By Gaurav Sharma The oil and gas industry is on the cusp of profound operational changes underpinned by emerging technologies. The transformative impact of this new wave – labelled the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 – is being felt to such an extent that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has started factoring in probable additional global oil reserves courtesy optimised conventional and unconventional production. Dr Fatih […]
|By Hassan Ali Mansoor| “Adversity reveals the genius, austerity conceals it”. This adage has emerged as the dominant theme used by a select few players in the GCC where during the last three years, massive cost cutting has emerged as the new dominant theme across the board. The last couple of years, we saw the entire commercial sector including businesses, commercial banks and financial institutions struggle to […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Etihad Airways Engineering, EAD Aerospace, Lufthansa Technik and Envoy Aerospace have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form the Independent Aircraft Modifier Alliance (IAMA). IAMA aims to encourage aircraft owners and operators to modify and modernise their fleets through high quality equipment and rigorous inspections, irrespective of which IAMA members provide the engineering services. Aircraft modifications, such as the installation of new […]
It is now far too dangerous to short the British pound, another fabulously profitable short since its fateful 1.50 high against the US dollar the night of the June 2016 referendum. The UK Foreign Secretary shocked me when he publicly warned that voting down Mrs. May’s deal to exit the EU would scrap Brexit. Sterling rose to 1.2850 on reports that the Tory Cabinet in Downing Street […]
I have gone gaga on software shares since 2013, when Satya Nadella redefined Microsoft – and tripled the valuation of the Evil Empire of Redmond in the next five years. True, Microsoft was the best Big Tech performer of 2018, an annus horribilis for the best and brightest of Silicon Valley. The world’s most exciting software shares were slammed by the bearish bloodbath on NASDAQ. However, when […]
|By Raj Samani |As 2018 draws to a close, we should perhaps be grateful that the year has not been entirely dominated by ransomware, although the rise of the GandCrab and SamSam variants show that the threat remains active. Our predictions for 2019 move away from simply providing an assessment on the rise or fall of a particular threat, and instead focus on current rumblings we see […]
|By Matein Khalid| OPEC”s ministerial meeting on December 6 will have a seismic impact on the outlook for global oil markets. OPEC has been unnerved by a 30% fall in crude oil prices in the past two months on expectations of lower oil demand due to a Chinese economic slowdown, spectacular growth in US shale oil supply, King Dollar’s chilling impact on the commodities complex and long […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The Sharjah Petroleum Council (SPC) announced it is inviting petroleum exploration and production companies and investors to bid in an inaugural onshore acreage licencing round covering three Concession areas. SPC has appointed Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) to conduct the licencing round, which will open on 25th June,offering companies 30-year contracts with a 10-year extension. “Sharjah has always strongly supported private investment, providing the appropriate economic environment to encourage sustainable […]
By James M. Dorsey Nothing in a swath of land stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to China is undisputed. Food is often emblematic of disputes over identity, history and political claims that underlie an arc of crisis wracked by ethnic and religious conflict; clamour for political, economic, social, national and minority rights; efforts by states and ethnic groups to garner soft power or assert hegemony, […]
Etisalat Digital announced that it has signed strategic partnerships with four scale-ups as part of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators Program,’ the world’s largest governbment supported accelerator. The 4th cohort of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators’, launched in March this year with the participation of Etisalat Digital and other government bodies and in cooperation with the world’s most innovative companies, came to a close on xx May. The program […]
SNC-Lavalin announced that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Central District Cooling Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Tabreed, for the expansion of its Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC) district cooling scheme in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Under the contract, SNC-Lavalin is responsible for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of an additional cooling capacity of 12,000 Refrigeration Tons (RT) with all associated […]
|By Matein Khalid| I had written an article titled “six reasons to be bullish Saudi equities in 2018, published in the KT on January 28. Yet I was surprised to see Saudi Arabian equities become the world’s second best performing stock market in 2018 after Egypt. The Saudi equity index fund (KSA) I recommended in my column is up 18% at a time when the MSCI emerging markets […]
