Now it is The Emirates Old Trafford - Emot !?

28 February 2013

The football and cricket grounds of Old Trafford will officially be known by different names for the first time since 1936 as the result of a 10-year sponsorship deal struck by Lancashire with Emirates Airline to help the club pay for their stadium's substantial redevelopment.

The deal means that the Emirates name will be attached to two of this summer's five Ashes Test grounds, as the airline has held naming rights to Durham's ground in Chester-le-Street for the past three years – so the third Test will be at Emirates Old Trafford, the fourth at the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground, and the fifth at the Kia Oval.

Traditionalists will be relieved that the first two Tests are being staged at Trent Bridge – Nottinghamshire having insisted only this week that they have no intention of selling naming rights to their ground, which their chief executive Lisa Pursehouse likened to "selling our soul" – and Lord's, where the MCC seems highly unlikely ever to need to entertain the idea.

However Warwickshire are hoping to secure naming rights for Edgbaston before the end of the summer, and Yorkshire's ground has been officially known as Headingley Carnegie since 2006 under a deal between their Leeds rugby landlords and the city's Metropolitan University.

The bulk of the county grounds that do not stage international cricket have had naming rights for some time – Sussex will begin this season not at Hove, but at the brightonandhovejobs.com County Ground, so even Lancastrian diehards may feel they have had a lucky escape.

There have long been fears that the Manchester ground, which first staged Test cricket in 1884 – the second English cricket ground to do so, after The Oval – would be renamed Tesco Old Trafford, after the supermarket chain provided around two-thirds of the cost of a £32m redevelopment that will be completed with the opening of an expanded and substantially renovated pavilion this summer. But Emirates has instead expanded a cricket portfolio which includes support of umpires and other match officials as part of a partnership with the International Cricket Council – which is also based in Dubai.

"This association highlights our continued investment in Manchester and the surrounding region, a hub which we see as vital to our operations in the UK," said Sir Maurice Flanagan, the airline's executive vice-chairman – who was born in nearby Leigh, and once even sponsored that town's rugby league team.

Perhaps the presence in the city of Etihad, the Dubai airline's local rivals from Abu Dhabi which bought naming rights to the City of Manchester Stadium in July 2010 as part of its funding of Manchester City, also added to Lancashire's appeal.

Why the anchored putting ban is necessary

27 February 2013

The RandA and teh USGA want to ban long anchored putters. The USPGA is fighting the ban.

Why: because a few of their members have started to dramatically improve their scoring by using the long putter.

Simply - if it doesn't give them an advantage then why are PGA Tour & USPGA up in arms?

Of course it gives poor putters an advantage. Is it against the spirit if the game? Absolutely. A ban is a must to help preserve the legitimacy of the game.

And I am writing this as someone who would benefit from a long putter.

In Thailand I got my handicap down to 11. Then suddenly one week I could not putt. I could barely hold the putter. I would 4 putt from a matter of feet. My arms would tense up and I could not control the putter's speed or angle.

So now I use a claw grip. My putting is not as good as it was. But I can hold the putter and don't have to hand my head in embarrassment.

Would an anchored log putter help? Yes. Is it within the spirit of the game? No.

Last November, the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient (R&A) said they wanted to enforce the ban starting in 2016, but PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem came out against that plan last Sunday.

Since Finchem's comments, two of the leading names in the game, world number one Rory McIlroy and now Woods, have come out in favor of supporting the governing bodies.

Finchem's stance has raised fears of different regulations being in effect for the European Tour and the PGA Tour in the United States and Woods is among those concerned.

The club should be swung, it should not be anchored. All fourteen clubs should be swung.

But three of the last five major tournaments have been won by players using long, or belly, putters - Keegan Bradley at the PGA Championship, Ernie Els at the British Open and Webb Simpson at the U.S. Open.

All three players all full-time members of the PGA Tour. Finchem's stance is no surprise. But that very fact is why long putters are wrong.

The USPGA stance means that there could be a split between the rules of golf and what the US PGA Tour chooses to impose for its tournaments.

Finchem has argued that: "The essential thread that went through the thinking of the players and our board of directors was that in the absence of data or any basis to conclude that there is a competitive advantage to be gained by using anchoring, and given the amount of time anchoring has been in the game, that there was no overriding reason to go down that road."

Nonsense. If these players were not gaining from using a long putter then why so much fuss about their proposed ban.

Brandel Chamblee, a former Tour professional now an analyst for the Golf Channel said: "All you need to do is look at Adam Scott's history at Augusta National. He never averaged under 28 putts until he put the long putter in the bag. [Then] he did and he finished second. He played in 40 majors without a long putter and he's had four top‑10s. And he's played in eight since he put the long putter in the bag and he's had four top-10s since and two second-place finishes.

"Look further at who switches to it. Nobody is switching from a long putter to go from good to great. They are looking at it to go from horrible to average," Chamblee added.

That is me. I went from good to horrible to average all with the same traditional putter. The anchored putter is cheating; it's use has been allowed for too long. It is time to stop.

Notes from a small, over-crowded island

27 February 2013

A few notes from a weekend in Singapore...

Too crowded. And it will get worse.

Too expensive. And getting worse.

Thank you to the Shu Qi look alike who smiled at me as I pulled my suitcase from one hotel to the other on Sunday morning.

Eat: in food courts and hawker centres. By far the cheapest places to eat and with a great variety of food. One small food court on Victoria Road has excellent Italian and Japanese food - and $6 bottles of Tiger; which is a great improvement on the $15++ (++ is now 17%) that bars and pubs are charging.

Restaurants. Cannot afford them.

How to annoy a local - stand on the right on their elevators...

Cross the road as quickly as you can - you do not have long - this is a city where cars rule and pedestrians are expendable.

Bring at least two shirts a day.

Here is Tai's diet for one day: Pig's organ soup. Durian ice cream. Laksa. Spagetti seafood.

As for prime time viewing on TV this week: Crimewatch. Confessions of a Shameless Auntie. And better still a progamme telling you how to clear away your trays at a hawker center.

Dubai’s new boom assumes short memories

18 February 2013 Reuters Breakingviews

Dubai has rediscovered its appetite for grand designs. A replica Taj Mahal four times bigger than the original, the world’s biggest Ferris wheel, several new mega-malls, and over 100 new hotels are amongst a raft of extravagant projects aiming to boost tourism in the emirate. But lingering debt woes from its last boom-and-bust cycle should hopefully reduce the risk of runaway spending.

