Saudi Arabia won’t restrain its oil production unless other producers, including Iran, agree to freeze output at a meeting this weekend in Doha, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said. The world’s biggest crude exporter would cap its market share at about 10.3 million to 10.4 million barrels a day, if producers agree to the freeze, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during an interview on Thursday at King […]
Top executives at the world’s largest oil-trading houses said the worst of the market’s woes are probably over, with some predicting prices will climb to $50 a barrel by next year. “The down market is behind us,” Torbjorn Tornqvist, chief executive officer of Gunvor Group Ltd., said on Tuesday at the FT Global Commodities Summit in Lausanne. “It is the beginning of the end of that for […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The cut in housing allowances implemented by companies in Abu Dhabi is creating further strain on the higher end of the emirate’s residential market, according to Cluttons Abu Dhabi Spring 2016 Property Market Outlook. This underscores the need to address the capital’s lack of affordable housing options, Cluttons said. Cluttons’ Abu Dhabi Spring 2016 Property Market Outlook report shows that the shrinking pool of […]
|Arabian Post Staff| Dubai Group, a member of the Dubai Holding, has hired Emirates NBD to help find a buyer for its stake in investment bank Shuaa Capital, Bloomberg reported quoting two people familiar with the matter. The sale process is at an early stage and may not result in a deal, Bloomberg quoted the sources as saying. But the sources were not identified as the talks are […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Diamonds are losing their allure and prices are dropping below the levels that prevailed a decade ago. And diamond’s loss is mostly the gain of vacations, fancy handbags and high-tech gadgets. Diamonds are now cheaper than they were in 2006, says a Bloomberg report quoting data from PolishedPrices.com. Over the same period, the price of luxury items like cars, shoes and fine foods […]
Barclays Plc still has “critical mass” to compete in the Middle East and will aim to help local companies raise capital even as it scales back lending, Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said. The U.K. lender has more than 200 employees in the United Arab Emirates after job cuts in the country this year and will continue to operate its corporate, investment banking and wealth management businesses […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Emaar Chairman and leading Dubai businessman Mohammed Alabbar’s investment consortium Adeptio is learnt to have secured commitments worth $1.5 billion to fund its pursuit of regional KFC operator Americana. The banks lending money for the acquisition reportedly include Citigroup, Standard Chartered , Credit Suisse Group AG, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Emirates NBD, First Gulf Bank and Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank. Earlier this year, Adeptio had […]
India’s most reliable source of foreign funding is under threat. Remittances fell to $15.8 billion last quarter, the lowest since April-June 2011 and a 9.4 percent drop from a year earlier, as the global slowdown and slumping oil prices reduce demand for foreign workers. Indians working abroad — from construction laborers in Dubai to Silicon Valley engineers — send home the most money in the world, helping to pay for […]
A globe-trotting American investment banker who’s built a career on deals with Russia and its state-run gas company, Carter Page says his business has suffered directly from the U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s escalating involvement in the Ukraine. When Donald Trump named him last week as one of his foreign-policy advisers, Page says his e-mail inbox filled up with positive notes from Russian contacts. “So many people who I know and […]
|By Matein Khalid| “Stop the murder, stop the lies, out, out, you nest of spies!” So chanted the crowd outside South Africa House on Trafalgar Square in the autumnal mists of London circa 1988. The anti-apartheid struggle was the moral compass of my generation, from the Soweto riots to Steve Biko’s murder to the horrific “necklacings in the townships and killing fields of the Limpopo to Madiba’s release […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The impact of the massive decline in oil prices has finally reached the door steps of the banking industry and some banks have been affected more than the others. According to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the banking industry in the GCC grew at a lower rate in 2015 than it did in 2014 with just a 7.2 percent increase, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The much-expected boom for trade hubs like Dubai from the opening up of Iran market has not materialised yet, as traders still face several impediments to doing business with that country. While it is true that global majors have announced a series of major deals with Teheran, investors are showing continued reluctance to enter Iran due to the impact of the US sanctions […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|DP World’s gross debt rose to $7.6 billion, with the net debt climbing to $6.2 billion, the company announced in its financial results for the calendar year 2015. The balance sheet shows a leverage of 3.2 times. The increase in debt is mainly due to the addition of the $650 million JAFZA Sukuk following the EZW acquisition and the additional $500 million borrowings from […]
