Abu Dhabi // The car registration plate number 9 has been sold for Dh10million and become one of the most expensive number plates in the world. The total revenue for the "special-number" plate auction held by Abu Dhabi Police at the Emirates Palace hotel on Saturday reached more than Dh30m. The 81 plates auctioned also included the number 19, sold for Dh3.5m, number 77 bought for Dh3.3m, and the number 11111, which fetched Dh1.5m.
Brig Gen Salem al Shamsi, the director of privatisation and the resource management section, said there was an increase in the number of bidders this year. The money raised supports charity and social development projects. "The new auction season had a strong start, which shows that this season might include a lot of record-breaking plates," Ahmed Ahli, the successful bidder for the number 9 plate, said.
Organisers took extra efforts to make this season's auction unique, he added. The plates were presented in 3D with high-tech sound effects. "The new season shows a boom in licence plate auctions, which is a good economic sign," Salem Khalifa, another participant, said. hdajani@thenational.ae
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In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
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