Dubai-based real estate investment trust Emirates REIT IPO said it had expanded the size of its initial public offer of shares on NASDAQ Dubai, the emirate’s first IPO since its financial crisis erupted in 2009, because of strong demand. Emirates REIT will raise $175 million in the IPO, which was 3.5 times oversubscribed, by selling 128.68 million new shares, it said in a statement on Sunday. In […]
When Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi gave a speech on the virtues of smaller government and privatization on April 8 last year, supporters called him an ideological heir to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died that day. Modi, favorite to form India’s next government after elections starting on Monday, has yet to unveil any detailed economic plans but it is clear that some of his […]
|By TAP Staff| A new Citibank report on Dubai property market asserts there is little room of investors to show complacency as the measures to curb speculative demand and to strengthen the prudential regulation of the real estate and banking sectors so far do not remove the threat of a repeat of property-led volatility of 2008-09. As Dubai’s property market booms and large-scale projects are announced, parallels […]
U.S. stocks fell, with the Nasdaq Composite Index sliding the most in two months, after large technology stocks from Google Inc. to Yahoo Inc. plunged as investors sold the bull market’s biggest winners. Google Class A shares sank 4.6 percent in the biggest drop since October 2012. Facebook Inc. lost 4.6 percent, bringing its two-day slide to 9.5 percent. Yahoo Inc. declined 4.2 percent to the lowest […]
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating high-speed trading for possible insider trading, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers on Friday. The disclosure comes the same week that regulators and the FBI also confirmed they are looking into potential wrongdoing by high-frequency stock traders. Regulators have been examining whether ordinary investors are at an unfair disadvantage to high-speed traders, who use computer algorithms to rapidly dart in and […]
MasterCard , eServGlobal and BICS announced the successful closing of its joint venture HomeSend. HomeSend will provide an important link between developed and financially underserved emerging markets, particularly for foreign workers in need of an instantaneous and cost-effective solution for funds transfer. The World Bank estimates that the world’s 232 million international migrants are expect to remit over US$700 billion annually by 2016. The company will be […]
India’s high-profile RBI governor is likely to come under political pressure to retreat from his hawkish stance on inflation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins power in the general election. Strategists in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), confident that his jobs-first policy pitch will secure a strong voter mandate, suggest that they would prefer to have one of their own at the helm of the Reserve Bank […]
Conglomerate Dubai World has hired New York-based investment and advisory firm Blackstone Group LP to take a fresh look at its debt and how to make repayments to creditors, sources aware of the matter told Reuters. “This is only for advisory purposes and to streamline the available options for the debt maturing in 2018,” a Dubai government source said, speaking on condition of anonymity under briefing rules. […]
STORY HIGHLIGHTS Property in Beirut has grown impressively despite war in neighboring Syria Real estate purchases totaled $8.7 billion in 2014 alone Roughly 400 building projects are currently underway in the Lebanese capital, local experts say One Square Meter explores the leading architectural designs, city plans and demand for property investment in emerging markets. Join CNN’s John Defterios as he visits some of the world’s most dynamic […]
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 […]
Dubai will compete with London for a share of Islamic banks’ liquidity management business by offering a new platform for murabaha trading. Many Islamic banks around the world manage their short-term funds with murabaha, in which one bank acquires merchandise and another agrees to buy it at a mark-up. Traditionally, banks from the Gulf and as far afield as southeast Asia use commodities traded on the London […]
General Motors Co CEO Mary Barra came under withering attack for her company’s decade-long failure to deal with defective parts linked to fatal crashes, in a hearing where U.S. Senators accused the company of “criminal” behavior and “a culture of cover-up.” Democratic and Republican senators, including some former prosecutors and state attorneys general, challenged Barra’s assertion that GM had vastly improved its safety and management practices since […]
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 […]
Companies with as little as 20 percent of their global assets in India could find themselves facing tax bills in deals involving their domestic units under changes to the tax code that the government proposed on Tuesday. The government’s Direct Taxes Code 2013 recommended the change along with a new income tax bracket that would require rich people to pay higher taxes. A previous recommendation in 2010 said […]
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 […]
Oman’s central bank has set new caps on banks’ credit exposure to non-residents and funds placed abroad, giving lenders six months to comply. The move comes after the government and regulators last month set up a financial stability committee to monitor and manage risks in the banking and capital markets. “The banks which are in excess of the prudential limits prescribed under the guidelines are granted up […]
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 […]
Saudi Arabian conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers (AHAB) estimates its assets are worth less than a quarter of about $5.9 billion in claims made against it, a spokesman said as the group prepares a proposal to end one of the Middle East’s biggest corporate debt disputes. AHAB this week invited more than 70 financial institutions, including Saudi, regional and international banks, to a meeting in Dubai […]
A year after Citigroup Inc. declared the decade-long run of commodity gains over, wacky weather, dead piglets and Vladimir Putin have gotten in the way. While Citigroup rang “death bells” in April 2013 for the synchronized super cycle fueled by economic growth in China, extreme weather and supply squeezes led to surprise rallies in 2014’s first three months. Coffee hit a two-year high, cattle and hogs rose […]
|By TAP Staff|Takeovers abroad and a boost in treasury income helped Gulf banks increase revenues by more than 10% last year – the best combined performance since the crisis hit five years ago – with regional lenders easily outperforming their international counterparts, says Boston Consulting Group. “We’re seeing again double-digit growth in the region which, however, comes to a large extent because of international acquisitions of the […]
|By TAP Staff|Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company (AHAB) announced that it has invited financial institutions with claims against the company to attend a meeting in Dubai, UAE on May 7, 2014, at which AHAB will outline the terms of a comprehensive settlement agreement. The move by AHAB breaks a stalemate that has existed since late 2009 when AHAB’s last comprehensive proposal was rejected by financial institutions, […]
Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. invited creditors including BNP Paribas SA (BNP) and Standard Chartered Plc to discuss claims on $5.9 billion of debt as it seeks to recover from the Middle East’s biggest default. The Saudi Arabian company, with interests ranging from construction to finance, will “outline proposals aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement” with more than 70 creditors at a May 7 meeting in […]
Dubai World, the conglomerate at the centre of the emirate’s debt crisis, has the means to make its first big repayment on time next year and expects to pay off more of its debt ahead of schedule, a top executive said. Mohammed al-Shaibani, chief executive of sovereign wealth fund Investment Corp of Dubai and a key figure in negotiating the emirate’s debt restructurings in recent years, said […]
The U.S. stock market is rigged in favor of high-speed electronic trading firms, which use their advantages to extract billions from investors, according to Michael Lewis, author of a new book on the topic, “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” High-frequency trading (HFT) is a practice carried out by many banks and proprietary trading firms using sophisticated computer programs to send gobs of orders into the market, […]
