Emirates orders 50 Airbus A350 jets in a revised deal worth $16 billion - CNBC

An Airbus A380-800 passenger plane of the Emirates Airlines at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport.

Mikhail Tereshchenko | TASS | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Emirates has ordered 50 Airbus A350 jets, the Dubai state-owned airline announced at the Dubai Air Show on Monday.

The order's list price sits at $16 billion, but a steep discount is typically negotiated by airlines. The deal was originally slated to see Emirates order 70 planes from the French manufacturer — 40 of the A350s and 30 A330-900neo jets — but all A330 orders were scrapped in favor of bringing the A350 order size to 50.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told a press conference that the European multinational planemaker's flagship A380 would now have a "younger but very talented brother in the Emirates family."

The A350 is a family of long-range, twin-engine wide-body jet airliners, while the A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. The 50 jets ordered by Emirates are its cornerstone A350-900 variety, accommodating between 300 and 350 passengers.

"Complementing our A380s and 777s, the A350s will give us added operational flexibility in terms of capacity, range and deployment," Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told press. "In effect, we are strengthening our business model to provide efficient and comfortable air transport services to, and through, our Dubai hub."

The announcement of the order comes after an underwhelming first day for the Middle East's flagship aerospace expo, with only two jets sold on Sunday.

The Emirates CEO declined to discuss the reasons behind the company's A330 order cancellation, saying only, "For anybody touching on the A330, that is not part of the discussion today."

The A330-900 is a slightly thinner variant of the A350-900, carrying less passengers and with a slightly slower cruising speed. The A350 is more expensive but lighter, meaning less fuel costs and more savings over time, aviation analysts say.

Emirates is the number one buyer of Airbus' iconic A380, the world's largest airliner, but its cutback on orders of the jumbo jet early this year led the French manufacturer to announce it would scrap its production. Aviation analysts called it the "end of an era," as the industry's symbol of excess and luxury flight was sidelined for smaller, more fuel-efficient planes now increasingly preferred by airliners.

Asked if a reversal of the decision was possible and the jet's production might be continued, Faury replied, "The decision is in implementation now, we love the A380 at Airbus, it is a great plane and will continue to fly for decades, we are committed to supporting it. But no, the decision that was taken to cease production is not reversed."

The last A380 will be delivered in 2021.

Airbus Chief Corporate Officer Christian Scherer told CNBC on Sunday that the A380 was by no means finished, however, as the company turns to the secondhand market to keep the jet in use. Scherer described the A380 as having "many, many profitable years" to come.

The Dubai Air Show, known for record-breaking mega deals, is expected to see fierce competition for deals from rivals Airbus and Boeing, who each own approximately half of the market for large commercial airliners. But the American planemaker's presence has been subdued thus far, weighed down by Boeing's two catastrophic 737 Max jet crashes in a span of five months, which killed a combined 346 people.

Boeing's fleet of some 400 737 Max jets has been grounded since March, denting airlines' profits, forcing carriers to cancel thousands of flights and pushing up costs. On the air show's first day, the manufacturer announced a sale of two of its 787-9 Dreamliner jets to Biman Bangladesh Airlines, valued at $585 million at list prices.

Asked on Sunday if the 737 Max's grounding benefited Airbus, Scherer forcefully rejected the notion, telling CNBC: "This does not benefit anyone in this industry, the least of which would be Airbus... it is not good for competitors to see problems on any one particular airplane type."

At the start of the last Dubai Airshow in 2017, Boeing kicked off the event by clinching a major sale of 40 787-10 jets to Emirates Airline at a value of $15.1 billion.

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2019-11-18 09:29:00Z
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Mustang Mach-E: 5 Tech and Design Details That Stood Out - TechCrunch

Ford finally showed the world its highly anticipated all-electric crossover, the Mustang Mach-E. The vehicle, which was unveiled Sunday at the Hawthorne Airport and in Tesla’s backyard, marks a series of firsts for Ford and the Mustang badge.

It’s the first vehicle to come out of Team Edison, the automaker’s dedicated electric vehicle organization. It’s not only the first electric Mustang, it’s also an SUV. 

TechCrunch has had an up close look and ride in the Mach-E, the first variant of which will become available in fall 2020. While there’s a lot to highlight, here are some of the details that stood out.

