace of

821,000.

Starts for the volatile multi-family housing

segment jumped 17.8% to a rate of 357,000

units in February.

Permits for the construction of multi-family

homes fell 4.2% to a pace of 475,000 units

last month.

The weak housing data strengthens the view

that the economy lost considerable momen-

tum early in the first quarter.

Retail sales rose moderately in January after

tumbling in December, and the manufactur-

ing sector is struggling, with output falling in

February for a second straight month.

The Atlanta Fed is forecasting gross domes-

tic product rising at a 1.3% annualised rate in

the first quarter.

The economy grew at a 2.6% in the October-

December period.

A third report from the Conference Board

yesterday showed its consumer confidence

index fell 7.3 points to a reading of 124.1 in

March.

While noting that consumer confidence

has been volatile in recent months, the

Conference Board said “the overall trend

in confidence has been softening since

last summer, pointing to a moderation in

economic growth.”

Consumers’ assessment of both current

business and labour market conditions

weakened in March.

The survey’s so-called labour market diff er-

ential, derived from data about respondents

who think jobs are hard to get and those

who think jobs are plentiful, fell to an eight-

month low.

It was the second straight monthly decline in

this measure, which closely correlates to the

unemployment rate in the Labor Department’s

employment report.

The unemployment rate is at 3.8% and job

growth decelerated sharply in February.

“It does suggest that we may see the very

low jobless rate become a little less low in

March,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior econo-

mist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.”It

all comes down to the job market.

It is the single most important factor under-

pinning confidence and spending.”

Contractors install gutters on a house under construction in the Norton Commons subdivision of Louisville, Kentucky (file). Housing starts decreased 8.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.162mn units last month, the Commerce Department said yesterday.

Ex-Barclays banker convicted in Euribor rigging trialReutersLondon

A former Barclays banker has been convicted and another acquitted by a

London jury of conspiring to ma-nipulate global Euribor interest rates in London’s sixth bench-mark rate-rigging trial.

After about fi ve days of delib-

erations, a jury of nine men and three women yesterday found Anglo-Italian Carlo Palombo, 40, guilty after a two-month trial at Southwark Crown Court.

His heavily-pregnant wife burst into tears in the public gallery.

Co-defendant Sisse Bohart, a 41-year-old Dane who also once worked at Barclays, was acquitted.

The jury has yet to reach a deci-sion on a third defendant, former

Barclays banker Colin Berming-ham, a 62-year-old Briton.

The defendants were charged with dishonestly manipulating Euribor (the euro interbank off ered rate) — a benchmark that helps de-termine rates on more than $150tn of global fi nancial contracts and loans — between 2005 and 2009.

Palombo, who denied the charges, will be sentenced later, the judge said. Bohart and Ber-

mingham also denied the charges.The latest verdicts bring to

eight the number of bankers con-victed of benchmark rate rigging in Britain in a series of prosecu-tions brought by the UK Serious Fraud Offi ce (SFO). Ten have been acquitted.

Eleven powerful banks and brokerages have been fi ned a total of $9 bn to settle rate-rigging al-legations in a global investigation.

Barclays paid a $453mn pen-alty in 2012, sparking a backlash that forced out former CEO Bob Diamond, led to the British fraud inquiry and prompted an over-haul of rate-setting rules.

The jury was told that two other French bankers, former Barclays colleague Philippe Moryoussef and Christian Bittar, a one-time Deutsche Bank star trader, had al-ready been convicted.