Business Extra

The chief financial and sustainability officer is optimistic for signs of recovery by year-end. Greg Fewer, Aldar’s chief financial and sustainability officer, joins host Kelsey Warner to talk about financial results from an unprecedented second quarter. They discuss what Abu Dhabi’s biggest developer and asset manager did to manage losses at the peak of shutdown measures, and how it plans to sust...

This week, Nassib Ghobril, head of economic research at Lebanon’s Byblos Bank, and Massoud Derhally, The National's business editor, join host Kelsey Warner to discuss Lebanon's precarious economic future. In this episode: Hassan Diab's resignation (0m 5s) Nassib Ghobril on Lebanon's economic status (1m 13s) Lebanon since the civil war (4m 17s) IMF bailout for Lebanon (6m 39s) The new government a...

On this special edition of Business Extra, Kelsey Warner talks to Mohamed Al Hammadi, chief executive of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, about the Barakah nuclear power station and UAE’s nuclear energy ambitions. In this episode: On the moment Unit 1 powered on (0m 47s) How nuclear energy fits into the UAE's Energy Strategy 2050 (3m 41s) When Units 2, 3 and 4 will be ready (6m 23s) Buildi...

New research from Microsoft found that the expectation of the 9 to 5 is starting to slip away amid the global shift to remote work. The US tech company, which owns email service Outlook and event manager Calendar, as well as LinkedIn and search engine Bing, has one of the biggest data sets on who we are and what we do at work. It mined its trillions of data points based on emails, meetings, search...

This week, The National's Editor-in-Chief, Mina Al-Oraibi, talks to Mustafa Alrawi about her interview with the International Energy Agency's executive director Dr Fatih Birol regarding efforts to diversify and reform Iraq's economy. In this episode: Mina on Iraq's future (0m 30s) Dr Fatih Birol about the investment environment in Iraq (4m 20s) Gas flaring and Iraq's government (5m 35s) Headlines...

It seems that despite the market volatility caused by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic that many sovereign wealth funds had learned the lesson of the last financial crisis and were nimble enough and cash-heavy enough to seize the opportunities out there. On this week's episode, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Zainab Kufaishi, head of Middle East and Africa at Invesco. In this epi...

This week, hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner discuss a third wave of economic stimulus for Dubai as signs of a rebound in commercial activity emerge and the emirate pushes to return business to normal as soon as possible.   In a new book, the World Economic Forum's founder Klaus Schwab asks if there can even be a return to normal as the pandemic reveals a collective desire for change. Haider...

For Google, it’s what you search for, what you watch on YouTube, the directions you prompt in Google Maps, that make it one of the biggest advertising juggernauts on Earth. Selling advertising spots across these channels made up 82% of Google parent company Alphabet’s first quarter revenue this year, $33.8 billion.  While advertisers are expected to have spent less in Q2 amid the Covid-19 pandemic...

How will we fly again? That is the question as the UAE and other countries in the Middle East grapple with loosening Covid-19 related travel restrictions. Airlines have been in survival mode these past few months. Now they must take to the skies again… This week, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Muhammad Albakri, VP Africa & Middle East at the International Air Transport Association, about...

Can there be winners in a global pandemic? For people, certainly not. But businesses can tell a different story - and Amazon is certainly one. With more customers at home and shopping online, Amazon’s e-commerce sales are booming. Remote work has also boosted demand for its cloud computing services - which accounted for three-quarters of its operating profit in the first quarter, with AWS holding...

Six of the world’s leading investors, a total deal value of $20.7 billion, upfront proceeds of $10 billion. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has secured the biggest ever energy infrastructure deal in the region. Also one of the largest foreign direct investments in recent years, all amid a global pandemic. This week on a special edition of Business Extra, Mustafa Alrawi talks to Ahmed Al Zaabi,...

The new reality for the world’s biggest oil producing countries and companies is being formed as the coronavirus pandemic alters projections for demand and consumption trends change. As UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei alluded to this week no one could have predicted the future would arrive so quickly for the industry.  Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talks to The National's energy correspo...

