As the world’s oil traders descend on London this week, the hot subject will be how to keep North Sea Brent, the benchmark for the global oil price, fit for purpose. S&P Global Platts , the oil pricing agency, is trying to execute the biggest overhaul of North Sea oil trading in a decade, with plans to rejig how prices in the region are set ahead of […]
Some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds are increasingly striking their own private equity deals rather than relying on external fund managers, in a drive to cut costs and gain more control. With some $6.5 trillion in assets, sovereign investors already account for 19 percent of capital committed to private equity, according to data from research firm Preqin. But mega-funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment […]
Submitted by Don Quijones via WolfStreet.com, Untouchable. Inviolable. Immunity. Impunity. These are the sort of words and expressions that are often associated with senior central bankers, who are, by law, able to operate more or less above the law of the jurisdictions in which they operate. Rarely heard in association with senior central bankers are words or expressions like “accused”, “charged” or “under investigation.” But in Spain this […]
Key to enhancing and diversifying its service offering in the domestic maritime industry 20 February 2017 Riyadh – Saudi Arabia – Bahri, a global leader in logistics and transportation, has opened a new office in Mumbai to strengthen its presence in the fast-growing Indian maritime industry and lay the foundation to offer diverse shipping services to domestic customers. The new office, located in the central suburb of […]
By Alexandra Ulmer and Alexandra Valencia | QUITO QUITO Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno was within striking distance of winning the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election on Monday, as the Andean country’s electoral body counted ballots late into the night. In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid an April runoff and continue a decade-long period of leftist […]
SINGAPORE The U.S. economy is on “sound footing,” a hawkish Federal Reserve official said on Monday in a speech that cautioned against asking the central bank to solve problems beyond its control such as low productivity growth. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, at a forum in Singapore, did not comment specifically on interest rates. However she has dissented in the past in favor of quicker rate hikes […]
Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed in modest trading volumes on Sunday with Saudi Arabia and Qatar outperforming because of support from the banking sector, while Egypt fell as the currency hit a three-month high. Two-thirds of the 12 listed banks on Saudi Arabia’s bourse gained, lifting the index 0.1 percent. Alawwal Bank added 2.7 percent, with most activity occurring in the last hour of […]
Last week, as delegations from the new US administration, Russia, China and the EU gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the strategic challenges facing the international community, a very different international assembly was taking place at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development. As ministers in Germany prepared to debate matters diplomats define as “hard power” – military and […]
Photo The Iranian city of Ahvaz during a sandstorm on Saturday. Rain has turned the dust there into mud, which caused power stations to stop working. Credit Morteza Jaberian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images TEHRAN — Days of protests against dust storms, power outages and government mismanagement in one of Iran’s most oil-rich cities subsided on Sunday after security forces declared all demonstrations illegal. Residents of Ahvaz, a […]
SINGAPORE — It is important at this juncture for the United States and China to articulate their overarching foreign policy objectives towards Asia, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday. During a panel discussion at the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Germany, Dr Ng said the US’ ability as a military power to continue its presence and influence in the Pacific was “not in doubt”. “But this […]
Yesterday´s Future is Today´s Reality. In the area of Business applications, cloud seems to be all over the place. But it has many facets which all have its right to exist, though it´s a fatal misunderstanding to see cloud simply as an alternative technical deployment option. From the new millennium SaaS models that have been adopted, initially with huge appetite in dedicated Line of Business areas. We […]
While the year continues to be dominated by headlines touting the universal appeal of Alexa, there’s another gives a glimpse of what the big next step in human-computer interaction will be: eye tracking. The concept of measuring and responding to human eye motion isn’t new, but the past year saw a rising interest in the technology. There have been a slew of acquisitions of eye tracking startups by large […]
Theresa May has ordered her top officials to examine Kraft Heinz’s proposed takeover of Unilever to see if it raises concerns for the wider British economy and merits government intervention. The $143bn takeover approach is a big test for Mrs May’s industrial policy: last year she criticised Kraft’s 2010 takeover of the British chocolate maker Cadbury — the US company reneged on a promise to retain factories […]
Here are the questions the FT Markets team will be pondering this week: What do retail flows mean? Money flows are widely watched but, like anything in markets, there is signal and then there is noise. Investors poured money into global stock funds last week, one when US stock markets set fresh records, and US long-only equity funds received the first net inflow of cash ($0.5bn) in […]
Pakistan stocks exchange (PSX) remained under pressure during the week ended February 17, 2017 as worsening security situation and political uncertainty kept the participants on the sidelines, dealers said. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited (AHL) said mixed trend was witnessed at the local bourse with levels above the psychological 50K mark seemingly untenable. “Resistance became the underlying theme of the market given reservations over the ongoing […]
Saudi Arabia officials and executives of around 14 companies plan to embark on a marketing tour of Singapore and Hong Kong next month to attract Asian investors in the $430 billion stock exchange, banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. The HSBC Saudi Arabia Investment Forum will include stops in Singapore on March 1-2 and Hong Kong on March 3, the sources said. The trip reflects the rising […]
By Michelle Price / ReutersHONG KONG — Hong Kong is beefing up its anti-money laundering and corporate disclosure laws in a move that some financial crime specialists say could lead to the exodus of billions of dollars in assets from the territory as people seek to avoid increased scrutiny. The Chinese territory’s government has been rattled by last year’s Panama Papers scandal, which showed that Hong Kong […]
Al-Nahedh: Structural Changes, Regulatory Compliance and Cyber Security Major Challenges Facing Banks 18 February 2017 Kuwait – Group Chief Executive Officer at Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh stressed the importance of practically facing the economic challenges facing the GCC banks in light of the fall in oil prices, indicating the necessity of applying best practices and highest standards in the structural changes, regulatory compliance and […]
18 February 2017 Manama, Bahrain – The American Chamber of Commerce Bahrain (AmCham Bahrain), the hosts of this year’s AmCham MENA Regional Council’s Bi-Annual Forum, today announced the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) as the Strategic Partner for the upcoming event being held on the 15-16 March 2017 in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Forum, which aims to promote trade and investment between the United States and markets of the Middle […]
Sign up to receive Authers’ Note daily by email here Donald Trump has been remarkably consistent in his first month in office. As he reminded everyone at his press conference on Thursday, he has done what he said he would do. But on the same day came one clear-cut instance where he has changed his mind — on the stock market. This is what he tweeted on Thursday. […]
18 February, 2017 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court seized with the Panama Papers case, asking it to ignore the two Qatari letters produced by the Sharif family as evidence of their stance in the case. In the letters dated Nov 5 and Dec 22, 2016, former Qatari prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Hamad […]
Soundtrack Your Brand (SYB), the brainchild of an ex-Spotify executive and the quickest growing background music company, has raised $22 million in a round of funding. The round was led by UK’s Balderton Capital and Industrifonden, which is a Nordic venture capital fund. The funding, SYB revealed will be used for the business’ worldwide expansion, as well as improving the service. The company intends to use the […]
Committed to its new strategy to support the corporate sector with innovative financing solutions 18 February 2017 Kuwait – Warba Bank has announced that an agreement has been concluded with Al-Mulla International Financing Company by which the bank will increase the allocated amount of the acquisition of financing portfolios from Al-Mulla International Financing to reach the amount of 50 Million Kuwaiti Dinars. This substantial agreement reflects Warba Bank’s […]
Donald Trump has been consistent in his first month in office. As he reminded us at his press conference on Thursday, he has done what he said he would do. But one issue he has changed his mind — on the stock market. On Thursday he tweeted: “Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism — even before […]
