Steve Hartley, executive director of private aviation specialist Empire Aviation Group, talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s approach to maximizing asset value and the flight experience in the Middle East and beyond.

The last few years have seen an unprecedented increase in new development in Abu Dhabi, matched by a dramatic rise in competition within the industry. Elie Saikali, GMO of Dhafir Development and Contracting, explains to Gay Sutton how the company’s management and operational principles have given it an edge in this challenging marketplace.

Alan Swaby looks at a now thriving business that was once rejected as having no marketing potential.

Like evolution and survival of the fittest, the beauty of the free market is that it encourages new life forms. Take the case of Andalusite Resources in South Africa as an example. It is now sitting on a successful and potentially very valuable business because the once dominant life force became complacent and relaxed its guard, enabling a new life form to gain a toe-hold.

With the collective appetite of the world’s steel makers likely only to increase, there has never been a better time to be the hand that feeds them, as Becky Done finds out in discussion with Michael Jones and Victoria Sherwood of African Minerals.

austriamicrosystems, a designer and manufacturer of high-performance analogue ICs, has acquired the Texan manufacturer Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions (TAOS).

The value of the deal is $320 million (approx. €226 million).

Starbucks Coffee Company has announced a new corporate structure to accelerate its growth strategy, which will take effect by the end of September.

The coffee giant, based in Seattle, Washington, currently has two business units, Starbucks US and Starbucks Coffee International (SCI), with 20 percent of its revenues earned overseas.

The new structure will include three divisions; the Americas, China and Asia Pacific, and EMEA, covering Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Russia and Africa.

Oil giant BP is to redevelop two oil fields to the west of the Shetland Islands, it has been announced.

The Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields have produced nearly 400 million barrels of oil since production started in 1998; and an estimated 450 million barrels of resource is still available. BP is planning to invest around £3 billion in redeveloping the two fields, with production scheduled to last until at least 2035.

The company said it would employ the latest technology to maximise recovery from the two fields.

General Motors is to invest $129 million in powertrain plants in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan as part of a $2 billion investment program in 17 facilities in eight states over the next 18 months.

For the plants in Toledo, Ohio, and Bedford, Indiana, which make transmissions for Buick and Chevrolet models with eAssist fuel-saving technology, this is a second helping of investment since May, bringing total investment at the plants to $287 million and $81 million respectively.

Greencore, the UK’s largest maker of sandwiches, has agreed a deal to acquire its industry rival Uniq in a deal worth £113 million.

Greencore said that Uniq represents an excellent fit to its UK strategy, which will help the combined group achieve greater scale in the food-to-go and chilled desserts markets, as well as adding add new and complementary customer relationships, in particular with the food retailer Marks & Spencer.

Uniq was put up for sale by its pension fund earlier this year after struggling to manage its pension deficit.