An Abu Dhabi state-owned fund is financing a quarter of Etisalat’s 4.2 billion euro purchase of Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom, said three bank sources with knowledge of the deal, adding it should close this week. The identity of the fund is a closely-guarded secret. The banks that will provide the remaining 3.15 billion euros of loan finance have not been told which of the emirate’s state-owned […]
Buyers are lining up for Germany-based packaging group Mauser with final bids due to be submitted on Monday, banking sources said on Friday. The sale of Mauser by Dubai International Capital (DIC) could fetch around 1.25 billion euros ($1.73 billion), one of the banking sources said. At this price, the sale would be one of the largest asset disposals by the emirate since its debt crisis in […]
Investors are switching their attention back to developing countries’ debt after flirting with U.S. and European junk bonds during a year of turbulence in emerging markets. A long sell-off in anticipation of U.S. stimulus withdrawal meant emerging sovereign debt posted negative returns last year but the sector has enjoyed one of its best starts to a year in a decade in 2014, investors say, with returns of […]
Gold premiums in India, the world’s second biggest consumer after China, jumped to their highest level in more than two-and-a-half months due to short supplies amid firm demand ahead of the second-biggest gold buying festival. Premiums for gold bars rose more than 23 percent to $110 an ounce on London prices, a level last seen in early February, compared with $89 an ounce earlier in the week. […]
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, will only reverse provisions on its exposure to conglomerate Dubai World after seeing further progress on asset sales and debt repayment, it said on Thursday. Emirates NBD is Dubai World’s biggest creditor with an exposure of more than 9 billion dirhams ($2.5 billion), against which it has set aside provisions of 5 percent. If that debt is reclassified as performing, it will […]
The first initial public offer of shares on Dubai’s main stock market for five years was 36 times subscribed, a sign of massive interest in equities among retail investors as the emirate’s economy booms. Investors subscribed 10 billion dirhams ($2.7 billion) to the fixed offer of 275 million shares in Marka, which were priced at 1 dirham each, Jamal Al Hai, chairman of the company’s founders committee, […]
Forbes Media LLC’s effort to find a buyer is running into trouble, with one potential bidder officially out of the running and two others no longer in active talks, people with knowledge of the matter said. Germany’s Axel Springer SE, which publishes the Russian edition of the magazine, isn’t involved in any process to acquire Forbes, Edda Fels, a spokeswoman, said yesterday. The company had been interested […]
Emirates NBD expects the buoyant local economy to keep boosting its profits and allow the bank to build up its bad loan coverage ratio without the kind of severe provisioning which stymied recent earnings, its CEO said on Thursday. Dubai’s largest lender beat analysts’ forecasts with a 25 percent jump in first-quarter net profit to 1.04 billion dirhams ($283.7 million) as higher interest and fee income outstripped […]
Dubai-owned port operator DP World is in talks with lenders to triple the size of an existing $1 billion loan, as well as extend the lifespan and cut the interest rate, seeking to take advantage of investors’ renewed confidence in the emirate. The firm, part of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World , is aiming to raise the loan to $3 billion, four banking sources said, speaking on condition […]
| By K Raveendran| A number of banks have failed to complete the process of providing credit data of their customers for the past two years. The Etihad Credit Bureau, the federal government entity responsible for administering the credit data base, has expressed concern over the delay and pointed out that effectiveness of the bureau’s reports would depend on the submission of quality data by the banks […]
Dubai’s government hopes its first 15-year sukuk issue – an unusually long tenor for an Islamic bond – will pave the way for long-term debt sales by its state companies, the Department of Finance said on Wednesday. Dubai drew $2.3 billion of investor demand for the $750 million issue on Tuesday, pricing it at 5.0 percent, the tight end of initial guidance. Demand was lower than in […]
Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG), part of a conglomerate owned by the emirate’s ruler, will repay $319 million of debt more than 18 months early, the latest state-linked company to settle restructured loans ahead of time. Sovereign-linked entities in Dubai were forced to renegotiate billions of dollars of liabilities at the turn of the decade after a local property crash and a lack of refinancing options […]
Dubai tapped capital markets for the first time in more than a year with the sale of $750 million of 15-year Islamic bonds as the emirate seeks to pay debt and finance its budget amid a property-market recovery. The Dubai government’s securities will price to yield 5 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the offering, who asked not to be identified because the details are […]
|By TAP Staff|The much-awaited Dubai benchmark government sukuk is expected soon. The issue, which will have a life span of 15 years, is initially expected to be priced between 5 and 5.125 basis points and total at least $500 million, according to lead managers. The banks arranging the transaction are Dubai Islamic Bank , Emirates NBD, HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered. Dubai was […]
Qatar reduced the number of stadiums it plans to build for the 2022 soccer World Cup by a third amid rising costs and delays. The country, which won the right in 2010 to host the world’s most-watched sporting event, plans to build eight stadiums for the games, Ghanim Al Kuwari, the organizing committee’s senior manager for projects, said at a conference in Doha yesterday. The country originally […]
Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s biggest developer, is returning to development with three new projects and studying plans for an additional 20 amid a nascent recovery in the emirate’s property market, the company’s chairman said today. Aldar, which took over a smaller rival in June, will start sales of three residential developments in Abu Dhabi valued at a total of 5 billion dirhams ($1.36 billion). The projects include […]
Hedge funds lowered bullish bets on gold for a fourth week, the longest streak this year. The net-long position contracted to the lowest since mid-February as speculators sold bullion on signs of accelerating U.S. economic growth. The investors more than doubled bets on lower prices in the past month while reducing wagers on a rally in six of the past seven weeks. Prices fell 7.6 percent since […]
Bahrain’s Gulf International Bank plans to issue a 2 billion-riyal ($545 million) floating rate notes with a lifespan of five years through a private placement in Saudi Arabia, a prospectus showed on Sunday. The bank mandated its own investment banking arm, GIB Capital, as well as those of National Commercial Bank, Samba Financial Group and Banque Saudi Fransi to act as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners. […]
Zain is being sued for $4.5 billion over its 2007 acquisition of an Iraqi telecom operator, the Kuwaiti firm said in a bourse statement on Sunday. Zain bought Iraqna for $1.2 billion from Orascom Telecom in December 2007 after the Egyptian firm dropped out of the running for a long-term mobile license in Iraq. The Kuwaiti firm then merged its Iraqi unit, Atheer, with Iraqna and renamed […]
Saudi Arabia’s main share index rose the most in a month to reach a fresh six-year high on Sunday as investors shook off a slight dip in quarterly profit from the bourse’s biggest stock. Speculation in mid-cap stocks helped Dubai gain. The Saudi measure advanced 1.1 percent to its highest close since June 2008, up 12.9 percent so far in 2014. This came despite Saudi Basic Industries […]
Qatar is paying the price for its six-week spat with neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council as the nation’s borrowing costs and credit risk increase. The yield on the country’s dollar bond due January 2020 climbed nine basis points since March 4, the day before the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors after Qatar denounced the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. […]
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) said on Thursday it had signed a 20.5 billion yen ($200.4 million) loan with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi which would be used to refinance an existing obligation. The majority state-owned energy firm said it had swapped the loan, priced at 60 basis points over Japanese Libor, into U.S. dollars and would use the funds to refinance a portion of a $1.2 billion […]
Amina al-Rustamani, a member of a prominent UAE family, raised eyebrows among friends and relatives when she started her career in Dubai 13 years ago as an electrical engineer, becoming one of few females in the Middle East to enter the profession. Success in a male-dominated environment helped give her the confidence to rise up the career ladder and break more barriers. She is now chief executive […]
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 […]
