A Luxembourg court on Friday rejected a request by two holding companies of Portugal’s Espirito Santo family for “controlled management”, a sort of bankruptcy protection from creditors. Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG) and its subsidiary Espirito Santo Financiere SA still have the right to appeal, and the court has yet to decide on two other holding companies controlled by the family. ESFG is Banco Espirito Santo’s largest shareholder, and […]
| By TAP Staff| A mismatch between buyer and seller expectations is attributed to be one of the main reasons for the signs 0f Dubai property market levelling off, according to analysts. The “over-exuberance” seen in recent months is clearly losing steam and this by itself should ensure that the market does not head towards the traditional crash. The annual price growth in the Dubai property market […]
Big On Telecom signs distribution deal with Blackphone DUBAI, 3 days ago Blackphone has signed a master distributor partnership with Big On Telecom, a Big on Group company headquartered in Dubai, to expand the brand’s presence in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions. The agreement marks a significant step in Blackphone’s growth, with Big On Telecom having started testing and launch discussions with telecom operators in […]
Abu Dhabi e-govt showcase solutions at Gitex ABU DHABI, 3 days ago Twenty-two Abu Dhabi Government entities will showcase their latest innovative IT solutions, product apps and software offerings, all under the theme, “Towards a Digital Abu Dhabi’, at Gitex 2014, Dubai. UAE. The apps have been designed specifically to strengthen customer service and enhance the customer experience. Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (Adsic) will host […]
Officials at the announcing of the Gitex Technology Week 2014 Mideast ICT market to hit $20bn, outpacing global average DUBAI, 3 days ago The Middle East region’s information and communication technology (ICT) market is set to jump from a projected $15 billion this year to $20 billion in 2020, outpacing the global average, according to market intelligence firm IDC. The growth is being buoyed by region-wide investment […]
The planned merger of the United Arab Emirates’ two main stock exchanges, home to the second-best performing share gauge in the world, will take more time to complete, according to a Dubai government official. “It’s still on the table,” Mohammed Al Shaibani, chief executive officer of Investment Corp. of Dubai, the emirate’s main state-owned holding company, said in an interview today at a Dubai conference. “We were […]
|By TAP Staff| The Dubai International Financial Centre Court appointed Philip Bowers and Neville Kahn of advisory firm Deloitte as joint provisional liquidators of Portuguese financial group Espirito Santo’s Dubai subsidiary ES Bankers (Dubai) Ltd (ESBD. This came after the regulator was informed ESBD was “no longer able to meet its obligations and continue as a going concern”, the statement added. The DIFC action is the latest […]
DUBAI // The fifth Big Boys Toys arrived in Dubai yesterday, featuring 80 of the fastest and most luxurious products from makers across the globe. From one of the smallest drones to the world’s most expensive bicycle, and with extreme buggies and electronic motorcycles thrown in, there was plenty to keep petrolheads and gadget geeks happy. Hundreds arrived to see what the 65 exhibitors at the three-day […]
To find inspiration for the future in his new role as chief executive of Masdar, Dr Ahmad Belhoul looked at the past. “When you look back a generation or two to our grandparents’ time, they were some of the most sustainable people on Earth,” he said. “They would use water and food only to the extent that they needed.” Appointed as the head of Abu Dhabi’s leading […]
Dubai bourse… marked recovery in economy boosts IPOs Dubai bourse ‘may see further listings by year-end’ DUBAI, 1 days ago The Dubai Financial Market could see one more company list on the stock exchange before the end of the year in addition to the already-announced share sale by a healthcare and education start-up, its chairman said on Thursday. Initial public offerings in the emirate dried up in […]
Emaar Malls Group jumps 20pc on listing DUBAI, 1 days ago Shares in Dubai’s Emaar Malls Group (EMG) jumped in early trade on Thursday as the stock started trading on Dubai’s main stock exchange and drained liquidity from the rest of the emirate’s market. EMG shares, which were sold at Dh2.90 in the heavily oversubscribed $1.6 billion initial public offer, rose 13.8 per cent to Dh3.30 after […]
A trading screen on the floor of Dubai Financial Market shows the bid and offer levels for Emaar Malls Group shares. Asa Fitch for The Wall Street Journal Shares of Emaar Malls Group started trading on the Dubai Financial Market on Thursday, marking the first significant new share sale in Dubai since the global financial crisis. Emaar Malls isn’t a big deal globally. But traders here say […]
