Dubai’s boom-and-bust real estate market can land you at the wheel of a Rolls-Royce or behind bars. Kabir Mulchandani should know: he’s experienced both. Five years after spending 140 days in jail facing charges of fraud and embezzlement for which he ultimately was cleared, the chairman of developer SKAI Holdings stands at a building site watching cranes start work on one of the company’s three projects. They […]
Kuwait’s Global Investment House said on Tuesday it aimed to relist its shares on the Kuwaiti bourse, after its listing was cancelled last year because of accumulated debt. In an interview with Reuters, Global’s chief executive Maha Al Ghoneim said the company was now “debt-free” following its debt restructuring last year. She added that the relisting would be discussed at an annual general meeting next Sunday. Subject […]
By Leila Abboud PARIS Mon Sep 8, 2014 12:50pm IST A computer user poses in front of a Google search page in this photo illustration taken in Brussels May 30, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir/Files A panel appointed by search engine Google will hold the first of a series of meetings on Tuesday to debate the balance between privacy and the free flow of information after a May […]
RAK Ceramics For RAK Ceramics, the world’s biggest manufacturer of tiles, 2014 may become one of the most transformative periods in the company’s 23-year history. Investment firm Samena Capital this year bought a 31% stake in the company that in the past two decades has become the flagship business of Ras al Khaimah, the most northern of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, […]
By Casey Sullivan Sat Sep 6, 2014 6:33am IST People walk at the headquarters of Alibaba in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Chance Chan/Files Alibaba Group Holding Ltd disclosed on Friday that it would pay $15.8 million in legal fees to law firm Simpson Thacher and other attorneys who advised the Chinese e-commerce giant on its upcoming IPO, six times what Facebook paid its […]
By Liana B. Baker, Avik Das and Soham Chatterjee Sat Sep 6, 2014 5:31am IST People play in a hall inside Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Chance Chan/Files REUTERS – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd seeks to raise more than $21 billion in an IPO that will value the Chinese e-commerce giant at up to $163 billion and rank as the largest-ever technology […]
Abu Dhabi’s Waha Capital has entered into a $575 million hedging deal on half of its stake in AerCap Holdings, the Emirati investment company said on Wednesday. Waha will use the money to repay debt and fund new investments, according to a company statement to Abu Dhabi’s bourse. AerCap Holdings, in which Waha was its largest shareholder, bought American International Group’s aircraft leasing business in a $5.4 […]
Islamic debt could become a source of funding for U.K. infrastructure projects from wind turbines to high-speed trains and airports as Britain cements its position as the first sukuk market in a non-Muslim nation. Investors including Bank of London and the Middle East see scope for the U.K. to issue Shariah-compliant bonds with varying maturities after the Debt Management Office attracted bids for more than 10 times […]
By Edward Schneider, CFA: A by-product of today’s surging stock market is a number of extremely overvalued short candidates with no fundamental value. The following 5 short candidates are newcomers to my Seeking Alpha short articles, have enterprise values of $1.0B to $4.3B, generate zero or nominal revenues, lose money, and have dysfunctional business models. In fact, most of these short candidates have barely any employees and/or […]
Secretary-General Hassan Al-Thawadi (3rd L) of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the nation’s 2022 World Cup organising committee, speaks during a news conference to announce the start of work on the Al-Khor Stadium in Al-Khor in June. Reuters Investors in Qatar are likely to hold their breath, and cash, this month: Well, at least until FIFA reports on its investigation of the bidding process for […]
Emirates said it’s ready to play the long game in seeking to add routes in Germany, one of the few major travel markets that the world’s No. 1 airline by international traffic is struggling to penetrate. Emirates, which has overcome the modest population of its home base by building Dubai into a long-haul transfer hub, can serve only four German cities under a bilateral air-services accord dating […]
Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai’s largest lender, plans to sell a benchmark-sized capital-boosting bond, a document from lead managers said on Monday, looking to take advantage of favourable markets to strengthen its reserves. ENBD has chosen Citigroup, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and its own investment banking arm to arrange investor meetings ahead of a potential issue, the document said, confirming what banking sources told Reuters […]