Door handles

Ford went an entirely new direction with the door handles on the Mustang Mach-E. You won’t find any Tesla lookalike door handles here. The doors seem to be lacking handles at all. A closer look though reveals illuminated buttons on the B and C pillars. The front doors also have a small, protruding handle located just under the button to grab onto.

Pressing the button for the backdoor immediately pops it open just slightly. Then the passenger reaches into the ajar door to hit the latch. This might sound dangerous and apt for a crushed finger. Except there’s an immediate safety in place that doesn’t allow the door to close. TechCrunch tested it out.

Owners will be able to also use their smartphone to unlock the Mustang Mach-E. This phone as a key technology is new to Ford.

Tech tray

It’s a seemingly small detail, but so many automakers ignore that their customers have smartphones and want to put these devices somewhere other than a cup holder. Behold the tech tray, which has wireless charging pad.

The cup holders, located just below the tech tray, can be used to hold actual cups.

Infotainment system

The 15.5-inch screen will get a lot of attention, perhaps because its location and vertical placement is reminiscent of the Tesla Model S. But then there’s the physical dial placed on the bottom of the screen to control the volume.

While not everyone will love this feature, it’s interesting how this dial came to be. Team Edison was assembled in 2017 to do more than create a new electric vehicle. It was created to do it differently and much faster than a typical vehicle program.

How the look and functionality of the infotainment system was developed is an example of this newfound nimbleness. A group of just over a dozen people with minimal oversight started with a research trip to China. Further customer research revealed that people wanted native apps in their car’s infotainment system and they didn’t want to learn anything new, Philip Mason, who is on Team Edison’s user experience, said during a backgrounder event prior to unveiling.

A prototype of physical dial was put together quickly — no fancy prototypes — and research groups responded positively.

The infotainment system is also cloud connected, allowing it to show traffic in real-time in navigation feature, has natural language, activated by one of four “wake words” like OK, Ford, and allows users to create personal profiles. The system learns the behavior and likes of the user over time.

And the entire system will be updated and improved via over-the-air software updates.

Vegan interior

Ford is hardly the first to move away from leather for its interior. Tesla has dropped leather and the Porsche Taycan is also vegan. Now the interior of the Mustang Mach-E also qualifies.

The synthetic material is among the better faux leather materials TechCrunch has come across. Even the steering wheel, a challenging area for synthetics, feels good.

Frunk

A front trunk in an all-electric vehicle is nothing new. The Mustang Mach-E doesn’t have the biggest frunk on the market; it’s not the smallest either.

But there is something interesting about this 4.8-cubic-inch frunk. It’s drainable and plastic lined. Josh Greiner, senior interior designer on the Mach-E, was quick to note during a backgrounder prior to the unveiling that the frunk could be packed with ice and used while tailgating.

One more bonus item

Right above the steering wheel is a driver monitoring system. This might come in handy for the automaker’s eventual plans to offer a hands-free driver assist system in Mach-E.

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2019-11-18 07:41:15Z
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Saudi Aramco to sell 1.5% stake, valuing company up to $1.7T - Fox Business

OPIS chief oil analyst Tom Kloza discusses Iran's discovery of a new oil field, how large recently discovered oil fields will make 2020 a cheap year for oil, and the possibility of Iran announcing its discovery to undermine the Saudi Aramco IPO.

By JON GAMBRELL and MALAK HARB Associated Press

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco announced Sunday it will sell a 1.5% stake in the company as it looks to raise as much as $25.6 billion from the sale.

The newly released figures also revealed a valuation for the company that's between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion, a figure that fell short of the $2 trillion mark Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had sought.

Still, a 1.5% flotation could raise between $24 billion and $25.6 billion to help fuel the Saudi economy. Saudi Aramco announced it will have 200 billion regular shares, selling 1.5% or what is 3 billion shares.

Aramco set a stock price range of 30 to 32 Saudi riyals, or $8 to $8.50 a share for investors.

WITH ARAMCO IPO APPROVAL, CHINA COZIES UP TO SAUDIS

The company is selling 0.5% to individual investors, which will include Saudi citizens, residents of Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab nationals, and 1% to institutional investors, which could include major Chinese and Russian buyers.