The strategy isn’t quite a repeat of the one that led the emirate to the verge of bankruptcy in 2009, when Dubai was left hanging by a debt-fuelled real estate bubble and a series of high-profile overseas acquisitions at aggressive valuations. The economic fundamentals have improved. While residential and commercial real-estate prices remain well below their peak, there is room for new investment in retail and tourism. Hotel occupancy rates were at 90 percent last year, says Ernst and Young. Shopping malls in central areas are packed. New Bollywood theme parks and an expansion of giant Chinese malls will support the emirate’s push to woo more visitors from Asia and further align its economy to fast growth markets to the east.

Dubai is drawing on its relative strength in infrastructure and as a regional safe-haven. The city-state currently enjoys almost 10 million foreign visitors in a year, five times its population. Tourist numbers could grow substantially if Dubai can convince a larger chunk of the 58 million passengers that landed in Dubai International last year to turn their transit into a short break.

Yet Dubai has said little about how it will fund its bold endeavours. That’s a sensitive issue. Lenders to flagship conglomerate Dubai World and property developer Nakheel have been promised 100 percent repayment of their loans but have to wait until at least 2015 to get any money back as part of a multi-billion restructuring plan contingent on asset sales which are yet to materialise.

Dubai as a sovereign only raised $1.25 billion in public debt markets last year. The island project featuring the giant Ferris wheel will alone cost $1.6 billion. Local banks are already overexposed to government-related entities. It is also unclear how readily foreign ones will lend directly to firms like Meraas Holding, owned directly by the ruler of Dubai and dubbed by analysts as “the new Nakheel” because of the multiple mandates it has won. Royal ownership, after all, provided little protection to those that loaned billions to Dubai Holding.

The region can ill afford another boom and bust. Unless memories are short, lender restraint may help prevent that this time round.

The Emirates Air Line – London's £60m white elephant

19 February 2013 The Guardian

The capital's cable car was trumpeted as a state-of-the-art commuter link, but has failed to live up to expectations

Age: Eight months.

Appearance: White elephant.

Don't you mean whizzy, state-of-the-art cable car masterminded by London mayor Boris Johnson and sponsored by the Emirates airline? I know exactly what I mean.

You are talking about the cable car across the River Thames in east London linking Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks? Yes, that's the one.

Marvellous. I took Freddie and Jemima on it during the Olympics and they adored it. That may be the problem. It fitted perfectly with the boisterous mood of Jubolympics London and was getting up to 70,000 users a week, but numbers are now down to 16,000 and critics are starting to question its future.

Cynics! That's what Boris reckons. "They said the Victoria Line and the Docklands Light Railway would be empty. Give it time."

How long? At least until he's become PM.

Why are numbers falling? Boris blames strong winds, which have led to temporary closures. But that's just hot air. The real problem is it's a tourist attraction rather than the commuter service he originally trumpeted, and will only be viable in peak holiday seasons.

Where are the regular users? They barely exist. The number of commuters using it has been estimated at 16. It would have been cheaper to buy them a gold-plated mini-bus.

Is it losing money? An estimated £50,000 a week.

Somebody must find it useful. It's quite handy for anyone north of the river who wants to go to Tesco Express in Greenwich.

What's the solution? Move it.

Where? Switzerland.

You'd better supply a few basic facts to fill up the rest of the space. Cost £60m to build (more than double the original estimate); Emirates is providing £36m in sponsorship over 10 years; 1,150m long, 90m high, with 34 cabins capable of carrying 5,000 people an hour; fare £4.30 or £3.20 if you pay by Oyster; journey lasts five minutes.

Not to be confused with: The Humber Bridge – another pointless project built for spurious reasons connecting two places no one wants to go to.

Do say: "You get a wonderful view ...

Don't say: "... of the O2 car park."

EK to Clark from October

18 February 2013

I cannot be the only Emirates watcher who is surprised by this new flight; as today EK announced a new daily Dubai – Clark (Philippines) two Class Boeing 777-300ER service which will  commence on October 1st this year. Schedules are:

EK 338 Dubai 0400 – Clark 1640
EK 339 Clark 1835 – Dubai 2305

This will make the Clark International Airport in central Luzon the second destination in the Philippines for Emirates which already flies triple daily to Manila.

Expansion at Manila is limited by space and the single runway.

The sprawling airport of Clark, a former US air base, is being developed as the capital's alternative airport and serves a catchment area of 17 million people in the central and northern Luzon areas.

The second Philippines destination was widely expected to be Cebu.

Clark is not popular with passengers. Access to the airport is difficult. A two hour bus ride from and to Manila which is 50 miles away. Angeles City is much closer.

Philippine Airlines and Zest Airways have recently announced they're no longer flying from Clark which limits domestic connections to Cebu Pacific only. Current operators at Clark are:

AirAsia - Kuala Lumpur
AirAsia - Philippines Davao, Hong Kong, Kalibo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei-Taoyuan
Airphil Express - Cebu (ends February 20, 2013), Hong Kong (ends February 20, 2013), Kalibo (ends February 20, 2013), Puerto Princesa (ends February 21, 2013),
Asiana Airlines - Busan, Seoul-Incheon
Cebu Pacific - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Cebu, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore
Dragonair - Hong Kong
Emirates - Dubai (begins October 1, 2013)[30]
Jin Air - Seoul-Incheon
South East Asian Airlines - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Hong Kong, Kalibo, Singapore
Zest Airways- Busan (ends March 2, 2013),[31] Manila (ends March 3, 2013),[31] Seoul-Incheon (ends March 11, 2013)

The fact that Cebu Pacific was planning a Clark-DXB flight might have influenced the decision. It is also a fair bet that transporting freight out of Clark will be easier than from Manila which could be important for the export of perishable items.

Singapore’s Population Bubble

16 February 2013 William Peseck for Bloomberg

Singaporeans are raring to do something extraordinary: protest.

That might not seem like a big deal with the Arab Spring uprisings; Chinese journalists taking to the streets; and thousands of typically docile Japanese rallying against government policies. But tropical Singapore is the land of quiet brooding, where mass street demonstrations are as common as snowstorms.

