Business

DOHA — Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said Thursday that his company is helping to create jobs in the US despite an ongoing war of words between Gulf and American carriers.

Baker, speaking in Doha, also said he trusted American regulators to put passengers’ interests first as part of their investigation into the funding of the Gulf carriers.

US carriers have launched a complaint that Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates break the so-called “Open-Skies” agreement through receiving government subsidies.

The complaint is being investigated by the US departments of state, commerce and transportation.

Three US airlines, Delta, American and United, claim that Qatar, along with Etihad Airways and Emirates, received $42 billion (37 billion euros) in “unfair” subsidies to wrest business away from competitors.

Baker though said his company is good for America.

“Qatar Airways and the other Gulf carriers are constantly creating new jobs for the Americans by ordering more aeroplanes and expanding our network as we add frequencies into the United States,” he told reporters.

“We are also creating additional jobs and contributing to the American economy.”

Asked what he thought the outcome of the Washington investigation would be, Baker replied: “I am not person that should answer this question... it’s entirely up to the American administration.”  

But he added that he had faith in the regulators.

“The American administration is evaluating all the complaints of the three American carriers and the decision will be with the American administration,” he said.

“The American administration at the end will see what is in the best interest of the American public and not in the best interest of the three American carriers,” Al Baker added.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A rental company in Orlando, Florida, is offering "halal vacation homes" with curtained pool decks and rooms with prayer mats and copies of the Koran. 

A British company's app lists gourmet restaurants serving halal meat in London and Dubai, while a Boston-based developer's app offers travel guides for 90 cities with local prayer times and a compass pointing Muslims towards Mecca for daily prayers.

The so-called "halal tourism" market was once seen as a niche revenue stream, limited to pilgrimages like the multibillion-dollar  a year revenue stream generated by Muslim travelers to Mecca.

But now there's a movement in the tourism industry to widen the "halal tourism" market to cater to Muslim travellers worldwide, particularly those from wealthy Gulf Arab states.

Travellers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman will spend $64 billion travelling this year and are expected to spend $216 billion by 2030, according to a 2014 study for the travel tech company Amadeus. 

The study found that, on average, a traveler from these countries spends around $9,900 per trip outside the Gulf. For Emiratis, the figure reaches $10,400.

Reem Al Shafaki, a senior associate at the advisory firm Dinar Standard, said Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Dallas and New York offer a good example of what hotels are doing to better serve Muslim guests. 

They provide halal meals upon request, have Middle Eastern chefs on staff, offer rooms with spaces that allow for gender-segregated settings and have trained frontline staff on other cultural norms.

Dinar Standard has conducted webinars for Marriott Hotel staff on how to take care of Muslim guests, but Al Shafaki says the hospitality industry can also market to Muslims without alienating non-Muslims. 

"What some hotels and destinations are doing is that they're using the term 'family friendly'," she said at a conference this week in Abu Dhabi, which brought people from across the budding industry to explore the topic.

Halal in Islam literally means that which is permissible. Observant Muslims typically avoid alcohol and areas where there can be excessive nudity, like beaches and nightclubs. For women who adhere to Islam's modest dress code, swimming can pose a challenge. That means resorts that offer gender-segregated beaches and pools have an advantage.

Roberto Silva of Florida Reality Investments says the company took 50 of its rental properties and outfitted them with a few changes, like curtains around the pool deck, to make them more comfortable for their many Gulf Arab customers, who often travel as large families to Orlando for several weeks at a time and want to be near Disney World and other parks.

"I would love to do more... Los Angeles and San Diego, there are a lot of people going there, and also New York," he said from his stand at the World Halal Travel Summit and Exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

Along Turkey's southern coast, several all-inclusive resorts have expansive private beaches and pools for women. One resort even built a structure in the sea to keep people on boats from catching a glimpse. 

Malaysia is also aggressively seeking more Muslim tourists, promoting itself as "Muslim-friendly Malaysia" in brochures at the Abu Dhabi conference.

Elnur Seyidli, the chairman of a website called Halal Booking, says his company has served 43,000 customers from 75 countries. The website can filter requests to find hotels that do not serve any alcohol, or hotels that only serve alcohol in some restaurants. 

