The government is coming up with new initiatives so as to simplify the carrying business and to minimize the cost of doing business in Dubai. With these initiatives, Dubai’s economy is entering into a new development stage. Dubai is on its way to becoming a progressive base for all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Expo 2020 project of Dubai focuses on offering new opportunities to SMEs. World Expo first of its kind will be hosted in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The main goal of the Expo 2020 is to give 20 percent of all contracts value to SMEs. As of now, Expo 2020 has invested around AED2.4 billion in the SME sector and is planning to launch a new round of tenders; these tenders will mostly rely on SMEs for delivery.

The important agency that is supporting the growth of SMEs in Dubai is ‘the Dubai SME’- it is the Department of Economic Development agency responsible for developing the SME sector in Dubai.

Dubai SME CEO, Abdulbaset Al Janahi, mentioned,

“Dubai offers a unique model for creating a vibrant SME sector. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has set ambitious development goals in the 50 Year Charter including the establishment of the world’s first virtual trade zone targeting 100,000 companies, as well as the transformation of universities into free zones in order to promote economic growth and innovation. These goals offer exceptional opportunities for promising small and medium enterprises.”

He later mentioned, Dubai SME will continue to provide more opportunities to its members and also boost SME capacity by offering training and consultation and also support collaborations with the private sector and the government. Financial support is one of the important elements of Dubai’s offerings for small-medium sized enterprises.

The objective of the Dubai Plan 2021 is to increase the GDP contribution of SMEs to 45 percent within 2021.

Department of Finance Launches New packages

Back in May 2019, Dubai’s Department of Finance introduced five new incentive packages. These packages were launched to assist SMEs and to promote public-private collaborations.

The first incentive package, within this package, SME suppliers to government departments will receive a payment within a month and need not wait for 90 days for payments as earlier, so as to offer SMEs with more liquidity of AED1.6 billion per year.

Previous, SMEs primary insurance value was between 2 to 5 percent and within the second initiative, the value has been reduced between 1 to 3 percent.

Within the third initiative, ‘performance insurance’ – the final insurance rate has been reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent on every supply.

The fourth initiative allows 5 percent of government capital projects to be provided to SMEs.

The last and fifth initiative consists of providing AED1 billion to public-private based projects.

The first incentive package was launched in 2018 and Dubai had introduced various steps to minimize costs and promote business reliability and it is also building a new specific SME cluster that aims at business innovation.

Recently, Dubai SME, Merras and the Department of the Economic Development collaborated to introduce Al Seef SME District- an innovation center across Al Seef.

Swiggy is reportedly closing on a deal to acquire Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of online cab booking company Uber. The business was launched in January 2017 and is currently worth over $330 million.

At the time of launch, Uber India had high hopes from Uber Eats, however stiff competition from established giants like Zomato, and Swiggy made the journey quite difficult. Therefore, the San Francisco based company has decided to sell the ailing business to curb losses. The move will also help the Uber go for IPO with a targeted valuation of $120-$150 billion. Apart from Swiggy, reports have suggested that Gurugram based Zomato is also in contention to acquire Uber Eats. Swiggy and Zomato are arch-rivals in the online food delivery space; both of them are fighting very hard to increase their market share.

Uber Eats India is currently executing around 150,000 to 250,000 deliveries per day, generating around $200-$300 million in sales. On the other hand, Swiggy and Zomato manage to squeeze out business almost four or five times of Uber’s numbers. Uber’s delivery arm is currently ranked 3^rd, ahead of Foodpanda, owned by rival ride-booking company Ola.

Uber reported a loss $1.8 billion for 2018, and it desperately wants to shed loss-making units away before it goes for the IPO in India. Reports have surfaced that Uber Eats in India was losing about $15 to $20 million per month. Contrasting to the recent developments, Uber Eats had said last year that India is one of the fastest growing markets, claiming that it was adding 4,500 delivery personnel per week, an adding 100 restaurants a day in the country.

India is one of the markets where Uber still suffers high losses. It has already sold businesses in China, Russia, and Southeast Asia to rivals, to curb losses. Contrastingly the market leaders, Swiggy and Zomato are reportedly losing $30-$40 million each month. The two main reasons for these losses are the regular discounts given to customers to attract them, and high incentives to delivery personnel.

Experts have been projecting a market consolidation, sooner or later. The food delivery space offers razor-thin margins; large scale competition is causing companies to bleed. Uber Eats was also rumored to consolidate with Ola’s Foodpanda, as both have a common investor in Softbank which holds substantial shares in both firms.

