JPMorgan Chase & Co. is gaining ground in the debt markets of Gulf Cooperation Council states after the biggest U.S. bank helped manage this month’s Islamic bond sale by Saudi Arabia’s utility. JPMorgan is the biggest bond underwriter after HSBC Holdings in the six-nation GCC in 2014, its best start to a year since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based lender advised on […]
Investors in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar booked profits for a second day on Monday as global markets remained gloomy and tension grew between Russia and the West over Ukraine. But all three bourses later recovered to different degrees. After opening slightly higher, the three bourses dipped along with Asian and European markets as Ukraine threatened military action against pro-Russian separatists occupying government buildings in the east […]
Dubai-based entertainment venue IMG Theme Park has successfully closed a 1.2 billion dirham ($327 million) syndicated Islamic facility, as the company prepares for an increase in the influx of tourists into the emirate. Proceeds will go towards refinancing an existing corporate facility and to provide expansion for a Worlds of Adventure theme park, a $1 billion project that is expected to become the biggest indoor entertainment centre […]
Dubai’s benchmark stock index fell the most in a month, tracking a decline in global markets last week, on investor concern this year’s rally was overdone given prospects for earnings growth. Saudi Arabia’s gauge dropped. The DFM General Index tumbled 1.7 percent, the most since March 12, to close at 4,759.15 in the emirate. Dubai Islamic Bank , the United Arab Emirates’ biggest shariah-compliant bank, declined for […]
For decades the Cleveland Clinic has provided healthcare to the upper echelons of Middle Eastern society who fly halfway across the world for treatment at the Ohio-based private medical center. Soon, they can skip the trip. Early next year the Cleveland Clinic plans to open an ultra-modern, 364-bed specialty hospital on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, one of the most ambitious forays into the oil-rich country […]
The company planning the first initial share offering on Dubai’s main stock market for five years says it will spend the proceeds on opening more than 100 fashion stores, restaurants and cafes across the Gulf Arab region over the next five years. Marka, created by prominent businessmen in the United Arab Emirates, will offer for sale 55 percent of its capital or 275 million shares at 1 […]
The central bank of the United Arab Emirates will introduce on April 15 a mechanism allowing the country’s banks to borrow funds from it overnight, to help their liquidity management. The Interim Marginal Lending Facility (IMLF) will let lenders use certain assets as collateral to obtain one-day loans, according to a letter to banks which was published on the central bank’s website on Tuesday. Such mechanisms, common […]
A top Dubai economic policymaker said on Monday that an agreement to merge the two main stock markets in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, had been reached in principle but nothing had been finalised. “It is going to be very positive. The agreement has been reached between the two – there is a dialogue but it is not […]
Abu Dhabi real estate developer Aldar Properties will consider floating its property management unit Khidmah through an initial public offer of shares in coming years, the company said in a statement on Sunday. Aldar, which is majority state-owned and is Abu Dhabi’s largest property firm, is the majority shareholder in Khidmah with a 60 percent stake. “We believe there is a strong case to consider listing the […]
Abu Dhabi’s largest oil refinery is preparing to boost production of the industry’s lowest-sulfur diesel within three months as standards for the fuel rise, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The emirate’s 400,000 barrel-a-day plant at Ruwais will only produce diesel with 10 parts per million of sulfur by July, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak […]
With a youthful, well-educated population, strong relationships with both neighbours and world powers, and a strategic location on the Gulf, major oil producer Kuwait should be as dynamic a hub for the region as Dubai or Doha. But while others in the Gulf have powered ahead, attracting foreign investment and developing infrastructure, Kuwait has stagnated, frustrating the people of a country once seen as a Middle East […]
Pricing guidance for a five-year sukuk issue by Dubai’s DAMAC Real Estate was tightened further amid strong investor demand, with final guidance issued in the range of midswaps plus 310-320 basis points. The size of the issue was expanded to $650 million from the originally planned $500 million, a document from arrangers showed. Books, which are to close at 1000 GMT in London on Wednesday, now exceed […]
After pouring billions of dollars into cities including London, New York and Sydney, individual investors and developers in China are expanding into Dubai. About a thousand individual Chinese investors spent 1.3 billion U.A.E dirhams ($353 million) on land, residential units and office real estate in Dubai last year, according to data from the Dubai Land Department. That is a nearly threefold increase from the 486 million dirhams […]
Pricing guidance for a $500 million sukuk issue by Dubai’s DAMAC Real Estate was tightened to the midswaps plus 325 basis points area, according to information from a lead arranger on Tuesday. Earlier, DAMAC set price thoughts for its five-year sukuk at midswaps plus the mid-300s. Books now exceed $2.25 billion. The sukuk is expected to launch and price on Wednesday. Joint lead managers are Abu Dhabi […]
SpiceJet Ltd., the Indian budget carrier headed for its third straight annual loss, said it sees little chance of luring investment soon amid elevated debt and intensifying competition. Although the airline’s owners have injected more than 5 billion rupees ($83 million) in equity in recent quarters, that “has not been adequate” to reduce the carrier’s dependence on debt, S.L. Narayanan, the chief financial officer of SpiceJet’s parent […]
|By TAP Staff| Fitch Rating sees RAKBANK’s viability rate (VR) constrained by its fairly small franchise rising credit risk exposure due to its expansion in unsecured SME lending and pressure on liquidity from a wide asset-liability maturity mismatch. The bank accounts for only 2 percent of the UAE banking assets, it notes. According to Fitch, RAKBANK’s viability rating could be negatively affected if the bank’s expansion in […]
Qatar Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said he’s pursuing acquisitions after reviving an investment strategy that saw the company offered stakes in carriers including Italy’s Alitalia SpA. The second-biggest Gulf airline is “actively discussing opportunities” with other passenger carriers, Al Baker said in an interview, without specifying where talks are focused. “I would not like to pre-empt our decision,” he said. “We would rather […]
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 […]
Kuwait will let foreign banks open multiple branches in the country to spur growth, authorities said on Tuesday, though analysts doubt many banks will take advantage of the offer unless the government accelerates long-postponed investment projects. For years, the OPEC member’s economic performance has lagged other Gulf Arab oil exporters as ingrained political tensions between the cabinet and parliament, and entrenched bureaucracy, have delayed business reforms and […]
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 […]
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 […]
The shares of indebted mortgage lender Amlak will resume trading on the Dubai bourse in the second half of this year, the United Arab Emirates’ economy minister said on Monday. Trading in shares of Amlak, which is in the process of restructuring debt that sources put at nearly $2 billion, was suspended in November 2008 as credit markets dried up and Dubai real estate prices began a […]
|By K Raveendran| Samena Capital, an investment firm founded by Shirish Saraf, a former colleague of Arif Naqwi in Abraaj Capital, is in talks to buy as much as 50 percent of RAK Ceramics, the world’s biggest maker of ceramic tiles, according to two people familiar with the matter. Established in 2008, Samena Capital focuses on the Subcontinent, Asia, Middle East and North Africa, collectively the SAMENA […]
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. […]