What has people so riled up? Well, people. The impetus for the Feb. 16 march is a report that the tiny island’s population may rise by as much as 30 percent to 6.9 million by 2030. This seems to be the government’s answer to the question of how to sustain prosperity in one of the most crowded and expensive cities in the world.

The signs of overcrowding and urban stress are palpable to any visitor. Prices are surging, public services in a nation famed for nanny-state tendencies are slipping and some of the finest infrastructure anywhere is buckling under the strain. Locals blame the influx of immigrants, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s ruling party touts as one key to Singapore’s success in the years to come.

The city-state, with about half the area of New York City, has 3.3 million citizens and 2 million foreign residents, many of whom have contributed greatly to Singapore’s growth in finance and construction. Yet complaints that overseas workers deprive locals of jobs and drive up housing prices fill the air. Singapore is the third-most-expensive Asian city and ranks as the sixth most costly in the world, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of 131 cities.

Singapore may well serve as a case study for what happens when leaders try to offset slowing economic growth with immigration and increased birth rates. There are lessons that Japan or Italy would do well to study. All of it is turning into a political liability for Lee, the son of Lee Kuan Yew, who is regarded as the father of modern Singapore.

The erosion in his party’s popularity is accelerating after the release Jan. 29 of a white paper that contained the 6.9 million figure, which it calls a projection, not a goal. Lee Hsien Loong has since said the number of people will be “significantly” lower than the report suggests. Will Singaporeans buy that?

“The new population policy is anti-Singaporean and it threatens our existence and livelihoods,” says Gilbert Goh, 51, an advocate for unemployed citizens and an organizer of a protest planned for this week.

Sadly, some of the rants one reads in the media and online veer toward xenophobia. If Singaporeans are so livid, they should stop supporting Lee’s party. After all, isn’t the government, by seeking to import more human capital, telling its own people that they lack the skills to compete? Anyone who doubts Singapore is serious only has to look at accelerating efforts to reclaim land from the sea for development, giving the city the room for population growth.

The real question, as public angst rises, is whether the opposition is justified. Former United Nations demographer Joseph Chamie says it is. To Chamie, the view that it’s almost always better to have more and more people is the human equivalent of what Bernard Madoff did with money, something he calls “Ponzi demography.”

The human-pyramid scheme works like this: Population growth, either through births or immigration, boosts demand for goods and services, increases borrowing, boosts tax revenue and adds to corporate profits. Everything seems grand and leaders take a bow. It’s a bubble, though, and it eventually bursts when population growth stalls. Incomes top out, high debt crushes consumption and investment, the need for public assistance rises, environmental degradation increases and angry people take to the streets.

As households are left to pick up the tab once Ponzi demography runs its course, government leaders issue dire warnings about economic decline if the flow of fresh talent stops. This will sound familiar to Singaporeans as Lee’s People’s Action Party sketches out a dystopian future without adding wealthy bankers and low-income workers to the nation’s ranks.

Singapore needs to find another way. The era of easy growth is over. Just as economies such as Japan and South Korea are seeing the limits of their export-led models, Singapore’s formula has run its course. Raising the productivity of its current workforce would be more potent for a developed, open economy looking to compete in a region dominated by the cheap labor and manufacturing of China and India. Singapore should focus as much energy on incentives for its existing residents to innovate and start new businesses as on adding more bodies.

Not only is Singapore toying with liberalized immigration, it’s also revving up a campaign to persuade Singaporeans to wed younger and reproduce. It is an odd push for Lee. Four decades ago, concern about overpopulation prompted his father to urge a delay in nuptials and to have smaller families. Today, amid a birthrate of about 1.3 children per woman, efforts to encourage bigger families border on the offensive. Just check a new website, “Hey Baby.”

Singapore’s addiction to population growth sends a simple and disconcerting message: The country has run out of ideas to increase economic vitality, aside from encouraging people to procreate or immigrate. Ponzi demography, indeed.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Requiem for a Dreamliner?

16 February 2013 from The New Yorker

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a technological marvel. It’s built largely of carbon-fibre composites rather than aluminum, which makes it significantly lighter than other planes. Its braking, pressurization, and air-conditioning systems are run not by hydraulics but by electricity from lithium-ion batteries. It uses twenty per cent less fuel than its peers, and so is cheaper to run, yet it also manages to have higher ceilings and larger windows. It is, in other words, one of the coolest planes in the air. Or, rather, on the ground: regulators around the world have grounded all fifty Dreamliners after battery fires in two planes, and Ray LaHood, the Transportation Secretary, has declared that the Dreamliner will not fly again in the U.S. until regulators are “a thousand per cent sure” of its safety. And this is just the latest in a long series of Dreamliner problems, which delayed the plane’s début for more than three years and cost Boeing billions of dollars in cost overruns. The Dreamliner was supposed to become famous for its revolutionary design. Instead, it’s become an object lesson in how not to build an airplane.

To understand why, you need to go back to 1997, when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas. Technically, Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas. But, as Richard Aboulafia, a noted industry analyst with the Teal Group, told me, “McDonnell Douglas in effect acquired Boeing with Boeing’s money.” McDonnell Douglas executives became key players in the new company, and the McDonnell Douglas culture, averse to risk and obsessed with cost-cutting, weakened Boeing’s historical commitment to making big investments in new products. Aboulafia says, “After the merger, there was a real battle over the future of the company, between the engineers and the finance and sales guys.” The nerds may have been running the show in Silicon Valley, but at Boeing they were increasingly marginalized by the bean counters.

Under these conditions, getting the company to commit to a major project like the Dreamliner took some doing. “Some of the board of directors would rather have spent money on a walk-in humidor for shareholders than on a new plane,” Aboulafia says. So the Dreamliner’s advocates came up with a development strategy that was supposed to be cheaper and quicker than the traditional approach: outsourcing. And Boeing didn’t outsource just the manufacturing of parts; it turned over the design, the engineering, and the manufacture of entire sections of the plane to some fifty “strategic partners.” Boeing itself ended up building less than forty per cent of the plane.

