Saturday 18 August 2012

Etisalat targets Nigeria growth | GulfNews.com

Emirates Telecommunications Corp, the largest publicly traded company in the United Arab Emirates, is targeting subscriber growth of 45 per cent in Nigeria next year by luring customers from its three larger rivals.
Etisalat, as the company is known, is the smallest mobile phone operator in sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy. It is aiming to have 20 million active subscribers by the end of next year, from about 13.8 million now, Steven Evans, chief executive officer of the Nigerian unit, said in a phone interview yesterday from Lagos, the country’s commercial capital.
“Most of our growth is coming from people leaving other operators,” he said.

Markets likely to gain after Eid | GulfNews.com

The regional stock markets are likely to rally post Eid as the second quarter corporate earnings of blue-chip companies have by and large exceeded the markets’ expectations and the downside risks on the global financial markets have lately abated which is encouraging investors to buy into riskier assets, say experts.
The global markets have been rallying in the anticipation there would soon be an announcement of a third round of quaqtitative easing (QE-3) by the US Federal Reserve to shore up a flagging US economy. As well, the markets expect the European Central Bank to do its own QE by buying sovereign bonds of debt-laden countries such as Italy and Spain to drive down borrowing costs.
The region’s markets are currently closed for Eid holidays. The UAE markets will resume trading on Wednesday. Other stock markets in the region are also expected to re-open by next Sunday.

FT Alphaville » Barclays and Libor, the MPs’ report

It’s the product of all those Select Committee hearings, including appearances by Messrs. Diamond and Tucker. It is only a preliminary report. But it does not have kind words for the authorities who failed to stop the attempted manipulation of Libor before and during the financial crisis. (Barclays management is of course completely coruscated.) As jaded as we’ve all become by the Libor scandal, it’s pretty damning.

Some excerpts:

The FSA and the Bank of England were engaged in crisis management, alert to the possibility of further bank failures, rather than LIBOR manipulation. This is understandable, given the circumstances of the financial crisis, but with the advantage of hindsight constitutes a failing by the authorities.