By Matein Khalid A dismal legacy of civil war, sanctions, insurgency, foreign invasion and terrorism has had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the assembled global elite at Davos 2018 that Iraq needed $100 billion in postwar construction. Yet money alone will not solve Iraq’s problems of systemic corruption, a society divided by sectarian cleavages, poverty, the displacement of 2 million […]
By James M. Dorsey Twin attacks earlier this week on Pakistani security forces in the troubled province of Balochistan cast a light on a sustained and violent campaign against police and paramilitary units as well as Shiite and Christian minorities. The attacks by groups, some of which have had links to Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence apparatus as well as Saudi Arabia, spotlight the Pakistani state’s inability to […]
By James M. Dorsey Bangladesh, in a twist of irony, is looking to Saudi Arabia to fund a $ 1 billion plan to build hundreds of mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam that for much of the past decade traced its roots to ultra-conservative strands of the faith promoted by a multi-billion dollar Saudi campaign. The Bangladeshi plan constitutes the first effort by a Muslim country to enlist […]
By James M Dorsey The Middle East has a knack for sucking external powers into its conflicts. China’s ventures into the region have shown how difficult it is to maintain its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. China’s abandonment of non-interference is manifested by its (largely ineffective) efforts to mediate conflicts in South Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan as well as between Israel and Palestine and even between Saudi […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Overall sentiment in the GCC’s construction sector has improved over the last two years by approximately 7 per cent (from 32 per cent to 39 per cent), according to recent findings from Pinsent Masons’ GCC Construction Survey. The findings show that the UAE remains the number one market expected to deliver growth in 2018, with 38 per cent of respondents expecting the country […]
|Mark Ackerman| Automation has the ability to transform society for the better. Every day I see the powerful impact it can have, revolutionising the way business and everyday tasks are done, saving time, money and delivering game-changing economics. It will increase productivity, which is essential for future growth and prosperity. It will also see the end of employees spending time on mundane, repetitive tasks, instead freeing up […]
|By Matein Khalid| When I first started on a Treasury bond futures trading desk in New York fresh out of Wharton, a senior mentor once advised to keep track of the four heartbeats of gold finance in real time. The price of money (interest rates), the price of currency (the US dollar), the price of oil and the price of gold. The price of money can be […]
|By Matein Khalid| Dubai based Gulf Islamic Investments (GII) acquired a one million square foot Amazon logistics center in Dortmund, Germany for $144 million. This deal is a testament to the boutique global merchant bank created in Dubai by GII’s co-founder/CEO Pankaj Gupta, who I am honored to call a friend. I consciously model my own firm Asas Capial on the strategic path laid out by GII and […]
|By Matein Khalid|The rise in Brent crude to $60 a barrel and the trade volume ballast generated by the world’s first post Lehman synchronized economic recovery is hugely positive for UAE economic growth in 2018. After all, the UAE is unique because Abu Dhabi’s 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves is complemented by Dubai’s role as the Gulf’s financial, logistics, aviation, shopping and services hub. The […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| UAE-based multinational company, Crescent Enterprises, has announced the successful closing of its investment in ColubrisMX and XCath, two next-generation micro-robotic medical device companies through its newly launched corporate venture arm, Crescent Enterprises Venture Capital (CE-VC). Developed at the University of Texas Medical School’s Microsurgical Robotics Laboratory and incorporated in Texas, USA, both companies design and develop next-generation robotic technologies that are expected to revolutionise […]
|By Matein Khalid|I am often asked by investors to articulate my “philosophy” of real estate investing. Tough question. My ideal deal is one where it is possible to buy brick and mortar assets at 60 – 70% of replacement cost. This usually occurs in the aftermath of a banking crisis or economic shock. This was the case in Florida homes in 2009 or Spanish office space in […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Boeing and flydubai signed a landmark agreement for 225 737 MAX airplanes with a list price value of $27 billion. The deal represents the largest-ever single-aisle jet order – by number of airplanes and total value – from a Middle East carrier. Signed at the 2017 Dubai Airshow in flydubai’s hometown, the agreement includes a commitment for 175 MAX airplanes, and purchase rights […]
