ENERGY
Bahrain makes largest oil find
Bahrain, the smallest energy producer in the Persian Gulf, discovered its biggest oil field since it started producing crude in 1932, according to the country’s official news agency. The shale oil and natural gas discovered in a deposit off the island state’s west coast “is understood to dwarf Bahrain’s current reserves,” the Bahrain News Agency reported, without giving figures. The country currently pumps about 45,000 barrels of oil a day from its Bahrain Field, and it shares income from a deposit with Saudi Arabia that produces about 300,000 barrels a day, US Energy Information Administration figures showed. Bahrain discovered the offshore Khaleej al-Bahrain Basin as it seeks to expand output capacity at its wholly owned Bahrain Field to 100,000 barrels a day by the end of the decade.
ENERGY
Coal India hits record output
Coal India Ltd’s sales and output last month rose to the highest on record as the world’s biggest coal miner rushed to meet its annual production target, a goal that it missed for at least the sixth consecutive year. Output rose 9 percent from a year earlier to 65.58 million tonnes of coal last month, while shipments rose 5.5 percent to 50.08 million tonnes, according to a stock exchange filing on Sunday. That is the highest in records going back to 2013. Output for the year ended last month stood at 514.7 million tonnes, while sales were at 526.4 million tonnes, both falling short of a 544.3 million tonne goal. Boosting output is crucial for Coal India to meet rising demand from power plants, its biggest customers. An early onset of summer is expected to boost electricity consumption.
REAL ESTATE
Dubai developer to sell debt
Damac Properties Dubai Co hired banks including Barclays PLC and HSBC Bank PLC for a possible sale of US dollar-denominated Islamic bonds, people familiar with the matter said. The second-largest listed real-estate developer in Dubai is expected to hire more banks to arrange the debt sale, which might happen as soon as this month, the people said. The developer, which has two golf-course development deals with US President Donald Trump’s family company, in February reported full-year net income that missed the lowest analyst estimate. Hussein Sajwani, who owns 72 percent of Damac, was open to selling as much as 15 percent of his majority stake in the company, he said in January. Damac is the latest company in the Middle East looking to tap the bond market amid a busy start to a year for debt sales.
ENTERTAINMENT
Billionaire to sell resort
Malaysian billionaire T. Ananda Krishnan is considering selling a tropical-themed holiday resort in Germany as he seeks to focus on his domestic investments, people familiar with the matter said. Krishnan and business partner Colin Au are working with an investment bank to gauge interest in Tropical Islands Resort in Brandenburg, which houses the world’s largest indoor rainforest, the people said. They have held talks with some potential buyers for the project, which could fetch as much as 300 million euros (US$369.92 million), the people said. Tropical Islands Resort, located about 60km south of Berlin, was built in a former airship hangar and opened for business in 2004, according to its Web site. Its indoor and outdoor facilities stretch across 100,000m2, the Web site shows.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained