Amazon’s Bezos unveils Blue Moon lunar lander

Washington: Jeff Bezos, who heads both Amazon and space company Blue Origin, unveiled on Thursday a lunar lander that he said would be used to transport equipment, and possibly human beings, to the south pole of the Moon by 2024. “This is Blue Moon,” he said at a presentation in Washington, as curtains lifted to […]

Panasonic net profit up, but firm forecasts falls

TOKYO: Japanese electronics giant Panasonic reported a boost in yearly net profits on Thursday but offered a pessimistic forecast for the year ahead thanks to slower sales of industrial systems and reform costs. The firm said annual net profit was up 20.4 percent on-year at 284.1 billion yen (Dh9.51 billion), with asset sales and a […]

Commerzbank revenue resilient after merger talks end

Frankfurt: Commerzbank AG revenue proved resilient in the first quarter, giving a boost to chief executive officer Martin Zielke after the breakdown of merger talks with Deutsche Bank AG. The lender — which plans to update investors on its stand-alone strategy after the summer — met analyst estimates for revenue of €2.16 billion ($2.42 billion; […]

China backtracked on nearly all aspects of US trade deal — sources

WASHINGTON/BEIJING: The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world’s two largest economies, according to three US government sources and three private sector sources briefed on the talks. The document was riddled […]

Real estate weakness hurts GCC’s economic outlook

Dubai: Weakness in the real estate market has both reflected and contributed to weak economic growth in much of the GCC, particularly the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF). “After consciously targeting real estate investment as a key plank of their diversification strategies, these countries have experienced a […]

Carrefour weigh sale option for China

Beijing: Carrefour SA is weighing options including a sale of its Chinese business, mirroring other international consumer firms that have decided to exit the country in recent years, people familiar with the matter said. The French retail giant is working with an adviser and has begun reaching out to potential suitors, the people said, asking […]