Saxo Group India, part of the Saxo Bank Group, has expanded its presence with the move to a new and bigger office in Gurugram to accommodate future growth with a plan to increase headcount by 20 % in 2018. Established through an acquisition in 2010, Saxo Group India employs more than 500 people primarily within IT and operations. The organisation in Gurugram works with Saxo Bank’s headquarter […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai CommerCity, a joint venture between Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) and the Wasl Asset Management Group, dedicated to e-commerce firms, says its investment value has increased by 18.5 percent to AED 3.2 billion with an increase in the total leasable area by 32.5 percent. Launched in 2017, Dubai CommerCity is an area of 2.1 million square feet located in Umm Ramool, an […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should continue to breathe a little easier in the year ahead. Barring any major increase in geopolitical risk or a sharp fall in oil prices, 2019 should mark a stabilization of GCC banks’ financial profiles, following three years of significant pressure, Standaard & Poor’s said in its latest review. What’s more, with the transition to IFRS […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| New York: Demby Coin, the world’s biggest ICO, has debuted at an investor conference in New York, eliciting keen interest from investors looking for alternative investment opportunities. Demby Coin, which will power the world’s first ever all-inclusive marketplace with the combined effect of the likes of Amazone and Ebay, seeks to bring the much-needed liquidity into the crypto currency ecosystem, by enabling purchases […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|In a bid to achieve food security in developing countries and eradicate global poverty, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading national entity for development aid, has allocated nearly AED3.2 billion towards development projects in the agricultural and irrigation sectors. Representing 7 per cent of the total financial assistance contributed by the Fund in supporting developing countries to date, this assistance has allowed […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| In an unusual move, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund,which is a stake holder in Elon Musk’s Tesla, has invested $1 billion in rival Silicon Valley start-up Lucid Motors. This means the Saudis will benefit, irrespective of which new generation car company achieves leadership in this automobile sector. Lucid is set to start making its first model, the Air sedan, in 2020. The comapny […]
Is the human race winning? It seems that the answer is no. We go slowly along a pathway that plays with the notion of progress. We digress constantly from focussing upon what would fix issues of division, disagreement and despair. The fundamentals are wrong. This is because we became strong believers of what deceives us. We see policies formulated on the basis of hatred, and not practicality. […]
By James M. Dorsey Less than a week in office, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has made blasphemy one of his first issues, empowering militants and initiating international moves, long heralded by Saudi Arabia, that would restrict press freedom by pushing for a global ban. Mr. Khan, in his first address as prime minister to the Pakistani Senate, said he intended to raise the blasphemy issue in […]
By James M. Dorsey Financial injections by Qatar and possibly China may resolve Turkey’s immediate economic crisis, aggravated by a politics-driven trade war with the United States, but are unlikely to resolve the country’s structural problems, fuelled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s counterintuitive interest rate theories. The latest crisis in Turkey’s boom-bust economy raises questions about a development model in which countries like China and Turkey witness moves towards […]
Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), the parent company of vastly successful property portals in the MENA and South Asia regions, has announced that it has wrapped up a first close of $50 million as part of a substantially larger investment round. In addition to Bayut.com in the UAE, EMPG owns and operates Zameen.com in Pakistan, Bproperty.com in Bangladesh, and recently announced its acquisition of Mubawab in Morocco. The Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco portals are clear leaders in their respective markets, and Bayut.com, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| GCC sovereign debt issuance is expected to reach US$53 billion in 2018, surpassing last year’s US$49.5 billion, according to Fisch Asset Management, a Zurich-based asset manager. “GCC sovereign debt issuance has had another strong first half, with the two multi-tranche sovereign bond transactions of Saudi Arabia and Qatar leading issuance of over US$30 billion in the hard currency market,” Fisch Asset Management said […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has announced the distribution of more than AED 23.4 billion in cash dividends to around 406 thousand investors on behalf of listed companies in 2018. The cash dividends paid out by listed companies increased around 5.5% compared AED 22.2 billion in the year 2017. This announcement is a confirmation of ADX’s success in providing a distinct investment climate and […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Ras Al Khaimah Petroleum Authority (RAKPA), the regulator of the petroleum sector in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) in the United Arab Emirates, is seeing a high level of interest from Indian companies to qualify for the 2018 RAK licensing round. Growing demand in the Indian market and the unique opportunity for Indian companies to explore and develop oil and gas in […]
By James M. Dorsey The failure of Western allies to rally around Canada in its dispute with Saudi Arabia risks luring the kingdom into a false belief that economic sanctions will shield it from, if not reverse mounting criticism of its human rights record and conduct of the war in Yemen. It also risks convincing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that acting with impunity will not impinge on […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|An Arbitral Tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration confirmed the illegitimacy of the Government of Djibouti’s action of seizing control of the Doraleh Container Terminal from DP World. The LCIA Tribunal has ruled that Doraleh Container Terminal’s Concession Agreement “remains valid and binding notwithstanding Law 202 and the 2018 Decrees”. Law 202 and the referenced decrees were devices enacted by Djibouti to […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Global DP World Limited handled 35.6 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first half of 2018, with gross container volumes growing by 4.8% year-on-year on a reported basis and 6.0% on a like-for-like basis. The first half of 2018 continues to see an upswing in global trade and all three DP World regions delivered growth, particularly […]
By James M. Dorsey China appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a developing nation. The emergence of a security component […]
|By Arabian Posst Staff| Etihad Aviation Group (EAG) CEO Tony Douglas and Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company Limited (JOCIC) Chairman Luo Hua inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a strategic partnership during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit to the United Arab Emirates. The two sides plan to cooperate on a wide range of areas in order to better support the development of […]
By James M. Dorsey This month’s inauguration of a fibreoptic cable linking Pakistan with China could prove to be a double-edged sword. Constructed by Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, the cable is likely to enhance both Pakistan’s information communication technology infrastructure as well as the influence of Chinese authoritarianism at a moment that basic freedoms in Pakistan are on the defensive. The $44 million, 820-kilometre underground Pak-China Fibre […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Hindustan Infralog Private Limited (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), announced closure of the transaction to acquire 90% stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation (Nhava Seva) Ltd. CWCNSL’s founders, the Reddy family, will retain the remaining 10% shareholding and will remain involved in the business operations. It is the first investment of HIPL, the recently created […]
By James M. Dorsey The Pakistani government’s removal of a virulently anti-Shiite militant from its terrorism list at the very moment that an international money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog was deciding to put the country on a watchlist highlights Pakistan’s struggle to come to grips with militancy. The decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that was reported by Pakistani media but has yet to be announced […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) announced up to 70 per cent reduction on licensing and incorporation fees within the DWTC Authority (DWTCA), a free zone offering offshore licenses for businesses, and One Central, the lifestyle development at the heart of Dubai’s Central Business District, to spur business and benefit multi-sector growth. DWTC’s programme seeks to provide highly competitive offerings with the twin objectives of […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Dubai-based KEF Infra, part of the KEF Holdings owned by Non-Resident Indian billionaire Faizal E. Kottikollon, has merged with Katerra, a US-based family-owned construction technology business to create a US$3.75 billion conglomerate with US$8.5 billion order book. Prior to the merger, KEF Infra had US$250 million orderbook and $400 million work in the pipeline in India where the company gradually started to change the […]
|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 […]