A man walks near a compound for Saudi Aramco in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Aramco will announce the final price for the stock when the book-building period ends on Dec. 5. Trading on the local Tadawul exchange in Riyadh is expected to happen sometime in mid-December.

The highly anticipated sale of a sliver of the company has been generating global buzz because it could clock in as the world’s biggest initial public offering, surpassing record holder Alibaba whose IPO raised $21.8 billion on its first day of trading in 2014.

Saudi Aramco is the kingdom’s oil and gas producer, pumping more than 10 million barrels of crude oil a day, or some 10% of global demand. The oil and gas company netted profits of $111 billion last year, more than Apple, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil combined.

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The kingdom’s plan to sell part of the company is part of a wider economic overhaul aimed at raising new streams of revenue for the oil-dependent country, particularly as oil prices struggle to reach the $75 to $80 price range per barrel analysts say is needed to balance Saudi Arabia’s budget. Brent crude is trading at just over $63 a barrel.

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2019, file photo, taken during a trip organized by Saudi information ministry, workers fix the damage in Aramco's oil separator at processing facility after the recent Sept. 14 attack in Abqaiq, near Dammam in the Kingdom's E

Prince Mohammed has said listing Aramco is one way for the kingdom to raise capital for the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which would then use that revenue to develop new cities and lucrative projects across Saudi Arabia.

Despite Aramco’s profitability, the state’s control of the company carries a number of risks for investors.

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Two key Aramco processing sites were targeted by rockets and missiles in September, an attack which claimed by Iran-Backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen but which Saudi Arabia blamed on its regional foe Iran. The government also stipulates oil production levels, which directly impacts Aramco’s output.

___

Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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2019-11-17 11:41:19Z
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The world's most valuable company: Saudi Arabia puts $1.7 trillion price tag on its oil monopoly - CNN

In a statement Sunday, Saudi Aramco said it was aiming to sell about 1.5% of its 200 billion shares in a partial privatization for between 30 riyals ($8) and 32 riyals ($8.53) each.

That means Aramco, the most profitable company in the world, could be worth between 6 trillion riyals ($1.6 trillion) and 6.4 trillion riyals ($1.7 trillion) — making it also by far the world's most valuable company ahead of Apple (AAPL).

That won't be the only record to fall if Aramco achieves the higher price: at that level, the share sale would raise just over $25 billion, making it slightly bigger than Alibaba's (BABA) 2014 debut on the New York Stock Exchange, so far the world's biggest IPO.

Saudi Arabia is selling shares in Aramco for the first time as part of an economic diversification plan aimed at weaning the kingdom off oil.

Aramco has vast oil reserves and massive daily output. It holds a monopoly in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude. It made $111 billion in profit in 2018, and has promised to pay an annual dividend of $75 billion through 2024.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had reportedly sought a valuation for Aramco near $2 trillion. But low oil prices, the climate crisis and geopolitical risk have raised skepticism among international investors. Up to 0.5% of the company will be sold to individuals, with the remainder offered to institutional investors.

Aramco may need to heavily rely on rich local families, sympathetic sovereign wealth funds or major customers such as China signing up for shares. Reuters reported Sunday that Aramco will not market the IPO abroad.

The price for the shares will be set on December 5, with trading on the Saudi stock exchange expected to start later that month, according to Aramco's prospectus.

Wall Street's biggest names are advising Saudi Arabia on the privatization, despite pressure from activists who say financing fossil fuel companies will worsen the climate crisis. They have also urged banks not to do business with the kingdom because of its human rights record, including the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Aramco listed Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), Credit Suisse (CS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and HSBC (HBCYF) as joint financial advisers on the transaction. They have all previously declined to comment to CNN Business.

— John Defterios and Julia Horowitz contributed to this article.

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2019-11-17 11:25:00Z
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Saudi Arabia values oil giant Aramco far below original target - Aljazeera.com

Saudi Aramco has set a price range for its listing that implies the oil giant is worth between $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion, below the two trillion dollars the Saudi Arabian crown prince had targeted but still making it potentially the world's biggest initial public offering.

Aramco said on Sunday it plans to sell 1.5 percent of its shares or about three billion shares, at an indicative price range of 30 riyals ($8.00) to 32 riyals ($8.53) each - valuing the IPO at as much as 96 billion riyals ($25.60bn) at the top end of the range.