For meat, which should be slaughtered according to Islamic rules, the website offers filters ranging from food that is all halal, or halal meat available upon request.

"It's about permissibility... Nothing is 100 per cent halal in my opinion and nothing is 100 per cent non-halal," he told an audience at the summit. "Even for individual travellers for different trips, requirements may change."

For those not interested in a shawarma (grilled meat) wrap on the go, Halal Gems is an app that lists gourmet halal eats in London and Dubai. The app's founder Zohra Khaku says she's raised money by charging listed restaurants an annual fee. 

In Dubai, though, the challenge isn't so much finding halal food, but finding the best gourmet options, or as she calls it, "curated halal dining".

Irfan Ahmad is another app developer tapping into the Muslim market. His app, called Irhal, lists sightseeing and shopping as well as maps for mosques and halal restaurants. It also comes with a compass to help Muslims find the direction of prayer towards Mecca. 

The app, available in both English and Arabic, has been downloaded more than 25,000 times, he said, and covers 90 cities worldwide, ranging from Amsterdam and Athens to Beijing and Bangkok, as well as US cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York and Washington DC.

The idea was sparked by his personal struggles finding halal food in Europe, as well as not knowing when it was dawn or dusk in different cities, which affects Muslim prayer times. He's looking for around $1 million in investment to expand and include more cities.

"Just like any start-up, one of the biggest challenges is funding ourselves," he said. "We've been able to fund the entire project on our own by bootstrapping."

AMMAN — The unemployment rate in Jordan stood at 13.8 per cent during the third quarter of this year, according to Department of Statistics (DoS) figures.

The jobless rate among men stood at 11.1 per cent while it reached 25.1 per cent among women, the report said.

The unemployment rate among university graduates, including bachelor’s degree holders and above totalled 21.2 per cent.

The jobless rate among holders of secondary school certificates and above, recorded 61.7 per cent. Moreover, the jobless rate was 38.3 per cent among those who did not complete high school, according to DoS. 

AMMAN — Upon considering patterns and costs of travel in the region, it was obviously a viable investment to establish a low-cost carrier, an aviation investor told The Jordan Times on Monday. 

Adel Ali, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sharjah-based Air Arabia Group, said in an interview that low-cost aviation companies, including Air Arabia, have been the most profitable businesses in the aviation sector, attributing the success to being business focused. 

"We are determined to carry the maximum number of passengers and not to spend money on extras people do not want," he added. "Flying is not primarily for eating food." 

According to Ali, the price paid in the past by Middle East passengers travelling within the region was higher than that for passengers who were in transit. 

"More than 10 years ago, and prior to the introduction of low-cost carriers, there were only a few airlines serving the region, and they provided better prices for longer routes, making shorter ones more expensive," he explained.

So, for us, the fact that some people in the region were not even travelling was a good reason to insert the low-cost approach in the Middle East, Ali elaborated.

The CEO, who is Bahraini,  indicated that inter-regional flights is now easier and more connected prompting more people to travel.

"We launched Air Arabia in the United Arab Emirates in 2003 and the response was remarkable, because the country's multi-cultural population, 80 per cent of which come from different countries, always need to go back home and return," he said.

Ali was convinced that Air Arabia was a good choice as a name for the airline because that qualifies it to operate smoothly in the Arab world. The company has established hubs in Morocco and Egypt. 

Noting that the group had to position itself well geographically in order to link different areas in the region, he added that the low-cost carrier inaugurated in May 2015 a hub in Jordan due to Kingdom's closeness to East Europe.

"Jordan's membership in aviation agreements, such as the Open Sky Treaty with Europe allowing any Jordanian carrier to operate unlimited to any European airport, was a good reason for the group to set up offices in Amman," Ali elaborated.

Air Arabia Jordan has now flights to Kuwait, Jeddah, Erbil, Dammam and Sharm El Sheikh, with a new route to be announced soon to Medina Munawwara and another to Manama, he announced, noting that the entire group serves a total of 104 destinations in the world.

Aspiring to go for routes not run by Royal Jordanian, the CEO revealed that the airline applied to relevant authorities and was waiting for approvals to go for such destinations.

