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 […]
Traders who have been storing oil since the start of the year are selling some supplies back into the market, completing a trade-play that made oil storage profitable, and re-injecting fuel into an already oversupplied market. The selling signals a winding down of a strategy that has seen at least 50 million barrels of oil stored in tankers, equivalent to about one month’s consumption in Britain, although […]
Dubai’s Drydocks World, owner of the Middle East’s largest shipyard, will ask creditors to amend the terms of its $2.3 billion restructuring deal originally signed in 2012, two sources aware of the matter said on Sunday. The move comes as Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate which is also Drydocks’ parent company, is close to finalizing a revision of its own $14.6 billion debt pile which stems from […]
|By TAP Staff| The UAE banks benefit from an improving operating environment, sound liquidity and sound capital ratios, but some asset quality issues remain in Dubai, largely relating to the weak performance of the real estate sector and some large Dubai government-related entity (GRE) problem loans and profit levels, ratings agency Fitch said in a report. But both real estate issues and the problem loans of Dubai […]
Falcon Private Bank is open to buying rivals as it expects a wave of consolidation in the industry due to more onerous regulations, its global head of private banking said on Wednesday. Swiss-based but Abu Dhabi-owned Falcon would be open to deals covering its core target markets of the Gulf, Eastern Europe, Africa and South East Asia, according to Erich Pfister, who took up the role in […]
By Se Young Lee and Harro Ten Wolde SEOUL/BARCELONA Mon Mar 2, 2015 9:39am IST 1 of 5. A hostess displays the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 1, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea SEOUL/BARCELONA (Reuters) – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones, featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade […]
Gold imports by India, the world’s biggest consumer, are poised to surge after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley belied industry expectations for a reduction in tax. Overseas purchases may jump to 100 metric tons in March from about 25 tons in February as jewelers and traders, who delayed purchases in anticipation of the tax cut, replenish stockpiles, Rajesh Mehta, chairman of Rajesh Exports Ltd., said by phone from […]
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) is not interested in buying retail business of Citigroup, and is instead targeting organic growth in the country and globally, the bank’s chief executive told Reuters on Sunday. The plan to grow organically by the United Arab Emirates’ largest lender sets it apart from several other big Gulf banks, which have sought to use overseas acquisitions as a way to expand […]
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is obtaining a loan of about $344 million from three banks to finance a solar energy project in Dubai, chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said on Sunday. The 27-year amortising loan with an interest rate of 4 percent is being provided by Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank and two Saudi banks, National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group, he told reporters on the sidelines […]
The tide may be turning in the retreat of the U.S. oil explorers. Rigs targeting oil fell by 33 to 986, the smallest decline since Jan. 2, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Energy rigs in the Permian Basin shale region dropped by seven to 355 after dropping by as much as 49 earlier in the month. The Eagle Ford in Texas lost three rigs. […]
ABC Islamic Bank profit up 23pc to 15m MANAMA, 1 days ago ABC Islamic Bank has posted a net profit of $15.1 million last year, a 23 per cent increase as compared to $12.2 million recorded in 2013. The net profit for the fourth quarter was $3.6 million, 19 per cent higher than the same period of the previous year, said a statement. The total operating income […]
Dubai is adjusting regulation of investment firms that handle the money of wealthy people in its financial free zone, a move that could help the zone win more wealth-management business from the Middle East and Asia. Like other financial hubs, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) distinguishes between less-sophisticated retail clients and richer, more experienced professional clients, which are assumed to need less regulatory protection. New rules […]
Video | Hollande Discusses Kidnapping in Yemen President François Hollande of France confirmed that a Frenchwoman had been kidnapped in the Yemeni capital, Sana. By ALISSA J. RUBIN February 24, 2015 PARIS — A Frenchwoman who works for the World Bank was kidnapped on Tuesday in front of a ministry office in Sana, the Yemeni capital, according to security officials there and President François Hollande of France, who took the […]
I wonder: did Australian television broadcast Bagpuss to its younger viewers during the Seventies? I’m asking because the Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, grew up in New South Wales. Maybe she loved Bagpuss as much as I did; one story in particular: “Charliemouse then tells Bagpuss and Yaffle that the mill makes chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans. The mice run the Mill, and it does […]
HSBC Holdings, struggling to contain a scandal over tax evasion at its private bank, reported lower-than-predicted fourth-quarter profit as costs and conduct provisions rose. The shares slumped the most since 2011. Pretax profit dropped 56 percent to $1.7 billion from the year-earlier period, London-based HSBC said in a statement on Monday. That missed the $3.7 billion average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Full-year profit fell […]
Dubai-based financial services firm Arqaam Capital has invited banks to pitch for roles in arranging its flotation on the emirate’s bourse, three banking sources aware of the matter told Reuters. Arqaam has offices in five countries in the Middle East and Africa and offers services including brokerage, asset management and corporate finance advisory. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The invitation, known as a request […]
|By Sarosh Zaiwalla| Towards the end of last year, it was announced that the UAE’s long anticipated insolvency reform bill was reaching its final stages prior to implementation. The legal framework was drawn up following the establishment of the Dubai World Tribunal that resulted from the entity’s inability to pay its creditors in November 2009. The case cast a spotlight on the UAE, which until today does […]
Fast-growing Gulf Arab banks plan to bolster their reserves by issuing capital-boosting bonds, but uncertainty over regulation and ultra-tight pricing increase the risks for issuers and investors. Basel III standards, now being phased in around the world, will require banks to hold more capital. While Gulf banks have very high capital adequacy ratios, their rapid expansion, and the fact they operate in emerging markets with lower sovereign […]
Dubai Investments PJSC, the company with interests in real estate and manufacturing, will buy a 60 percent stake in investment bank Al Mal Capital PSC as part of a plan to boost financial services assets. The company will pay about 150 million dirhams ($41 million) for the stake and expects to complete the purchase by March 15, Chief Executive Officer Khalid Jassim Kalban said in a phone […]
Video | Israel Remembers Jewish Paris Victims The Israeli president, the prime minister and the wife of one of the four Jewish victims in a Paris kosher market attack spoke at the burial ceremony for the slain men in Jerusalem. By JODI RUDOREN January 13, 2015 JERUSALEM — They were buried Tuesday not in the land where they had made their homes but in what was described as their […]
State-owned conglomerate Dubai World edged closer to a second major restructuring in four years on Monday after announcing it had reached agreement with a “substantial majority” of creditors to back its $14.6 billion debt deal. However, despite having enough backing to effectively prevent challenges to its new deal, a relatively untested court process to impose it will mean formal completion is still months away. Dubai’s economy has […]
|By Florence Tan and Henning Gloystein|Even as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies appear united in their refusal to cut output to boost global oil prices, they are becoming locked in an increasingly fierce battle to secure market share in Asia. Oil prices have slumped below $50 a barrel, the weakest since 2009, triggering a price war between producers to secure customers in Asia. And the […]
Kalban … expansion plans. Dubai Investments plans $108m acquisitions DUBAI, 1 days ago Dubai Investments (DI), a leading investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market, has announced expansion plans across its diversified portfolio, which include two new acquisitions worth Dh400 million ($108 million). The new acquisitions in the financial and real estate sectors, to be finalised soon, are expected to reinforce Dubai Investments’ robust growth across […]
