Category: Economy

Hanco, a Saudi Arabian auto rental company, said it acquired U.A.E.-based Byrne Investments from a private-equity group previously owned by HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) for 600 million dirhams ($163 million).Hanco, majority-owned by closely-held Bin Sulaiman Holdings, is buying Byrne’s equipment rental operations and modular building services business from Dubai-based Havenvest Private Equity Middle East Partnership, it said today in a statement.Persian Gulf companies are stepping up acquisitions as financial markets improve and confidence in the economy recovers. Abu Dhabi National

Qatar's financial regulator has reprimanded Royal Bank of Scotland for insufficient training of its branch staff, it said on Tuesday."Although RBS QFC had a programme in place, it was deficient in a number of material respects and it fell short of the standards expected of authorised firms," the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFC RA) said in a statement."The QFC has accepted an enforceable undertaking from RBS QFC to establish a remedial action plan to ensure future compliance with its

Private equity firm Ithmar Capital, which manages over $800 million in investments, expects to close deals worth at least 1 billion dirhams ($270 million) this year as economies in the Gulf continue to recover from the global financial crisis, its top executive said on Monday.The Dubai-based firm, founded in 2005, invests in growth and buyout opportunities in Gulf-based or related companies."We expect to do deals in excess of 1 billion dirhams in 2014 in the healthcare and education sectors across

Dubai-based Souq.com has secured $75 million in funding from South African e-commerce firm Naspers, the UAE online retailer said on Tuesday.The latest investment by Naspers, which held a 36 percent stake in Souq.com as of November 2013, brings the total money the Dubai firm has raised to $150 million.Souq.com will use the new funds to invest in its technology and mobile services, it said in an emailed statement.The company says it is the Middle East and North Africa's largest e-commerce

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) posted a net loss of 2.52 billion dirhams ($687 million) for 2013 because of a non-cash impairment related to the value of its oil and gas holdings in North America, the company said on Tuesday.TAQA swung from a profit after minority interests of 649 million dirhams in 2012. As a result, it said its board had recommended no dividend for 2013; for 2012, it had recommended 10 fils per share.The one-off impairment of 3.25

Dubai Investments, a diversified manufacturer and investor in property, plans to increase the limit on foreign ownership of its shares to 35 percent of its total capital, the company said on Sunday.Foreign investors now hold 13.7 percent of Dubai Investments' shares out of the total 20 percent allowed, bourse data shows.The firm's shareholders, including sovereign fund Investment Corp of Dubai which has an 11.5 percent stake, will vote on the proposal at a meeting on April 15, the company said.The

Finland's Nokia, currently embroiled in an Indian Supreme Court tax case, said on Friday it has received a new 300 million euro sales tax bill from Tamil Nadu, a claim it considered "absurd".According to the company, authorities in the southern state had alleged that handsets from Nokia's Chennai plant were not exported but instead sold in India. Products exported from India are exempt from tax."Nokia considers the claim to be completely without merit and counter to domestic tax laws," a

The U.S. National Security Agency has infiltrated servers in the headquarters of Chinese telecommunications and internet giant Huawei Technologies Co, obtaining sensitive information and monitoring the communications of top executives, the New York Times reported on Saturday.The newspaper said its report on the operation, code-named "Shotgiant," was based on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden, the former agency contractor who since last year has leaked data revealing sweeping U.S. surveillance activities. The German magazine Der Spiegel also reported on the

Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s Merrill Lynch unit is hiring the head of VTB Capital’s Middle East cash-equity sales and sales trading in Dubai, Karim Nsouli, two people familiar with the matter said.Nsouli will take over from Veer Ramlugon, who handled Middle East equity and equity-derivatives for BofA Merrill Lynch in Dubai, the people said yesterday, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Nsouli declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News on his mobile phone, while

Junior bankers in the United Arab Emirates are reaping almost 36 percent more salary than their counterparts in London, with bonuses almost double those paid in the U.K. capital, compensation data provider Emolument said.Fixed salaries at the analyst level in the U.A.E. average $91,000, compared with $73,000 in London, the group said in an e-mailed statement. Bonuses in the U.A.E., which consists of sheikhdoms including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, averaged $27,000 compared with $14,000. For associates, fixed pay in the

|By TAP Staff| Gulf sovereign wealth funds are steadily increasing their investment into Western real estate, says property consultant JLL in a new report. According to the report, 2013 saw more than $13 billion invested in Western overseas property, surpassing the previous peak JLL recorded in 2006.London remained the favourite Western destination for real estate investment, with Knightsbridge, Kensington, Mayfair and the City being the most popular locations.  New York, Paris and Berlin are also popular cities.The wealth that is

