Qatar raised the foreign ownership limit for shares listed on Doha’s stock exchange, less than a week before an MSCI Inc. upgrade to emerging market status. The benchmark index rose. Investors outside the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council will be able to hold as much as 49 percent of a company listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange after Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani gave instructions to […]
|By TAP Staff| The listing of Emaar Properties mall business on Dubai Financial Market instead of Nadaq Dubai as originally envisaged would necessitate an exemption from the DFM rule regarding the minimum size of the float. Emaar is floating only 25 percent of the mall business, while the minimum float required for a listing on DFM is 55 percent. Nasdaq Dubai, on the other hand, allows floatation […]
DUBAI // A wish list of 21 requests from Indian expatriates in the UAE was delivered to Narendra Modi’s office on Monday as the Bharatiya Janata Party leader was sworn in as prime minister. It included long-standing demands such as voting rights for non-resident Indians, encouraging investment in infrastructure, joint-venture incentives and exemption from restrictive taxes. “These issues relate to NRIs all over the world, not just […]
DUBAI // A shelter for women and children who have been have victims of abuse has already dealt with 187 cases so far this year. Most of the victims were women, half were Emirati and the majority applied in person for help. The Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC), the only shelter in Dubai for these types of cases, dealt with 414 cases last year. Of […]
A Dubai-based startup has raised $1.6 million in new funding to help launch its software that better connects social media users and the brands they follow. Brndstr Inc. (pronounced ‘brandster’) uses software that allows the brand’s Twitter accounts to automatically respond to #hashtags with offers and vouchers. For example, if a Twitter user retweets a brand’s tweet, then that user can automatically be sent a voucher giving […]
DUBAI // Safety on the country’s roads is a major concern for two thirds of the UAE, according to a YouGov survey on road safety. The survey, commissioned by The National, revealed that 73 per cent of residents in Dubai were worried about road safety, 71 per cent in Sharjah and 65 per cent in Abu Dhabi. Those most concerned were Asians, with 83 per cent, and […]
The Middle East’s oil boom was made in China HSBC As the world’s second-largest consumer of oil, China in the past decade has relied heavily on the Middle East to secure the resources required to fuel its ascendancy to become an economic superpower. In doing so, it overtook the U.S. as principal investor in the Middle East and played a pivotal role in transforming the region by […]
The surge in oil prices driven by Chinese demand has added $1 trillion to output in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries over 10 years, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The six-member bloc’s gross domestic product increased to $1.7 trillion between 2003 and 2013, bringing per capital GDP to an average of $35,000, HSBC said in a report on the effect of a “globalizing China” on the Middle […]
Emaar Properties, owner of the world’s biggest mall, hired HSBC Holdings and Emirates NBD as bookrunners for the initial public offering of its retail arm, with Rothschild as financial adviser, five people familiar with the matter said. National Bank of Abu Dhabi and EFG Hermes Holding Co. will also be bookrunners on the sale of between 25 percent to 30 percent of the malls unit on the […]
Islamic finance has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in global finance but the industry has yet to shake off perceptions about high costs and complexity that are holding back some issuers. Sukuk, or Islamic bonds that follow religious principles such as a ban on interest and speculation, are now a major funding tool for companies in the Middle East and southeast Asia, and are becoming increasingly […]
The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition, one of the biggest startup events in the Middle East, will announce its winner on Thursday evening at an event in Cairo. Here’s the five startups that caught the Wall Street Journal’s eye from the shortlisted semi-finalists. Elwafeyat.com: The concept of Cairo-based Elwafeyat.com is dead easy to understand. The website is an online platform to honor deceased family members and […]
Uber San Francisco-based Uber — a smartphone app that connects passengers with cars for hire — officially launches in the Saudi capital Riyadh today after three months of beta testing, entering a new market with some unique opportunities. Saudi Arabia is a country with virtually no public transport and where half of the population — women — is not allowed to drive. Many of the regular cabs available […]
