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 […]
Middle East fund managers are willing to buy most of the region’s main equity markets on dips, believing corporate earnings and balance sheets will continue improving this year, a monthly Reuters survey shows. Markets retreated early this month as retail investors rushed to take profits during the worst of the geopolitical uncertainty over Ukraine. Dubai’s bourse fell 6.7 percent from its peak close to its trough. Qatar’s […]
|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 […]
The rupee rallied to an eight-month high, boosted by continued foreign fund inflows into domestic shares, but suspected dollar purchases by the Reserve Bank of India prevented the currency from gaining much further. The intervention on Wednesday was aggressive, with two traders telling Reuters that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) likely bought nearly $1 billion and swapped it in forwards markets. The RBI has long been […]
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 […]
UBS AG suspended foreign-exchange traders in the U.S., Singapore and Switzerland as its investigation into the alleged rigging of currency markets widened, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. They include Onur Sert, an emerging markets spot trader based in New York, and at least three more worldwide, said the person, who asked not to be identified because of the probe. Sert and Dominik von […]
Citigroup Inc.’s capital plan was among five that failed Federal Reserve stress tests, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. passed only after reducing their requests for buybacks and dividends. Citigroup, as well as U.S. units of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Banco Santander SA, failed because of qualitative concerns about their processes, the Fed said today in a […]
The Bank of England is studying ways to increase the number of sharia-compliant assets that Islamic financial institutions can use in their liquidity buffers, a step towards reducing concentration risks in the sector. The move comes as part of a broader push to promote London as a top centre for Islamic finance, in the face of growing competition from other centres such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. […]
Qatar’s ruling family member Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani bought a last minute ticket to win Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup by buying a 50 percent stake in Ruler Of The World, last season’s English Derby winner. “It is very exciting. We managed to get it done as of this morning. The horse vetted so that the deal would take place in time so Sheikh Joaan […]
Dubai property developer Nakheel is a targeting a 15 percent increase in annual profit in 2014 as it launches new projects and expands its leasing income, the firm’s chairman said on Wednesday. Government-run Nakheel agreed a $16 billion debt restructuring in 2011 in the wake of a property crash that sent Dubai’s house prices tumbling by more than half from a 2008 peak, oversupply and the global […]
Nakheel plans to release 94 hotel and resort plots for sale on Deira Islands in Dubai as part of a drive into hospitality and retail, The National reported. The developer plans to sell plots on two of the four islands that make up the project that could eventually accommodate 23,000 new hotel rooms. As many as 500 sites would eventually be sold by the developer. Nakheel sees […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A US federal appeals court upheld the conviction of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta, one of the biggest successes in federal prosecutors’ long-running probe to stop insider trading on Wall Street. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gupta’s claim that wiretap evidence should not have been admitted to show that he leaked news about Goldman’s finances, including a crucial investment by Warren […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Nifty rose as much as 1.2 percent on Monday to a record high, surpassing its previous all-time high hit just last week, as lenders including ICICI Bank extended a recent rally on the back of strong foreign investor flows. The NSE’s bank sub-index has surged around 14 percent so far this month, outperforming the nearly 5 percent gain in the Nifty. Analysts have cited heavy buying […]
When a scrap metal dealer from U.S. Midwest bought a golden ornament at a junk market, it never crossed his mind that he was the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia. In a mystery fit for the tumultuous history of Russia’s ostentatious elite, the 8-cm (3-inch) golden egg was spirited out of St Petersburg after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution […]
Rifts over foreign policy will likely make it harder for Arab leaders meeting at a summit this week to forge a common stand on regional challenges, including what many of them see as a threat from Iranian-U.S. rapprochement. And while the Arab League meeting may agree more humanitarian action in response to Syria’s war, any communique calling for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad will not reflect […]
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 […]