One of the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic has been jobs. Lockdowns and travel bans have put unprecedented pressure on the global labour market, with tens of millions of people affected. With a front-row seat to the life of the white collar worker, is LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform. In the UAE, about half of adults - 4 million people - are members of the...

Covid-19 has forced rapid transformation for healthcare providers and their patients. Host Kelsey Warner, future editor at The National is joined by Omar Fikree, the acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre and a VP at Mubadala Health Care as well as Sophie Smith, founder and CEO of Nabta Health in Sharjah, a healthcare platform for women, that provides personalised care using machine learning....

With the public health crisis has come huge shifts in how we live, work and interact. Some form of remote working is likely to become a fixture for many companies even as we take tentative steps towards easing restrictions.    Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined by Ali Al Sayegh, vice president of internal communications & employee engagement at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company...

The restaurant sector has for the most part been simmering on an upward curve this past decade in the UAE. The realities of the pandemic may have put a lid on this trend.  Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined by Alexis Marcoux-Varvatsoulis, a former chef and Foodservice Lead for MENA at property consultants JLL, and Ian Ohan, founder and CEO of restaurant operator Krush Brands, to...

As the world awaits a vaccine, technology is stepping in to help us cope in the meantime. To take steps to return to a new normal, health care tech, artificial intelligence and remote work tools are all being turned to and tested like never before. After years of hype over tech’s potential to take care of us - such as wearable health monitors and apps - has its moment in health care finally arrive...

As manufacturing and trade is disrupted by physical distancing rules and quarantine orders across the world, the resilience of supply chains for pharmaceutical and medical supplies, food and industrial and consumer products is in focus. Deploying blockchain technology could be the answer, according to the World Economic Forum. Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined by Nadia Hewett, b...

For the first time in history this week, the US oil price turned negative on Monday, plunging below zero as output exceeded storage capacity and subdued demand due to the coronavirus pandemic grinds the world economy to a halt. What does this mean and where do energy producers go from here? Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor in chief, and future editor Kelsey Warner are joined by The National’s ener...

From Tehran to Tangiers, there is a devastating toll on human health. Some 140,000 people across the region have been infected with the coronavirus, thousands have died and thankfully tens of thousands have recovered. Meanwhile, the pandemic is causing significant economic turmoil in the region through the twin shocks of disruption to trade and production and plummeting oil prices. The Internation...

NMC Health, one of the largest private healthcare companies in the UAE, is under pressure as dozens of creditors locally and internationally move to mitigate their exposure to the indebted group. Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor in chief, and Kelsey Warner, future editor, are joined by The National's Michael Fahy, who has been covering the unfolding saga. The 46 year-old company founded by BR Shet...

When should we expect the world to get back to normal? The People’s Curfew is underway in India – stalling commercial activity in one of the world’s most important economies and impacting people’s lives. Authorities are attempting to slow the spread of the coronavirus and are concerned the peak of the outbreak there is still weeks away. From Mumbai, India’s financial hub, The National’s correspond...

Globally, airlines and the people working in the aviation industry are in urgent need of support as the coronavirus pandemic grounds flights and closes borders. It will take hundreds of billions of dollars but that still may not be enough to stop many failing. In the UAE, the industry is saying it is resilient enough to cope. “As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we...

Mustafa Alrawi assistant editor-in-chief and Kelsey Warner the future editor speak with Robin Mills, CEO of Qamar energy, about the coronavirus’ impact on the energy markets. As the world makes concerted efforts to help with the impact of the coronavirus public health crisis on people’s lives, business, trade and commerce could still end up permanently altered. In this episode: The financial crisi...

For any tech start-up the aim is reaching a $1 billion valuation - but how do you get there and how hard is the path to unicorn status? We find out from someone who has done it. Hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined by Ankur Shah, who was formerly the chief financial officer of ride-sharing company Careem and departed this year once the $3.1 billion sale of the company to Uber had been...