Category: Banking & Finance

Shares of the biggest U.S. banks fell, led by a 2.2 percent decline in Citigroup Inc., after talks to provide Greece with additional bailout aid failed and the Greek government imposed capital controls.The Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index slid as much as 1.1 percent, the biggest decline in almost seven weeks. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, dropped 1.9 percent and No. 2 Bank of America Corp. slid the same amount.Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called

|By TAP Staff| The English High Court has ruled in favour of Iran’s Bank Mellat in a dispute with HM Treasury and the decision clears the way for bank to pursue its claim of £2.3 billion in damages against the Treasury.According to a statement by Zaiwalla & Co. Solicitors, the law firm acting on behalf Bank Mellat, the Treasury plead as a preliminary issue whether, in light of the Judgment of the Supreme Court in favour of Bank Mellat that

|By TAP Staff| Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) secured a $1.5 billion term debt syndicated facility from local, regional and international banks.The nine year USD and AED financing was fully underwritten by Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Mashreqbank, Noor Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.In the syndicated market, the deal was well supported and oversubscribed where additional 14 local and regional banks participated in the transaction, the company said in a statement.This long-term

|By TAP Staff| Bahrain-based investment management firm Arcapita announced  the sale of a real estate portfolio of senior care communities with over 16 facilities and approximately 4,000 residential units located across the United States. The portfolio was sold to NorthStar Healthcare Income, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), for a transaction value of approximately $640 million, the company announced.The properties are one of the largest standalone portfolios of continuing care retirement communities in the United States. The majority of the

Dubai Islamic Bank has priced a $750 million sukuk with a five year lifespan, a document from arranger banks said on Wednesday, with the cost of borrowing reduced by significant investor demand.The wakala-structured deal, in which one party manages assets on behalf of another, was completed at a spread of 125 basis points over midswaps and carried a profit rate of 2.921 percent, the document said.The final spread was at the tight end of revised guidance of 125-135 bps and

|By TAP Staff| Network International, the credit card processing company owned by Emirates NBD and Abraaj Group is set to launch an IPO. According to sources, the offering would happen in the fourth quarter or in early 2016. The business is expected to be valued at more than $1 billion.Abraaj bought 49 percent of Network International from Emirates NBD for about 2 billion dirhams ($545 million) in late 2010. The unit serves about 70 banks and financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa

Top UAE banks paying off the emergency loans they previously took from the Ministry of Finance is a sign they now have ample liquidity and funding alternatives, according to banking industry experts.The UAE banks landed in a serious liquidity squeeze, after foreign banks withdrew Dh100 billion worth of funds from the local banks placed with them to make quick gains from the much-anticipated de-pegging of the UAE dirham from the US greenback, which did not happen. That move coincided with

|By TAP Staff| According to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the banking industry in the Middle East maintained double-digit revenue growth in 2014 with a 10.0 percent increase, stemming largely from major customer segments such as retail and corporate banking as well as international business and treasury.Based on the banks’ 2014 annual results released in the first quarter of 2015, the newest study is part of BCG’s annual banking performance indices measuring the development of banking

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) priced a $500 million sukuk of five years duration on Tuesday, a document from lead managers showed.The Islamic bond was priced at a spread of 110 basis points over midswaps and carried a profit rate of 2.843 percent, the document said.The final spread was at the tight end of price guidance issued earlier in the day of 115 bps, plus or minus 5 bps, over the benchmark. The order book was worth around $3 billion, the

FlyDubai’s debut Islamic bonds are signaling growing appetite for sukuk from aviation companies in the Gulf as they spend on airports and fleet expansion.The budget carrier raised $500 million this month in the first sale of the debt by a regional airline after Emirates, the world’s largest operator of A380 superjumbo planes. The issue received bids for more than six times the amount offered.Gulf cities including Dubai, home to the world’s second-busiest airport, are investing $40 billion on infrastructure such

Jersey Finance, the island's financial centre which acts as custodian of 1.2 trillion pounds ($1.88 trillion), is in talks with a dozen banks from China, India and the Gulf about obtaining a licence in Jersey, its deputy chief executive said.Situated between France and Britain in the Channel, Jersey is a British Crown dependency outside of the United Kingdom and the European Union.It is jostling with larger offshore markets such as Switzerland, the world's leading offshore private banking centre, to manage

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the largest lender in the United Arab Emirates, has appointed a veteran former Barclays banker to run its consumer banking business, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.Suvrat Saigal, previously head of consumer banking at Barclays in India, takes over from George Beatty, who resigned in January as NBAD's general manager of consumer and elite banking.An NBAD spokesperson was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.His hiring is the

