Rob McKenzie
Our monthly biz quiz spans shopping malls, sports cars, skyscrapers and Shepherd’s Bush. Take the test to refresh your memory, and test your recall, on the big and the small from April’s business and economics events.
1. What is the name, announced on April 2, of the bank created by the merger of First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi?
a) Abu Dhabi First Bank
b) First Bank of Abu Dhabi
c) First Abu Dhabi Bank
d) National First Gulf Bank
2. The food group Jab, which agreed to buy the US restaurant chain Panera Bread for $7.5 billion, owns all but which one of the following brands:
a) Caribou Coffee
b) Cinnabon
c) Einstein Bros bagels
d) Krispy Kreme
3. Fill in the blank, five letters: An Italian court halted work to remove _____ trees standing in the path of a pipeline that will bring central Asian gas into Europe, in a move that could further delay the $40 billion project.
4. A survey by the developers of Al Maryah Central, a new mall in the works for Abu Dhabi, said that what percentage of Abu Dhabi residents go outside the city to shop at least once a week (correct if within five percentage points).
5. Twitter said that it was dropping its default egg avatar for users, and replacing it with what as the new default?
Answers:
1. c
2. b
3. Olive
4. 30 per cent
5. A generic head-and-shoulders silhouette
6. Match the metropolis with its rank in the Knight Frank index of skyscraper rents in 21 cities.
a) Dubai
b) Hong Kong
c) New York
d) Seoul
1) first
2) second
3) 18th
4) 21st
7. Norway said it was planning to build the world's first ______ for ships. The answer is six letters, and 1,700 metres, long.
8. As of April 6 the French businessman, pictured at left, who runs the LVMH luxury group had risen onto Bloomberg's list of the 10 richest people alive. What is his name (clue: initials BA)?
9. And who leapt ahead of Warren Buffett to become the second-richest man on Earth, from Arabia to the Amazon?
10. Three Austrian brothers reworked a limited-edition Porsche racing car used in Steve McQueen's 1971 film Le Mans to run on electricity. How much were they planning to sell the EVEX 910e for?
a) €1 million
b) €750,000
c) €1.5m
Answers:
6. a3, b1, c2, d4
7. tunnel
8. Bernard Arnault
9. Jeff Bezos
10. a
11. Britain's Reckitt Benckiser was thinking of selling, for $3 billion or so, its division that makes which popular brand of North American mustard (clue: starts with an F)?
12. As John Everington noted in a mid-month gadget review, the battery on the new HTC U Ultra mobile has a capacity of 3,000 mAh. What does that abbreviation stand for (give yourself the point if you get even one right).
13. A developer whose chief executive loves London was planning to replicate its Shepherd's Bush district in what GCC capital?
14. Long before United Airlines was dragging bloodied passengers off airplanes, a legendary adman's agency in 1965 coined its then-clever, now-ironic slogan, "Come fly the friendly skies of United." Name that adman (clue: initials LB).
15. Asia's biggest retailer, Fast Retailing, on April 13 said that it had more than doubled its first-half profit. What is its flagship brand (clue: there's a q in it)?
Answers:
11. French’s (fyi, the picture at left is a mustard field)
12. milliamp hours, which measure current over time.
13. Muscat
14. Leo Burnett
15. Uniqlo
16. The Shanghai Motor Show opened to the public on April 21 – how many cars were sold in China last year?
a) 2.8 billion
b) 280 million
c) 28m
17. Harry Huskey, who in 1956 designed the Bendix G-15, sometimes described as the first personal computer, died in April. Within 50 kilos, how much did the G-15 weigh?
18. Uber reported its net loss for 2016, which was ...
a) US$28 million
b) $280m
c) $2.8 billion
19. Morgan Stanley reported first-quarter net income available to common shareholders of US$1.84 billion. In percentage terms, what was the rise on the same period last year?
a) 47 per cent
b) 74 per cent
c) 7.4 per cent
20. Germany reported its trade surplus for 2016, which was ...
a) €252 billion
b) €25.2bn
c) €2.52bn
Answers:
16. c
17. 450 kilograms
18. c
19. b
20. a
Scoring scale
16-20 correct: Steve McQueen level
11-15: Krisky Kreme level
6-10: Uber level
1-5: United Airlines level
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