The group's hub in Jordan has a total of 100 employees, 99 of whom are Jordanians who can receive proper training to hold posts in other countries where group hubs have insufficient manpower.

"Over the past 12 years we simplified the aviation industry and contributed to stimulating the market where people who never travelled by air are now travelling every month," Ali  said.

He indicated  that the group has a fleet of 40 modern planes, two of which are based in Amman, and that another 40 are intended to join the fleet, noting that Amman's office operate some 23 flights a week, nine of which to Saudi Arabia alone.

"For us, we started with $13 million 12 years ago, and the group is now worth $2.6 billion," he boasted, describing that as a clear example of success in the industry.

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad on Tuesday said the chamber will organise an official visit for a "huge" Jordanian economic delegation to visit Tunisia next month in cooperation with chambers of commerce in Tunis, Sousse and Sfax, according to an ACC statement. 

In the statement, Murad described bilateral relations as historic and deep, expressing hope that the recent visit of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi to the Kingdom will bring a new phase of bilateral economic and commercial cooperation. 

The delegation will discuss developing relations between the business community in the two countries, establishing commercial and investment partnerships and expanding commercial exchange. 

The ACC president referred to several recommendations to develop commercial relations, including intensifying communication and joint work through exchanging legislation as well as economic and investment brochures to bring forward available opportunities for both sides and clarify the demands and conditions imposed on the entry of goods to their markets. 

He urged encouraging the exchange of investments in the commercial, production, service and financial sectors, considering that a basic way to encourage the exchange of goods and services.

He encouraged using regional and international agreements that Jordan is a signatory to because they bring "huge" investment and exporting opportunities for Jordanian commercial partners. Moreover, he advocated promoting those opportunities to companies in Tunisia. 

The importance of enhancing the role of diplomatic commissions in Jordan and Tunisia was highlighted by Murad, who stressed also the importance of promoting national products, resources and economic capabilities available to both countries and encourage the activities of the private sector to cooperate in the field of joint investment as well as sending economic delegations on the private and public levels. 

Murad stressed the importance of holding exhibitions to bring promote products of the two countries as well as establish regular transport lines between them to reduce costs and durations and benefit from the Agadir Agreement between Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia to enhance exporting chances from Jordan and Tunisia to the European market. 

He said there are many economic and commercial agreements with the most important one being the Grand Arab Free Trade Zone Agreement, in addition to agreements that connect the private sector in both countries, including the one signed between the ACC and the industry and commerce chambers in Tunis, Sousse and Sfax. 

Murad called for enhancing bilateral meetings between the commissions of the private and public sectors and their representatives of traders, industrialists, and businesspeople, voicing his chamber's readiness to offer full logistic support to any Tunisian economic party that sends commercial delegations to Jordan. 

Jordan has many productions and goods that meet the demands of the Tunisian market like medicine, phosphate, fertilisers, potash, and Dead Sea salts and products, Murad said, adding that the Kingdom's exports to Tunisia stood at around JD8 million during the past eight months whereas imports stood at JD4 million. 

DUBAI — A projected long-term drop in oil prices will drive fiscal reforms in energy-dependent Gulf states and spur public borrowing, Moody's Investor Service said on Tuesday.

The ratings agency also revised downward its projections for oil prices from $65 a barrel to average $55 this year and $53 dollars in 2016.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states grouping Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, depend on oil for around 90 per cent of their revenues.

"We expect that the impact of lower hydrocarbon revenues on GCC public finances will spur policy adjustments in 2016," said Steffen Dyck, a VP-senior analyst at Moody's.

"These could include reductions in subsidy spending and measures to broaden the non-oil revenue base," he added.

The UAE took the lead in June by liberalising fuel prices. Kuwait lifted subsidies on diesel and kerosene and other states are planning subsidy cuts.

Oil prices have fallen by around 60 per cent since June 2014 due to oversupply and weak global demand.

As a result, GCC states are expected to lose $300 billion in oil revenues, said the International Monetary Fund.

The oil price drop caused aggregate nominal hydrocarbon gross domestic product (GDP) for the six GCC states to fall by 11 per cent between 2012 and last year to $685 billion, Moody's indicated.

The combined current account surplus slipped to 14 per cent of GDP from almost 25 per cent during the same period.

