US auto showCEO of Volkswagen North America Hinrich J. Woebcken (left) and Volkswagen Chairman of the Board of Management Herbert Diess kneel before the the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta R-Line as it is introduced during the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, yesterday

→ See also page 23

BUSINESSBUSINESSTuesday 16 January 2018

PAGE | 23PAGE | 22Hit by US output oil hovers below

$70 highs

Qatar’s fiscal deficit continues to narrow: QNB

Economic forum to discuss cross investmentsSATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The high-profile Qatari-Turkish Economic Forum set to open here today will explore the possibilities of cross investment opportunities. The event, in which around 150 Turkish companies are expected to participate, will see a separate working session that would discuss the two-way investment opportunities between the coun-tries.

It is significant to note that the Forum comes at a time when Turkey is seeking to attract for-eign investments to its huge infrastructure projects in

pipeline; and a day after Turkey’s economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci hinted that the Turkey’s cabinet is to announce a $21bn package to boost 20 mega projects ranging from healthcare to energy. In another significant development, Turkish government yesterday unveiled the route of its hugely ambitious 45km project designed to its answer to the famed artifi-cial shipping lanes in Panama or Egypt’s Suez. The construction of Turkey’s massive new airport is another major project taking shape in the county’s infrastruc-ture sector.

Data available on public domain suggests Turkey’s logis-tics sector has attracted $1.9bn in

foreign investments as its cargo capacity quadrupled in the last 10 years. “Logistics, which pro-vides an investment environment to 400,000 people, is a signifi-cant employment sector of Turkey,” Emre Eldener, chairman of Turkey’s Association of Inter-national Forwarding and Logis-tics Service Providers (UTİKAD), told state-run Anadolu Agency, last week.

Turkey attracted around $13bn in foreign direct invest-ment between 2008 and 2017, according to data from the Economy Ministry.

Today’s event is being organ-ized by Qatar Chamber (QC) in collaboration with the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB). Qatar Chamber said yesterday the forum will feature sessions to discuss and track investment opportunities in Qatar. The offi-cials from Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions will showcase the opportu-nities in Qatar.

“Qatar is on the top of the list of foreign investment in the Turkish economy with a level of more than $20bn, as the State of Qatar aspires to Turkey not only to export natural gas, but to

re-export to Europe by building a Qatari strategic station in Turkey,” Qatar Chamber said yesterday.

“The Qatar Chamber is keen to push forward relations between Qatari businessmen and their Turkish counterparts to fur-ther growth and progress to ben-efit the private sector in both countries. Qatar Chamber has

signed agreements and memo-randums of understanding with a number of Turkish chambers, facilitating the establishment of partnerships and alliances between Qatari and Turkish companies and exchanging information and data to facili-tate the establishment of busi-ness in both countries” the Chamber said. Chairman of

Arab-Turkish Businessmen Asso-ciation in Istanbul (ARTIAD) Jamal al Din Kareem said that the economic relations between Qatar and Turkey grew espe-cially after the Gulf crisis. Turkish exports to Doha increased by about 15 percent last July, and mutual investments between the two countries rose to more than $35bn.

QFCA achieves 66% new business growth in 2017THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) has announced a record growth in 2017, posting a 66 percent increase in new firms being licensed year-on-year (1st January to 31 December 2017). This follows news earlier this year when the QFC reported a 41 percent increase in new firm registrations for H1 of 2017 (1st January to 30th June 2017) compared to H1 in 2016.

The total number of firms on the QFC platform has reached 461 as at 31 December 2017, compared to 348 firms at end of December 2016, marking a 32.5 percent increase year on year.

Yousuf Mohammed Al Jaida (pictured), QFC Authority Chief Executive Officer commented on the rapid increases stating: “While 2017 has seen unprece-dented events take place, at the QFC we have in fact proven challenges can turn into suc-cesses and we have had our most successful year yet.”

“Following our outward missions to various markets including London, Manchester, Hong Kong, Singapore and

Germany, we are seeing a vast increase in interest from these regions and from a variety of sectors such as sports, health-care, education, advisory firms, financial institutions, reinsur-ance and advisory firms,” Al Jaida said.

“Our success this year is fur-ther evidence of the attractive-ness of the QFC platform and the openness of Qatar as a market. Our model is unique in the region, and an increasing number of institutions from Qatar and around the world are clearly seeing the benefits of coming to Qatar and joining the

QFC platform. We look forward to 2018 and improving even fur-ther upon this big milestone”, he added.

Since its inception in 2005, QFC has continued to play a key role alongside the Ministry of Economy and Commerce to attract foreign direct investment by providing a competitive plat-form for firms to expand to Qatar. The QFC recently amended its tax rules and reg-ulations as part of the ongoing enhancement and development of its platform to better attract investments.

Once a company submits its application, a dedicated QFC relationship manager is appointed to provide guidance on the registration process, obtaining a licence and setting up operations. QFC firms enjoy competitive benefits, such as operating within a legal envi-ronment based on English common law, the right to trade in any currency, 100% foreign ownership, 100% repatriation of profits, 10% corporate tax on locally sourced profits, and an extensive double tax treaty agreement network with 60+ countries.

Qatar is on the top of the list of foreign investment in the Turkish economy with a level of more than $20bn, as Qatar aspires Turkey not only to export natural gas, but to re-export to Europe by building a Qatari strategic station in Turkey.

Around 150 Turkish companies are

expected to participate in the

event organised by QC in collaboration

with TOBB.

Guardian goes tabloid to cut costsAFP

LONDON: Britain’s Guardian newspaper has adopted a new tabloid format and a re-designed masthead with simple black lettering from yesterday as part of a drive to cut costs.

The newspaper previously had a blue and white masthead

and in 2005 had adopted a Ber-liner format, midway between a broadsheet and a tabloid.

“Our move to tabloid format is a big step towards making The Guardian financial sustain-able,” the paper’s editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said in a piece for the first new edition.

She called it “bold, striking and beautiful”.

The Guardian is selling or scrapping its three presses worth £80m ($110m) to cut costs and printing will be out-sourced to tabloid-format presses run by Trinity Mirror media group.

The website, which attracts 150 million monthly unique browsers worldwide, has also undergone a redesign.

8,946.97-227.69PTS2.48%

QSE FTSE100 DOW BRENT7,769.14-9.50 PTS0.12%

25,803.19+228.46 PTS0.89% Dow & Brent before going to press

$64.30 +0.36

22 TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018BUSINESS

Qatar’s fiscal deficit continues to narrow: QNBSATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar banks recorded a 16.1 percent deposit growth in November 2017, on year-on-year. Private sector deposits increased for a fourth consec-utive month in November as pressures on the banking system continued to ease. Broad money supply (M2) grew to 18.9 percent in November, up from 18.3 percent in October. Over-night and 3-month interbank rates were 2.07 percent and 2.75 percent respectively in November.

QNB’s monthly monitor data released yesterday noted Qatar’s fiscal deficit continued to narrow, reaching 4.1 percent of GDP in Q2, 2017 from a revised deficit of 5.1 percent in Q1-2017 (previously 5.5 per-cent). The current account surplus widened to 5.3 percent of GDP in Q3, 17 from 2.5 per-cent in Q2 while the deficit in the financial account narrowed.

Money and Banking assets expanded to $366bn in Novem-ber, with the growth rate picking up to 11.7 percent year-on-year from 11.4 percent. Credit growth slowed to 12.9 percent y/y in November from 13.6 percent y/y in October.

Banks’ lending to the public sector grew 26.6 percent y/y.

The country’s imports declined 2 percent y/y in November while exports grew 15.9 percent y/y, likely helped by higher hydrocarbon prices and increased output.

Real GDP picked up in Q3 mainly due to a recovery in the hydrocarbon sector. Non-hydrocarbon real GDP growth remained broadly flat in Q3.

Brent crude prices contin-ued to rise, averaging $66.9/b in December; Qatar’s oil pro-duction rose to 596,000 b/d in October from 571,000 b/d prior. Industrial production surged to 7.4 percnet y/y growth on a rebound in the mining sector due to less maintenance on LNG trains. The real estate price index stabilised in Q3, although it still fell 5.4 percent from a year ago.

Inflation was 0.6 percent in December, with food prices ris-ing 5.6 percent and housing and utility prices declining 5.8 per-cent. 5-star and 4-star hotel occupancy rates remained flat at 56 percent and 59 percent respectively in November.

Qatar’s population grew by 1.7 percent y/y, reaching 2.64m in December; women made up close to 25 percent of the population.

HSBC named top trade bank in QatarTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: HSBC Qatar has been voted the top trade finance bank in the country in the influ-ential annual Trade Finance Survey conducted by Eurom-oney.

Businesses polled by Euromoney named HSBC Qatar as the leading bank for trade finance and the best bank for service in trade finance, the first time it has won in both domes-tic categories.

HSBC was also voted the best trade finance bank in the Middle East and Latin America,

respectively, with the Bank also topping Euromoney’s global poll of more than 7,000 com-panies to be crowned the leading trade bank in the world.

Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi (pictured), CEO of HSBC in Qatar said: “We have been at the centre of evolving trade dynamics in the past year and understand the complexities of a changing world. This recog-nition from our loyal customer base is humbling and under-lines our responsibility as a leader in the field to anticipate our clients’ needs and provide first-class working capital solu-

tions and customer service.“HSBC’s global network,

international expertise and knowledge of the local market is unique and give us the oppor-tunity to serve our customers in their growing trade needs,” added Mostafawi.

Qatar was one of 11 coun-tries globally in which HSBC received the award for the best domestic trade finance bank.

HSBC’s presence in Qatar dates back to 1954 and over the past six decades the bank has been an important player in trade finance, developing a range of products, services and digital platforms to serve cus-tomers efficiently.

Industrial production in Nov up 7.1% y-o-yMOHAMMAD SHOEB THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The latest data released on the performance of Qatar’s industrial production show that the economic activities in November 2017 has registered a remarkable year-on-year increase, compared to the corre-sponding month in 2016.

When compared on monthly basis, the production, especially in the manufacturing and min-ing sectors, in November 2017 witnessed a relative correction compared to the previous month taking the monthly index slightly down compared to October 2017.

The Industrial Production index (IPI), for November 2017 amounted to 103.9 points, decreased by 1.5 percent com-pared to the previous month (October -2017). However, when compared on year-on-year basis, the IPI increased 7.1 percent in

November 2017 compared to the same month in 2016, numbers released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Sta-tistics reveal.

The index (IPI) details out the growth of various industrial sec-tors of the Qatari economy such as “Mining”, “Manufacturing”, “Electricity production and “Water production and desalination”.

It is a short-term quantitative

index that measures the changes in the volume of production of a selected basket of industrial prod-ucts over a given period with respect to that in a chosen period called the base period.

The Industrial Production Index consists of three main com-ponents: mining with a relative importance of 83.6 percent, man-ufacturing with a relative importance of 15.2 percent, elec-tricity with a relative importance

of 0.7 percent, and finally water with a relative importance of 0.5 percent.

The month-on-month anal-ysis of the “Mining” sector index showed a decrease of 1 percent compared to the previous month (October of 2017), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of crude oil and natural gas pro-duced by 1 percent, and an increase in “Other mining and quarrying” by 4.4 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (November 2016), the IPI of Min-ing sector increased by 7.2 percent.

The “Manufacturing” index decreased by 3.1 percent in November 2017 compared to the previous month (October-2017), due to the decrease in produc-tion of three groups: “Manufacture of Beverages” by 9.5 percent, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical

products” by 6.7 percent, and “Manufacture of food products” by 1.5 percent”. However an increase was recorded in five groups : “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 9.6 per-cent, “Manufacture of Basic metals” by 7.7 percent, Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 7.2 percent, “Manu-facture of Rubber and plastic products” by 4.9 percent, and “Manufacture of refined petro-leum products” by 0.1 percent.

On the other hand, in terms of annual change, comparing to November 2016, an increase of 6.1 percent was recorded, affected by the following groups: “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 35.1 percent, “Manufacture of food products” by 19.9 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 15.5 percent, “Manufacture of Beverages” by 2.4 percent,

“Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 0.4 per-c e n t , “ P r i n t i n g a n d reproduction of recorded media” by percent0.2. However a decline recorded in, “Manu-facture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 11.7 percent, and Manufac-ture of Rubber and plastic products” by 8.3 percent.

A decrease of 19.9 percent in the production of “Electric-ity” group was noticed between November 2017 and the previ-ous month (October-2017), while the annual increase (comparing with November 2016), was a 14.9 percent. In the “Water” sector, a decrease of 7.5 percent was noticed in November 2017 compared to the previous month, and on annual basis, a decrease of 2 percent was recorded when comparing with corresponding month November 2016.

A decrease of 19.9% in the production of ‘Electricity’ group was noticed between November and October 2017, while the annual increase (comparing with November 2016), was a 14.9%.

When compared to November 2016,

the IPI of Mining sector

increased by 7.2%.

Commercial Bank hosts Sadara clientsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Commercial Bank has shared an evening with its key Sadara clients to build customer relationships and to thank them for their loyalty. The first of two dinners was held for male clients at Sharq Village & Spa, with a separate dinner being held for the Bank’s female Sadara clients.

Attended by Commercial Bank Group CEO Joseph Abra-ham, the evening provided the Bank with an ideal platform to engage with its Sadara custom-ers to strengthen relationships and enjoy a relaxed evening out-side of usual office hours.

Joseph Abraham said: “Cli-ent experience is a differentiator that sets Commercial Bank apart. Sadara is Commercial Bank’s premium banking service and our overriding objective is to provide our most valuable and important clients with a high-end banking experience through highly tailored banking solutions and outstanding personal serv-ice from a dedicated relationship manager.”

Amit Sah, EGM, Head of Con-sumer Banking expressed the bank’s gratitude to its high net worth customers for your ongo-ing support, trust and continuous cooperation. “We strive to sup-port and strengthen our clients’ businesses in the market, and this is what makes us the best bank in Qatar. Commercial Bank is the first national private bank in the country with roots

spreading over 40 years, and we have attracted many business-men and supported their growth through the best and most advanced banking products and services. We aim to strengthen our relations with our high net worth customers and value your feedback to grow your busi-nesses in partnership with Commercial Bank to boost the country’s development.”

Commercial Bank AGM, Head of Sadara Wealth Manage-ment, Bouchra Sebbata said: “By understanding the most impor-tant aspects of customers’ lives, their personal economies – Sadara is positioned to support customers’ financial needs through a dedicated relation-ship-led service, allowing customers to invest their wealth while enjoying the best wealth management and financial serv-ices. Commercial Bank also hosted this dinner as an oppor-tunity to hear feedback from our customers to help provide them with best client experience possible.”

Sadara Wealth Relationship Managers also attended the din-ner, using the time to help demonstrate the many ways the Bank’s international reach and local expertise can enhance cus-tomers’ financial requirements locally and abroad.

More events are set to be organised throughout the year as Commercial Bank seeks to fully establish its premier Sadara proposition in Qatar.

Joseph Abraham (left), Commercial Bank Group CEO; and Bouchra Sebbata, Commercial Bank AGM, Head of Sadara Wealth Management.

Citigroup discloses pay gaps & plans raisesBLOOMBERG

NEW YORK: Citigroup Inc said it would measure, publish and take steps to close the gaps between what it pays men and women in three countries and for US minorities.

The move follows a shareholder proposal filed by Boston-based Arjuna Capital and is the first of its kind by a big US bank. As well as the US, Citigroup also studied pay in the UK, where such reporting is now mandatory, and Germany.

Citigroup will increase the pay of women and US minor-ities as well as others where raises are warranted to close the gap, the bank said in a statement. It also promised to do similar analyses in other countries where any of its more than 200,000 employ-ees work.

The focus on pay “sup-ports our efforts to attract and retain the best talent and reward performance,” Citi-group said. About half of the bank’s employees are women but only a quarter of senior executives are female. Eleven percent of its US employees are African American, while only 1.6 percent of senior executives are.

Citigroup said it analyzed total compensation of its employees in the US, the UK and Germany, looking at fac-tors such as job level, function and geography. It found that women on average earned 99 percent of men’s pay and that US minorities earned 99 per-cent of non-minorities’ pay.

The UK is requiring all companies, including foreign ones such as Citigroup, to report gender pay data pub-licly starting in April.

DOHA: Morison Menon Char-

tered Accountants & Partners

Qatar, have been approved as

External Auditors and Finan-

cial Evaluators for entities

listed on Qatar Stock Market

by the regulators, Qatar Finan-

cial Markets Authority (QFMA) .

Kurian Kuriakose, Managing

Partner, Morison Menon Char-

tered Accountants & Partners

expressed his appreciation for

the team members, both sides,

who facilitated the approval

process which extended into

several months.

With this recognition, the

Morison Menon’s superior

services, both in audit and

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in Qatar at competitive price.

NEWS BYTESQFMA approves Morison Menon as external auditors & financialevaluators

Linamar plans C$750m expansionwith government supportBLOOMBERG

OTTAWA: The Canadian and Ontario governments are pledg-ing money to support an expansion by auto parts maker Linamar Corp., one of a raft of firms whose future partly depends on the outcome of Nafta talks.

Linamar will announce the C$750m ($600m) project soon, supported by C$49m from the federal government and up to C$50m from Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, according to a federal govern-ment statement. The expansion will create 1,500 jobs and “maintain” another 8,000, the

statement said. The fate of Nafta is murky, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threat-ened to quit and Canadian officials last week said they thought the odds he’d give notice of doing so are rising. Nonetheless, Trump and US House Speaker Paul Ryan each said last week they’d rather renegotiate the Nafta than kill it.

The manufacturer’s expan-sion will support artificial intelligence, three-dimensional printing and clean technology, the statement from the office of Canadian Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said.

