Banks and other companies listed in the UAE’s bourse maintained their post-crisis recovery and reported a surge of nearly 15 per cent in their net profits in the first half of 2013, according to bourse figures published on Sunday. The combined net earnings of 74 banks and companies stood at around Dh25.2 billion in the first half of 2013 compared with Dh21.9 billion in the first half […]
Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. In the case of Saudi Arabia, companies that might have issued bonds in the international market may now choose to issue in the country’s liquid riyal-denominated bond market. In May, a […]
Abu Dhabi developer Aldar Properties laid out plans to cut its $3.8 billion debt by more than half in coming years as it starts to recover from a real estate slump and reaps the benefits of a merger with its main rival. Chief Financial Officer Greg Fewer said revenue would start to improve in the third quarter as Aldar benefits from Sorouh’s revenue stream and would grow […]
Another UAE bank has been targeted by an international hacking ring. American prosecutors say it is the largest computer hacking case ever uncovered in the US. According to an indictment released this week, the group hacked into an Abu Dhabi bank for two years and stole thousands of credit card numbers. They then sold the card numbers to criminals around the world. One defendant, Alexsandr Kalinin of […]
The UAE Banks Federation has announced its firm support for the successful implementation of the UAE’s m-Government initiative, announced earlier this year by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) has formed a committee comprising representatives of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Mashreq Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, National Bank of […]
DUBAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. U.S. dollar bond issuance in the Gulf, conventional and sukuk, stands at about $17.3 billion year-to-date, up from $11.4 billion in the same period a year […]
Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital has swung to a Dhs1.3m second-quarter net profit, compared with a Dhs15.9m net loss in the same quarter a year earlier, Gulf News has reported. This is Shuaa’s first quarterly profit in almost two years, as the company’s asset management and investment banking divisions boosted revenue. Revenue surged 95% year-on-year to Dhs43.4m in the quarter ended June, from Dhs22.2m in the same […]
Mubadala Development Co., the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, is fighting to avoid losses on its $2 billion investment in Eike Batista’s companies as the former billionaire seeks to save his commodity empire from collapse. The fund is owed $1.5 billion after converting a preferred equity investment in Batista’s EBX Group Co. into debt, three people with knowledge of the matter said last month. That amount is […]
By Gerald Al Fil While the comeback of stock market rallies investment banking, the Shari’ah-compliant industry faces its toughest test since it entered its boom phase a decade ago. I got puzzled when I received a tweet from @Worldmuslimnews on May 11 saying “Islamic finance is out”. Are issuances of Islamic bonds (sukuk) not going through the roof as we can read day by day? Could first […]
NEW YORK (AP) — With new public stock offerings for guitar maker Fender and travel booking website Kayak on deck next week, there are signs demand is starting to grow for IPOs after a five-week freeze triggered by a steep decline in financial markets and exacerbated by Facebook’s rocky May 18 debut. Five companies are scheduled to go public next week alone, including Fender, Kayak and Palo […]
Another week, another warning from megabanker JPMorgan (JPM). Two months ago, as you probably recall, JP spooked stock market investors with news that it had managed to rack up $2 billion worth of losses, trading derivatives on European debt. Market capitalization was lost. CEOs were subpoenaed. Mea culpas were released … and life went on. Then last week we learned that the news from May was much […]
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — In a world where financial rescues dominate headlines, U.S. government bond funds played hero yet again, rescuing portfolios in a tough second quarter. Sound familiar? Analysts have been pegging the end of the decades-long (and surely stretched?) Treasury rally ad nauseam. But Europe’s festering credit crisis, weakening Chinese economic growth, and a bumpy U.S. recovery combine to pressure the Federal Reserve and its counterparts […]
(Reuters) – India’s economy will grow at its slowest pace in a decade this fiscal year, with tight monetary policy, political gridlock and a weakening global economy prompting analysts to slash their forecasts, a Reuters poll showed. Even as growth falters, the rupee has been hitting all-time lows against the dollar, the government is struggling with bloated fiscal and current account deficits and inflation has remained stubbornly […]
MADRID (Reuters) – Hundreds of unemployed Spaniards who had walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to Madrid joined protests on Saturday against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government and its handling of an economic crisis. Demonstrations have swollen across Spain since the center-right government announced 65 billion euros ($79 billion) in new spending cuts two weeks ago to cut its deficit and avert a full-blown bailout, with firefighters and […]
Wells Fargo reported its 10th consecutive quarter of earnings growth as a result of a booming business originating and refinancing mortgages. The bank’s second-quarter profit was a record $4.6 billion, a 17 percent rise from the $3.9 billion profit it reported a year earlier. The San Francisco-based company earned 82 cents a share, above the 81 cents expected by the analysts polled by SNL Financial. Wells has […]
Visa Inc. (V), MasterCard Inc. and some of the biggest U.S. banks agreed to a settlement of at least $6.05 billion in a price-fixing case brought by retailers over credit-card swipe fees. The total value of the settlement is $7.25 billion to a class of about 7 million merchants in the U.S. that accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards and debit cards, a law firm for the […]
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Russell Wasendorf Sr was arrested on Friday after allegedly stealing more than $100 million from clients of his now-bankrupt brokerage PFGBest, using little more than a rented P.O. Box, Photoshop and inkjet printers to dupe regulators for decades. In the dramatic conclusion to a week-long drama that has shaken trader confidence in the trillion-dollar U.S. futures markets, FBI agents arrested Wasendorf, 64, at the […]
Europe’s debt crisis has many American investors closely watching the euro. Since the euro can impact U.S. investors, Americans should be aware of the euro’s worth. Chuck Butler, president of EverBank World Markets and author of The Daily Pfennig, explained that if the euro is trading around $1.2950 (as it was on May 9, 2012), 100 euros would be worth $129.50. If the euro falls 1 percent, […]
A Barclays employee notified the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April of 2008 that the firm was underestimating its borrowing costs, following potential warning signs as early as 2007 that other banks were undermining the integrity of a key interest rate. In 2008, the employee said that the move was prompted by a desire to “fit in with the rest of the crowd” and added, […]
“This has shaken our company to the core,” CEO Jamie Dimon said. The bank said managers tied to the bad trade had been dismissed without severance pay and that it planned to revoke two years’ worth of pay from each of those executives. JPMorgan said it had lost $US4.4 billion because of the trade from April through June, and its chief financial officer said the bank had […]
K. Raveendran, Special to Gulf News When Dubai Islamic Bank announced the launch of its first property development in Dubai Marina in January last year, there was only a hint that the world’s first Islamic bank might be looking at the emirate’s booming real estate sector somewhat more seriously than the rest of the banks. But in less than a couple of years, DIB has emerged as […]