Luxembourg is poised to test demand for Islamic bonds as the issuer of the lowest-yielding sovereign sukuk on record plans to become a regular borrower.The country has been “encouraged” by investor feedback and the market’s readiness and will begin working on its next sukuk today, Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said. Luxembourg, one of the smallest economies in the 28-member European Union, sold 200 million euros ($254 million) of five-year Islamic bonds in September priced two basis points below midswaps. That

The Saudi riyal fell sharply against the U.S. dollar in the forwards market on Tuesday because of a surge of demand for dollars in the spot foreign exchange market, where the riyal is pegged to the U.S. currency, traders said.One-year dollar/Saudi riyal forwards jumped to 90.0 points, their highest level since a peak of 91.50 points hit in March 2011, when the Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East briefly raised concern about political and economic stability in the

United Arab Emirates-based Amanat Holdings, a healthcare and education start-up, will launch its 1.375 billion dirham ($374 million) initial public offer next Monday, it said in a statement on Wednesday.The offer period for the flotation, in which 55 percent of the company will be sold to investors at 1 dirham a share, will run until Nov. 4, said the statement issued at a media event.Amanat is the latest company to go public in the United Arab Emirates, aiming to take

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) hired senior bankers from Rothschild and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) for its investment banking business in the Middle East.The New York-based bank named Majed Al Mesmari, previously at Rothschild, as head of investment banking coverage in the United Arab Emirates, it said in a statement today. Fahad Al-Deweesh has joined from British lender Standard Chartered to lead investment banking coverage in Saudi Arabia, a spokeswoman for the bank said separately. The new hires will report

Gulf banks are feeling the pinch of rapidly shrinking corporate loan margins, with some predicting a bounce in lending rates as soon as the first half of 2015 as the escalating price war bites into profitability.Lenders are being forced to cut rates and loosen lending terms to secure business as local banks, flush with cash as their balance sheets recover from the global financial crisis, seek ways to earn a return on their money.The conditions are a boon for the

|TAP Special| Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, who has been replaced by Emirates Investment Authority chief executive Mubarak Rashid al-Mansouri as the new UAE central bank governor, was a hardcore dollar loyalist and had all along resisted any change in the dirham’s peg to the greenback.The outgoing governor has served in that position for over two decades and the entry of a financial professional as the new incumbent is believed to signal a tightening of the banking regulations.But observers say

Three years after its first foray into the Islamic capital markets ended without a sale, investors piled in to buy sukuk debt from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) yesterday as the bank joined the governments of Hong Kong and the U.K. in selling debut Shariah-compliant bonds this year.The New York-based lender attracted bids for three times the $500 million of sukuk it sold yesterday, according to two people familiar with the deal, who asked not to be identified because the

|By TAP Staff| Qatar National Bank announced the acquisition of an additional holding of 11 percent shares in pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank). The cost of the additional holding is equivalent to $283 million.QNB Group’s total stake in Ecobank is now 23.5 percent. This enables QNB Group to become the largest shareholder whilst strengthening the partnership with Ecobank, a leading pan-African bank and is a fundamental step towards QNB’s strategy of being a MEA Icon by 2017.The acquisition was

By K Raveendran at CeBIT Eurasia, IstanbulTurkey’s Aktif Bank has no branches. In fact, in 2007, when the bank embarked on its journey, it did not even have a signboard.But today, the bank has one of the country’s fastest growing customer bases and every man on the street is its potential customer.Modelled as a ‘shop in shop’, its products and services are sold by thousands of retail outlets across Turkey, who can offer on the spot credit to buyers who

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank , the fourth-largest lender by market value in the United Arab Emirates, has set initial price thoughts for a benchmark five-year bond issue in the 95 basis points area over midswaps, a document from leads showed on Tuesday.ADCB, which is expecting ratings of A/A-plus from Standard & Poor's and Fitch, has picked Barclays, ING, JP Morgan and Mizuho to arrange the bond sale, which is expected to price on Tuesday, the document said.The U.S. dollar bond

Dubai Islamic Bank has ruled out seeking a controlling stake in Bank Panin Syariah, and its plans are limited to raising its stake in the Indonesian lender to 40 percent from 25 percent now, its chief executive said on Tuesday.Dubai Islamic, the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates, bought 2.42 billion shares in the listed sharia-compliant lender in June, its first foray into southeast Asia."It's currently at 25 percent and we want to go up to 40 percent.

Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai's largest lender, plans to sell a benchmark-sized capital-boosting bond, a document from lead managers said on Monday, looking to take advantage of favourable markets to strengthen its reserves.ENBD has chosen Citigroup, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and its own investment banking arm to arrange investor meetings ahead of a potential issue, the document said, confirming what banking sources told Reuters earlier on Monday.The U.S. dollar-denominated bond, which will boost the bank's Tier 1 -