AMMAN — Representatives of IT companies in Jordan said they will be forced to move their headquarters out of the Kingdom if a proposed income tax law is endorsed. They said the increase in electricity prices this week and the government’s intention to increase IT companies’ income tax from 14 per cent to 25 per cent will be “disastrous”, making Jordan no longer an ICT hub. “The […]
(Reuters) – The Dubai-based investment firm that bought English soccer club Leeds United in December after lengthy negotiations sold more than half of its 100 percent holding less than six months later, financial statements show. GFH Capital, a subsidiary of Bahraini Gulf Finance House, offloaded a 10 percent stake to Bahrain-based International Investment Bank earlier this year and its second quarter financial statement showed it had now […]
By David Kirkpatrick CAIRO — Gathering Thursday morning around a mosque used as a morgue for hundreds killed the day before, many Islamists waited confidently for a surge of sympathetic support from the broader public. But it failed to materialize. With their leaders jailed or silent, Islamists reeled in shock at the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history. By Thursday night, health officials had counted 638 […]
The domestic banking system in Saudi Arabia relative to many of the global peers, developed or developing, had maintained its inherent strengths that emanate from greater reliance on core banking activities, lower non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio, little recourse to wholesale funding and ample liquidity. During the last two years, Saudi banks have returned to a higher growth trajectory after a lackluster performance in 2009 that saw total […]
The commodities sector looks set for a relatively benign near-term future according to Saxo Bank, the multi-asset trading and investment specialist. Gold and silver should see a mild recovery over the next quarter and oil looks set to remain at current levels, struggling to push past previous highs. Any expectation that WTI crude will re-establish its historical premium over Brent looks improbable. Saxo Bank believes that changing […]
Abraaj Group announced the acquisition of a “significant” stake in two student accommodation assets in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The value of the stake was not disclosed. Abraaj will invest in Republika Academic Apartments along with Turkish institutional investor BLG Capital, which is also the developer of Republika. The transaction gives Abraaj “substantial ownership” of two properties located in Istanbul’s student areas of Ortakoy and Buyucekmece. […]
(Reuters) – The Dubai arm of Australian contractor Leighton Holdings is seeking more than 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) from a prominent member of Qatar’s royal family in compensation for late payments on a hotel project in the Qatari capital. Dubai-based Al Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) said it had launched a series of suits against Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim al-Thani’s Al Faisal Holding in relation to the […]
Reuters: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah’s disdain for Iran leaps from U.S. embassy cables. “May God prevent us from falling victim to their evil,” he told U.S. officials, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks. According to another, he told his own diplomats he wanted Washington to “cut off the head of the snake”. On the other side of the Gulf, Iran’s contempt for Saudi Arabia crackles through […]
(Arab News): Makkah is witnessing mega-development projects at a combined cost of more than SR300 billion, according to Makkah Mayor Osama Al-Bar. “The city is enjoying enormous support from the country’s leaders,” he says. Al-Bar said the public transport project, including metro and buses, will make Makkah a smart city that is attractive for investors and end traffic bottlenecks during Umrah and Haj seasons. A ministerial committee, […]
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 […]
Dubai: Emirates, Etihad Airways and Gulf Air experienced delays on Tuesday morning after their passenger check-in and reservation system crashed. The passenger check-in and reservation system, designed by Sabre, experienced a worldwide outage at around 8am local time and lasted for two hours. Sabre software is used by more than 300 airlines around the world and some 100 airports worldwide were affected by the outage. Sabre is […]
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 […]
Riyadh (Reuters): The Saudi Arabian government awarded $22.5 billion (Dh82.6 billion) in contracts to three foreign-led consortia on Sunday for the design and construction of the first metro rail system in the capital, Riyadh. The project, which will involve six rail lines extending 176 kilometres and carrying electric, driverless trains, is the world’s largest public transport system currently under development, Saudi officials said. US construction giant Bechtel […]
Siemens said it will supply the key components for a major combined-cycle power plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The power station is designed to deliver electricity to the Jazan Industrial city area in the southwest of the country and to the refinery of Jazan, which will additionally be supplied with process steam. The plant will be fueled with gasified refinery residues, which contributes greatly to […]
(Reuters) – Lebanon needs to spend at least $20 billion to improve its basic infrastructure otherwise the high growth the country has been witnessing will “dwindle and vanish,” the economy and trade minister said on Wednesday. Lebanon is famous for its robust service-oriented sectors, but many investors are discouraged from setting up businesses in a country where power cuts are frequent, road networks beyond the capital are […]
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 […]
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 […]
By K. Raveendran | Special to Gulf News | 3/3/2006 According to WorldClimate, a portal that provides worldwide weather data over long periods of time, Singapore receives an average annual rainfall of about 240 cm and London some 61 cm per year. Compared to this, Dubai gets an average rainfall of only 10 cm for a full year. So, one might assume that buildings in Singapore and […]
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 […]
