Moody's Investors Service reaffirmed global scale rating to Al Omaniya Financial Services. The company has been assigned Ba3 long-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings. The rating carries stable outlook.
Moody's notes that Al Omaniya Financial ratings reflect the company's good profitability, asset quality and capitalisation, its niche position as one of the leading companies in the...
TOKYO: Japan s Olympus has launched a review of its business structure, according to an internal memo, amid speculation that the 92-year-old company may have to sell assets in order to survive a massive accounting scandal.
The maker of cameras and medical equipment is also looking to reform its much-criticised corporate governance arrangements, and is setting up separate teams to supervise the...
WASHINGTON: A United States judge yesterday rejected a $285 million settlement Citigroup made with US regulators over its marketing of mortgage securities that quickly went sour, saying the bank was getting off too lightly.
New York federal court judge Jed Rakoff scolded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for agreeing to a deal that he called inadequate and not in the public interest....
WASHINGTON: The United States and the European Union took a step yesterday toward launching bilateral trade talks to help create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic by capitalising on already strong economic ties.
"We must intensify our efforts to realise the untapped potential of transatlantic economic cooperation to generate new opportunities for jobs and growth," the two sides said...
Muscat will host a three-day Food and Hotel Oman 2011, an exhibition covering a wide gamut of latest products, services, equipment and technology for hospitality operations from December 5 to 7 at the Oman International Exhibition Centre (OIEC).
Addressing a press conference yesterday, Abdullah Beg, senior projects manager, Oman Expo, said that the expo intends to bring together international...
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale, the world s top iron producer and which has its pelletisation plant at Sohar in Oman, announced yesterday investments of $21.5 billion for 2012, including 60.5 per cent for project execution.
It said the investment budget package also includes $2.4 billion (11 per cent) for research and development and $6.1 billion (28.5 per cent) for...
BEIJING: Rising trade protectionism and frustration over its domestic subsidies spell trouble for China and could lead to more friction within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) than Beijing has grown accustomed to over the past decade.
On the eve of China accession to the WTO 10 years ago this December, naysayers warned that the country could falter under the demands of opening up its economy....
DUABI: Banks in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) aim to boost lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and focus on youth and women to increase returns, an Accenture survey found.
Lenders in the GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, plan to cut their cost-to-income ratio to 35 per cent from an average 36 per cent to help increase return on equity to 20...
TORONTO: Research in Motion (RIM) will offer companies software to manage the iPhones and other handsets that are increasingly displacing its once-dominant BlackBerry, seeking to bolster relationships with corporate customers.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, as the device-management software is known, will be available in the first quarter and can run alongside or replace the BlackBerry Enterprise...
China: Chinese viewers on Tuesday welcomed a ban on commercials during popular television dramas, but advertising professionals warned it could result in billions of yuan in losses for broadcasters.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced Monday that from 2012, adverts would be prohibited during television dramas "to ensure... the continuity of the audience s...
France: France and Germany are engaged in a fierce behind-the-scenes battle over the key position of chief economist at the European Central Bank, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday.
Until now, Berlin had assumed that its number two at the finance ministry, Joerg Asmussen, would automatically take over from compatriot Juergen Stark when he steps down from the ECB s executive...
S.Korean: President Lee Myung-Bak on Tuesday signed off on a package of bills needed to implement South Korea s free trade agreement with the United States after it sailed through the US Congress last month.
The signing, a week after the trade pact and 14 related bills passed through parliament, means Seoul is now ready to enter final negotiations with Washington before the FTA takes effect as...
Australia: Qantas said Monday the dispute that triggered a shock grounding of its fleet cost Aus$194 million (US$190 million) amid reports it is poised to shelve plans for a joint-venture premium airline in Asia.
The Australian flagcarrier said it expects to post an underlying net profit of $140-$190 million in the first half of the financial year to December 31, 2011, from $417 million a year...
Canada: The designation of a neighborhood in westernmost Canada as "Little Saigon" was meant to revitalize a few seedy city blocks, but has instead inflamed old North and South Vietnamese rivalries.
Saigon was the name of the capital of the former South Vietnam, from where most of Canada s Vietnamese immigrants originated.
Immediately after the South s fall to the communists in 1975, it...
BEIJING: Chinese industrial companies' profits rose 25.3 per cent from a year earlier in the first 10 months of 2011 even as Europe's sovereign-debt crisis dims the outlook for demand and growth.
Net income climbed to 4.12 trillion yuan ($646 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website yesterday. That compares with a 27 per cent gain for January-through-September. Sales...