Leeds’ former managing director David Haigh has been arrested in Dubai for alleged financial irregularities during his time at the club, it has been reported. Haigh, 36, has been accused by the club’s former owner Gulf Finance House of wrongdoing under its ownership and in connection with the sale of Leeds to Italian Massimo Cellino. Haigh, an employee of GFH before he resigned from the Dubai-based equity […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai outscores all US cities in terms of its healthcare system, the latest Cities of Opportunities report has revealed. Dubai is the only Middle Eastern city that features in the Price Waterhouse Cooper study takes the pulse of 30 cities at the heart of the world’s economy and culture. Dubai ranked 5th in global affordability, that measures cost of living, purchasing power and corporate […]
National Bank of Abu Dhabi plans to set up a regional financial base in India before the end of this year as part of its overseas expansion strategy, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The largest lender by market value in the United Arab Emirates is the first Emirati bank to be granted a banking licence in India since 1980. It joins two […]
Coca-Cola’s Facebook page is supposed to have the biggest fan base for any brand. As per the latest tally, the page has over 82 million ‘likes’. A large part of this is obviously built up through paid promotion, but given that this is the highest number any single brand has managed to pull together on any social media platform, it is an achievement that the soft drink […]
|TAP Special| Sharjah might soon have its own Metro, which could be linked to Etihad Rai, as part of a massive plan to develop the emirate’s transport infrastructure, according to sources familiar with the plan. The newly-created Sharjah Roads and Transport Authority has been tasked with the responsibility of undertaking the feasibility studies in this regard. The plan also includes the development of new road networks and […]
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, who played a key role in Glencore International Plc’s takeover of Xstrata Plc, is returning to dealmaking a year after his ouster as prime minister and head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Sheikh Hamad is injecting 1.75 billion euros ($2.4 billion) into Deutsche Bank AG through his Paramount Holdings Services Ltd. investment vehicle, the Frankfurt-based bank said May 18. […]
Donald Trump, the New York real-estate mogul, is back in Dubai with plans for a golf course and 104 mansions three years after a plan to build a hotel tower bearing his name was scrapped. Trump was involved in conceiving the 18-hole course, designed by Gil Hanse, while his daughter Ivanka oversaw the design of the houses, the star of TV’s “The Apprentice” said today at a […]
Bahrain’s central bank is finalising rules for the supervision of sharia-compliant advisory firms, part of a wider overhaul of standards as the Gulf state steps up its efforts in Islamic finance. Having been a pioneer of the sector, Bahrain is now competing with other centres such as Dubai, London and Kuala Lumpur for Islamic finance business. The rules would help small Islamic finance institutions and fund managers […]
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) will purchase a 25 percent stake in Indonesian Islamic lender Bank Panin Syariah, it said on Monday, as the United Arab Emirates-based bank looks to expand into the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Under the agreement, DIB – the largest Islamic bank in the UAE – will “jointly manage and operate” Bank Panin Syariah along with parent Bank Pan Indonesia, which will remain […]
Dubai’s index makes its one-day decline in eight months on Monday and technical indicators suggest it will fall further, while most other Middle East markets also retreated. Dubai fell 5.5 percent to 4,856 points, its lowest close in a month and biggest one-day loss since Aug. 27. “I think we’ll see more selling – the key is that Dubai broke and then closed below 5,000 points,” said […]
An overwhelming majority of young Arabs believe Expo 2020 will improve the international image of the Arab world, with 89 per cent agreeing that it will have a positive effect, according to the findings of the 6th Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey. When asked if they thought the UAE’s successful bid to host the Expo 2020 would positively impact the way the international community views the […]
Chief executives in the Middle East are the world’s most upbeat about economic growth next year on hopes that the region will see a period of increased stability following the geo-political turmoil of recent years, says consultancy firm PwC. Of those regional CEOs who say their companies will grow revenues in the next 12 months, 66% are “very confident” compared to the global average of 39%. The […]