"We expect that the GCC region will post a combined fiscal deficit of close to 10 per cent of regional GDP in 2015 and 2016, respectively, compared to an average aggregate surplus of almost 9 per cent in the years 2010 to 2014," Moody's said.

That would translate into a deficit of over $140 billion this year.

Moody's expects that all GCC states will borrow to face budgetary shortfalls.

"Overall [GCC] government gross borrowing needs will likely average about 12.5 per cent of regional GDP, or around $180 billion per year in 2015 and 2016," Dyck said.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have already issued bonds.

Some GCC states, mainly Saudi Arabia, have started withdrawing from foreign reserves estimated at $2.7 trillion by the International Institute of Sovereign Funds.

AMMAN — Joint agreements signed by the governments of  Austria and Jordan and by the chambers of commerce in both countries,  should be utilised by businessmen to increase the bilateral trade volume, Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad said Monday.

Receiving an Austrian commercial delegation visiting the Kingdom to discuss ways to enhance commercial exchange, Murad said the trade balance between both countries does not suit the brotherly bilateral relations.

Bilateral meetings between companies and businesspeople from both countries were also held to explore and implement investment opportunities, according to an ACC statement.

Murad said this visit reciprocates one the ACC organised to Austria in May, with the participation of representatives of commercial and logistic sectors such as tourism, communications and energy.

He added that holding bilateral meetings would lead to achieving positive results in developing economic relations, investment growth and commercial exchange.

The commercial exchange between the two countries is “very low”, said Murad, noting that Jordanian exports to the European country in 2014 reached a total of $1.2 million, compared to Jordanian imports worth $81.5 million.

He indicated that only four Austrians have partnerships with Jordanian peers in companies registered with a total capital of JD15.7 million,  making it important to develop the level of ties and translating them into joint projects, Murad added, noting that the Jordanian economy has many investment opportunities in vital sectors.

The ACC president also called for activating means to develop bilateral relations, such as enhancing the exchange of delegations and specialised commercial visits by businesspeople, merchants and industrialists, in addition to drawing up proper mechanism for exchanging information and commercial opportunities.  

Over the past years, the governments of both countries have signed several agreements aimed at stimulating bilateral relations and enhancing joint interests, Murad remarked.

He referred to an agreement on encouraging and protecting investment, another on industrial and technical cooperation, and an air transportation agreement, in addition to having other agreements between both countries’ chambers of commerce and industry, he said.

Murad also invited Austrian businesspeople, merchants, importers and exporters to get acquainted with the Jordanian investment-attracting environment and to benefit from incentives the Kingdom offers to foreign investors.

In this regard, he said that the investment environment in Jordan is supported by security, stability and several modern laws that encourage local and external investments, especially in qualified industrial estates whose products can penetrate the US market without customs fees or quotas.

Jordan is also a signatory member of free trade agreements that offer markets with a total number of 1 billion consumers, such as the European Free Trade Association, the Grand Arab Free Trade Agreement and free trade agreements with the US, the European Union, Singapore, Canada and Turkey, Murad indicated.

He praised the intensified efforts and the important economic roles of both countries’ embassies and chambers of commerce in enhancing bilateral commercial ties, according to the statement.

The president also expressed ACC’s readiness to cooperate and coordinate with Austrian institutions, investors and individuals who have intentions to visit Jordan by providing them with all forms of support and information that may contribute to enhancing the commercial exchange. 

AMMAN — National exports to the countries of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area and European Union countries declined by nearly 11 per cent during the past eight months, standing at JD1.7 billion compared to JD1.9 billion in the same period in 2014, according to the Department of Statistics (DoS).

Exports to the Iraqi market went down by 36 per cent, affecting the overall exports to the Greater Arab Free Trade Area in comparison with exports to the Saudi market, which increased by 12.5 per cent in a “record time”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

As for the rest of the commercial partners and economic blocs, national exports to the counties of North America Free Trade Agreement increased by 8.4 per cent in the past eight months, standing at JD702 million compared to JD647 million in the same period last year, whereas national exports to Asian non-Arab countries dropped. 

