VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Starbucks' franchisee in the Middle East, Alshaya Group, is implementing significant job cuts at its coffee shops.

Kuwait is very keen on developing its Communications And IT Sectors.

As part of its massive restructuring plan, Dow Chemical Co has taken up several measures to increase the bottom line of the company. Dow has decided to review all the available options for its farm chemicals and seeds unit, which has been suffering from sales drop. Dow Chemicals is also considering an option to buy a stake of Coming Inc in a Silicon joint venture (JV). It has increased the dividend payout and is also in the process of offloading its stake in a Kuwait JV engaged in petrochemical products.

A global oil glut is building as OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia pumps near record highs in an attempt to win a market-share battle against stubbornly resistant U.S. shale production, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

Iran sees no sign of a shift within OPEC toward action to support oil prices, its oil minister said, adding its oil industry could ride out a further price slump to $25 a barrel.

Oil prices fell to fresh 5-1/2 year lows on Tuesday, extending losses after a 5 percent plunge in the previous session as worries over a global supply glut intensified.

Brent crude oil slipped on Friday to below $63 a barrel, its lowest since July 2009, on persistent concerns over a global supply glut and a sluggish demand outlook.

Global demand for OPEC crude in 2015 is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade and far below current output, the group said on Wednesday, pointing to a hefty supply surplus without OPEC output cuts or a slowdown in the U.S. shale boom.

Brent and U.S. crude oil each fell more than $2 a barrel on Monday to a new five-year low amid a rising number of predictions that oversupply would extend well into 2015.

There is no need to panic at the recent drop in oil prices, the secretary general of OPEC said on Wednesday, saying low prices would curb competing supplies and require the group to pump far more by the end of the decade.

Gulf Arab oil exporters will have to reform their state spending and make cuts in some areas because of weak oil prices, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia effectively started a global oil price war this month aimed at quickly denting U.S. oil output. Slowing a U.S. drilling boom, however, could take more than a year.

Saudi Arabia is quietly telling oil market participants that Riyadh is comfortable with markedly lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy that may be aimed at slowing the expansion of rival producers including those in the U.S. shale patch.

Indonesia-born and New York, US-based fashion startup Project Shoe lets women personally customize their shoes using its e-commerce platform and have the order shipped anywhere for free.

BASF SE, the largest chemicals company in Germany, is working on a bid for RWE DEA AG. DEA is the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) unit of German electric utilities company RWE AG.