This strategy was trumpeted as a reinvention of manufacturing. But while the finance guys loved it—since it meant that Boeing had to put up less money—it was a huge headache for the engineers. In a fascinating study of the process, two U.C.L.A. researchers, Christopher Tang and Joshua Zimmerman, show how challenging it was for Boeing to work with fifty different partners. The more complex a supply chain, the more chances there are for something to go wrong, and Boeing had far less control than it would have if more of the operation had been in-house. Delays became endemic, and, instead of costing less, the project went billions over budget. In 2011, Jim Albaugh, who took over the program in 2009, said, “We spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we’d tried to keep the key technologies closer to home.” And the missed deadlines created other issues. Determined to get the Dreamliners to customers quickly, Boeing built many of them while still waiting for the F.A.A. to certify the plane to fly; then it had to go back and retrofit the planes in line with the F.A.A.’s requirements. “If the saying is check twice and build once, this was more like build twice and check once,” Aboulafia said to me. “With all the time and cost pressures, it was an alchemist’s recipe for trouble.”

In a different time, none of this might have mattered much. As plenty of people have pointed out, “teething problems” have, historically, been common in new planes. The 747’s engines were notoriously temperamental, the DC-10’s cargo doors were a major safety issue, and a number of Lockheed L-188s had wings shear off in flight. By those standards, you might think the Dreamliner’s battery issues are minor. The problem for Boeing is that those standards don’t apply anymore. The expectations of both customers and regulators are much higher, because, these days, so many products work well from the start. Automobiles, major appliances, televisions: a quality revolution in the past few decades has made products more reliable and durable than ever before. So our tolerance for failure is lower.

The same is true when it comes to airline safety. In the past, the F.A.A. was remarkably hesitant to take planes out of service. The problems with the DC-10 were well known to regulators for years before a 1979 crash forced them to ground the plane. But, again, those standards no longer apply. In the nineteen-seventies, after all, airplane crashes occurred with disturbing regularity. Today, they are extraordinarily rare; there hasn’t been a fatal airliner crash in the United States in almost four years. The safer we get, the safer we expect to be, so the performance bar keeps rising. And this, ultimately, is why the decision to give other companies responsibility for the Dreamliner now looks misguided. Boeing is in a business where the margin of error is small. It shouldn’t have chosen a business model where the chance of making a serious mistake was so large. ♦

And now the biggest ferris wheel

15 February 2013

Another Dubai mega project. More chaos for residence at JBR. The latest announcement is for an AED6bn (US$1.6bn) island development off the coast of Jumeirah Beach Residence, including what will be the world’s tallest Ferris wheel.

The Bluewaters Island project will be one of the largest tourism hot spots in the world, according to the Dubai-based developers Meraas Holding.

Revealing the project on Wednesday, Meraas said the Dubai Eye would cost AED1bn and be the feature of the development.

“The world’s largest Ferris wheel will prove a must-visit experience for visitors and residents in the UAE and articulates Dubai’s long-term vision to be a key tourism hub in the world,” a statement from state news agency WAM says.

Market studies forecast that the Bluewaters project will draw more than 3m visitors annually, WAM said.

The plan includes connecting the island to the mainland by a road to Sheikh Zayed Road, a mono rail system between the entertainment zone and the metro and a pedestrian bridge to the JBR beachfront, while a cable car will ferry visitors to the entertainment piazza.

Parking is already near impossible at JBR. Traffic problems have become JBR legends.

Bluewaters will also feature retail, residential, hospitality and entertainment zones.

A bespoke souq encircled by a promenade will contain alfresco dining outlets serving a variety of cuisine, retail stores and a food hall offering fresh produce in a traditional market atmosphere.

A luxury five-star hotel and varied residential options also are planned.

Meraas Holding said the 210m Dubai Eye would offer views of Dubai’s coastline and iconic landmarks such as Burj Al Arab, Palm Jumeirah and Burj Khalifa.

The piazza at the base of the wheel would serve as an entertainment zone and a unique venue for special occasions and conferences, while a large LED screen mounted on the wheel would create an innovative electronic platform for broadcasting, adverts, and interactive information.

The new project is yet another major development announced in recent months.

Sheikh Mohammad also plans to build a new multi-billion dollar project called Mohammad Bin Rashid City, to be built by Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties in what is being described as the biggest real estate joint venture in the region.

No value has been given for the project but plans include building the world's biggest shopping mall, a Universal family theme park and a park that is a third bigger than Hyde Park in London.

According to local media construction of the Bluewaters Island project is due to start in April, 2013. Hyundai Contracting and Starneth Engineering have been appointed as primary contractors for the design and construction of Dubai Eye.

The problem with these announcements is that everyone seems to forget the older incomplete projects that investors have sunk fortunes into and that have never been completed such as the Jebel Ali Palm, the world islands and Dubailand.

American and US Airways announce planned merger

14 February 2013

Delta merged with Northwest and the Northwest name disappeared.

United merged with Continental and the Continental name disappeared.

It was inevitable that American and US Airways would announce a merger - they were too small to survive alone against the other two merged airline.

They have been talking since August last year. Now they have announced an $11bn merger that will create the largest airline in the US.

Taking the name of American Airlines, the combined company will have a fleet of 1,500 aircraft, $39bn in revenues and would employ 100,000 people.

AA's parent company AMR is in bankruptcy and courts must approve the deal, which is also likely to attract regulatory scrutiny. But airline experts expect the deal to be approved, capping the wave of big mergers that has swept across the US airline industry.

The chief executive role will be filled by the current boss of US Airways, Doug Parker, while AA boss Tom Horton will take a temporary role as non-executive chairman. Parker will also become chairman when Horton steps down.

Horton said the deal signified the launch of a "new American Airlines", representing a new lease of life for the latest major US carrier to be threatened by the industry's perilous finances.

The US Justice Department has not challenged an airline merger since a merger proposed in 2001 between United and US Airways. Parker said that the two airlines have only 12 routes overlapping out of a combined 900. In addition, he said, AA flies to 130 cities that US Airways does not cover, and US Airways flies to 62 cities not served by AA.

Inevitably critics argue that the merger will substantially reduce competition on a number of routes, create regional strongholds at key airports driving traffic to their hubs and deprive smaller communities of air service.

All probably true. But consolidation was inevitable. It is more a shotgun wedding than love at first sight despite the Valentines announcement.

AA creditors will own 72% of combined company and US Airways shareholders the balance; the new board will have 12 directors; creditors appoint 5, AA 4 and US Airways 3. The board drops to 11 when Horton departs as chairman in 2014.

What happens next - well not a lot - for now American Airlines and US Airways will continue to operate as two separate airlines and each will maintain its current loyalty program (American Airlines – AAdvantage® and US Airways – Dividend Miles).

The airlines expect the transaction to be completed in the third quarter of 2013.

Flydubai posts Dh152m profit

14 February 2013

Dubai's budget carrier flydubai, which began operations in 2009, said on Wednesday it posted a net profit of $41.4 million (Dh152 million) in 2012, in its first-ever announced financial results.

"Net profit for the year was Dh151.9 million ($41.4 million)," said the sister-firm of Emirates in a statement released at a press conference, putting total revenues in 2012 at Dh2.278 billion ($756 million).

The no-frills airline said it carried 5.1 million passengers in 2012.

Flydubai operates a fleet of 28 Boeing narrow-body 737-800, out of an order for 50 aircraft to be fully delivered by 2016. It flies to 52 destinations in 31 countries. It has been greatly restricted in its access to secondary Indian airports abd has been creative in expanding its network especially into Saudi Arabia and into the FSU. 

The company's chief executive officer, Ghaith Al Ghaith said flydubai became profitable in the second half of 2011. Ghaith is now being tipped to succeed Tim Clark in the top job at Emirates.

"We moved into the black for the second half of 2011, delivering three consecutive semi-annual periods of profitable growth," he said.

Flydubai operates from Dubai International, the Middle East's busiest airport that is also base to Emirates, the region's biggest carrier.

Dubai Mall's unlikely claims

13 February 2013

It is fair enough for Dubai to be proud of its post financial crisis recovery. But excessive hyperbole does damage the credibility of these claims.

EMAAR claimed today that Dubai Mall "welcomed a total of 65 million visitors last year, an increase of more than 20 percent compared to the 54 million visitors seen in 2011."

In its statement EMAAR said that the total number of visitors in 2012 surpassed annual tourists to New York City (52 million) and Los Angeles (41 million).

Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, said: "The visitor footfall to The Dubai Mall has exceeded our expectations every year since its opening in 2008, and in 2012, we marked another landmark by welcoming 65 million visitors.

Relaity check: 65 million visitors at Dubai Mall in 2012. That is over 178,500 a day. And is a higher number than the total pax number at DXB - the majority of who are in transit.

Official visitor numbers to Dubai in 2011 were 9.3m according to the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). This is significantly less than the number of annual tourists to New York City (52 million) and Los Angeles (41 million) as quoted above.

How Dubai Mall measures its numbers is a mystery but some realism is required.

It would also be a great leap forward if the media (including Arabian Business) actually questioned these numbers rather than simply regurgitating press releases.

Jet/Etihad deal may boost Emirates

12 February 2013

There have been no changes to the UAE/India air rights bilateral for the last five years. Talks will re-open in May this year. And the proposed Etihad/Jet Airways deal may be the catalyst to change.

Etihad Airways, is reported to be finalising a deal where it will pick up 24 percent stake in India’s Jet Airways.

Emirates has been seeking much greater access to Indian aviation market for years. The airline is capped on both the total number of seats and flights. As of now, the airline is permitted 54,200 seats a week through 185 flights from 10 Indian cities. The A380 is also blocked from India.

Emirates would like the number of seats to be doubled and access to at least five or six more Indian airports.

Emirates is the largest international airline carrying Indians overseas and has often been criticised by Indian airlines for taking away Indian passengers which would have otherwise been flying an Indian airline.

Other airlines like Lufthansa AG have also sought permission for A380 operations but India has denied all such requests because of Indian carriers’ concerns on how these large aircraft will corner a large chunk of the traffic, making their own operations unviable.

Papal quitter

11 February 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign the papacy because of ill health, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. The decision will send shockwaves through the global Catholic community.

His resignation is unheard of in modern times. The last Pope to resign was some 600 years ago. Popes are like Kings and Queens and are expected to serve until they die, even when struck down by ill health. The announcement will trigger an election battle in Rome.

According to ANSA, the Pope made his announcement in Latin during a special meeting with senior cardinals. Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, described the announcement as “a lighting bolt from the clear blue sky.”

According to a statement put out by the Vatican, the 85-year-old leader told his colleagues: “After repeatedly examining my conscience in front of God I have reached the conclusion that my strengths – because of advanced age – mean I am no longer able to exercise adequately the [role of Pope].”

Two Italian national newspapers have run quotes from the Pope stating that he “felt the weight of the task” and had decided to step down “for the good the Church”.

There have been rumours over the past few months that the German born Pope’s health has been failing and that he was struggling to read texts. Benedict has previously stated that Pope’s who are unable to do their job because of ill health should step down.

During a visit to an old people’s home in November the Pope spoke about getting older.

He said that while it was “beautiful to be old”, age brought challenges and difficulties with which he himself was familiar.

“I know well the difficulties, the problems and the limits of this age, and I know that these difficulties are aggravated for many people by the economic crisis,” he said.

“But I want to say to you with profound conviction – it is beautiful to be old!”

What he has done is set a fine example for other ageing world leaders (and even a few CEOs) who should also do the decent think and quit.

Live ICE on Emirates

8 February 2013

Emirates has launched ‘ice TV Live’ as part of its on-going efforts to provide the latest in on-board entertainment. Emirates will now offer up to four channels of as-it-happens television viewing.

Ice TV Live offers passengers four TV channels to select from: BBC World News in English, BBC Arabic, Euronews and, for sports fans, Sport24 - a channel dedicated to major sports events around the world.

February’s Sport24 highlights include English Premier League and Bundesliga football matches. Coverage of more events will be announced soon, but 2013 will feature coverage of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open Tennis, ATP Tour Masters 1000 Series, ATP World Tour Finals, US Open Golf, and the British and Irish Lions Tour. In line with this week’s announcement of a five year agreement appointing Emirates as a Global Partner of Formula 1® starting with the imminent 2013 season, ice TV Live will also include coverage of Formula 1.

“Installing the type of satellite communication that allows live TV on an aircraft is no easy feat,” explained Adel Al Redha, Emirates Executive Vice-President of Engineering and Operations. “Emirates continues to enhance the features of its inflight entertainment system with its partner Panasonic.”

Now here is the test - will this be on EK30 tomorrow afternoon and can I watch Southampton v Manchester City - which kicks off at 17.30.