FRANKFURT — Germany's real estate sector is riding a wave of mergers and acquisitions, as market players seek to take advantage of low interest rates and the relative lag in property prices compared with those in neighbouring countries.

Last week, the sector's number one Vonovia threw its hat into the ring, announcing it was prepared to stump up as much as 14 billion euros ($16 billion) for rival Deutsche Wohnen if it failed to tie the knot with the number three, LEG Immobilien.

Deutsche Wohnen dismissed Vonovia's advances as "uninteresting and inappropriate", adamant that its 5-billion-euro merger with LEG would go ahead.

But the deal still needs to be approved by the shareholders of Deutsche Wohnen and some of them appear to believe the price is too high. 

The current battle is the biggest so far in a sector that has been flowing with mergers and takeovers for months. 

Since the beginning of the year, Vonovia, formerly known as Deutsche Annington, has got its hands on both rivals Gagfah and Suedewo for nearly six billion euros, boosting its portfolio to 370,000 residences across Germany. 

"This process of consolidation has gathered momentum over the past three years," indicated Konstantin Kortmann, head of the German operations of US group Jones Lang LaSalle. "Of the numerous small and mid-sized companies in the sector in Germany, there are still only five or six larger ones left." 

Decentralised market 

The momentum is being driven by the historically low level of interest rates in Europe, which make the financing of such deals cheap. 

But the steady rise in rents in Germany in recent years, albeit from levels lower than other European capitals, is another key factor, as unlike in other countries where rents are stagnating, they look set to continue heading up.

There are other aspects promising juicy returns for real estate investors. 

In Britain and France, for example, most of the opportunities are concentrated around the capitals of London and Paris.

But Germany's federal state structure means there are a number of cities — Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich or Stuttgart — that offer attractive opportunities to investors, said Christian Schulz-Wulkow, real estate expert at EY. 

"On an international comparison, price levels are still relatively low in a number of German cities, particularly Berlin," indicated Juergen Michael Schick, head of the German real estate federation. 

In the German capital, rents still average at just over 10 euros per square metre, compared with 22 euros in Paris or 70 euros in London.

Even in Munich, reputedly Germany's priciest location, rents average 18.05 euros per square metre.

Housing refugees

But not everyone is pleased about the current trend in Germany. 

"At the moment, we have real problems in the housing market," said Ulrich Ropertz, head of the German tenants' association.

The main problem was the availability of affordable rents, he told the business daily Handelsblatt in an interview.

"These problems will intensify and increase with the influx of refugees," Ropertz argued. Germany is expecting to receive at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year. 

"Companies are currently engaged in buying each other, but they're not building any new housing," Ropertz complained. "And the modernisation and upkeep [of the residences] threatens to fall by the wayside."

Nevertheless, industry experts believe the wave of mergers and acquisitions will continue. 

"Real estate groups are still comparatively small and the housing construction sector is still quite limited in Germany, compared with other countries," said Robert Halver, head of market research at Baader Bank.

"In this context, they'll try to form large alliances to unlock their strength," Halver added.

Schulz-Wulkown said there was not much more opportunity for tie-ups between listed real estate companies, so non-listed companies could increasingly become takeover targets.

AMMAN — Aqaba International Industrial Estate (AIIE) has been named in FDI Magazine’s list of “Best in Class” winners among global free zones.

It was commended in three categories: facilities upgrades, infrastructure improvements, and China strategy and engagement, according to an AIIE statement.

In its October/November issue, FDI Magazine, which is part of the Financial Times group, included both special economic zones and industrial estates in its list.

In 2014, Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) and AIIE came in ninth and 10th respectively in FDI Magazine’s ranking of Middle East free zones.

Among its achievements in relations with China, AIIE introduced ASEZ to investors in south east China of its own accord. It also signed a joint venture with the Shenzhen Chamber of Investment, and ASEZ and opened a Shenzhen office, the statement said.

AIIE’s managing entity, the Shenzhen Chamber of Investment and Aqaba Development Corporation have also signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and market an AIIE expansion area as a joint Shenzhen-Aqaba project.

The statement added that AIIE has so far created 1,000 new jobs and attracted investment exceeding $300 million, with these figures expected to rise to 3,000 jobs and $700 million of investment once the estate is full.