Author: Arabian Media staff

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has struck a deal with Canadian asset manager Fiera Capital to set up a fund that will invest $200mn in Qatari stocks, as it seeks to entice financiers to Doha.The Qatar Investment Authority, estimated to manage $500bn, is trying to expand Qatar’s financial centre and make it a regional hub for money managers.With lower oil prices expected to slow the economy of its larger neighbour Saudi Arabia, whose appetite for foreign deals is shrinking, financiers are eyeing an…

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When it comes to American exceptionalism, it’s hard to beat prescription drug TV ads. Viewers in the US are bombarded with appeals from makers of medications treating everything from arthritis to psoriasis — and more recently weight loss. The commercials — which inevitably feature scenes of smiling people living life to the full while a narrator rattles off a list of possible side-effects — are ubiquitous and irksome. Outside of the US, only New Zealand allows such things.Change may be coming. The White…

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sachin Dev Duggal, the founder and former chief executive of the collapsed Microsoft-backed tech start-up Builder.ai, made at least $20mn through selling shares in the business.The self-described “chief wizard” of the software company, which raked in more than $500mn from investors on its promise to use artificial intelligence to revolutionise app development, also borrowed against his stake in Builder.ai, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.Duggal’s investment firm, SD Squared Ventures, made in excess of $20mn from selling shares in the…

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Eurostar rail services were experiencing a second successive day of severe delays and cancellations on Wednesday after the theft of a cable near Lille forced the diversion of trains to slower routes.The issues followed significant hold-ups after two people were struck by trains on the same stretch of track on Tuesday. The operator said on its website that some trains between London and Paris could be as much as 90 minutes late, while three services in each direction were cancelled.The cable theft…

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Other than his native Tanzania, 32-year-old businessman Justice George Kaundama is interested in only one country.“China-Africa is the future,” he says, sitting on the veranda of Shamwaa, the Tanzanian restaurant he opened last year in Guangzhou. “We are going to be big partners.”Kaundama first came to the southern Chinese city, known for decades as China’s “Little Africa”, in 2018. After studying Mandarin for two years, he opened a logistics company shipping Chinese goods back to Tanzania. He came to China to get…

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Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the UAE economy, making up 94 per cent of businesses and contributing more than 40 per cent to GDP. As the country pushes ahead with its post-oil diversification strategy, ecosystems that support SME growth are becoming critical infrastructure. One such ecosystem is the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ), home to more than 30,000 thriving, diverse businesses, the majority of which are SMEs. Positioned away from the spotlight of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, RAKEZ has built a platform that is helping early-stage companies launch, expand, and compete – both locally and globally.…

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