“Innovation is the single

most important thing we can do in terms of product design, proc-ess design and material development to solve global problems and create opportu-nities for us all to succeed,” Linamar Chief Executive Officer Linda Hasenfratz said.

“To have our government support us in that endeavor is fantastic, further cementing the fact that Canada is a great place for advanced manufacturing to thrive.” Hasenfratz also sits on the Canadian government’s Nafta advisory panel.

The sixth round of Nafta talks is set to kick off in Mon-treal later this month, with autos one of the key sticking points.

23TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018 BUSINESS

EU to remove 8 territories from tax haven listREUTERS

BRUSSELS: European Union officials have proposed removing eight jurisdictions from the blacklist of tax havens the bloc adopted in December, in what critics may see as a blow to its campaign against tax avoidance.

EU states decided last month to draw up the list in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax dodging practices.

But eight of the 17 jurisdic-tions currently listed are set to be quickly removed from the list after they offered to change their tax rules, according to EU documents seen by Reuters.

Panama, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Bar-bados, Grenada, Macao, Mon-golia and Tunisia are the juris-dictions that EU officials have recommended be delisted.

The removal of Bahrain was also initially considered, but its delisting was eventually not recommended, the documents show.

The proposal will be dis-cussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday and is expected to be adopted by EU finance ministers when they meet next week in Brus-sels for monthly talks.

Jurisdictions set to remain on the blacklist are American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The proposal for the delisting was made by the so-called Code of Conduct Group, which gathers tax experts from the 28 EU member states. It m o n i t o r s c o u n t r i e s ’

commitments to abide by EU standards on tax matters. If the recommendation were con-firmed by EU ministers, the eight jurisdictions will be moved to a so-called grey list which includes those who have committed to change their rules on tax transparency and coop-eration. The grey list currently includes 47 jurisdictions.

The shrinking of the black-list is likely to be criticised by tax transparency groups. In December some activists denounced the listing process as a whitewash and had called for the inclusion in the black-list of some EU countries accused of facilitating tax avoidance, like Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The recommended removal of Panama may cause partic-ular outcry, as it has been at the centre of one of the largest dis-closures of offshore schemes, the so-called Panama Papers.

EU officials have said the purpose of the blacklist is to convince jurisdictions to become more transparent. Having fewer on the list means more countries have committed to changes, they say.

Eight of the 17 jurisdictions currently listed are set to be quickly removed from the list after they offered to change their tax rules.

Hit by US output oil hovers below $70 highs REUTERS

LONDON: Oil hovered near a three-year high of $70 a barrel yesterday on signs that produc-tion cuts by OPEC and Russia are tightening supplies, but analysts warned of “red flags” due to surging US production.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading 3 cents lower at $69.84 by 1522 GMT, having risen above $70 earlier in the session.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 22 cents at $64.52 a barrel. Trading was relatively slow due to a national holiday in the United States.

A production-cutting pact between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers has given a strong tailwind to oil prices, with both benchmarks last week hitting levels not seen since December 2014.

Growing signs of a tight-ening market after a three-year rout have bolstered confidence among traders and analysts that prices can be sustained near current levels.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Monday raised its 2018 Brent price forecast to $64 a barrel from $56, forecasting a deficit of 430,000 barrels per day (bpd) in oil production com-

pared to demand this year.Other factors, including

political risk, have also sup-ported crude.

“Tighter fundamentals are (the) main driver to the rally in prices, but geopolitical risk and currency moves along with speculative money in tandem have exacerbated the move,” US bank JPMorgan said in a note.

Still, a number of analysts have warned that the 13 percent rally since the start of the year could peter out in the short term due to global refinery mainte-

nance and rising North Amer-ican production.

US energy companies added 10 oil rigs in the week to Jan. 12, taking the number to 752, energy service firm Baker Hughes said on Friday.

That was the biggest increase since June 2017.

In Canada, energy firms almost doubled the number of rigs drilling for oil last week to 185, the highest level in 10 months.

Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy expects US

production to grow by 600,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a year earlier.

“From a fundamental per-spective, the surge in US man-aged money raises a clear red flag for us. We see the US com-plex as decidedly bearish over the next two months.”

The surplus in crude is expected “to widen to levels that will overwhelm the market”, JBC said in a note. Seasonal refinery maintenance will fur-ther limit demand for crude, it added.

An offshore oil platform is seen in Huntington Beach, California, in this file picture.

Canada home sales hit recordBLOOMBERG

OTTAWA: Canadian home sales rose to a record in December just before tougher mortgage rules took effect, helping make 2017 the second strongest market ever.

Transactions climbed 4.5 percent from November to 45,976, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported yesterday from Ottawa, and are up 9

percent over the past two months. That’s the biggest two-month gain since 2009. The national benchmark price index was little changed on the month and was up 9.1 percent from 12 months earlier.

Home buyers are racing to get ahead of more stringent mortgage eligibility rules that took effect on Jan. 1, potentially distorting year-end sales figures. Still, 2017 was the second

strongest year for sales on record, and included strong gains in prices, even with the efforts to slow down the market.

“National home sales in December were likely boosted by seasonal adjustment factors and a potential pull-forward of demand before new mortgage regulations came into effect this year,” Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said in the statement.

France setslimits on foreign investment in tech sectorsAFP

PARIS: France plans to expand a law protecting its “strategic” industries from foreign takeovers by adding technologies such as artificial intelligence to the list, economy minister Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.

“Make no mistake, France is an open country and we want to make France attrac-tive” to foreign investors, Le Maire said at a press conference.

However, “openness does not mean pillaging of our technologies, our know how, our talents.”

In 2014 France passed the so-called Montebourg law setting strict oversight of for-eign bids for companies in key industries such as energy and transportation.

Le Maire said France would now set out a “new investment doctrine” to ensure more clarity over investments by foreign groups.

It will also now consider digital sectors including data stockage and artificial intel-ligence as strategic sectors subject to strict oversight if t h e r e a r e f o r e i g n shareholders.

France will also ask the European Commission, along with Germany, Italy and Spain, to set out rules on for-eign investments in Europe, citing a need to “defend national interests”.

The move dovetails with a decision by Germany’s cab-inet last year to tighten scru-tiny over takeovers of com-panies in strategic industries by buyers outside the EU, reacting to Europe-wide dis-quiet over Chinese takeovers.

Le Maire, who accompa-nied President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to China earlier this month, called for “reciprocity” with France’s trading partners and the respect of “clear rules”.

He called for “long-term investments that respect our rules and are associated with an opening of foreign markets.”

Honda, Volvo & Ford scoop awards at Detroit auto showAFP

DETROIT: The Detroit auto show handed out its self-proclaimed “Oscars of the auto industry” yesterday, rewarding Honda, Volvo and Ford amid a crowded slate of new truck, SUV and crossover unveilings.

The awards are adjudicated by a panel of 60 auto journal-ists. The winners are chosen from dozens of new vehicles, offering bragging rights and a chance to stand out in a highly-competitive North American market.

The 2018 Honda Accord was awarded best car of the year, helping the Japanese company best its top rival, the Toyota Camry -- also a finalist for the

award in a shrinking segment of the US auto market.

Volvo’s XC60 SUV was awarded best utility, a much-needed boost for the Chinese-owned Swedish car company as it aims to reassert itself into the American market.

Ford’s massive Lincoln Nav-igator SUV won, incongruously, in the truck category -- helping the US automaker in its battle against rivals GM and Fiat Chrysler for truck and SUV sales.

Pickups, SUVs and crosso-vers have become the bread and butter of automakers in the US market, outselling sedans two to one and offering high profit margins.

Over the weekend, Ford

unveiled its redesigned Ranger mid-size pickup being reintro-duced in North America and a new sports version of its Edge SUV.

GM unveiled its rede-signed Chevrolet Silverado, and Fiat Chrysler is scheduled to show off its latest Ram 1500 pickup.

Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, drew on nostalgia, presenting a new generation of the G-Class, emphasizing that it had main-tained the SUV’s beloved boxy silhouette.

Luxury rival BMW will unveil its new X2 SUV.

The electric car maker Tesla did not submit its highly-antic-ipated mid-priced Model 3 sedan into the competition.

New Lexus LF-1 Concept vehicle launched at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, yesterday.

Nafta trio to gather in Davos as talks resume in CanadaBLOOMBERG

OTTAWA: The three ministers leading negotiations to revamp Nafta will get two chances for face-to-face talks this month, including one near the slopes of Davos.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian For-eign Minister Chrystia Freeland are due to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzer-land, which begins on January 23, the same day the sixth round of North American Free Trade Agreement talks get underway across the Atlantic in Montreal.

Freeland expects to raise the subject of Nafta informally on the sidelines of Davos, spokesman Alex Lawrence said in a statement. The three min-isters are also tentatively scheduled to hold a trilateral meeting in Montreal on Jan. 28, he said. The ministers didn’t attend the last two negotiating sessions in Mexico and Wash-ington, after attending previous rounds.