Live ICE could very easily become known as LICE - not something that you want on an airplane!

Emirates sports sponsorships

8 February 2013

The Gulf Airlines now dominate the world of sports sponsorship. Emirates led, but Qatar has an enormous check book - focused on the build up to the 2022 World Cup. And Etihad has adopted Manchester City and Melbourne's Etihad stadium.

Here is a list of all Emirates sports sponsorships:

Football
Arsenal: Stadium sponsors until 2028 and shirt sponsors until 2019
Shirt sponsors of AC Milan, Paris Saint- Germain, Hamburg
Sponsor partnerships with Real Madrid and Olympiacos
Official Partner of world governing body FIFA
Official Airline and Partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

Cricket
Official Partner of the International Cricket Council (ICC)
Naming rights for stadium of English County side Durham and shirt sponsors of their T20 side

Tennis
Five-year agreement with ATP as Official Airline and title sponsor of the ATP Rankings
Official Airline of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the Rogers Cup in Canada and the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells
Official Airline of the US Open and the title sponsor of the Emirates Airline US Open Series, 10 events which form the summer hardcourt season that leads into the US Open

Rugby
Partner of the International Rugby Board (IRB)
Partner of USA Rugby and the UAE Rugby Association (UAERA), as well as Emirates Western Force in Australia and Dubai Hurricanes teams
Title sponsor of two IRB Sevens World Series events – the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens and the Emirates Airline Glasgow Sevens
Official Sponsor of the UK’s Rugby Football League, Super League and the England Rugby League Team, and supports Warrington Wolves

Australian Rules Football
Shirt sponsor of the Collingwood team in Melbourne

Sailing
Sponsor of Emirates Team New Zealand since 2004

Horse Racing
Title sponsor of the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest race, since its inception in 1996
Title sponsor of the Emirates Singapore Derby and Emirates Melbourne Cup

Golf
Official Airline of 18 events in 2012, as well as the Official Partner of the European Ryder Cup Team

Commonwealth Games 2014
Official Airline of Glasgow event

Soccer scandal shows darker side of regimented Singapore

8 February 2013 - Reuters

Singapore has long cultivated a reputation as a clean, safe and regimented place to live and do business in a turbulent region, but the apparently major role of Singaporeans in a global soccer match-fixing scandal shows a seamy underside often out of view.

The soccer scam, graft cases against high-level officials and revelations that some bank traders colluded to manipulate currency rates run contrary to the image of an orderly society, well-swept streets and manicured greenery in a place dubbed "Disneyland with the death penalty" by writer William Gibson.

There was no particular reason for match-fixers to be based in Singapore, other than some of the suspects happened to live in the wealthy city-state, said Shashi Nathan, a leading criminal lawyer, noting that the syndicates worked in private and across borders using mobile phones and computers.

"I'm on the one hand surprised that this has come out of Singapore. On the other hand, even with its heavy regulation, we have to keep in mind that the nature of the offence is very, very hard to detect," said Nathan, a director at INCA Law LLC.

"The mistake people make is, because Singapore is so clean and regulated, there's no crime. If so, I'd be out of a job."

Singapore - a major financial centre whose long-ruling government favours an investor-friendly, technocratic approach - is ranked the fifth least-corrupt country in the world by Transparency International and regularly tops global lists for the ease of doing business.

Murders are rare, gun crime is nearly non-existent and drug possession of any kind is a serious offence leading to jail time and sometimes lashings with a rattan cane. Drug traffickers face the death penalty by hanging.

But Singapore still has its share of scandal and vice.

An opposition party won a by-election last month after the speaker of parliament quit over an extramarital affair, one of several recent embarrassments for the government.

Others include the arrest of the civil defence chief and the head of the police anti-drug unit on corruption charges last year after the men allegedly had sexual relations with female employees of vendors in exchange for help in influencing the awarding of government contracts.

SEX, SOCCER AND VANDALISM

In the Geylang district, licensed prostitutes from China, Thailand and other Asian countries work in brothels that are technically illegal but obvious in their purpose with red lights and flashing signs.

An unlicensed and illegal sex trade is rampant in doorways and on street corners elsewhere in Geylang, at the notorious Orchard Towers complex known as "Four Floors of Whores" on one of Singapore's glitziest shopping streets, in numerous massage parlours and in explicit online ads.

Gambling is legal at two casino resorts that opened in 2010, at horse races and on soccer matches at state-run outlets but loan-sharking is a problem and, as the global soccer scandal shows, match-fixing has deep roots in Singapore.

Investigators in Europe said this week they suspected a criminal syndicate in Singapore was at the heart of a bribery scam to affect the outcomes of hundreds of matches at the club and national level over several years.

Authorities have stressed they are cooperating with the Europeans and take the problem of match-fixing seriously but have been tight-lipped about the details and extent of their investigation.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said "stern action has been taken" in eight match-fixing cases it has investigated since 2005, including the jailing last year of two South Koreans who used to play in Singapore's S-league.

"In all, 11 individuals were charged and convicted in court," the anti-corruption bureau said on Thursday.

"One prominent case in 2007 involved the Liaoning Guangyuan Football Club ... where the footballers were found guilty of having received bribes from the general manager of the club to influence the result of the matches. All involved players were eventually charged and dealt with."

In sentencing a mainland Chinese player in the Liaoning Guangyuan case to seven months in jail, the judge warned of the dangers to Singapore from match-fixing.

"Soccer is a sport with a wide following," District Judge Toh Yung Cheong wrote in February 2008. "Offences of this nature have attracted much public attention lately. If left unchecked, they are capable of tarnishing the image of Singapore."

The dangers are real for Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, who has reported extensively on match-fixing for The New Paper tabloid. He is concerned for his safety after his car was vandalised four times and over some "strange sightings of people" at his door.

"The vandalism only started when we announced Singapore was a hub for match-fixing in about May 2011," he said. "It could be coincidental. It could be kids. But other neighbours have not had cars vandalised, just me."

Little England folly at the heart of history

7 February 2013 - The Financial Times

Is this now really the end of history? No, not history in terms of the never-ending passage of events, but “history” as an academic discipline, the subject that is taught in our schools. Reading the government’s plans for the new national curriculum it is hard not to conclude otherwise.

