Seventy-year-old Saudi Arabian stock speculator Mohamed al-Otaibi says he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the crash of 2006, but he’s back trading again as the Arab world’s biggest bourse prepares to open to direct foreign investment. The activities of Otaibi and many thousands like him mean there will be a clash of investment cultures when international institutions enter the $580 billion Saudi market early next […]
LONDON, August 15 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has affirmed Abu Dhabi’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) at ‘AA’. The Outlooks are Stable. The issue ratings on Abu Dhabi’s senior unsecured foreign and local currency bonds have also been affirmed at ‘AA’. The Short-term foreign currency IDR has been affirmed at ‘F1+’. The UAE Country Ceiling has been affirmed at ‘AA+’; this Ceiling also applies […]
Major Saudi food producer Savola Group said on Wednesday it had begun preliminary talks on a potential acquisition of Kuwait Food Co (Americana) , one of the Middle East’s largest food companies. Savola has attended an investor roadshow held by Americana’s management, but talks have not yet reached a stage that would require disclosure, the company said in a bourse filing. Reuters reported in April that the […]
Dubai’s two biggest builders are turning to bank borrowing to help fund projects as a rise in late payments from their customers takes the shine off a booming construction market. Arabtec Holding PJSC, the contractor that helped push Dubai stocks into a bear market in June, said money owed by clients rose to 8.8 billion dirhams ($2.4 billion) through the second quarter from 7.2 billion dirhams at […]
The chemical triclosan has been linked to cancer-cell growth and disrupted development in animals. Regulators are reviewing whether it’s safe to put in soap, cutting boards and toys. Consumer companies are phasing it out. Minnesota voted in May to ban it in many products. At the same time, millions of Americans are putting it in their mouths every day, by way of a top-selling toothpaste that uses […]
Goldman Sachs and Qatar National Bank (QNB) are arranging a $800 million loan to help B.R. Shetty acquire a majority stake in foreign exchange operator Travelex, the Abu Dhabi-based entrepreneur said on Tuesday. “The jumbo transaction has been finalised, we are happy with the terms,” Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty told Reuters, adding that the financing was expected to be completed by September or October. QNB declined to comment, […]
Investment conglomerate Dubai World may resort to a familiar, but in recent times rarely used, legal mechanism set up at the height of the emirate’s financial crisis to obtain the backing from its creditors to postpone a crucial debt repayment deadline. The state-owned firm and advisor Blackstone are currently discussing with an increasing number of lenders the terms of a deal that proposes to push back the […]
|By TAP Staff|The re-introduced Indian Rupee Options contract is picking up on DGCX. The Indian Rupee Options contract which was re-introduced on July 18 traded 343 contracts, according to the exchange. Indian Rupee Futures grew 22 percent from last month, while Mini Indian Rupee Futures rose 3 percent. Among the other currency pairs, British Pound, Australian Dollars and Yen Futures, grew 45 percent, 47 percent and 7 […]
Hotels and high-end retailers in Dubai are optimistic that they can ride out the Russian tour operator crisis and possibly even benefit from it. Rotana, which operates 15 hotels in the emirate and has a global sales office in Russia, is hopeful that the decline in Russian tourists because of the closure of some leading tour operators in the country would be offset by more tourists from […]
President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. air strikes had destroyed arms that Islamic State militants could have used against Iraqi Kurds, but he warned there was no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to tear Iraq apart. Speaking before U.S. warplanes struck militant targets for the second straight day, Obama said it would take more than bombs to restore stability, and criticized Prime Minister Nuri […]
Mumbai: After witnessing decline in profit for six consecutive quarters, State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, reported 3.3 per cent net profit growth to Rs 3,349 crore for the quarter ended June, compared to Rs 3,241 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, said: “Pressure (on asset quality) appears to be subsiding. But we need to see a pick-up in the economy to see appreciable changes in asset quality.” Net interest income grew 15 per cent to Rs 13,252 crore and fee income growth was 11 per cent to Rs 2,837 crore, though there was a fall in treasury income. The profitability got a boost of Rs 6,000 crore from sale of stressed assets to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) during the q
NEW DELHI: State-run oil refiner-marketer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has drawn up plans to ramp up the capacity of its refinery at Numaligarh in Assam’s Golaghat district from three million tonnes per annum to nine million tonnes at an investment of Rs 16,600 crore.
The project includes laying a 1,350-km pipeline to bring in crude from a port on the east coast. While the refinery expansion would cost about Rs 8,800 crore, the remaining investment is expected to go into laying the pipeline and other assorted facilities.
Company sources said the project would mark the single-largest investment in Assam and boost economic activities in the north-east as well as unlock potential for exporting fuels to India&
New Delhi: With co-development and co-production of defence products in mind, India and the US on Friday agreed to take the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative forward.
The decision was taken at the delegation-level talks between defence minister Arun Jaitley and US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, who is on a three-day visit to the country.
In the meeting, both sides took note of the progress made over the years in deepening defence ties. Both the sides reaffirmed their desire to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation, especially in technology and discussed ways for strengthening this partnership.
