Author: Arabian Media staff

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Oil & Gas industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Opec+ will increase production again next month as the Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel seeks to win back market share in a move that is likely to put downward pressure on crude prices.Eight members of the producer group, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, said on Saturday that they would raise headline production in August by a combined 548,000 barrels a day, up from a planned increase in July of 411,000 b/d. The move speeds up the unwinding of…

When Natasha Sideris opened the first tashas restaurant in Johannesburg’s Atholl Square in 2005, she never imagined it would grow into an international dining empire.   Now based in Dubai, Sideris is leading one of the most ambitious expansions in global hospitality, taking her boutique approach to dining far beyond her native South Africa.  Today, Tashas Group operates 40 restaurants across five countries. Of these, 18 are located in South Africa, 17 in the UAE, 3 in Saudi Arabia, 1 in Bahrain, and 1 in the UK. With 15 additional openings scheduled in the next 18 months, the group is on…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A growing number of wealthy people are signalling their intention to relocate from the UK this year as concerns over tax and pension reforms prompt an exodus.Wealth managers say many clients are preparing to leave, with an average of 52 per firm, ranging from single figures to as many as 300, according to the FT and Savanta wealth management survey 2025.The UK is projected to lose a record 16,500 high net worth individuals this year, worth nearly $92bn in investable assets, representing…

Investors wondering what to do with their pensions, investments and savings face an uncertain environment on various fronts as the unpredictability of Donald Trump, the US president, shakes up the markets. Equities have been volatile and the dollar has had its worst start to the year since the 1970s due to uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical events. Fixed income is not playing its usual “stabilising” role in a portfolio to counter inflation concerns, with some wealth managers saying they no longer believe in the traditional 60-40 model of equities versus bonds. Gold is still seen as a haven but…

On a frigid winter’s afternoon in 1942, in a dingy squash court beneath the stands of University of Chicago’s football stadium, a shivering group of scientists watched as Enrico Fermi coaxed the world’s first controlled nuclear chain reaction from an unpromising pile of dusty carbon bricks. Arguably the most consequential scientific moment since Isaac Newton’s cranial encounter with an apple, those four minutes not only unlocked the enormous energetic possibilities of the atom’s nucleus, they also opened the door to the fulfilment of the Manhattan Project’s mission: the construction of a war-winning atom bomb.Not all those present felt a sense…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This week, Nationwide building society reported that the average UK house price was £271,619 in June, as it dropped by an unexpected 0.8 per cent compared with May — the biggest monthly fall in two years. But how useful is this, given that, in the words of my late friend Charles Fairhurst, “all residential is local”? What he meant was that the price or rent of a home — and whether it is bought, let, or even built — is determined as…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.China’s first Legoland, one of the world’s biggest, officially opens its gates this weekend, hoping its Lego reconstruction of the Great Wall and other attractions will draw visitors despite pressure on consumer spending in the world’s second-biggest economy. Legoland Shanghai, located about 50km outside the city, also includes a Lego replica of the city’s distinctive skyline. It will have more than 75 rides, other models and the company’s signature yellow figures, using a total of 85mn bricks, according to the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is co-head of private equity at KKRThe private equity naysayers are out in force in 2025. Underlying the latest predictions of the industry’s demise is a notable mis-step many firms made by over-deploying capital during 2021 and the first half of 2022, a period characterised by high valuations.Many of those investments will probably be underperformers. Consequently, private equity funds overexposed to these vintages may struggle to raise more capital. But is it the beginning of the industry’s downfall as some claim?While…

After the week Rachel Reeves has had, I wonder if she will be tempted to U-turn on her hugely unpopular plan to slash the £20,000 annual cash Isa allowance to as little as £4,000 before it’s been officially announced? With the intention of nudging cash-hoarding Britons into becoming a nation of investors, the chancellor is expected to confirm the controversial move in her Mansion House speech on July 15 — assuming she’s still in post. I’ve previously argued that educating cash savers about the long-term benefits of investing would be a more effective tactic than slashing their tax-free savings allowance.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a former controller of BBC Radio 4Another day another crisis. The BBC can always be guaranteed to provide fodder for outrage — perceived bias in the corporation’s news coverage (the most reliable staple), egregiously misbehaving male stars, workplace bullying on wholesome family entertainment shows, the grizzly mess of Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, Gary Lineker in all his social media glory. To that list is now added the genuinely wretched failure to pull out of the…