The proposals, published on Thursday, look set to replace the existing breadth and ambition of coverage, critical method and historical debate with rote-learning of the patriotic stocking fillers so beloved of traditionalists in both main parties. Out goes the drive to cover a broader canvas, taking in European history and other civilisations. In comes a narrow-minded focus on British history alone – to the exclusion of everything else.

What is wrong with this, you may ask; shouldn’t our children grow up knowing the history of their own country? Well, yes, but they need to know about other parts of the world as well, and not just in the ways that they have interacted with Britain. Understanding the history and culture of other countries, as the present curriculum says, is an important way of learning tolerance and the appreciation of other people’s values. History should, among other things, be about fostering an inclusive, outward-looking sense of national identity, not what looks here like a Little England version of our national past, linked to an isolationist view of our national future.

Children taught by this curriculum will reach the age of 14 without knowing anything about the history of other parts of the world; they will not even realise how closely British history has been intertwined with it. “Britain’s relations with Europe” are bracketed with “the Commonwealth and the wider world”, as if Britain was not actually part of Europe, or as if our membership of the EU was as unimportant as our membership of the Commonwealth.

Worse still, there is no room in the new curriculum for a critical approach to the British past. The curriculum tells schoolchildren to celebrate “great innovators” such as Brunel, heroes of empire such as General James Wolfe, “the Enlightenment in England” (no room here for French thinkers, except insofar as they had an impact on British thought) and “the Glorious Revolution” of 1688, though without an inkling of the Dutch invasion. Nelson, Wellington and Pitt are all there; Tom Paine and John Wilkes are not.

The proposals coincide with the government’s new test for aspiring British citizens. This will include questions on our “long and illustrious history”, a celebration of the achievements of Margaret Thatcher (don’t mention the miners’ strike) and the contestable claim that the transition from empire to Commonwealth was orderly and peaceful.

In the preamble, the new curriculum claims that a knowledge of the British past “helps us understand the challenges of our own time”. But as soon as you think about what these challenges are, you will realise this is blinkered nonsense. The challenges we face are global: climate change, the threat of war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, financial crises, mass migration and terrorism, to name just a few. How can any child begin to understand why Britain would decide to deploy troops to Iraq, Afghanistan or Mali without knowing the history of these nations?

Worst of all, the document gives no sense at all of the fact that history is an academic discipline, like chemistry or physics. The preamble says, correctly enough, that “a high-quality history education equips pupils to think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgment”. But this is then completely forgotten in the rest of the document, like the similar lip-service given in the preamble to the need to “know and understand the broad outlines of European and world history”.

Far more central to the curriculum’s purpose is the programmatic statement that “pupils should be taught about key dates and events, and significant individuals”. This is the 1066 and All That school. The modern discipline of history, accurately reflected in the existing national curriculum, is being chucked out to make way for a mindless regression to the patriotic myths of the Edwardian era. This is dumbing-down indeed.

The writer is regius professor of history at Cambridge university

Ageing taxpayers owe the iPod generation

5 February 2013 - The Financial Times

The US has its fiscal cliff – the UK’s “iPod generation” faces fiscal drift. The dust is settling on an unprecedented three-way split in the working-age population, with the younger “insecure, pressured, overtaxed and debt-ridden” group paying the highest price. Established “life-cycle” consumption patterns have gone for good – a fact that will have profound and surprising effects on many sectors, and makes urgent the need for tax reform.

Those aged 55 to 70 suffered most in 20th-century recessions but things are different this time. Before, they were pushed into retirement; today, there are 600,000 more over-60s in the workforce than in 2000. This is in part because of falling annuity rates and poor returns to savings but also reflects tax incentives and increased demand in a service economy for older, dependable workers. Their buying power shores up everything from cruises to kitchen extensions.

Those in the 35-54 group, too, have done better. The longer-term unemployed of this age have even moved back into the workforce. Lower real earnings are often more than offset by lower interest on mortgages. Winners include manual workers in second-tier cities such as Derby and Milton Keynes.

This has been a recession of the young, marked by a class division within the 21-30 year-old iPod generation. The less qualified are insecure: the middle class are overtaxed and debt-ridden.

“Strivers” soon move into the higher tax bracket, a particular problem for those whose lifetime earnings are in the rising stage. With student loans to repay and higher national insurance, anywhere up to 50 per cent of their income might go on compulsory payments. Anyone who improves their position soon finds marginal tax rates increasing. Even those in good jobs find it hard to become owner-occupiers. This is the first generation that cannot look forward to rising housing equity.

The life-cycle effect that has sustained several sectors for 60 years will weaken. The iPod generation will be buying short-term: phones, fashion and holidays rather than home furnishings and cars. Reflecting their lack of cars and lower birth rates, they will want better-quality rented flats in city centres, reversing the drift of the past 20 years to rural locations. Nonetheless their consumer spending overall is likely to be lower, presenting a challenge to business.

For those less qualified, prospects are dire. The biggest losers are the young unemployed – joblessness is now at least 30 per cent or more for those with no qualifications. They are becoming a group that has never worked, and there is little in their attitudes to encourage employers.

For the iPod generation, tax reform is crucial. The UK’s independent Office for Budgetary Responsibility forecasts that, for the four years to 2016-17, revenue from income tax and NI will rise 23 per cent – much more than from sales, corporation and tobacco taxes. This is intensifying pressure on taxes on income, which weigh heavily on younger people.

The UK needs a more broad-based sales tax, covering even groceries – a frontier of public indignation. This is needed if wealthier pensioners and the buoyant over-50s are to pay their fair share, balancing their privileged access to benefits. In his book, The Pinch, UK universities and science minister David Willetts rightly stressed the importance of the intergenerational bargain – but this has deteriorated in the past two years. Only tax reform can redress the balance and halt the economic decline of a generation.

The writer is emeritus professor of health policy at Imperial College London and an associate at Volterra Partners

The language of love

4 February 2013

Thai authorities once again have shown that they have a) no sense of humour and b) no understanding of hypocrisy.

The Bangkok Post reported that Thailand’s Culture Minister Sonthaya Khunploem has asked YouTube to remove a video clip mocking the sex industry in Thailand. Actually it probably mocks American males more than it mocks Thailand, but Thailand's narrow minded officials have not recognised that.