The fate of Nafta remains unclear -- US President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan each said last week they’d rather renegotiate than walk away from the pact altogether, though Trump reiterated his threat to pull out. Canadian officials said they believe the odds are rising that Trump will give notice of a Nafta withdrawal.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week the US

delegation will discuss its “America First” agenda at Davos.

The Nafta talks are due to run until January 28, two days longer than the Davos summit. Only two Nafta chapters are completed out of a new deal that’s expected to include almost 30; Freeland has said several others are close to com-pletion. There’s no rush to reach a deal, Trump said last week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, adding it might be difficult for Mexico to agree terms before its July 1 election. Canada, in turn, called that a “constructive position.”

“Provided there is goodwill from all parties, we could make some real meaningful progress in Montreal, and that is what I’m working towards and hoping for,” Freeland said in a television interview aired Sunday on Global News. Free-land said a withdrawal notice by Trump would only be “a step before withdrawal,” and there is uncertainty about what would shake out if the US does give notice.

“This would be the first time the US has actually withdrawn from a free trade agreement, so there is a lot of uncertainty about what would actually happen,” Freeland said.

Nafta talks began in August 2017 and have been scheduled through March, with the sev-enth round expected in late February in Mexico City. Trump had initially wanted a deal by December, though trade nego-tiations of this scale typically take years.

24 TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018BUSINESS

INDIA will break up its debt-

burdened flag carrier into four

separate companies and offer

to sell at least 51 percent in

each of them as part of a dis-

investment proposed by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi.

The core airline business

comprising Air India and Air

India Express -- the low-cost

overseas arm -- will be offered

as one company, and the proc-

ess will be completed by the

end of 2018, Junior Aviation

Minister Jayant Sinha said in

an interview yesterday. Its

regional arm, ground handling,

and engineering operations

will also be sold separately

in the same process.

The airline, which is sur-

viving on a taxpayer-funded

bailout, has strained govern-

ment finances for decades.

NEWS BYTESIndia to split flag carrier into 4 firms

Japan’s Mizuho group gets new CEOMizuho Financial Group’s incoming chief executive officer Tatsufumi Sakai (right) and outgoing chief Executive Officer Yasuhiro Sato are seen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

Scotland GDP to drop by 8.5% with no Brexit dealREUTERS

EDINBURGH: Scotland will suffer an 8.5 percent hit to the size of its economy by 2030 if Britain leaves the European Union with no trade deal, the Scottish regional government said as it upped its calls for Brit-ain to stay in the EU’s single market.

Business investment in Scot-land could fall by up to 10.2 percent, compared with contin-ued membership of the EU, in the event of no Brexit deal, the devolved Scottish government said in an economic impact assessment published on Monday.

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured), who campaigned hard against Brexit, said Britain remaining in the EU’s single market, if not the bloc itself, was now the best realistic option. But it would still hurt Scotland.

“If Brexit is to proceed then staying in the single market is the only option that makes sense,” she told reporters.

Staying in the single market as a member of the European Economic Area would mean Scotland’s economy would be 2.7 percent smaller by 2030 than it would be if Brexit did not hap-pen at all, Sturgeon said.

“None of these options are as good as staying within the EU,” she said.

Scotland’s economy repre-sents less than a tenth of Britain’s economy as a whole.

Voters in Scotland voted to

remain in the EU in the June 2016 Brexit referendum. But UK voters overall backed leaving.

Monday’s report said the only credible outcome of the Brexit negotiations between Brussels and London due to take place this year was for Britain to be a member of the EEA.

However, Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out Brit-ain becoming part of the EEA which would involve continued unrestricted freedom of move-ment of workers from the EU into Britain, something May has vowed to end.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has also said Britain should leave the sin-gle market. But Sturgeon said she believed his position could be changed if there was enough opposition from within Labour. Xi’s economic adviser Liu He to

represent China at Davos forumBLOOMBERG

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping’s top financial and economic adviser, Liu He, will represent China at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, next week.

Liu, the director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs

and deputy director of National Development and Reform Com-mission, will attend the gathering from January 22-25, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement yesterday.

Leading China’s delegation one year after Xi attended the forum to deliver a defense of globalism shows Liu’s

continued ascent to the top ranks of Beijing’s economic pol-icy making apparatus, after years of working mostly behind the scenes. Conversations at the Alpine resort town are likely to be dominated by US President Donald Trump, who will attend this year and use the event to talk about his “America First” agenda.

UK construction firm Carillion collapses after no state rescueAFP

LONDON: British construction group Carillion announced its immediate liquidation yesterday after the heavily-indebted company failed to secure a finan-cial rescue from the UK government and banks in last-ditch talks.

Carillion, which employs 43,000 staff worldwide includ-ing 19,500 in Britain, said that the government would nevertheless provide some funding to allow current state projects to con-tinue, following crunch talks over the weekend.

Analysts warned it could turn out to be a costly mistake by the government, led by Conserva-tive Prime Minister Theresa May.

Carillion chairman Philip Green called it “a very sad day for Carillion” after failing to secure its future.

“In recent days... we have been unable to secure the fund-ing to support our business plan and it is therefore with the deep-est regret that we have arrived at this decision,” he said in a company statement.

Carillion is a major UK

government contractor involved in a wide range of projects from schools to the multi-billion-pound High Speed Two (HS2) railway.

But it has been struggling for some time and in July last year issued the first of several profit warnings.

Carillion yesterday said “it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liqui-dation with immediate effect”.

It added: “An application was made to the High Court for a compulsory liquidation of Car-illion before opening of business today and an order has been

granted to appoint the Official Receiver as the liquidator of Carillion.”

Despite the red flags, the government continued to award the company major public con-tracts, including on the flagship HS2 project, leading to criticism.

But the government said it was not its place to prop up the company.

“This is a private sector com-pany, it’s regrettable that it’s not been able to find a suitable refi-nancing option with its lenders,” Cabinet Office minister David Lidington told BBC radio.

“We did decide that taxpay-ers can’t be expected to bail out a private sector company, par-ticularly when their troubles arose the most part from a side of their business that’s nothing to do with UK government con-tracts,” he added.

The government meanwhile advised Carillion staff to still come to work to see through some projects.

“There is no doubt that Car-illion posed a huge political challenge for the government, which did not want to be seen to

bail out another group of private shareholders and banks after suffering such a backlash from their decisions during the finan-cial crisis,” said Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor.

“However, the prospect of the government temporarily funding existing Carillion public service contracts, alongside the likely increase in costs for rene-gotiating contracts with new suppliers, makes it highly likely that they could ultimately pay far more than if they had provided the guarantees that Carillion’s creditors needed.”

City Index trading group warned in a client note that “the knock-on effect on the broader economy could be large, given that the potential number of job losses are in the thousands”.

Union leaders blamed both the government and Carillion management for the company’s collapse.

“The blame for this lies squarely with the government who are obsessed with out-sourcing key works to these high risk, private enterprises,” said

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union.

Jim Kennedy, a senior offi-cial at the Unite union, called for a public inquiry and said there were “serious questions that need to be asked and answered about Carillion’s conduct”, while he questioned also why the gov-ernment handed “public money to a company that had issued repeated profits warnings”.

Andrew Adonis, who resigned as head of a govern-ment-backed infrastructure commission last month, said Sunday that the Carillion crisis raised “big questions” for trans-port minister Chris Grayling.

Carillion has a wide range of public sector contracts, includ-ing providing support services for almost 900 schools and around 50,000 homes for mili-tary personnel.

The company, with opera-tions also in Canada and the Middle East, had revenues of £5.2bn ($7.1bn, ¤5.9bn) last year.

In January, British watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into its market updates.

Eurozone bond yields pull back from multi-month highs

France’s economy may have grown by 2% in 2017: Le MaireAFP

PARIS: The French economy may have grown by nearly two percent last year, faster than the government’s official forecast, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.

“Growth is solid. It could be approaching two percent in 2017, a first since 2011,” Le Maire said told business leaders. In 2018, too, “we should do better than our forecast,” he said.

The government’s official forecast for gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) growth is 1.7 percent for both 2017 and 2018. But given buoyant consumer and business sentiment, the final figure for 2017 looks likely to exceed that.

Last week, the Bank of France upgraded its prognosis

for growth in 2017 to 1.9 percent, on the back of the strong eco-nomic performance in the fourth quarter. The INSEE national sta-tistics office did the same in December.

“Business morale is at its highest level in 10 years. Invest-ment is picking up again,” Le Maire said. “More than 250,000 jobs were created in the retail sector.” Nonetheless, Le Maire warned against becoming over-optimistic.

“Clarity demands that we recognise that daily life remains difficult for millions of French people, who are facing unem-ployment and poverty,” he said.

Le Maire said he was com-mitted to “accelerating the economic transformation of France.”

REUTERS

LONDON: Borrowing costs in the euro area pulled back from multi-month highs on Monday, as bond investors paused for thought after a hefty selloff last week on expectations that the ECB could end its massive stim-ulus sooner than anticipated.

