Qatar Airways Flies to Best Ever Operating Profit of Qr3bn-Plus
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NUKE BLOW | Page 4 CANADA LNG | Page 11 Toshiba falls Petronas eyes 20% aft er it new island for To advertise here fl ags US hit $27bn plan Call: Thursday, December 29, 2016 Rabia I 30, 1438 AH DOLLAR DEBT : Page 2 Egypt off ers GULF TIMES exchange rate relief to fi rms hit by pound BUSINESS devaluation Qatar Airways fl ies to best ever operating profi t of QR3bn-plus atar Airways has posted a “strong” Lauded for its success, Qatar Airways re- Birmingham, Boston, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Qatar Airways buys 10% of LATAM Airlines fi nancial performance in fi scal 2016, ceived a number of awards throughout the Marrakech, Pisa, Ras Al Khaimah, Sydney, LATAM Airlines Group and Qatar Airways have Qregistering an operating profi t of more year, confi rming it as one of the world’s lead- Windhoek, Yerevan, Krabi (Thailand) and announced that the latter, through its wholly- than QR3bn, the best ever for the Doha-based ing carriers for business and leisure travel. Mahe (Seychelles). owned subsidiary, Qatar Airways Investments (UK), airline. Qatar Airways has its eyes fi rmly set on the Qatar Airways Group chief executive Ak- completed its acquisition of 10% of LATAM reaching a The carrier is celebrating a successful future, with the airline already announcing bar al-Baker said, “I am extremely proud of total of 60,837,452 shares. year of continued growth achieved in 2016 some 14 new destinations for 2017-18; adding the success that Qatar Airways has achieved LATAM Airlines and Qatar Airways, are both members through strategic network, fl eet and partner- Canberra (Australia); Dublin (Ireland); Las together with our employees and partners in of the oneworld alliance. ship expansions. Vegas (US); Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); and San- 2016. I would like to extend my sincere grati- The preemptive rights off ering of 61,316,424 new At a time when a number of airlines are tiago (Chile) among others. tude to all staff for their discipline and tireless shares, at a price of $10 each, ended on December downsizing, Qatar Airways continued to see In its pursuit for excellence, the airline is pursuit for excellence. I would also like to ex- 23, in which Qatar Airways subscribed to shares strong growth and inaugurated some 14 new also preparing to launch a revolutionary busi- tend my gratitude to our loyal passengers for of LATAM through its subsidiary in its capacity as destinations across its global network. It also ness class seat in the fi rst quarter of 2017 – their continued support. assignee of the preemptive right assigned by the welcomed as many as 19 new aircraft to its building on what is already one of the most “Our passengers will see a continuation of shareholders of the Cueto, Amaro, Eblen and Bethia fl eet, taking the count to 192, as well as plac- awarded premium cabins in the industry. our commitment to providing the very best Groups to Qatar, as agreed between LATAM and Qatar ing a record aircraft order to power future Qatar Airways is one of the “fastest” grow- travel experiences in the year to come. This Airways. Other minority shareholders subscribed growth. ing airlines in aviation history, with the car- past year has truly been an exceptional year 12,140 shares of LATAM. Qatar Airways said it has made a number rier now serving more than 150 destinations and, and as we turn to 2017 to celebrate Qa- Yesterday, Qatar Airways subscribed 30,349,907 of strategic investments in other airlines and following the inauguration of 14 new destina- tar Airways 20th Anniversary, I look forward shares not subscribed by the shareholders during the airline groups, while investing heavily in the tions in 2016 alone. to celebrating future successes with our em- preemptive rights period. continued evolution of its own passenger ex- This year, the airline introduced “excit- ployees, partners and passengers in the years Al-Baker: Celebrating a successful year of perience. ing” destinations such as Adelaide, Atlanta, to come as we go places together.” Page 12 continued growth in 2016. FDI into Qatar totals QR137.2bn in 2015 By Santhosh V Perumal Business Reporter oreign direct investment (FDI) into Qatar amounted to QR137.2bn in 2015 with manufacturing corner- Fing the maximum share of the total stock, according to the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS). Other American countries, the European Union, the US and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were among the principal sources of FDI, which however, was down 4% year-on-year in 2015, the MDPS said in its ‘Foreign Invest- ment Survey November 2016. A recent report from Kamco Research had said that FDI into the GCC has been on a “consistent decline” over the past fi ve years with a compound annual growth rate of -15.3%. In terms of book value, the manufacturing sector re- ceived QR72.3bn, or 53%, of total FDI infl ows in 2015, followed by mining and quarrying QR47.4bn (35%) and fi nancial and insurance QR10.1bn (7%). The MDPS survey Source: MDPS obtained data from about 150 signifi cant enterprises that had accounted for more than 90% of total investments and “Qatar had FDI abroad in about 80 countries. The top four by various functional, geographical and industrial charac- group of countries accounted for a relative share of 85% of teristics. the total at the end of 2015,” MDPS said. Otherwise, about 90% of inward FDI in 2015 went to- Of the QR103bn outward FDI in 2015, as much QR31bn, wards the oil and gas and associated downstream manu- or 30%, went towards the EU, followed by QR30bn, or facturing and other activities such as transportation and 29%, to the GCC; QR14bn, or 14%, to other Arab countries marketing, the ministry said. and QR12.4bn, or 12%, to Asia. In 2014, the EU’s share was In 2014, the manufacturing sector’s share in total FDI 29%, followed by the GCC (30%), other Arab countries was 55%, followed by mining and quarrying (33%) and fi - (14%) and Asia (11%). nancial and insurance (8%), it added. In 2015, Qatar’s outward FDI largely went into fi nancial The report found that more than 60 countries con- and insurance activities (52%), transportation, storage, tributed to the stock of FDI in Qatar at the end of 2015 information and communication (40%) and wholesale and with the top four group’s relative share of total FDI con- retail industry (4%). Their share in 2014 was 50%, 39% tinued to grow and amounted to 97% of total at the end and 4% respectively. of 2015. MDPS also disclosed that the total inward foreign port- Of the QR137.2bn inward FDI in 2015, other American folio investment into Qatar amounted to QR73.9bn, while countries’ contribution was QR48.1bn, or 35%, followed outward foreign portfolio investment was QR44.3bn. by the US QR33bn (24%) and the GCC QR6.9bn (5%). In The inward foreign other investments (excluding fi nan- 2014, other American countries’ share was 36%, followed cial derivatives) stood at QR330.7bn in 2015, whereas out- by the EU (32%), the US (23%) and the GCC (5%). ward fl ows in this account were to the tune of QR199.6bn. Qatar’s outward FDI amounted to QR103bn, which rep- Qatar’s total inward foreign investments were valued at resented a 1% increase year-on-year, with bulk of it go- QR541.8bn, while outward foreign investments stood at ing into the EU, the GCC, other Arab countries and Asia. QR347bn in 2015, the report said. ‘Tough Egyptian economic conditions to improve in 6 months’ Reuters the way they had dealt with harsh The flotation helped the cash- Cairo economic reforms. “The eff orts to strapped government clinch a $12bn alleviate those eff ects are massive,” IMF loan programme it hopes will he said. revive growth hampered by political President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt took markets by surprise on uncertainty since the 2011 uprising yesterday that tough economic November 3 when it abandoned its that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year conditions in Egypt would improve pound currency’s peg to the dollar rule. Al-Sisi came to power promising in six months and called on in a move aimed at attracting capital economic reform and stability but businessmen and investors to help inflows and weakening a currency problems have piled up. the government curb price increases. black market that had all-but With a budget deficit of 12% and Speaking at the opening of a fish displaced the banks. a looming funding gap, he was farm project in the Suez Canal city Hours later, the government hiked forced to undertake harsh economic of Ismailia, Sisi praised Egyptians for fuel prices. measures. Gulf Times 2 Thursday, December 29, 2016 BUSINESS Bank mergers spread in Mideast as low oil signals end of boom days Bloomberg assets worth more than QR160bn ($44bn). complete solution to the fiscal problems Banks aren’t the only entities being The Qatar Investment Authority is un- have already happened in Qatar this year, Doha/Dubai Talks are at an early stage, according to that these states face. They need a much merged. Qatar is also consolidating dergoing its biggest revamp since 2014, according to Control Risk’s Wood, consoli- the banks, which didn’t give details on the broader reform package.” its state-owned liquefied natural gas grouping investments in local companies dation is likely to continue into 2017. structure of the possible deal. The planned merger of Masraf Al Rayan - producers Qatar Liquefied Gas Co into a new unit, people with knowledge of Abu Dhabi is considering more mergers For oil-rich Gulf states, 2016 has been all Those plans follow a similar move earlier with a market value of about $7.3bn - with (Qatargas) and Ras Laffan Liquefied the matter said in May.