Five talking points from the week in UAE business

Ian Oxborrow and Rob McKenzie take a look at staff cuts at HSBC, the Iata meeting in Miami, the top football brands in the world, the theme park race and Amlak’s meteoric rise on the DFM. HSBC in staffing cull, UAE safe? It's been a mixed seven days for the banking sector. A positive from a negative is that the UAE looks as though it could come out largely unscathed from HSBC's staffing cull . The bank is moving to cut costs and boost profits and sees "a significant reshaping of its business portfolio" as the way forward. This, however, entails cutting its workforce by 25,000, including 8,000 in the UK. The bank refused to say how its operations in the UAE would be affected, but the country was highlighted as one of 18 territories the bank is prioritising. Meanwhile, the ratings agency Standard & Poor's said in its latest report on Arabian Gulf banks that deposits with UAE banks are set to drop this year amid the lower oil prices. At least the result of this won't be "catastrophic" due to massive cash reserves in the region, according to S&P. Iata meeting takes off in Miami The International Air Travel Association's (Iata) annual general meeting in Miami has been a rich source of insight into the latest goings on in global aviation . As expected, the open skies row has rumbled on, with Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, taking the opportunity to point a finger at Iata itself for what he sees as not doing enough for the "freedom of the aviation industry". The Emirates president Tim Clark revealed that the Dubai carrier would be interested in sponsoring Fifa once the corruption scandal is cleared up, and also said the airline expects to double in size once it moves from Dubai International to Al Maktoum in Jebel Ali, which is planned to become the world's biggest airport. The chief executive of Airbus was likewise vocal, sharing his optimism that customers would be found for the A380 super jumbo after nearly three years without an order. The plane maker faces the fresh challenge of used aircraft arriving on the market after Malaysia Airlines said it would sell two of its six A380s. The beautiful 39th game The Brand Finance Football 50 2015 was released earlier in the week and its rankings came as no surprise. Manchester United came top , as they have done in the majority of English Premier League tables during the past two decades, but more significantly for this area of the world, five of the top 10 clubs have Arabian Gulf investment in sponsorship and ownership. Real Madrid, Manchester City, Barcelona, Arsenal and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) all have shirt sponsorship deals with Arabian Gulf airlines, and add in to this the recent sponsoring of the FA Cup by Emirates and there's a distinct Gulf flavour in the upper echelons of European football. If this influence continues to grow, how long will it be before the "39th game" argument crops up again in England? The proposal first surfaced in 2008 when the Premier League chief Richard Scudamore mooted an extra fixture in the league calendar to be played overseas. While he said in December he cannot see it happening in the foreseeable, the Italian Super Cup match between Juventus and Napoli in the same month was played in Doha. How about a 39th game in Dubai or Abu Dhabi? Seven Emirates should keep to individual themes In much the same way as a successful theme park has distinct areas – Tomorrowland, Frontierland, etc – so should the seven emirates distinguish among themselves as they try to attract visitors. That was the advice this week in a report from the consultancy PwC . "One of the challenges we see is that all the players in the country need to coordinate," said Philip Shepherd, PwC's head of leisure and hospitality for the Middle East. "Each emirate brings something unique. Ras Al Khaimah has got the mountains, something quite distinct with its wilderness, Abu Dhabi has the Grand Mosque and is carving out a position for itself culturally with the Guggenheim and Louvre museums. Competing would be a mistake." The implicit message seemed to be not that every emirate should go full-force into theme parks. PwC said that the theme parks being built in Dubai will have very little regional competition and could attract visitors from a pool of some three billion people in Asia and the subcontinent. Amlak hits the buffers - at last We wrote last week about Amlak Finance’s dramatic return to the Dubai Financial Market after its shares had been suspended for six years. The lender’s shares defied analyst predictions by climbing significantly as the week went on, and as this week started, the experts were again saying the stock was overvalued and wouldn’t continue its meteoric rise. But up it went. And up and up, hitting market limit for a sixth day in row, and was joined this time on its rapid ascent by Arabtec. However, as in most walks of life, what goes up eventually comes down again, and the slide finally arrived today. “There is no reason for this move, and speculation and gambling have now completely taken over Dubai’s market,” Wadah Al Taha, the Dubai-based chief investment officer of Al Zarooni Group told Bloomberg after Amlak issued a statement saying it could not explain why its stock had doubled in seven trading days. The days of volatility have returned to the Dubai bourse, so let’s expect more on the Amlak saga next week. Follow The National's Business section on Twitter