Five years after Dubai teetered on the brink of financial disaster, there are signs emerging that the emirate’s initial public offering market is coming back to life as the owner of the world’s largest shopping mall prepares to sell shares to the public next month. Emaar Properties, Dubai’s highest profile real estate group, said on Sunday it plans to list at least 15% of its profitable and […]
Saudi Arabia’s second-largest telecom operator Mobily said Monday it has established a joint venture with Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play Tech Center to make investments in seed-stage startups in the Middle East. Mobily The partnership, the second of its kind in the region, will also help bring international startups to the region and comes just a few days after Mobily announced it has a launched a venture […]
Middle East funds are bullish on Saudi Arabia’s stock market despite concern it is getting richly valued, while they think the United Arab Emirates has bottomed out after a volatile few months, a Reuters survey showed. The Saudi stock market index has jumped 13 percent since authorities announced in late July that they would open the market to direct investment by foreign institutions in the first half […]
Emaar Properties will launch its highly anticipated initial public offer of at least 15 percent of its shopping malls and retailing unit on Dubai’s main stock market in September, and plans to list the shares in October. The offer would be one of the largest equity sales in the Middle East since 2008, underlining Dubai’s recovery from a credit crisis that forced many state-linked developers to stall […]
A logo of Emaar is seen near the Dubai Mall Reuters Emaar Properties plans to float at least 15% of its profitable and fast-growing malls business in a September IPO. The chances are high though that Dubai’s flagship developer may sell an even bigger stake. It all depends on getting the right valuation for Emaar Malls Group. After all, Emaar will be cutting its own stake in […]
A suicide bomber targeting the Iraqi military has killed at least 11 people, including four soldiers, in a town near Baghdad. Iraqi authorities say the bomber detonated explosives in his car at an army checkpoint in Youssifiyah, about 20 kilometers south of the capital. At least 24 people were wounded in the attack. Violence in Iraq has surged this year as the extremist Islamic State group and […]
KUWAIT. A recent report issued by KFH Research, a subsidery for KFH Group, sees continued positive outlook for the Kuwaiti construction industry, on the back of strong domestic demand in the Kuwaiti economy and a pick-up in government capital spending. Overview and Outlook “While we remain fundamentally cautious about the country’s medium-term investment outlook, we note that higher growth in bank lending over the last few months […]
MUMBAI: There is a new buzz in boardrooms around ‘natural capital sustainability’. Even as awareness on this issue is picking up, a handful of companies in India, cutting across industry segments, are giving back more than they take — being water- or carbon-positive is part of their business model. “Companies need to set quantifiable objectives around a crucial natural capital on which they are predominately dependent, […]
NEW DELHI: India’s diverse set of targets and financial incentives support growth of renewable energy generation even as expensive capital keeps renewable costs high, Paris-based International Energy Agency said today. According to IEA, stability of the policy environment and implementation are key for determining the cost and availability of financing for renewables over the medium term. “India’s diverse set of targets and financial incentives support […]
First-time sellers of bonds that adhere to Islam’s ban on interest are poised to revive an industry suffering its worst quarter in more than four years. Luxembourg and Hong Kong aim to market debut offerings of sukuk next month, while Kenya, South Africa, Bangladesh and Tatarstan have announced plans for maiden issues. Islamic bond sales have fallen 82 percent to $2.6 billion this quarter compared with the […]
Blackstone Group is close to its first investment in the Middle East as the private-equity firm nears a deal to acquire a minority stake in Dubai’s GEMS Education, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Blackstone, based in New York, has teamed up with Fajr Capital Ltd. to invest in the world’s biggest privately held schools operator GEMS through its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities unit, the people […]
DP World Jebel Ali, UAE. DP World After posting a decent set of numbers in the first half, a company can be excused if it sounds optimistic about its growth outlook. In DP World’s case – the numbers are more than decent. The Dubai-based ports operator, one of the largest globally, reported a solid 26% jump in six-month earnings as it added new capacity amid a pick […]