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If priced at the top, the deal could just beat the record-breaking $25bn raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in its stock market debut in New York in 2014.

Aramco's float is the centrepiece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plan to diversify the world's top crude exporter away from oil.

Aramco does not plan to market its domestic IPO abroad, three people familiar with the matter said, which suggests international roadshows will not take place.

"This will put the burden of the deal on local and regional banks," one of the three people said.

"This means most of the investors will participate as Qualified Foreign Investors in a Saudi transaction," another one of the people said.

Aramco finally kicked off its IPO on November 3 after a series of false starts. Crown Prince Mohammed, who had floated the idea of the listing four years ago, is seeking to raise billions of dollars through the deal to invest in non-oil industries and generate employment.

But the investment world is still trying to decide what the famously secretive company is worth. Analysts from banks working on the Riyadh bourse had projected a wide valuation range for Aramco of between $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion.

On one hand, Aramco is the world's most profitable company with a planned dividend of $75bn next year, more than five times greater than Apple's payout, which is already the biggest of any S&P 500 company.

On the other, it is a bet on the price of oil at a time when global demand is expected to slow from 2025 as measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions are rolled out and the use of electric vehicles increases.

Risky bet?

The deal is also rife with political risk, as the Saudi government - which relies on Aramco for the bulk of its funding - will continue to control the company. Prince Mohammed's reputation was tarnished by the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.

In addition, Aramco's oil plants were targeted on September 14 in attacks which initially halved its output. The firm has said the strikes would not have a material impact on its business.

The share sale is expected to be a huge hit among Saudi citizens who are being offered 0.5 percent of the company.

Al Jazeera's Economics Editor, Abid Ali, says many of the country's billionaires, some of whom were detained by Saudi authorities in Riyadh's Ritz Carlton hotel in a 2017 anti-corruption crackdown, are likely to also be big investors when the shares are sold.

"On that level, it will be a success, because on the day that the shares will be sold, the Saudi pension funds, investment funds, will pick up any of the stock that's left over," Ali said. 

But, he says, international investors are staying away.

"There are different ways to value Saudi Aramco. There's use of the oil price, free cash flow, and dividends. And on most of these measures, the maths just did not stack up. And many international investors didn't fancy being a passenger in a car that's being driven by the Saudi authorities," he added.

Retail investors have until November 28 to sign up for the IPO while institutional investors can subscribe until December 4, with company management going on marketing roadshows this week.

The Aramco listing means a year-end rush for equity markets with Alibaba currently taking orders for a Hong Kong listing that is expected to raise up to $13.4bn for the online retailer.

The Riyadh listing comes after initial hopes for a five percent IPO on the domestic and international bourses were dashed last year amid debate over-valuation and where to list Aramco overseas.

Aramco said the IPO timetable was delayed because it began a process to acquire a 70 percent stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2019-11-17 09:49:00Z
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Saudi Aramco IPO set to value company up to $1.7 trillion - CNBC

Amin H. Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, speaks during a news conference at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia November 3, 2019.

Hamad Mohammed | Reuters

Saudi Aramco has set a price range for its listing that implies the oil giant is worth between $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion, below the $2 trillion that the Saudi crown prince had previously targeted, making it potentially the world's biggest IPO.

Aramco said on Sunday it plans to sell 1.5% of its shares or about 3 billion shares, at an indicative price range of 30 riyals ($8.00) to 32 riyals, valuing the initial public offering (IPO), as much as 96 billion riyals ($25.60 billion) at the top end of the range.

Aramco could just beat the record-breaking $25 billion raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba when it made its stock market debut in New York in 2014.

Aramco's listing is due in December and the company said last weekend that it will sell up to 0.5% of its shares to individual investors. Speculation and delayed announcements on the public listing of the world's most profitable company have riveted investors and market watchers since plans for the float were first disclosed three years ago.

The oil giant has delayed the IPO — originally scheduled for 2018 — multiple times, reportedly over Saudi concerns about public scrutiny over its finances and because of the complexity of its corporate structure.

Analysts' valuations of the company have varied from $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion. In comparison, Aramco's closest U.S. rival, Exxon Mobil, has a market cap of nearly $300 billion and Chevron is valued at about $229 billion. When the IPO was first flagged in 2016 by the now-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he said then that he believed the company was worth around $2 trillion.