Abu Dhabi, drawing lessons from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, is building “gold-standard” safety procedures into its plan to develop four nuclear reactors, a foreign adviser to the government said.The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, is investing in facilities for nuclear power, renewable energy and liquefied natural gas to cut its reliance on oil. The U.A.E. will be the first Arab state in the Persian Gulf region to have a nuclear plant if the facility starts

Dubai plans to almost double the number of hotel rooms by 2020 as it expects a surge of visitors to the desert sheikhdom ahead of that year’s World Expo.The emirate that spent more than $110 billion to transform itself into the Middle East’s commercial and entertainment hub is seeking to attract 20 million tourists annually by the end of the decade, Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said in an interview yesterday. To do

Competition is hotting up among low-cost carriers in the Persian Gulf. That’s according to analysts at NBK Capital, who say government-owned FlyDubai’s aggressive expansion is having a negative impact on publically-listed Air Arabia at its Sharjah hub.FlyDubai and Air Arabia already overlap on 40 destinations from their respective airports, which are just a short drive away from each other. In total, Air Arabia offers 70 destinations from Sharjah International, while FlyDubai launched 17 new routes last year from Dubai International

Russia's economy is showing signs of a crisis, the government in Moscow said as the U.S. and the European Union announced sanctions over the country’s support for the Crimea region breaking away from Ukraine.“The situation in the economy bears clear signs of a crisis,” Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said in Moscow yesterday. The cabinet needs to refrain from raising the fiscal burden on companies, which would be the “wrong approach,” he said. “Taking money from companies and asking them

|By TAP Staff| India topped Dubai's major trade partners with a total trade volume of AED 137 billion in 2013, representing a 10% share of Dubai’s total trade, figures released by Dubai Customs showed. China came second with a value of AED 135 billion, followed by the USA with AED 86 billion, that is a 6% share.Saudi Arabia rose to the fourth position with a total share of 4% amounting to AED 56 billion, followed by the UK with a

Toyota Motor Corp's  Indian unit has declared a lockout of its workers at two car plants after strained salary negotiations spurred workers to stop production lines.Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) in a statement said it has locked out workers at the plants near Bangalore since Sunday. It did not state for how long the lockout will continue.Over the past 25 days, some workers have stopped production lines and disrupted business as the management, labour union and local government failed to reach

Within 18 months of leaving his trading job to open a lunchtime eatery at the Dubai financial center in 2011, Nabil Al Rantisi was back: selling stocks and rebuilding one of the city’s largest brokerages.“I saw my window of opportunity,” Rantisi, managing director of Mena Corp Financial Services LLC, said in a March 9 telephone interview from Dubai. “Things started picking up in September 2012. By December, they were looking better, and then really started taking off in the second

Dubai is considering regulatory reforms to persuade more funds to base themselves in its financial centre, though industry experts believe that other parts of its investment environment may also need to change for the emirate to compete globally.The proposed rules would create a new class of funds in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in an effort to attract asset managers, such as hedge funds and private equity funds, serving the richest and most risk-tolerant investors.The DIFC has boomed since

Honda Motor Co is recalling nearly 900,000 Odyssey minivans that could catch fire, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a recall notice posted on Friday.In a March 13 filing with NHTSA, Honda said 2005-2010 Odysseys built in Alabama have a fuel-pump part that could crack and cause a fuel leak, increasing the risk of fire. The company said it has no reports of fires or injuries related to the problem.Because the recall involves 886,815 Odyssey vans, Honda

Dubai property prices rose by almost 35 per cent last year, according to the latest Global House Price Index by a  UK-based consultancy. Prices were just 25 per cent below their 2008 peak, it said.“Dubai recorded the largest annual rise in mainstream property prices with prices rising 15.3 per cent in the six-month period (Q2 to Q4 2013),” the report said.In February, JLL, a real estate consultancy, said prices were 15 per cent below the 2008 peak and could reach

|By TAP Staff| A Global Financial Centres Index compiled by London-based consultancy Z/Yen using assessments of financial services professionals has come up with a most astonishing finding: Dubai comes three points behind Qatar.According to the index, Qatar, Dubai and Riyadh took places 26, 29 and 31 respectively, but continued to rise in the index, while 23 of the 27 European centres declined in rank.New York has knocked London from its position as the world's leading global financial center after seven

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued 16 of the world's largest banks on Friday, accusing them of colluding to suppress interest rates.The lawsuit, filed in the federal district court in New York, was the latest to accuse financial institutions of conspiring to manipulate Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate.The FDIC said the defendants' conduct caused substantial losses to 38 banks that the U.S. regulator had taken into receivership since 2008, including Washington Mutual Bank and IndyMac Bank."The closed banks'