German Bundesbank Pres-ident Jens Weidmann, normally one of the staunchest critics of the European Central Bank’s ultra-easy policy, said late on Friday the risk of an imminent hike in interest rates was low.

Those comments bought some respite to battered bond prices, while overall trade was expected to be subdued with US markets closed for a holiday yesterday.

In addition, analysts said heavy redemptions this week and less new issuance compared

with last week were also sup-portive for regional bond markets.

Sentiment towards fixed income has taken a hit after a week of heightened talk about an end to massive stimulus in Japan and the euro zone, while data on Friday showed under-lying US consumer prices posting their biggest gain in 11 months in December.

Two-year US Treasury yields, sensitive to traders’ views on interest rates, on Friday rose to more than 2 percent for the first time since the financial crisis.

Euro zone money markets continue to price in a roughly 70 percent chance of 10 basis point rate rise from the ECB by year-end, having ratcheted up rate-hike bets in the past week.

In early trade, most euro zone government bond yields

were down 1-2 basis point on the day.

Germany’s benchmark 10-year year Bund yield was at 0.51 percent, off a five-month high hit on Friday at 0.54 percent.

Two-year German bond yields were around 5 basis points below more than six-month peaks hit last week at around minus 0.55 percent.

“There are chances for more selling but also reasons to be cautious,” said Chris Scicluna, head of economic research at Daiwa Capital Markets.

“Inflation numbers in euro zone this week should confirm the price story is not that differ-ent from last year and we are looking at the chance of a down-ward revision,” he said, referring to the final release of euro zone December inflation data on Wednesday.

Staying in the single market as a mem-ber of the European Economic Area would mean Scotland’s economy would be 2.7% smaller by 2030 than it would be if Brexit did not happen at all.

Scotland’s economy represents

less than a tenth of Britain’s economy

as a whole

The headquarters of the British construction group Carillion in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, yesterday.

25TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018 BUSINESS

Positive outlook sends yen to 4-month highREUTERS

TOKYO: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda (pictured) offered a positive view on the economy and inflation yesterday, sending the yen to a four-month high against the dollar on simmering speculation it may exit its ultra-loose monetary policy earlier than expected.

Financial markets ignored Kuroda’s reminder that the BOJ will maintain its massive stim-ulus in a sign of how nervous investors have become on when it might follow the footsteps of

other central banks in dialing back crisis-mode stimulus.

The BOJ also offered its most optimistic view on regional areas of Japan in nearly a decade in a quarterly report, underscoring its conviction a broadening recovery will help accelerate inflation to its ambitious 2 per-cent target.

Kuroda said in a speech to BOJ regional branch managers that core consumer inflation was “moving around 1 percent,” a slight change from three months ago when he said core consumer prices were around zero.

“The economy is expected to continue expanding moderately,” he added, reiterating his opti-mism on prospects for a sus-tained recovery.

The comments sent the dollar falling as low as 110.58 yen , as some traders bought the yen on expectations the BOJ could dial back stimulus earlier than expected - a view that height-ened after a slight cut in its debt purchases last week.

“Kuroda’s change in lan-guage merely reflects recent price gains, but people have become sensitive to even the subtlest difference since the BOJ cut bond purchases,” said Shuji Tonouchi, senior market econ-omist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

“Members of the government are also making more positive comments about escaping defla-tion. Policymakers are gradually changing their tone.”

Kuroda also said a moderate economic expansion now under

way will help accelerate infla-tion toward the BOJ’s 2 percent target, signalling its desire to maintain the status quo on mon-etary policy for the time being.

In the quarterly report, the BOJ raised its assessment for three of Japan’s nine regional economies and maintained its rosy view for the remaining six regions.

The central bank said two regions were seeing their econ-omies “expanding,” the first time it has used such an upbeat

assessment for as many regions since April 2007.

Shinichi Uchida, head of the BOJ’s Nagoya branch in central Japan, said conditions for wage increases were falling into place as firms face intensifying labour shortages.

“We’re seeing some positive moves toward an end to defla-tion,” Uchida told a news con-ference, adding that companies were benefitting from robust domestic and overseas demand.

Japan’s economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent in

July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of growth thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure.

Core consumer prices in November rose 0.9 percent from a year earlier, far from the BOJ’s 2 percent target but posting the 11th straight month of gains, offering policymakers some hope firms are finally starting to raise prices on brightening pros-pects. Japan’s economy minister

raised eyebrows last week when he talked up the government’s progress in reflating the economy and suggested it is pos-sible to declare an end to defla-tion before consumer prices reach the BOJ’s inflation target. Given the rising cost of pro-longed easing, such as the hit to bank profits from ultra-low interest rates, the BOJ has been sending subtle yet intentional hints it could edge away from crisis-mode policy earlier than expected.

But a small cut to its regular bond purchases last week pushed global yields and the yen higher, underscoring the chal-lenge the BOJ faces in commu-nicating its policy intentions.

“Japan’s financial system remains stable and monetary conditions are very accommo-dative,” Kuroda said in the speech, holding off from repeating recent warnings about the rising cost of ultra-easy policy.

Renault posts record year for car salesAFP

PARIS: Renault sold a record number of cars last year, the French carmaker said yesterday, with global unit sales reaching 3.76 million, a rise of 8.5 percent over 2016. Volumes were up in all the world’s regions.

The Asia-Pacific region had the strongest sales increase at 17 percent, helped by a doubling of sales in China, followed by Eurasia with 16.6 percent.

European sales grew 5.6 percent.

“Our strategy of range renewal and geographic expansion is continuing to bring results,” said Thierry Koskas (pictured), Renault’s sales chief.

Last year was the fifth straight year of rising sales for the Renault group, which includes the Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Samsung Motors brands. and, for the first time last year, Russian maker Lada. Renault is the majority shareholder of Russia’s big-gest carmaker Avtovaz, which produces the top-selling Ladas

“In 2018, we will pursue our growth and internation-alisation,” Koskas said in a statement.

A revamping of model ranges helped the Renault brand make progress, including a complete over-haul of the Megane family and the launch of the Koleos model.

Renault remained Euro-pean market leader in the electric-vehicle segment with a market share of 23.8 percent, it said.

The carmaker said it expected further sales growth in 2018 in a global car market projected to rise by 2.5 percent.

The European car market and that in Renault’s home country France are both expected to expand by one percent this year.

Australia solar shines as bills trigger clean energy shiftBLOOMBERG

SYDNEY: Australia, one of the world’s biggest users of rooftop solar panels, likely added the most new capacity on record last year as electricity users sought to ease escalating power bills.

A preliminary estimate by Australia’s Clean Energy Regu-lator of 1.05 gigawatts installed last year would be a record for the country, the government body said in an emailed state-ment Friday.

While subsidies and gen-erous feed-in tariffs helped boost growth earlier this decade, last year’s gains were driven by users seeking to side-step a surge in the cost of elec-tricity and a push by vendors into the commercial sector,

according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“We are on track to have had the biggest year yet for installed small-scale solar capacity” in 2017, according to the regulator statement.

“What we have seen is that homeowners and businesses

continue to embrace solar panel systems, which is driving increased levels of capacity across Australia.”

The shift to solar may have quickened as power prices spiked last year on tight supplies of coal and gas, which fuel the bulk of generation capacity on the national electricity market. BNEF estimates the cost of solar systems for residential cus-tomers has declined 44 percent since 2012.

“The payback period for res-idential solar is now as low as it was in 2012, when super-gen-erous feed-in tariffs and subsi-dies drove a massive boom in installations,” said BNEF’s Sydney-based analyst Annabel Wilton.

Rooftop solar will account for as much as 24 percent of

Australia’s electricity by 2040, according to BNEF’s 2017 New Energy Outlook. When combined with small-scale batteries and demand response initiatives, up to 45 percent of the country’s total power capacity will be located on owners’ properties -- known as behind-the-meter-capacity -- by 2040.

But fossil fuels still hold sway for traditional power producers, even as they look ahead to a less carbon intensive future. Sydney-based Alinta Energy Holdings Ltd., which completed the acqui-sition of the 1,000 megawatt coal-fired Loy Yang B power sta-tion yesterday, sees the purchase as a way to lock-in retail cus-tomers now to gain later in the country’s transition toward cleaner power.

“The reality is that it’s great

to have a vision to be clean and green, but if you don’t have any customers you don’t have a ticket to the game,” Alinta Chief Executive Officer Jeff Dimery (pictured) said in an interview yesterday.

Airbus overtakes Boeing, says could halt A380 programmeAFP

PARIS: European aerospace giant Airbus overtook arch-rival Boeing in terms of aircraft orders last year, but warned that it could cease making its A380 jet if it does not receive any more orders for the super-size plane.

Airbus said it booked a total 1,109 aircraft orders and a record 718 deliveries in 2017.

By comparison, US rival Boeing booked 912 orders and 763 deliveries.