The transaction, if completed, will be the first move towards sector consolidated of food delivery space in India. Though Zomato is trying too, Swiggy is expected to close the deal as early as next month. This will be the Bangalore based company’s largest acquisition till date, and will also be Uber’s first divestment of its food business globally. Uber its is estimated to be valued at around $20 billion, and the business generates $1.5 billion in revenues.

The transaction is most likely to be structured as a share-swap deal, with Uber accepting shares in Swiggy as contract remuneration. Uber is expected to get 10% shares in Swiggy. The Indian food delivery service company is valued at around $3.3 billion.

The Chief Executive Officer of Nordea Bank Abp Casper von Koskull has called on the critics of Finland based back to show patience and added that bank is well on its way to staging a turnaround in the fiscal year 2020. Nordea Bank has been in doldrums for some time, and in recent years, the bank went on an aggressive cost-cutting spree. The bank laid off workers, embraced technology and generally tried to turn it into a much more efficient organization.

However, the recent fourth quarter result has not gone down well with key investors and angry investors even went on to state that the less than satisfactory results were a sign that enough progress had not been made. Sampo, which holds around 20% of the bank’s shares, stated that the bank’s most important ‘performance indicators’ did not meet the standards of Nordic banks. Another investor simply said that the profit recorded by the bank in the fourth quarter was too low.

The bank’s CEO has now taken a swing at the investors and called them impatient during the course of an interview. Koskull said, “When I look at 2019, my clear ambition is that we have growing income and reduced costs. Markets are always impatient.” He went on to state that the bank is going to stage a comeback in 2019 and Nordea’s asset management division is going to have a big say in it. The CEO stated that the asset management business is poised to swing into profits.

The bank’s income has gone down drastically and has dropped to 9 billion Euros in 2018. However, Koskull has assured that the bank is looking at plenty of new avenues through which income could be boosted. Other than asset management, he believes the bank has the chance to get into segments in which it did not venture before. For instance, private banking in Norway and Sweden is one of the options he spoke about. He went on to state that the bank has a huge room for improvement and growth is around the corner. He said that in 2018, the bank’s traditionally strong asset management earnings did not go as planned and that gives Nordea an excellent opportunity to raise income in the coming year. Koskull is bullish about his hopes regarding the asset management business. He said, “I’m convinced we can get the asset management that has been shrinking. We will get that back; now we have a new starting point. We have the products, the capabilities in place. It doesn’t need magic to get that back.”

Apple’s former lawyer was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for insider trading ahead of six of the iPhone maker’s quarterly earnings this Wednesday

Reports say Gene Levoff exploited his position as corporate secretary, head of corporate law and co-chairman of a committee that reviewed draft copies of Apple’s financial results to trade illegally between 2011 and 2016.

Levoff was sole in charge of Apple’s insider-trading policy and was Apple’s named representative on many of its corporate acquisitions and subsidiaries. Levoff was familiar with the company’s trading policies, routinely sending emails to workers, reminding them not to buy and sell stock amid earnings announcements, the SEC said.

Prosecutors said that before Apple terminated his decade-long employment in September, Levoff made around $604,000 in illegal gains, including realized profit and avoided losses.

Levoff has one count of securities fraud, carrying a maximum 20-year prison term and a $5 million fine.

However, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges in the case as this was one of the rare instances of a senior lawyer at a major U.S. company being implicated in a crime. According to the filing, Levoff exploited his well-placed position to manage his Apple shares trading privately. He would gain access to the company’s periodic earnings results and draft public filing before release.

Antonia Chion, an associate director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in a statement, “Levoff’s alleged exploitation of his access to Apple’s financial information was particularly egregious given his responsibility for implementing the company’s insider trading compliance policy.”

Apple said in its statement that they have terminated Levoff after an internal probe.

Authorities also quoted that Levoff belonged to Apple’s general counsel and has long been a corporate officer of most of the major subsidiary of the Cupertino, a California-based company.

According to authorities, Levoff helped Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and his predecessor, Steve Jobs, ensuring the timeliness, accuracy and proper oversight of the company’s disclosures, including financial results.

The SEC mentioned that Levoff had broken Apple’s insider-trading policies on at least three accounts. For instance, in July 2015, he had allegedly learned about Apple’s poor iPhone sales report. At that time, Levoff almost sold his entire Apple holding, which was worth $10 million. After Apple released the quarterly report, its share plunged by over 4 percent. To that end, Levoff avoided a potential loss of approximately $345,000.

Apart from this, prosecutors also claimed Levoff bought and sold more than $14 million of Apple stock, including $10 million in July 2015 alone, after being given draft earnings materials but before the results were made public.

Apple confirmed that Levoff conducted illegal trades during his tenure at their company.