|By K Raveendran| The run-away success of Alibaba’s blockbuster IPO is seen inspiring other online players to take similar routes. Among the probable candidates is leading online trading and investment entity Saxo Bank. “The IPO is one of the options the management has under consideration,” Jakob Beck Thomsen, CEO of Saxo Bank Dubai, told The Arabian Post. But he refused to commit himself on a specific time […]
AirAsia is in talks to relaunch flights to the United Arab Emirates from its hubs in Southeast Asia, and has this time chosen Dubai rather than Abu Dhabi for its Western expansion. The low-cost airline’s founder Tony Fernandes was in Dubai Wednesday to talk to officials about flying Airbus Group NV A330 jets into one of the emirate’s two airports, Dubai International or Al Maktoum International. AirAsia […]
|TAP Special| When state-owned Investment Corporation of Dubai announced last month that it was taking a minority stake in Nigeria’s largest cement manufacturer Dangote Cement for $300 million, it seemed like something coming out of the blue. But things began to fall in place this week, when the African conglomerate’s chairman Aliko Dangote announced in Dubai that he was contemplating billions of dollars worth of investments in […]
Nicolas Parasie for The Wall Street Journal In the past six months, the United Arab Emirates’ official credit bureau has ramped up its efforts to procure information: it collected two years of financial records for every single retail customer of each financial institution in the country. That process involved digesting some 100 million transactions, half of which are now fully uploaded into the bureau’s data vault. Marwan […]
Gulf banks are feeling the pinch of rapidly shrinking corporate loan margins, with some predicting a bounce in lending rates as soon as the first half of 2015 as the escalating price war bites into profitability. Lenders are being forced to cut rates and loosen lending terms to secure business as local banks, flush with cash as their balance sheets recover from the global financial crisis, seek […]
Dubai’s Emirates Airline, the world’s largest carrier by international traffic flown, has signed a deal with TAAG Angola Airlines to manage the carrier for 10 years and cooperate on “commercial opportunities” in Africa. The Gulf carrier, which also has a partnership agreement with Australia’s Qantas Airways, will code-share on cargo and passenger services, participate in each carrier’s frequent flier programs and coordinate ground handling, Emirates said in […]
|By TAP Staff| Following the huge success of Emaar’s malls IPO, Chairman Mohammed Alabbar indicated the possibility of floating the group’s hotel business, which includes the signature Armani Hotel. Meraas Holding, a Dubai government-controlled developer, has picked banks to manage the IPO of its theme park unit, three people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. The company’s IPO is planned for the fourth quarter, […]
Kuwait plans clamp on energy subsidies Kuwait starting to cut subsidies, says IMF DUBAI, 3 hours, 26 minutes ago Kuwait’s government has started reducing some state subsidy payments and is in an advanced stage of preparing a plan to cut subsidies for kerosene and electricity, the International Monetary Fund said. Subsidy cuts are an important economic reform for Kuwait because lavish subsidies, mostly on energy, swallow about […]
Boost for healthcare, education Amanat Holdings to launch $374m IPO in Oct DUBAI, 4 hours, 0 minutes ago UAE-based Amanat Holdings, a healthcare and education start-up, will launch a Dh1.375 billion ($374 million) share sale offering on the main Dubai bourse in October, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The initial public offering is set at a price of Dh1.02 ($0.27) per share, representing 55 […]
Qatar… construction activity jumps 14.5 per cent Qatar’s economic growth edges up to 5.7pc in Q2 DUBAI, 4 hours, 21 minutes ago Qatar’s economic growth picked up slightly to 5.7 per cent on an annual basis in the second quarter of this year as robust non-oil activity outweighed a decline in the hydrocarbon sector, official data showed on Tuesday. Real gross domestic product growth accelerated from a […]
Participants at a microfinance conference in Dubai this week. Sanabel Microfinance has blossomed in recent years, helping fill a funding need for businesses too tiny and risky for traditional banks. Curiously perhaps, while microfinance has been a big hit across parts of Asia and South America, its start in the Middle East and North Africa hasn’t been as auspicious. Microfinance institutions have existed in the Middle East […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Malls Group, the shopping mall operator based in Dubai, said Monday that it had raised $1.6 billion in its initial public offering. Emaar Malls, which owns the Dubai Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in the world, with 3.7 million square feet in leasable space and 75 million visitors last year, is being spun off from Emaar Properties, the property giant that […]