Chief operating officer Fab-rice Bregier said that overall deliveries could rise to 800 this year, given the increased pace of production of its A320neo aircraft.

The medium-haul A320neo and A321neo jets feature new generation engines that use 15 percent less fuel compared to their peers.

“We are going to double the number of A320neos” delivered this year, Bregier told a news conference. “If we do that, we will be close to 800 deliveries in 2018.”

He acknowledged that deliveries of the A320neo had been slowed last year by prob-lems with the engines made by US firm Pratt & Withney and by CFM, the joint venture of Gen-eral Electric and Safran.

Nevertheless, the problems were gradually being resolved and around 30 aircraft were waiting for their engines, down from 60 at the beginning of the year, he said.

Turning to the A380, sales director, John Leahy, warned

that Airbus would have no choice but to halt the pro-gramme if Emirates airline did not place another order.

“Quite honestly, if we can’t work out a deal with Emirates there is no choice but to shut down the programme,” Leahy said. Airbus had been hoping to secure another major order from the airline, which picked 40 Boeing 787-10 jets instead.

There have been a total of 317 orders for the A380, the world’s largest passenger air-liner, since its launch.

COO Bregier said the “tra-jectory will be to go lower” in production of the A380.

“We will deliver 12 aircraft as planned in 2018,” and the number could fall to six per year in subsequent years, Bre-gier said.

“The challenge will be to maintain at least this level in the years to come” before cus-tomers start placing replace-ment orders for the A380s they currently have in service, and “potential new markets” start opening up, he said.

Turning to Airbus’ overall performance last year, the planemaker insisted that com-mercial aircraft deliveries in 2017 “were up for the 15th year in a row, reaching a new com-pany record.”

At the end of 2017, Airbus’ overall backlog stood at 7,265 aircraft valued at $1.059 trillion (¤867bn) at list prices, the com-pany said. “A new Airbus delivery record coupled with our fourth best order intake wraps up a remarkable year for us,” Bregier insisted.

REUTERS

B E I J I N G / C O P E N H A G E N : Danish toymaker Lego is teaming up with Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd to jointly develop online games and potentially a social network aimed at Chinese chil-dren.

Privately-owned Lego has seen a slowdown in sales growth in recent years, but the Chinese market has been a bright spot with sales growing 25-30 per-cent in 2016. It is competing with Barbie maker Mattel Inc and Hasbro, the firm behind My Little Pony, for a slice of the $31bn toys and games market in China.

Lego said yesterday the partnership with Tencent, Chi-na’s biggest social network and

gaming company, aimed to create a safe online environ-ment covering content, plat-forms, and experiences tailored for Chinese children.

“What we are looking for now with Tencent is just to find more creative ways... (of) reaching children, and creating bespoke content with Tencent, in this case, video games,” Jacob Kragh, head of Lego in China, told Reuters yesterday.

The partnership includes developing a Lego video zone for children on the Tencent video platform, as well as devel-oping and operating Lego branded licensed games, the toymaker said.

It also includes LEGO BOOST - a building and coding set that lets children turn their brick creations into moving

objects - and will explore devel-oping a joint social network for children in China.

Tencent is Asia’s most valu-able company with a market capitalisation of $537bn.

Last year, Mattel struck deals with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and online content developer BabyTree to sell interactive learning products based on its Fisher-Price toys.

Lego has about a 3 percent market share in China, followed by Mattel and Hasbro with around 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, according to Euro-monitor International.

In November 2016, Lego opened a factory in Jiaxing, China, which it expects to pro-duce 70-80 percent of all Lego products sold in Asia.

Toymaker Lego teams up with Chinese Internet giant Tencent

Customers look at Gate Towers of Zhengyang (left) and Qianmen (right), a part of China’s Forbidden City, made with Lego bricks at a Lego store in Beijing, China in this file picture.

In the quarterlyreport, the BOJ raised its assessment for three of Japan’s nine regional economies and maintained its rosy view for the remaining six regions.

The economy is expected to

continue expanding moderately

Rooftop solar will account for as much as 24 percent of Australia’s electricity by 2040, according to BNEF’s 2017 New Energy Outlook.

26 TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018BUSINESS

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 8,946.97 2.48 %

QE Total Return Index 15,003.55 2.48 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,570.67 3.15 %

QE All Share Index 2,565.91 2.18 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 2,786.64 1.96 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,774.49 2.45 %

QE All Share Transportation 1,820.85 4.93 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,021.88 1.20 %

QE All Share Insurance 3,703.14 3.66 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,133.43 1.84 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 5,171.18 1.59 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

15-01-2018Index 8,946.97

Change 227.69

% 2.48

YTD% 4.97

Volume 20,878,639

Value (QAR) 418,844,448.37

Trades 5,733

Up 08 | Down 36 | Unchanged 014-01-2018Index 9,174.66

Change 38.80

% 0.42

YTD% 7.64

Volume 16,782,091

Value (QAR) 294,830,056.90

Trades 4,308

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR157.5967 per grammeSILVER QR2.0364 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

All Ordinaries 6187.7 10.9 0.18 6256.5 6141.4

Cac 40 Index/D 5506.76 -10.3 -0.19 5529.3 5258.66

Dj Indu Average 25803.19 228.46 0.89 25575.42 19677.94

Hang Seng Inde/D 31338.87 -73.67 -0.23 31412.54 30028.29

Iseq Overall/D 7053 -21.44 -0.3 7223.07 7016.09

Kse 100 Inx/D 42347.49 -586.23 -1.37 43824.02 40169.62

S&P 500 Index/D 2786.24 18.68 0.674963 2767.56 2682.36

Currency Buying SellingUS$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.9866 QR 5.0565