|By Lawrence Williams| The most recent call by Goldman Sachs to once again sell gold short has not, so far been a good move by the investment bank, and it comments in its latest research that it is down 5% on the call – with a stop loss indicated at 7%. But, it also reiterates that it remains confident in its bearish viewpoint and that it still stands […]
|By Rani Molla & Andrea Felsted| You’d have thought negative interest rates would fuel a boom in diamonds, antiques and fine wine, as people look for an alternative to stuffing cash under the mattress. But you’d be wrong: prices for all three are falling. While some “collectibles” such as vintage watches, luxury handbags and old cars are holding up pretty well, others are struggling. The phenomenon of safe havens […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Wealthy Chinese, who are emerging as a new force in overseas real estate investments, are consistently raising their profile in the Dubai property market as well. According to Nakheel sources, Chinese bought 70 percent of its almost 600 townhouses sold at Warsan Villa close to its Dragoncity shopping mall, where Chinese merchants offer their wares in the biggest Chinese market outside mainland China. […]
|By Arabain Post Staff| Bank Sarasin-Alpen Middle East Limited, defending the region’s biggest financial mis-selling case has lost the first appeals against the record judgement of $70 million penalty awarded by the Court of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Bank Sarasin and its DIFC subsidiary Sarasin-Alpin had filed an appeal against the liability finding which led to record damages being awarded against them. The liability appeal […]
|By Matein Khalid| It is no coincidence that the most profitable hotels on the planet are located in Makkah, the holiest city of Islam as the site of the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba. For fifteen centuries, Muslims have traveled to Makkah from all over the world for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, making the city the highest source of inbound foreign visitors in Saudi Arabia. Makkah is […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The route to implementing a corporate income tax in the UAE would appear to be more treacherous and uncertain than the road to VAT, which the government has planned for a 2018 launch. Deloitte said in a report. UAE, along with other GCC governments are thinking seriously about broadening the corporate income tax bases and increasing rates. But Deloitte points out that the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Pakistanis are the third largest non-Arab expatriate group investing in Dubai real estate, according to the Dubai Land Department (DLD). Pakistanis invested AED 8 billion in Dubai properties in 2015, out of the total investment from non-Arab expats surpassing AED 74 billion. Compared to 2014, their investment in the Dubai property market increased 6.7 per cent in 2015. With an investment of AED 30.64 […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Moody’s has placed United Arab Emirates, along with Abu Dhabi emirate, under review for a possible downgrade. The action was also applied to all GCC countries, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi’s (Aa2 stable) economic growth could come under pressure this year amid government spending cutbacks in response to lower oil prices, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report. Moody’s estimates that […]
|By Matein Khalid| Six data points last week reinforce my conviction that the GCC’s property/credit market stress will only accelerate in 2016. One, Standard and Poors downgraded Saudi Arabia’s sovereign credit rating to A- while Bahrain and Oman are now both below investment grade. The new sovereign credit downgrade cycle in the GCC comes at a time when sukuk/debt new issuance volumes have plummeted by 50%, the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Investment Corporation of Dubai is seeking to raise over a billion dollars for its real estate projects, people familiar with the move have been reported as saying. The banks being approached apparently include Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. The projects are said to include a new Atlantis resort Palm Jumeirah island and a new tower at the DIFC. […]
|By Matein Khalid| The sultanate of Oman has enjoyed phenomenal economic development success in the 45 year reign of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Modern Oman is one of the true social, political and economic success stories of the Arab world. However, the Achilles heel of the Omani economy is its huge dependence on oil and gas export earnings, 60% of the sultanate’s GDP. Standard and […]
