Author: Arabian Media staff

Image: Supplied Held under the theme MENA Investment Playbook, the recent 19th EFG Hermes Annual One-on-One Investor Conference in Dubai brought together 220 companies from 12 countries and 675 institutional investors and fund managers representing 252 global institutions. With more than 15,000 meetings conducted, the forum reaffirmed its status as the region’s largest and most influential investment platform. It provided a valuable opportunity to explore investment strategies shaping the Middle East and North Africa. We sat down with Karim Meleka, co-head – Investment Banking at EFG Hermes, on the sidelines of the event to discuss the outlook for IPOs, infrastructure…

Chinese carmakers have shocked the world’s auto brands with their rapid adoption of electric vehicles. Now the battleground is shifting to autonomous vehicles and many experts believe China is again claiming an early advantage.The battle sees US groups such as Tesla and Waymo, Google’s self-driving project, pitched against BYD, China’s biggest EV group, as well as robotaxis from Pony.ai, Baidu and WeRide.While autonomous driving for several years was viewed as an Achilles heel for BYD, the Warren Buffett-backed group rocked the auto industry in January when it revealed plans to deploy its God’s Eye advanced driving system to 21 new…

As the European automotive market shrank and competition increased in China, Volkswagen assured investors that the group at least still had ample room for growth in the US market.But Donald Trump’s volley of tariffs — including a 25 per cent levy on car imports — has swiftly damped the hopes of Europe’s largest carmaker and the multitude of suppliers that rely on Germany’s automotive industry.Analysts at S&P Global now expect 1.2mn fewer cars to be sold in the US next year, compared with their forecast a month before — not exactly an invitation for a company looking to expand market…

The trainer holds the horse by a rope, neither slack nor taut, while his young student circles at a gentle trot. Despite the towering construction project in the backdrop, the white fences, sheet roofs and late-afternoon trees still conjure a faint sense of the countryside.Not far from the heart of downtown Shanghai, the YCL Riding Center is one of dozens of stables that have cropped up in China’s biggest cities. For affluent parents eager to educate their children as widely as possible, the sport can help meet the extracurricular requirements exclusive overseas universities expect.Deborah Kay Gooden, a British trainer, helped to…

This article is an on-site version of the India Business Briefing newsletter. To receive it in your inbox regularly, sign up if you’re a premium subscriber, or upgrade your subscription here.Good morning. News from Washington suggests an interim trade deal could be signed before July 8, the date on which Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff of 26 per cent is scheduled to kick in. We’ll hopefully learn more once commerce minister Piyush Goyal and his team are back in New Delhi.In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the woes of Asian Paints, which for a long time was the unchallenged leader…

Tax-preparation and financial-technology platform Intuit Inc. raised its full-year outlook on Thursday, following a solid third quarter marked by a big tax-filing season, gains among small and mid-sized businesses and moves to incorporate artificial intelligence into its software. Source link

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Apple’s key contractor is moving ahead with a $1.5bn component plant near Chennai, further expanding the iPhone-maker’s supply chain in India even as Donald Trump demands it return manufacturing to the US.Foxconn, which has assembled Apple’s devices for years, is set to build a display module facility in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, two government officials told the Financial Times. The plant would help the Taiwanese company supply Apple, its main customer.The move represents the US tech giant’s latest tilt towards…

The U.S. dollar has struggled to rebound since President Donald Trump announced his “liberation day” tariffs in early April, with some analysts expecting that the greenback’s decline isn’t over even if its status as the world’s reserve currency appears safe for now. Source link

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.An improved economic outlook helped UK consumer confidence rise in May, reversing most of April’s tariff-induced drop and pointing to steadier spending trends. The GfK consumer confidence index — a measure of how people view their personal finances and broader economic prospects — rose three points to minus 20 in May, the research group said on Friday. It took the score back to the level recorded in February but remained well below the 2015-2019 average of minus 5.6.The rise in May was…

Households in the top 0.1% would reap more than $390,000 in tax savings, according to one analysis of the tax and spending bill that’s now headed to the Senate for a vote. Source link