Euro QR 4.4399 QR 4.5027

CA$ QR 2.9038 QR 2.9611

Swiss Fr QR 3.7638 QR 3.8162

Yen QR 0.03263 QR 0.03327

Aus$ QR 2.8696 QR 2.9256

Ind Re QR 0.0569 QR 0.058

Pak Re QR 0.0325 QR 0.0334

Peso QR 0.0717 QR 0.0731

SL Re QR 0.0234 QR 0.0239

Taka QR 0.0434 QR 0.0443

Nep Re QR 0.0355 QR 0.0362

SA Rand QR 0.2936 QR 0.2995

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

Aarti Drugs-B/D 755.25 -1.7 3241

Aban Offs-A/D 262.15 -0.4 958230

Acc Ltd-A/D 1824.5 19.35 129593

Ador Welding-B/D 560.8 1.15 19971

Aegis Logis-A/D 295 6.4 35523

Alembic-B/D 59.75 -0.65 207647

Alkyl Amines-B/D 690 -2.4 3503

Alok Indus-T/D 4.17 0.19 914220

Apollo Tyre-A/D 278.15 -0.6 78151

Asahi I Glass-/D 388.25 -0.75 16383

Ashok Leyland-/D 126.15 -2.5 732109

Bajaj Hold-A/D 2822.25 6.2 3760

Ballarpur In-B/D 18.35 -0.4 860145

Banaras Bead-T/D 83.55 1.7 5357

Bata India-A/D 743 -2.9 18190

Bayer Crop-A/D 4672 -21.65 1381

Beml Ltd-A/D 1574.65 27.55 35014

Bhansali Eng-B/D 209.1 9.95 312989

Bharat Bijle-B/D 1378.1 -25.6 3606

Bharat Ele-A/D 178.5 0.45 150840

Bharat Heavy-A/D 101.4 -1.3 581286

Bharatgears-B/D 215.05 -2.15 5338

Bhartiya Int-B/D 528 8.55 9605

Bom.Burmah-X/D 1719 10.6 29615

Bombay Dyeing-/D 283.5 2.35 353521

Camph.& All-X/D 1261.95 -18.65 1660

Canfin Homes-A/D 481.7 0.15 68529

Caprihans-X/D 118.85 -0.15 5224

Castrol India-/D 192.1 1.6 227197

Century Enka-B/D 354.3 -4.2 6425

Century Text-A/D 1427.15 -3.4 19950

Chambal Fert-A/D 157.55 3.9 142843

Chola Invest-A/D 1311.4 -2.2 6052

Chowgule St-Xt/D 17 -0.75 12403

Cimmco-T/D 128.85 -0.4 2876

Cipla-A/D 609.85 -0.65 25428

City Union Bk-/D 178.4 3.9 25664

Colgate-A/D 1137.05 0.65 12327

Container Cor-/D 1423 -9.25 12268

Dai-X/D 484 23.95 12779

Dcm Financia-B/D 3.15 0 1900

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 292.05 1.2 9644

Dhampur Sugar-/D 220 -2.15 107412

Dr. Reddy-A/D 2436 -11.55 19376

E I H-B/D 192.95 0.2 23068

E.I.D Parry-A/D 373.35 -5 44965

Eicher Motor-A/D 27991.15 -523.25 3063

Electrosteel-B/D 39.45 -0.95 199136

Emco-B/D 21.5 -0.3 86065

Escorts Fin-Xt/D 4.08 -0.21 30872

Escorts-A/D 804.25 -6.75 124127

Eveready Indu-/D 450 -5.4 8609

F D C-B/D 237.8 -5.45 11597

Federal Bank-A/D 113.25 -1.85 1329962

Ferro Alloys-X/D 16 -0.55 104507

Fgp Ltd-T/D 1.45 0 2234

Finolex-A/D 666.9 -1.6 3750

Forbes-B/D 4699.85 32.7 8695

Gail-A/D 488.8 -11 73870

Galada Power-X/D 5.89 0.28 2100

Gammon India-T/D 7.61 -0.1 85877

Garden P -B/D 49.5 -0.7 62210

Godfrey Phil-A/D 1036.05 -11.25 5286

Goodricke-X/D 436.85 2.8 19070

Goodyear I -B/D 1242.55 20.65 19469

Hcl Infosys-A/D 60.45 -0.2 721287

Him.Fut.Comm-A/D 34.75 0.45 3281813

Himat Seide-X/D 413.75 -1.55 19574

Hind Motors-B/D 12.69 -1.38 1549539

Hind Org Chem-/D 33.5 -0.1 112273

Hind Unilever-/D 1365.1 -7.6 184017

Hind.Petrol-A/D 424.3 -1.35 259985

Hindalco-A/D 266.95 -1.75 259194

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 1869.95 108.7 1446765

Idbi-A/D 62.95 1.85 751748

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Tanfac Indu-Xt/D 139.7 2.5 26539

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Timexgroup-T/D 56.3 9.35 66561

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Whitbread/D 3903 2 211492

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LONDON

The euro shot to a three-year high yesterday as optimism around growth buoyed expectations of tighter monetary policy from European Central Bank,

while the chance of a pro-European Union coalition in Germany also boosted confidence in the continent.

With the world in general and Europe in particular showing signs of sustained economic growth, global stock benchmarks jumped to new highs, even though investors are now pricing in the withdrawal of central banks’ stimulus.

That view was given further fuel last week by an account of ECB discussions that suggested policymakers may soon start preparing the ground for a reduction in support.

The single currency climbed as much as 0.8 percent to $1.22965 at one stage yesterday, a price last seen in December 2014, just before the

ECB first announced its government bond purchase programme.

In addition, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda offered a positive view on his nation’s economy and inflation yesterday,

sending the yen to a four-month high against the dollar.

“The latest leg up in the euro has clearly come from optimism that the German government is moving towards an agreement for a coalition government,” said Investec economist Victoria Clarke. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party and the Social Democrats (SPD) are moving towards formal coalition talks, soothing concerns around Europe’s largest economy.

The SPD’s pro-European stance - leader Martin Schulz recently argued for a “United States of Europe” - also strengthens the case for investment in the euro. “This follows an earlier move triggered by the crucial line in the ECB account which has got people thinking about when the first move on rates will happen,” said Clarke.

Euro zone money markets now price in a 70 percent chance of a 10-basis-point rate increase by the ECB by the end of the year, up from 50 percent a week before. The strength in the euro pushed European stocks a touch lower, as exporters were hit by the currency strength. An index of pan-European stocks was down 0.1 percent on the day, but still not far from multi-year high hit last week.

The slight decline comes in the wider context of boom for stocks so far in 2018, as investors bask in strong growth numbers from most of the world’s largest economies.

MSCI’s all-country index of world stocks soared to new records overnight and MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan index breached its 2007 high for the first time to set a new all-time record. Stocks in Hong Kong jumped 0.9 percent from Friday’s record closing high. Investors were optimistic that Chinese gross domestic product data for the December quarter due on Thursday would show growth of at least 6.7 percent for the world’s second-biggest economy.

Euro hits three-year high as Europe leads global optimism

End of a chip boom? Memory chip price drop spooks investors

ABHINAV RAMNARAYANREUTERS

JOYCE LEEREUTERS

AFTER a blistering year-and-a-half long surge, a sudden drop in some memory prices, followed by Samsung

Electronics Co’s disappointing profit estimate, is causing jitters among investors who had bet the chip boom would last at least another year.

Amid news that the market has started losing some steam - prices of high-end flash memory chips, which are widely used in smartphones, dropped nearly 5 percent in the fourth quarter - some analysts now expect the industry’s growth rate will fall by more than half this year to 30 percent.

That led shares in Samsung to dip 7.5 percent last week, while its home rival SK Hynix fell 6.2 percent. But analysts say that there is unlikely to be a sudden crash, and that 2018 should be a relatively stable year for chipmakers.

The $122bn memory chip industry has enjoyed an unprecedented boom since mid-2016, expanding nearly 70 percent in 2017 alone thanks to robust growth of smartphones and cloud services that require more powerful chips that can store more data.

Supply also has become more disciplined following years of consolidation that reduced the number of manufacturers to a handful from around 20 in mid-1990s.

“Memory chips will likely see a

gradual price decline in 2018 if demand remains strong and appetite from servers holds,” said Lee Jae-yun, analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea.

But growth of 30 percent is a strong gain in an industry known for volatility, and the market is still on course for its longest ever boom after shrinking 6 percent in 2016.

Last year’s explosive growth gave chipmakers cash to reinvest and boost output, analysts said. The supply of NAND flash memory chips, in particular, will grow 43 percent this year, up from last year’s 34 percent, causing prices to drop by about 10 percent, brokerage Nomura estimates.

Nomura expects growth in output will be largely led by the likes of Western Digital, Toshiba Corp and Micron Technology Inc as they seek to catch up with top-ranked Samsung, which controls about 40 percent of the flash memory chip market.

Smartphone vendors have been including more memory in their phones and charging more for them, allowing them to weather last year’s price surge, analysts say.

Average DRAM memory of new models launched last quarter increased by 38 percent from the second quarter of 2016, while NAND content measured by gigabyte jumped 84 percent, according to an analysis by BNP Paribas.

Such solid demand will keep the industry’s margin healthy this year, and chipmakers’ investment in more advanced technology will help them cut production costs and stay profitable even as prices ease, analysts say.

Macquarie estimates Samsung’s chip division’s operating profit margin jumped to 47 percent last year from 26.5 percent in 2016, and will rise further to 55.5 percent this year.

While the NAND flash market may

soften somewhat, the DRAM memory chip market, which is about $20bn bigger than the NAND industry, is seen as much tighter. Prices are expected to gain nearly 9 percent because of a severe supply shortage.

With DRAM manufacturers’ rushing to ramp up production - they are likely to nearly quadruple capital spending for 2017 and 2018 combined to $38bn from 2016’s $10bn - prices may decline as much as 18 percent next year, according to Nomura.

That gives some investors confidence in the industry’s long-term future.

“Besides some minute adjustment, I am currently holding Samsung shares almost without change,” said Kim Hyun-su, fund manager at IBK Asset Management. “I don’t think the share price is expensive as they have recently been increasing dividends a lot - and as of now, the expected profit levels are very high.”

Smartphone makers account for about one-third of global memory chip demand, and many have been pressing suppliers to lower prices.

In late December, state-run China Daily reported China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) was paying close attention to a surge in the price of mobile phone storage chips and could look into possible price fixing by Samsung and others that make them.

More than 50 percent of Samsung’s 2017 memory business revenue came from China, according to chip price tracker DRAMeXchange.

“Although supply-demand dynamics are still solid, clients’ pressure to lower prices make it hard to predict” what will happen, said MS Hwang, an analyst at Samsung Securities, which is an affiliate of Samsung Electronics.

THIS was supposed to be the year when the US government would finally address one of

the biggest pieces of unfinished business from the 2008 financial crisis: reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-state entities that dominate the US mortgage market.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s actions so far suggest it’s unwilling or unable to handle the task.

The collapse of the entities during the financial crisis offers a case study on how public-private partnerships can go wrong. Mandated by Congress to promote home ownership, they operated as privately owned corporations that bought and guaranteed mortgage loans. They delivered big profits for private shareholders, thanks in

large part to the market’s assumption that the government would bail them out in a crisis. In 2008, that assumption proved correct: Amid heavy losses, the Treasury had to step in with $187bn capital injection and put the entities into a government conservatorship.

The conservatorship was meant to be temporary. To that end, as of last year, it had a few key features. All profits were swept up and delivered to the Treasury (which has gotten back much more than the $187bn it put in), and the companies’ own capital was supposed to be run down to zero in the first quarter of 2018. The lack of capital wouldn’t be dangerous, because Fannie and Freddie would still have access to $258 billion in emergency funds from Treasury. It was intended as a prod to Congress to pursue a broader reform of the housing finance system. Now, however, the Republican tax reform has

complicated things. By lowering the corporate tax rate, it has also lowered the value of an asset sitting on the balance sheets of Fannie and Freddie: A so-called deferred tax asset, which reflects their ability to take past losses as a deduction against future profits. Because future tax rates will be lower, this asset, currently valued at about $45bn , is also worth less. So when the companies report their financial results for 2017, they will likely have to record a loss, which — though entirely an artifact of accounting — could require them to tap their Treasury credit line.