The tech giant clarified that it had initiated an internal investigation against Levoff after receiving a tip from the SEC in 2017. They ended up terminating him in September 2018 after placing him on a two-month leave.

Josh Rosenstock, Apple’s spokesperson, told Bloomberg that, “After being contacted by authorities last summer, we conducted a thorough investigation with the help of outside legal experts, which resulted in termination.”

The US attorney has also filed criminal charges against Levoff which could have him face up to 20 years in jail and a $5 million fine.

Charges against Levoff were levied in New Jersey, where authorities said the servers were located for firms that handled Levoff’s illegal trades.

The cases are the U.S. v. Levoff, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 19-mag-03507; and SEC v. Levoff in the same court, No. 19-05536.

These allegations are a black spot for Apple, which mostly had a clean record over financial reporting issues.

European aircraft manufacturing giant Airbus has decided to no longer produce the A380 Superjumbo, according to an announcement made by the company on Thursday. The cruise liner was Airbus’ big bet on its quest to become the king of the skies, but the sales figures have not quite been up to the company’s expectations. The Superjumbo is the world’s biggest airliner, and Airbus wanted it to be a direct competitor against the iconic 747 that is produced by rivals Boeing. However, the plan completely backfired as the airline industry went in a different direction altogether. Airlines are nowadays buying smaller aircraft, and consequently, the demand for large planes like the Superjumbo has nosedived. It is not a surprise that the company decided to cut its losses and stop production altogether.

According to the statement delivered by the company, the last Superjumbo would be rolled out in 2021 and no more after that. However, ending the A380 Superjumbo production also places thousands of jobs at risk and Airbus did say in its statement that they would soon dive into discussions with the unions regarding the matter. Over the years, Dubai based Emirates Airlines was the company’s biggest client and had ordered the highest number of Superjumbos. However, the airline decided to reduce the number of orders for the A380 Superjumbo and instead decided to go for smaller airlines produced by Airbus. That has, without a doubt, been the biggest reason behind this decision. The other major client is Japanese airline ANA, and according to the statement, Airbus will make 3 more A380 Superjumbo planes for them and 17 more for Emirates before ceasing production altogether.

The chairman of Emirates Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum expressed his disappointment about the developments. He said, “Emirates has been a staunch supporter of the A380 since its very inception. While we are disappointed to have to give up our order, and sad that the programme could not be sustained, we accept that this is the reality of the situation.”  The Superjumbo had been one of the most ambitious projects by Airbus that was aimed at ending the near monopoly of Boeing in the large commercial aircraft space and after a good run since 2005; the development of twin-engined planes badly hit the demand for aircraft like the A380. The talks about the end of production had been in the works for quite some time now, and it remains to be seen what the company does next to boost revenues.

Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co may soon unveil an alliance to combine forces on commercial vehicles and may soon expand to electric vehicles and self-driving technologies. This move may save billions of dollars for both of the automakers.

Ford and Volkswagen will be soon declaring the alliance officially on Detroit auto show. As per VW Chief Herbert Diess, these two automakers have spent the last couple of months discussing cooperation in vans and other commercial vehicles. He also confirmed that the alliance would not involve any transfer of share or merger.

They also have scheduled a joint conference to provide more details of the alliance.

The two makers have confirmed that they had been looking for opportunities to cooperate with each other closely due to the recent trade frictions in the United States, Europe, and China.

The alliance also highlights the growing pressure amongst the automakers globally to manage the costs and develop electric or self-driving cars owing to the changes in legislation in many countries adopting strict emission standards.

The slowdown in the demand of cars in large markets like the United States, China has made the automakers to think about the cost cutting and advanced technology. The scope of the cooperation is yet to be ascertained fully as the talks are yet to be finalized on the area of electric cars and autonomous cars.

The alliance will let the two companies leverage upon each other’s unique capability. There might be a pooling of resources by the two companies for autonomous technology, and Ford might license Volkswagen’s MEB electric vehicles platform.

VW has confirmed in the Detroit auto show that the alliance would help VW to gain access to Ford’s midsized Ranger pickup truck platform, as the primary objective of the alliance would be to explore more on commercial vehicles. But, that doesn’t mean the alliance would be limited to commercial vehicle and electric vehicles. They would constantly be looking forward to other joint projects.

Executives of both these companies have talked about the deeper advantages of having this alliance. VW could use Ford’s plant to make vehicles whereas Ford might use the electric vehicle platform of VW.

The tie-up with Volkswagen will be a significant step for the Chief Executive of Ford Jim Hackett since he took over in May 2017 from the ousted Mark Fields with the mandate to speed up decision-making and cut costs. And, Ford recently said that it would cut thousands of jobs and discontinue loss-making models in order to cut costs to be able to absorb the shock in the car market.