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DUBAI:

Saudi Aramco’s planned initial public offering remains on track, the company said on Thursday, after Bloomberg reported that the oil company is preparing contingency plans for a possible delay by a few months into 2019.

Saudi authorities are aiming to list up to 5 percent of the world’s largest oil producer on both the Saudi stock exchange in Riyadh, the Tadawul, and one or more international markets in an IPO that could raise $100 billion.

“The initial public offering of a stake in Saudi Aramco remains on track,” said Aramco in an email. (RTRS)

NEW YORK:

US consumers who want Apple Inc’s newest iPhones, including its most expensive model yet, the iPhone X, may find fewer deals as wireless carriers are less willing to offer subsidies on devices in a saturated market.

New phone launches have long offered carriers a chance to gain market share by offering incentives such as free service and discounts. But customer defection rates fell to record lows in the last quarter as most people already have cell phones, a situation that creates less urgency to launch costly promotions to lure customers, analysts said. (RTRS)

SAN FRANCISCO:

Waymo’s case against Uber over swiped self-driving car technology appeared headed for trial after an appeals court on Wednesday rejected a bid to steer it toward private arbitration.

A US federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision that an arbitration contract with a former Waymo employee at the heart of the case did not apply to the legal battle between Uber and the self-driving car unit of Googleparent Alphabet.

In a second potentially hazardous legal turn for the smartphone-summoned ride service, appellate judges also backed a ruling Uber had to turn over a potentially damning internal report to Waymo to be considered as possible evidence. (AFP)

CHICAGO:

JPMorgan Chase & Co says it plans to invest $40 million over three years in neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides to create economic opportunity.

Bank officials said Thursday that poverty, racial and economic inequities, and a lack of opportunity are factors behind Chicago’s gun violence. CEO Jamie Dimon says it is incumbent on business leaders to collaborate with government and the community to develop solutions.

Investments will be used to help offer job training, finance neighborhood revitalization and expand access to credit for small businesses. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Verizon Communications chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam said that while last year the telco was taking a look at potentially acquiring a cable operator, “we’ve moved on.”

“A year ago we went through a process of looking at cable companies — but the fiber infrastructure isn’t there,” said McAdam, speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference Thursday in New York. For the future that we see that is going to need that kind of bandwidth, you’re going to need deep fiber in the network.

McAdam noted the company’s $1 billion deal with Corning under which Verizon will build out 12.5 million miles of fiber-optic cable per year over the

next three years. (RTRS)

TORONTO:

Canada’s Eldorado Gold Corp said on Thursday it received formal notice of arbitration from Greece, another advance in a long-running permit tussle, but the miner repeated more progress is needed for it to reconsider investment plans.

Eldorado warned on Monday that it would halt new investment in its Stratoni mine and Olympias and Skouries projects from Sept 22. It cited permit delays and a lack of clarity on an arbitration process that Greece announced in June to settle differences over mine development. (RTRS)

PARIS:

Luxury goods maker Hermes said Thursday that good sales momentum across all of its divisions and in all regions helped it achieve a record profitability in the first six months.

“The performance in the first half confirmed the positive momentum of the ready-to-wear and accessories and the silk and textiles business lines,” Hermes said in a statement.

Growth in leather goods and saddlery was “sustained” and the perfumes division also booked an increase in sales, it said. (AFP)

LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS:

Ryanair lost an EU court battle on Thursday in which the airline had sought to continue forcing cabin crew based outside Ireland to take their disputes to Irish courts, in a case with implications across the lowcost airline sector.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled in favour of cabin crew based at the Irish carrier’s Charleroi airport in Belgium on the question of which court should decide on their complaint. The employees took the airline to a local court, believing Belgian law would be more favourable to them. (RTRS)

BAKU:

British oil giant BP and energyrich Azerbaijan on Thursday prolonged their sharing deal for the Caucasus nation’s largest oilfields until 2050.

“This time round, the contract is being signed on better terms for Azerbaijan,” the ex-Soviet nation’s President Ilham Aliyev said during a signing ceremony in the capital, Baku.

Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR’s share in the consortium will rise to 25 percent under the new deal — up from 11.7 percent in the current contract, which was due to expire in 2024, Aliyev said, adding that foreign investors will pay Azerbaijan a $3-billion (2.5-billion-euro) bonus. (AFP)

FRANKFURT:

Volkswagen’s Skoda division remains open to teaming up with other players to help meet cost targets to build a low-cost car for emerging markets, its chief executive said, after cooperation talks with India’s Tata Motors collapsed.

Skoda, commissioned by Volkswagen (VW) to explore an entry-level car platform with a focus on India, and Tata last month said talks had ended after their cooperation failed to hit costsavings goals.

While the German group’s Czech arm has since been assessing unilaterally whether VW’s MQB A0 platform could form the basis for a low-cost vehicle, it is still open to collaborate with other players on the emerging-markets vehicle project. (RTRS)