To reduce the risk that the accounting adjustment will be perceived as another “bailout” of Fannie and Freddie, Treasury last month changed the terms of the conservatorship. Now, the two companies will be allowed to keep some $3 billion in equity capital each. This may help avert further draws on their credit lines, but it will also reduce the

incentive to move ahead with the broader reform, contradicting Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s statement that “comprehensive housing finance reform is a top priority for 2018.” This is an unfortunate outcome, given that the status quo is far from ideal, with ample inefficiencies and perverse incentives.

Although the current duopoly is much healthier than in 2008 thanks to fee increases and tighter lending standards, the current system suffers from added costs and unhealthy competition. For one, each entity must have its own costly management structure. Worse, the companies have an incentive to engage in a race to the bottom, seeking to gain market share by loosening lending standards -- which they do in subtle ways by adjusting the terms of their guarantees. In a 2016 report, the Federal Housing Finance Agency noted that such “competitive

pressures” had already reduced guarantee fees.

A better approach would be to merge Fannie and Freddie into a single government guarantor, which could transfer risk to the private sector by issuing securities. The government has already taken a step in this direction, with its plan to have the two entities issue a single, standardized mortgage security by the first quarter of 2019. A single guarantor, solely responsible to taxpayers, would be the right foundation for a new system that could take on the crisis of housing affordability while avoiding ill-considered risks. It would certainly be an improvement over the alternative of recapitalising Fannie and Freddie and returning ownership to private shareholders, which would merely re-create the system that got us into this mess in the first place.

A bad start on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie MacRICHARD KOSSBLOOMBERG

The single currency climbed as much as 0.8 percent to $1.22965 at one stage yesterday, a price last seen in December 2014, just before the ECB first announced its government bond purchase programme.

The $122bn memory chip industry has enjoyed an unprecedented boom since mid-2016, expanding nearly 70 percent in 2017 alone .

Amid heavy losses, the Treasury had to step in with $187bn capital injection and put the entities into a government conservatorship.

27TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018 BUSINESS

A file photo of a 60 nanometer (nm) 8 gigabit (Gb) NAND Flash Memory chip, 2Gb DDR2 SDRAM, and 667MHZ mobile CPU core by Samsung Electronics Co.

28 TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018

INsightback to BUSINESS

CAPITALCOMMENT

We’re all in on this and we’re taking our mainstream

vehicles, our most iconic vehicles, and we’re

electrifying them.Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company .

Market TalkNAME IN THE MARKET: TURKEY INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The world-beating rally in Nigerian stocks may not be over yet.

The main equity index in Africa’s biggest economy has surged 12 percent this year in dollar terms, the most among 96 major bourses tracked by Bloomberg, pushing it to the highest level since 2008. Dangote Cement Plc, con-trolled by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and the largest company on the exchange, has climbed to a record high.

The advance will probably be sustained thanks to rising prices for oil, Nigeria’s main export, and as investors look to increase their holdings of what remain among the cheapest stocks in Africa, according to the asset management arm of South African lender FirstRand Ltd.

“For investors wanting more exposure to consumers in Africa and Nigeria, in particular, the outlook is good,” said

Paul Clark, a money manager in Johannesburg at Ashburton Investments, which owns Nigerian stocks including Seplat Petroleum Develop-ment Co. “The banking sector is probably the most attrac-tive at the moment, especially the tier-2 lenders.”

Here are three more charts assessing what may lie ahead:

Foreign investors have been crucial in driving the market higher. The New York-based Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF attracted record weekly net inflows last week. That helped to increase the exchange-traded fund’s mar-

ket capitalization to almost $90m, double the level in May last year. Even after the gains, Nigerian valuations are the least expensive among the major African equity indexes. Nigerian stocks trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 10.2, while South Africa’s are at 14 and the MSCI Emerging Market Index is at 13.

That suggests there’s further upside, according to Cape Town-based fund Allan Gray. While foreign investors turned negative on Nigeria after following the 2014 oil crash and subsequent recession, the economy picked up last year and growth is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to accelerate to 2.1 percent in 2019.

“For long-term investors, Nigerian equities were a screaming bargain,” said Nick Ndiritu, co-manager of Allan Gray’s $389 million Africa equity fund, which doesn’t include South Africa. “Investor sentiment has turned more bullish on Nigeria and a re-rating of the Nigerian stock market is now under way.”

Still, there are some warning signs. The 120-day correla-tion between Nigerian stocks and Brent crude is now around the highest in two years. If oil prices reverse their 45 percent climb since June, Nigerian assets could take a hit.

That’s one reason HSBC Holdings Plc has a negative out-look on the stocks. The UK bank also says Nigeria will have to free its currency further. While the central bank eased some capital controls last year.

World’s best stocks may gain even more if oil holds up LAGOS / BLOOMBERG

Foreign investors have been crucial in driving the market higher. The New York-based Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF attracted record weekly net inflows last week.

Huge diamond found in LesothoAGENCIES

CAPETOWN: A diamond thought to be the fifth largest of gem quality ever found has been discovered in Lesotho, miner Gem Diamonds said yesterday, and could be worth as much as $40m.

The company unearthed the D-colour stone at the Letseng mine in the landlocked south-ern African country and described the 910-carat find as of “exceptional quality”.

“Since Gem Diamonds acquired Letseng in 2006, the mine has produced some of the world’s most remarkable dia-monds, including the 603 carat Lesotho Promise,” Gem Dia-monds chief executive Clifford Elphick said in a statement.

“However, this exceptional top quality diamond is the larg-est to be mined to date... This is a landmark discovery.”

Ben Davis, a mining analyst at Liberum Capital, speculated in a research note to investors

that the diamond could be worth as much as $40m (€33m).

Gem Diamonds shares in London were up 14 percent from the market open to £0.92 a piece.

Gem Diamonds Ltd. found the 910-carat stone, about the size of two golf balls, at its Let-seng mine in the country, reported Bloomberg.

It’s a D color Type IIa dia-mond, which means it has very few or no nitrogen atoms and is one of the most expensive stones. The diamond is the fifth-biggest ever found.

The Letseng mine is famous for the size and quality of the diamonds it produces and has the highest average selling price in the world. Gem sold a 357-carat stone for $19.3m in 2015 and in 2006 found the 603-carat Lesotho Promise.

“This exceptional top-qual-ity diamond is the largest to be mined to date and highlights the unsurpassed quality of the Let-seng mine,” Chief Executive

Officer Clifford Elphick said in a statemen.

Gem did not say how it will sell the diamond or what it could be worth. Its value will be deter-mined by the size and quality of the polished stones that can be cut from it. Lucara Diamond Corp. sold a 1,109-carat diamond for $53m last year, but got a record $63m for a smaller 813-carat stone it found at the same time in 2015.

“The pricing of diamonds is hugely variable and driven by a multitude of factors,” said Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum Capital Markets. “But assuming that there are no large inclusions running through the diamond, we initially estimate a sale of $40 million.”

Gem’s mega discovery fol-lows news last week that it had found 117-carat and 110-carat stones. It will be another boost for the company that dropped to a record low last year after prices for its stones fell and it was forced to close a new mine

in Botswana. Gem rose as much as 18 percent, the biggest intra-day gain since 2010, and traded at 93 pence by 9.06 am in London.

The three large discoveries will raise investor confidence that the company has over-come a shortage of large stones and that it can recover the big-gest diamonds without breaking them. Gem found at least seven stones bigger than 100 carats in 2017 and five the year before. It recovered a dozen exceeding 100 carats in 2015.

The biggest diamond discov-ered is the 3,106-carat Cullinan, found near Pretoria, in South Africa, in 1905.

It was cut to form the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa, which are set in the Crown Jewels of Britain. Lucara’s 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona is the second-biggest, with the 995-carat Excelsior and 969-carat Star of Sierra Leone the third- and fourth-largest.

Saudi Arabia aims to prequalify firms by April for first nuclear plantREUTERS

ABU DHABI: Saudi Arabia plans to prequalify for bidding firms from two or three countries by April or May for the first nuclear reactors it wants to build, a consultant for the government body working on the nuclear plans said yester-day.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, wants nuclear power to diversify its energy supply mix, enabling it to export more crude rather than burning it to generate electricity.

It plans to build 17.6 giga-watts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2032, the equivalent of around 16 reactors, making it

one of the biggest prospects for an industry struggling after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.

“Currently we are in the evaluation process for RFI (request for information) and we will hold discussions with them (suppliers) next month,” Abdul Malik al-Sabery, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

al-Sabery said a joint ven-ture between the Saudi government and the winning developers would be signed in 2019 after the shortlisting by end of 2018. Commissioning of the first plant, which will have two reactors with a total a capacity between 2 and 3.2 GW, is expected in 2027.

The 910-carat diamond thought to be the fifth largest in the world seen showcased by the diamond mining company Gem Diamonds.