Stressing on indigenisation of the defence industries, Jaitley said, “The develop
Hong Kong, Indonesia and Pakistan are banking on pent-up investor demand as they look to raise up to a combined US$3.5bn in the fast-growing Islamic bond market. The three sovereign sukuk issues, including a planned US$1bn debut from Triple A rated Hong Kong, are set to launch before the end of September. Few Asian issuers have targeted the global sukuk market in the past, and the glut […]
NEW DELHI: Contrary to popular perception, India has little to worry about its product-specific support to agriculture exceeding the limits prescribed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a recent study has revealed.
This implies that New Delhi’s aggressive stance at the world body, seeking leeway from the cap on public stockholding for food security or even a total waiver from the restriction citing the resource-poor status of its farmers, lacked rationale.
The country’s product-specific subsidy for rice stood at minus 2.87% and that for wheat at minus 10.22% of the respective production values in 2010-11 when calculated on a fully inflation-adjusted basis, according to a joint paper by Icrier exper
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has relaxed norms for refinancing of infrastructure loans which banks want to be tagged as standard assets. From April 2015, the moment a loan is restructured, banks will have to classify them as bad loan. RBI had made an exception to the rule by allowing banks to classify infrastructure loans as standard assets if half of the outstanding loans are refinanced by a new set of lenders in the form of take-out financing. On Thursday, the central bank relaxed this norm by allowing standard tag if 25 per cent of the outstanding is met through take-out financing. Also, an infrastructure loan that is refinanced can be tagged as standard asset provided promoters are willing to invest more equity in the project. But the standard tag will be a
MUMBAI: As states governments add layers of taxes on fuel, disparity in petrol and diesel prices across the country has reached as high as 35%, spawning a new mafia that profits by sourcing cheap and selling high
Ever wondered why you have to shell more if you refill at a petrol pump in Thane, just a few kilometers away from your regular fuel station in Navi Mumbai. Or why the fuel costs less outside city limits.
Well, if you thought differential of a few bucks across suburbs was too high, here’s a shocker: it is way too high, as much as almost 35%, when compared among states, and is widening with every price increase.
This is because some state governments are adding multitude of taxes an
Dubai mortgage lender Amlak Finance said on Thursday that all its creditors had approved a plan to restructure its debt, bringing to a close protracted talks over the last major hangover from the emirate’s property market crash of 2008. Twenty-eight creditors had been seeking a deal with the Islamic lender, which had its shares suspended from trade on the Dubai Financial Market in November 2008 as the […]
Dubai government-owned property developer Meraas Holding is considering selling shares to the public as the regional real-estate market continues its rapid recovery from the financial crisis, according to three people familiar with the matter. The real-estate company, which has close links to Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, recently sent a request for proposals to banks who have until September to reply, said one of […]
Saudi Arabia has advised the kingdom’s citizens and residents to avoid all travel to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea until further notice due to the Ebola outbreak. The warning issued late Wednesday by the Ministry of Health comes after a Saudi man, who recently visited Sierra Leone and was suspected of having the virus, died earlier in the day when his heart stopped and attempts to resuscitate him […]
NEW DELHI: The government will bring a Bill, amending the Central Electricity Act, in winter session of Parliament to improve the tariff policy and regulations in the power sector. The power ministry is working out different tariff structure for different times of the day for easy availability of power for maximum hours in electricity deficit areas. It will soon consult states over the issue as the tariff matter comes under the states’ domain.
Besides, the government has decided to promote domestic power companies to help increase solar power generation in the country. Announcing these decisions in Rajya Sabha, power minister Piyush Goyal said the government will allow only 100% indigenous domestic companies to participate in the
MUMBAI: The Adani Group and Indian Oil Corporation are in talks to build a Rs 30,000-crore joint venture refinery at Mundra, which would give Gautam Adani an entry into the oil sector while the state-run company would get land port facilities for the proposed export-focused unit.
The proposed 30-million-tonne refinery at Mundra will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s native state, Gujarat, a bigger energy hub. It already has refineries of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Indian Oil, apart from two LNG terminals and the country’s biggest city-gas distribution network.
Industry sources said Gautam Adani has held initial talks with top executives at IOC and offered around 3,500-4,000 acres of land for th
NEW DELHI: The Obama administration will push for the stalled mega deals for M-777 ultra-light howitzers and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) when US defence secretary Chuck Hagel comes visiting from Thursday.
There will be talks on ways to further bolster the already expansive strategic partnership, ranging from sharing of intelligence and cooperation on counter-terrorism to joint combat exercises, but the cornerstone will remain the US offer to provide India with “ground-breaking” weapon technology on par with its closest allies.
Having bagged defence deals worth over $10 billion over the last decade, the US is obviously hungry for more. Of the different co-development and co-prod
Qatar’s emir has issued a law providing for foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of listed Qatari companies, part of reforms to expand the stock market and develop the financial industry. “The law stipulates that non-Qatari investors are allowed to own no more than 49 percent of the shares of Qatari shareholding companies listed on Qatar Exchange,” the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) said on […]