The Aramco listing would aim to drum up cash for a government looking to significantly reduce its budget deficit and diversify its economy beyond oil as part of the crown prince's Vision 2030 program.

The country's economy is still largely reliant on oil exports. Lackluster oil prices (a barrel of Brent crude is currently priced near $63) have prompted the country's budget deficit (the amount by which its spending exceeds its revenues) to widen.

In 2018, the budget deficit was forecast at around 136 billion riyals (or around $36 billion), according to the kingdom's Ministry of Finance. It's expected to be a similar amount in 2019. And in 2020, the kingdom expects the deficit to widen to $50 billion, the kingdom's finance minister said in October, according to Reuters.

—CNBC's Natasha Turak, Holly Ellyatt and Joanna Tan contributed to this article.

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2019-11-17 06:50:00Z
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Bill Gates overtakes Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world at $110 billion - Daily Mail

Bill Gates overtakes Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world at $110 BILLION after Microsoft secures a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon and Amazon’s stocks drop

•  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has topped Amazon's Jeff Bezos as richest person in the world
• Gates has a total net worth of $110 billion, while Bezos has $109 billion as of Friday
• Gates gained the title briefly in October, but this is his first official reclamation in more than two years
• Microsoft shares are up almost 48 percent this year and the company signed a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon 
• Bezos took a financial hit after his divorce from longtime spouse Mackenzie Bezos this year 

By Lauren Edmonds For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:08 GMT, 16 November 2019 | Updated: 15:21 GMT, 16 November 2019

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has surpassed Amazon's Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, reclaiming the distinction for the first time in more than two years. 

As of Friday, the Bloomberg Billionaire Index reported the Gates' total net worth comes in at a staggering $110 billion. 

Gates' was able to regain the title because Microsoft shares are up almost 48 percent this year and a recent gain of $485 million, helping bolster the tech company's value. 

Microsoft's Bill Gates (left) has officially topped Amazon's Jeff Bezos (right) as the richest person in the world with a total net worth of $110 billion

Microsoft also beat out Amazon for a lucrative $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Pentagon. 

The contract -named Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI- includes Microsoft providing cloud storage of sensitive military data and technology for the Department of Defense over a 10 year period. 

Awarding the contract to Microsoft was a huge loss for Amazon and marked another notch in the ongoing war between the two global tech giants. 

Gates' (pictured) company Microsoft secured a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon in October, upsetting Amazon's attempt to confirm the deal 

World's 10 richest people 

The Bloomberg Billionaire Index lists the following: 

1. Bill Gates - $110 billion

2. Jeff Bezos -$109 billion 

3. Bernard Arnault - $103 billion

4. Warren Buffet - $86.6 billion

5. Mark Zuckerberg - $74.5 billion

6. Amancio Ortega - $67.6 billion

7. Larry Page - $64.3 billion

8. Sergey Brin - $62.4 billion 

9. Charles Koch - 61.7 billion

10.  Julia Flesher Koch - $61.7 billion

Gates briefly bested Bezos last month when Amazon reported that profits for the three months ending in September dropped almost 28 percent last year.   

Bezos currently sits in second place with a total net worth of $109 billion, who at his maximum had a $166 billion in September 2018.

Amazon's stock is down 2 percent, according to Bloomberg, and Bezos lost 845 million. 

The Amazon CEO recently took a cut to his finances after his divorce from ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos this year.  

The settlement saw Mackenzie receive 25 percent of Bezos' stake in Amazon and became one of the company's biggest shareholders. 

She is worth a reported $35 billion, but Mackenzie has publicly shared her plans to donate a sizable chunk to charities like the Giving Pledge. 

In a letter, she wrote: 'I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.'

Jeff Bezos (right) faced a substantial cut to his finances after separating from his wife Mackenzie Bezos (left) in 2019 

Gates' has a similar philanthropic spirit and has given $35 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 1994. 

Recently, Gates spoke about a proposed wealth tax being campaigned by some Democratic political candidates, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 

He revealed he already paid more than $10 billion in taxes. 

Gates said: 'If I’d had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine. When you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.'  

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2019-11-16 14:08:00Z
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