The clip is a commercial parody of Rosetta Stone’s foreign language learning programme produced by the American late-night television show Saturday Night Live (SNL). In the video, foreigners are interested to learn Thai language so they have conversations and know how to say sentences like, “how much?”, “is that for the whole night?” or “how can I take off your clothes?” in Thai.

There is no smoke without fire. It is an easy target; but it is quite well done and does mimic the Rosetta Stone ads.

Oh yes - you want to see the clip!

Sonthaya will also inform the United States Embassy that the commercial spoof is tarnishing Thailand’s image and will ask the embassy to explain the situation to the SNL producers.

"The sketch misrepresents Thailand and its people," Sonthaya told Reuters. "We're working with the Foreign Ministry to let the U.S. know it is offensive and we have asked our information ministry to remove the clip."

Sonthaya is an expert on cultural matters in Thailand. His father was arrested last week after seven years on the run following convictions for murder and corruption, Chon Buri-based godfather Somchai Khunpluem is better known as Kamnan Poh.

Of course the government has dismissed the idea that any of the four sons would have known their father's location at any time in the last seven years. The sons are not without influence themselves: Sonthaya Khunpluem, already discussed above is now culture minister; Wittaya Khunpluem is president of Chon Buri's Provincial Administrative Organisation; Itthiphol Khunpluem is mayor of Pattaya; and Narongchai Khunpluem is mayor of Saensuk.

Now back to the video: the Nation reports that "YouTube has removed the "Rosetta Stone Thai" spoof video" adding that Apinand Poshaya-nond, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Culture, has confirmed the removal yesterday.

Of course it has not been removed. It is still there. It will be there forever. And that fact that the Culture Ministry has made such a fuss about it is why so many more people will now have seen it.

The TAT Amazing Thailand videos are not working. 20 million plus tourists a year see a very different Thailand - much better reflected in The Hangover 2 or by SNL.

Simple message: The antidote to ridicule is change.

1485 and all that

4 February 2013

A skeleton with a cleaved skull and a curved spine entombed under a car park is that of Richard III, scientific tests confirmed, solving a 500-year-old mystery about the final resting place of the last English king to die in battle.

Richard, depicted by William Shakespeare as a monstrous tyrant who murdered two princes in the Tower of London, was killed fighting his eventual successor Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in central England in 1485.

In one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of recent times, a team from the University of Leicester said evidence showed that a skeleton found last year during excavations of a mediaeval friary under a parking lot in the city was indeed that of Richard.

After a detailed academic presentation focusing on the life, wounds and physique of Richard III, the lead archaeologist on the project, Richard Buckley, announced his conclusion to cheers and applause.

"It's the academic conclusion of the University of Leicester that beyond reasonable doubt the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England," Buckley said.

Academics said DNA taken from the body matched that of Michael Ibsen, a Canadian-born furniture maker in London who genealogists said was the direct descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York.

The skeleton showed signs of injuries consistent with wounds received in battle; a bladed implement appeared to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull while a barbed metal arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton's upper back.

While the findings may solve one riddle about Richard, the last Plantagenet king of England remains a complex figure whose life, made famous by Shakespeare's history play, deeply divides opinion among historians in Britain and abroad.

Etihad Airways 2012 profit up 200%

4 February 2013

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways said full-year net profits for 2012 increased 200 percent to US$42m from US$14m the previous year.

The airline does not publish audited financial statements so these numbers should be treated with caution.

Etihad, which has expanded globally through stake purchases in the likes of Air Berlin and Virgin Australia, said revenue increased 17 percent to US$4.8bn, while passenger numbers rose 23 percent to 10.3m.

“It’s been strong organic growth in our own right because every year the Etihad brand continues to mature and continues to improve,” James Hogan, president and CEO of Etihad Airways, told Arabian Business.

“In regards to our codeshare strategy – our 40 codeshare partners – and our equity investment partners, they represent 20 percent of our total revenues and the key there is stretching our network at the end of our system,” he added.

Equity and codeshare partners added 1.2m passengers to the airline’s network during the 12-month period. Etihad’s stake in German carrier Air Berlin contributed an additional 300,000 passengers and US$130m to the two airline’s networks.

Cargo tonnage for the full year increased 19 percent, said the airline.

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier is currently in talks with Jet Airways to purchase a stake in the Indian airline and recently doubled its stake in Virgin Australia to 10 percent.

The airline said it has secured more than US$6.8bn in cumulative funding for its expansion and will continue to grow its network as well as other strategic alliances.

“We had 70 aircraft at the end of last year and we are taking another 14 aircraft this year. We’re taking over approximately over 100 aircraft over the next 7-8 years so we continue to grow organically in our own right,” said Hogan.

“In markets where we are bilaterally constrained and have to wait that’s where we look at equity partnerships,” he added.

The airline, which hedged 80 percent of its fuel costs during 2012, said it is hedged until 2015. “We have a three-year rolling fuel hedging programme so we’re hedged into 2014 and 2015,” said Hogan.

Dubai Group lenders reject latest debt offer

3 February 2013

Dubai Group has seen its latest proposal for restructuring US$6bn of debt rejected by around 20 lenders, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

The investment vehicle, which is owned by Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, saw its offer of 18.5 cents on the dollar and a 12-year full repayment proposal rejected by around 20 lenders, two banking sources told the news wire.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank and South Africa's Standard Bank, later joined by Egypt's Commercial International Bank, began court moves in September 2012, after nearly two years of talks on reorganising the company's obligations failed to yield an agreement.

Under terms presented to the banks in December 2012, parent company Dubai Holding will buy out their debt plus that of any others in the same syndicate of lenders wishing to exit early, sources told Reuters said in January.

Dubai Group was hit hard by the global financial crisis in 2008 due to excessive use of leverage in its investments and a sharp decline in asset values.

After missing interest payments on two loan facilities in 2010 it spent years trying to persuade its lenders to extend repayment deadlines so that its asset values could have time to recover before it was forced to sell them to pay back debts.

The Dubai government walked away from negotiations in January 2012, dashing hopes of state-backed aid.

Of Dubai Group's $10bn total debt, $6bn is owed to banks and the remaining $4bn is classed as inter-company loans.

Dubai Group’s portfolio includes stakes in Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital, Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding and Oman’s BankMuscat.

Erme Estuary under a winter sun

30 January 2013
#samsungography panorama #low-res