Qatar's tight rental market has made it the most expensive country to live in the GCC, according to a comprehensive analysis on the cost of living in the region. The report has found that in a like-for-like comparison of seven measures, Qatar came out the most expensive overall, followed by the UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.Qatar also emerged as the most expensive GCC nation for renting a car with a monthly fee of $2,773 to rent a small SUV

Pakistan’s rupee surged 5.2 percent this week, the best performance among world currencies, as the nation’s rising foreign reserves and improving economy buoyed investor confidence.The country’s currency stockpile climbed to $9.52 billion this week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said yesterday, from $8.3 billion at the end of 2013. The economy is on course to achieve the official target of 4.4 percent expansion in the year ending June 30, he said, after the prior period’s 3.6 percent growth. A planned global

Oman's central bank has told commercial lenders to avoid conflicts of interest when appointing board members and senior management, in a fresh effort to improve corporate governance in the Gulf sultanate.The move coincides with a wide-ranging government crackdown on corruption, which has seen several company managers jailed and fined for bribery-related offences."It is observed that some of the proposals, received of late, for approval of senior management and memberships in boards imply conflicts of interests," said a circular from the

Congress's investigation of a deadly defect in some General Motors cars widened on Tuesday, and a House committee ordered the automaker and a federal regulator to provide details on steps they took to get unsafe cars off the road.In another development, federal prosecutors in New York are examining whether GM is criminally liable for failing to properly disclose the defect, according to a source familiar with that investigation.The malfunction, which first came to light a decade ago and involves more

|By Rory Jones, Doug Cameron |The head of Emirates Airline said Tuesday that establishing a U.S. Customs post at its Dubai hub could create a logistical nightmare, just as the world’s largest carrier of international passengers ramps up for fresh expansion to North America.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in January opened a post in Dubai’s neighbor, Abu Dhabi, to allow passengers there to clear customs before departure. The move triggered a storm of criticism from U.S. airlines and

Qatar will likely face higher labor costs as a result of publicity about deaths of migrant construction workers building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, the International Monetary Fund said.Britain's Guardian newspaper reported in September that dozens of Nepali workers had died during the summer in Qatar and that laborers were not given enough food and water.Qatar, which has denied the Guardian's findings, has seen an increasing influx of foreigners, now estimated at 1.8 million, with its

Dubai's non-oil trade expanded 7.6 percent last year, slowing from 13 percent growth in 2012, but the emirate's trade with Iran stabilised despite U.S. economic sanctions, according to Dubai customs data released on Sunday.The non-oil foreign trade of Dubai, one of seven members of the United Arab Emirates, rose to 1.329 trillion dirhams ($362 billion) in 2013. The emirate exports small amounts of oil and imports natural gas.Dubai's non-oil exports and re-exports climbed 4.0 percent to 518 billion dirhams, while

Drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd  has recalled more than 64,000 bottles of the generic versions of its cholesterol-lowering drug in the United States due to reports of a dose mix-up, U.S. regulators said.Ranbaxy recalled tablets of atorvastatin calcium, the generic name for Lipitor's active ingredient, after a pharmacist found a 20-milligram tablet in a sealed bottle marked for 10-milligram tablets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on its website.The FDA declared a Class II recall, which signifies a

Feedback Infra, a technical and professional services provider in the infrastructure sector, has acquired Dubai Consultants for an undisclosed amount. This gives Feedback Infra an opportunity to strengthen its footprint in the Gulf region.Established in 1975, Dubai Consultants is among architectural and structural engineering organisations engaged by the government of Dubai and the UAE to design and supervise their major housing and social infrastructure drives.Feedback Infra has a strong presence in the Indian market across the value chain of Advisory,

Waha Capital PJSC (WAHA), the investor that owns a stake in plane-leasing company Aercap Holdings NV (AER), is seeking healthcare acquisitions in the United Arab Emirates after Dubai announced mandatory health insurance.“We’re looking for targets across the U.A.E.,” Chief Executive Officer Salem Rashid Al Noaimi said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “Health care is currently a small piece of the pie for us, but the ambition is that in five years it becomes a solid contributor to our bottom

The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) aims to boost activity on its sharia-compliant commodity trading platform by partnering with a global brokerage, while local Islamic lender Noor Bank is set to offer use of the platform to all its corporate clients.The DMCC wants to increase both the volume and size of transactions on its Islamic platform, which it launched last year.This week, the DMCC partnered with global brokerage firm BGC Partners, an affiliate of New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald, to promote