A shareholder waits for the start of the Deutsche Bank shareholders meeting in Frankfurt in 2017. The German lender this week sought to reassure shareholders and its staff after a ratings downgrade by S&P cast doubt on chief executive Christian Sewing's turnaround strategy and initially caused its share price to slump. AP Photo
A shareholder waits for the start of the Deutsche Bank shareholders meeting in Frankfurt in 2017. The German lender this week sought to reassure shareholders and its staff after a ratings downgrade by S&P cast doubt on chief executive Christian Sewing's turnaround strategy and initially caused its share price to slump. AP Photo
A shareholder waits for the start of the Deutsche Bank shareholders meeting in Frankfurt in 2017. The German lender this week sought to reassure shareholders and its staff after a ratings downgrade by S&P cast doubt on chief executive Christian Sewing's turnaround strategy and initially caused its share price to slump. AP Photo
A shareholder waits for the start of the Deutsche Bank shareholders meeting in Frankfurt in 2017. The German lender this week sought to reassure shareholders and its staff after a ratings downgrade by

Deutsche Bank and key investor seek to reassure shareholders after rating downgrade


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Deutsche Bank and its biggest investor sought to reassure shareholders and staff of its financial strength after a ratings downgrade cast doubts on its turnaround plans.

Shares in Deutsche Bank closed at an all-time low on Thursday as the fallout from past misadventures in investment banking haunted chief executive Christian Sewing's attempt to return the lender to its corporate banking roots.

A source familiar with the thinking of the European Central Bank, which regulates Deutsche Bank, and its top shareholder HNA Group Co of China, said on Friday they supported management in efforts to restore long-term profitability.

This followed a report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the US regulator viewed the lender as “troubled” last year, and a Standard & Poor's downgrade of Deutsche Bank’s credit rating to BBB+ from A- on Friday.

Meanwhile in Australia, federal prosecutors were preparing criminal cartel charges against Deutsche, as well as the country’s third-largest bank and Citigroup, over a $2.3 billion share issue. All deny wrongdoing.

Sewing, a Deutsche Bank ‘lifer’ appointed in April after the removal of former chief executive John Cryan, said in a letter to staff: “At group level, our financial strength is beyond doubt.” But he admitted the newsflow was “not good”.

S&P questioned Sewing’s ability to get Deutsche Bank back to profit by scaling back its global investment bank and focusing on Europe and Germany after three years of losses.

“We see significant execution risks in the delivery of the updated strategy amid a continued unhelpful market backdrop, and we think that, relative to peers, Deutsche Bank will remain a negative outlier for some time,” S&P said.

Credit ratings are especially crucial for a bank such as Deutsche, whose perceived health is important in winning business. Deutsche Bank is a big issuer of debt securities whose cost is highly reliant on credit ratings.

S&P had rated Deutsche Bank’s long-term credit at A-, on negative credit watch. That was one or two notches below most European competitors. By comparison, S&P rates Switzerland's UBS at A+ with a stable outlook.

Sewing also addressed US regulatory concerns following the report that said the Federal Reserve had designated Deutsche Bank’s operations as in a “troubled condition”.

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The WSJ report sent Deutsche Bank’s shares down 7 percent on Thursday to their lowest-ever closing level, valuing it at $22bn. They recovered by 4 percent on Friday.

Five-year credit default swaps, a measure of the bank’s risk of defaulting on its obligations, fell by 16 basis points to 172 basis points as its shares rebounded, IHS Markit data showed.

Sewing said Deutsche Bank’s credit and market risk levels had rarely been so low, speculation it was exposed to political uncertainty in Italy was unfounded and funding plans for this year were well advanced.

Deutsche Bank was well positioned to react to excessive moves in debt markets, Sewing said, adding that a series of enforcement actions by the US Federal Reserve were principally related to weaknesses in internal controls and infrastructure.

“We have made progress in remediating them over the past year. We’re not yet where we want to be, but we are steadily getting there.”

In a rare intervention following the US reports, European banking regulators said Deutsche had made “good progress” in its efforts to address regulatory concerns.

“The bank now has a tighter management team, good capital and liquidity, and supervisors are reassured by the plans they see,” a source familiar with the ECB’s thinking said.

Chinese investor HNA Group, which controls an 8 per cent stake in Deutsche Bank, said it supported the bank’s management and its strategy.

“HNA remains committed to Deutsche Bank's long-term success and looks forward to continuing to work with the management team in support of that goal,” a spokesman for HNA said.

Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away

It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.

The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.

But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.

At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.

The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.

Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.

And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.

At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.

And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.

* Agence France Presse

The biog

Age: 23

Occupation: Founder of the Studio, formerly an analyst at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi

Education: Bachelor of science in industrial engineering

Favourite hobby: playing the piano

Favourite quote: "There is a key to every door and a dawn to every dark night"

Family: Married and with a daughter

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Match info:

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Boly (57')

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Laporte (69')

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Director: Ruben Fleischer

Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone

Four out of five stars 

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Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

pakistan Test squad

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ABU DHABI TRIATHLON

For more information, and to enter the race, please visit www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.

TO%20CATCH%20A%20KILLER
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDamian%20Szifron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shailene%20Woodley%2C%20Ben%20Mendelsohn%2C%20Ralph%20Ineson%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

Results

Men's finals

45kg:Duc Le Hoang (VIE) beat Zolfi Amirhossein (IRI) points 29-28. 48kg: Naruephon Chittra (THA) beat Joseph Vanlalhruaia (IND) TKO round 2.

51kg: Sakchai Chamchit (THA) beat Salam Al Suwaid (IRQ) TKO round 1. ​​​​​​​54kg: Veerasak Senanue (THA) beat Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) 30-25.

57kg: Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) RSC round 3. 60kg: Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 30-27.

63.5kg: Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Nouredine Samir (UAE) 29-28. 67kg: Narin Wonglakhon (THA) beat Mohammed Mardi (UAE) 29-28.

71kg: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) w/o Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ). 75kg:​​​​​​​ Youssef Abboud (LBN) w/o Ayoob Saki (IRI).

81kg: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) beat Khaled Tarraf (LBN) 29-28. 86kg: Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Emil Umayev (KAZ) 30-27.

91kg: Hamid Reza Kordabadi (IRI) beat Mohamad Osaily (LBN) RSC round 1. 91-plus kg: Mohammadrezapoor Shirmohammad (IRI) beat Abdulla Hasan (IRQ) 30-27.

Women's finals

45kg: Somruethai Siripathum (THA) beat Ha Huu Huynh (VIE) 30-27. 48kg: Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Colleen Saddi (PHI) 30-27.

51kg: Wansawang Srila Or (THA) beat Thuy Phuong Trieu (VIE) 29-28. 54kg: Ruchira Wongsriwo (THA) beat Zeinab Khatoun (LBN) 30-26.

57kg: Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Zahra Nasiri Bargh (IRI) 30-27. 60kg: Kaewrudee Kamtakrapoom (THA) beat Sedigheh Hajivand (IRI) TKO round 2.

63.5kg: Nadiya Moghaddam (IRI) w/o Reem Al Issa (JOR).

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DUBAI%20BLING%3A%20EPISODE%201
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David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

THE SPECS

BMW X7 xDrive 50i

Engine: 4.4-litre V8

Transmission: Eight-speed Steptronic transmission

Power: 462hp

Torque: 650Nm

Price: Dh600,000

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

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