Emmanuel Macron

Macron beats Le Pen to win second term as French president

The 44-year-old Macron becomes the first incumbent to win a second term since Jacques Chirac two decades ago

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Netflix loses 200,000 customers, its first decline in a decade

The streaming service platform also projects it will lose another two million customers in the current second quarter

The Food Lab, Egypt’s cloud kitchen operator, raises pre-seed round of $4.5m

Nuwa Capital, Shorooq Partners, and 4DX Ventures co-led the round, which comprised investors from all across the world

Dubai’s dnata inaugurates new cargo centre at London Heathrow airport

In 2021, dnata handled in excess of 500,000 tonnes of cargo in London

How DIFX is bridging the gap between traditional and digital assets

With a growing startup ecosystem and tech-driven individuals, the Middle East region is on the verge of becoming a global fintech leader, says Jeetu Kataria, co-founder and CEO at DIFX

Lebanon-Beirut

Lebanon strikes $3bn IMF deal in step to addressing crisis

The IMF loan will be disbursed over four years in return for the phased implementation of an economic recovery plan

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Saudi Arabia, UAE to give $3bn to Yemen in new peace push

Saudi Arabia will also provide $1bn for the purchase of oil products and to support of development projects

Here’s how advancements in robotics are driving micro-mobility innovation

Micro-mobility is playing a significant role in decarbonising transportation across the world, says Amir Melad, GM-Middle East at Tier Mobility

Venture capital giant Sequoia Capital names new leader

Sequoia has backed many of the world’s leading companies, ranging from Apple to Airbnb to Zoom Video Communications

Huawei’s R&D investment soars to $22.4bn in 2021

The company’s total revenue in 2021 reached $99.9bn, and generated a net profit of $17.8bn

How 2021 was a record year for M&A

Regional and global M&A activity witnessed strong growth last year

Egypt’s EFG Hermes Holding reports EGP1.5bn in net profit in 2021

The group’s revenues crossed the EGP6 billion mark for the first time

UAE’s Mubadala and Canada’s Aris Gold announce partnership

The partnership involves the operation of the Soto Norte Gold Project in Colombia, one of the world’s largest feasibility-stage gold projects

Natural gas

Mubadala Petroleum starts gas production from Malaysia’s Pegaga field

Mubadala Petroleum, which has been present in Malaysia since 2010, is the operator of Block SK 320 and holds a 55 per cent interest in it

EMEA to see increasing investment in DeFi in 2022: KPMG

KPMG’s latest Pulse of Fintech report shows investment in fintech companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa touched $77.4bn across 1,859 deals in 2021

Oil edges higher after three-day slide as volatility continues

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point

Gold

Gold holds decline as bond yields surge before Fed meeting

Bullion has eased after rallying to within $5 of a record last week

Panasonic readies new battery Tesla sees as key to $25,000 EVs

Panasonic will start mass production of 4680 batteries in the fiscal year starting April 2023

Dubai’s Emirates, Garuda Indonesia launch codeshare partnership

Emirates customers will have access to seven domestic points in Indonesia beyond Jakarta and Bali

Gold climbs as haven demand gains on ongoing crisis

The crisis in Europe is disrupting flows of energy, grains and metals

Toyota to resume Japan production after supplier cyberattack

The one-day domestic production stoppage likely impacted around 13,000-vehicles worth of production for the automaker

Tourism airport

Special report: The power of the GCC as a source market for global tourism

The size and monetary value of the outbound GCC tourism market were never in question – but what are its challenges, opportunities and key growth drivers in the foreseeable future?

HSBC Bank’s profit after tax up from $8.6bn to $14.7bn in 2021

Reported revenue was down 2 per cent to $49.6bn, impacted by lower global interest rates and a decrease in revenue in markets and securities services

How tokenisation is transforming culture

Tokenisation turns consumers into investors, creating multiple revenue streams while increasing consumer engagement for brands, from fashion to music

Oil and gas prices are likely to remain elevated in 2022: APICORP

Power sector investments in the MENA region are also expected to continue to thrive, with an accelerating shift towards renewables

Businesses must rethink growth strategies: Accenture

Accenture’s annual Fjord Trends 2022 report has identified five human behaviours that are pushing companies to design new ways of doing business

2021 was a record year for global M&A market: Lex Mundi

Lex Mundi’s Global M&A Trends Report 2022 predicts as much, if not more, deal activity in both public and private mergers and acquisitions this year

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The Middle East’s first large-scale NFT collection to launch in Dubai

The Bored Falcon initiative has been created and fuelled by a collective of artists across Dubai, Manama, Beirut, and Damascus

Middle East M&A activity scales 51% in 2021

The region’s M&A deal volumes for FY 2021 were up 58 per cent from 2020

Green cold war or climate anarchy? Together we can decide

Climate change is going to reshape the world