|By TAP Staff| LSE-listed leading UAE healthcare player NMC Health announced entering into an agreement to acquire ProVita International Medical Center, provider of long-term medical care in the UAE, for an equity consideration of $160.6 million. The payment will be made in cash, from TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, the Olayan Group, Al Zarooni Emirates Investment and other minority shareholders, the company said. ProVita is a pioneer in […]
EFG-Hermes launches leasing subsidiary CAIRO, 11 hours, 6 minutes ago Egypt’s EFG-Hermes, one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks, said on Sunday it had launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, EFG Hermes Leasing, that would start operations immediately. The firm said in a statement that the subsidiary would provide leasing services to large corporates and small and medium enterprises across Egypt. The size of the portfolio of EFG-Hermes […]
Reliance eyes Dec start for 4G phone service MUMBAI, 13 hours, 47 minutes ago After five years and more than $15 billion of investments, Mukesh Ambani said his Reliance Industries could be ready to begin 4G phone services in December. Reliance, India’s second-largest company by market value and led by India’s richest man, derives most of its revenue from its sprawling energy empire, but has over the […]
Networks upgrade key for Iraq to be Net transit hub BAGHDAD, 16 hours, 26 minutes ago A more reliable terrestrial broadband network could enable Iraq to become a transcontinental transit route for Internet traffic, a senior executive at one of two firms providing submarine connectivity to the war-torn country told Reuters. Iraq is ideally located to carry Internet traffic between Asia and Europe and built a submarine […]
BAHRAIN. On June 12, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Bahrain at ‘BBB-/A-3’. We also affirmed our long- and short-term foreign and local currency credit ratings on the Central Bank of Bahrain at ‘BBB-/A-3’. The outlooks on both Bahrain and its central bank remain negative. RATIONALE We expect that Bahrain’s fiscal […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, met the president of Angola on Sunday. The Crown Prince “expressed his delight at the visit and hoped that it would contribute towards enhancing friendship and cooperation between the UAE and Angola, and open doors for these relations to serve the interests of both countries”, the state news agency Wam […]
Video | Orange’s Boss Meets With Netanyahu Stéphane Richard, the chief executive of Orange, the French telecom giant, tells Israel’s prime minister that he regrets the furor caused by his statements about doing business in the country. By JODI RUDOREN June 12, 2015 JERUSALEM — The chief executive of a French telecommunications company made an extraordinary personal pilgrimage on Friday to apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, […]
A broker laughs while speaking to a colleague, as they trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, March 4, 2015. Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/Files MUMBAI Regulators hope plans for a new bourse with less stringent listing requirements will lure a stream of startups in the country’s burgeoning technology industry, looking for a platform to raise capital for expansion. The eased rules, marking a change […]
UAE. Dubai private sector companies indicated a modest rebound in output growth from the 18-month low recorded during April, according to the latest Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker™ report. The latest survey also pointed to a slightly faster expansion of incoming new work, while modest job creation and positive sentiment regarding the business outlook was sustained. Of the three key sub-sectors monitored by the survey, construction was […]
UAE. Invesco today released its third annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study[1], an in-depth report on the complex investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds, conducted amongst more than 50 individual sovereign investors across the globe representing $7.09 trillion2 of assets, including Middle East based sovereign wealth funds. This year’s study took place against a backdrop of an extreme fall in the price of oil and provides […]
UAE. Economic Insight: Middle East Q2 2015 is produced by Cebr, ICAEW’s partner and economic forecaster. Commissioned by ICAEW, the report provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The report undertakes a quarterly review of the Middle East, focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), as well as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon […]
|By TAP Staff| Bahrain-based investment management firm Arcapita announced the sale of a real estate portfolio of senior care communities with over 16 facilities and approximately 4,000 residential units located across the United States. The portfolio was sold to NorthStar Healthcare Income, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), for a transaction value of approximately $640 million, the company announced. The properties are one of the largest […]
Renovations have started at a 9.5-acre compound in the West Bank that started as a church-run hospital in the 1950s and later became a hostel for travelers. By JODI RUDOREN June 9, 2015 NEAR EL AROUB REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — The old stone compound set amid Palestinian farmland between the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron has a relatively new fence. The compound, with eight buildings spread over 9.5 […]
Big Blue is looking to make its mark on the mobile device and wearables market. No, IBM isn’t pushing out a smart watch or even a smartphone. In partnership with SiCAD, a silicon design platform company, IBM just announced High Performance Services for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). IBM is billing EDA as the electronic industry’s first enterprise-class, secure cloud service that provides on-demand access to electronic design […]
Political unrest dents business confidence in region DUBAI, 3 days ago Political turmoil and instability in the region have led to a drop in business confidence in the UAE and Middle East in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015, according to a new survey of finance professionals. The Global Economic Conditions Survey for the first quarter of 2015, carried out by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified […]
Adams … master-planning is important for sustainable developments. Master-planning key to sustainable mixed-use projects DUBAI, 3 days ago The Middle East has a unique set of challenges and opportunities with regard to creating large, mixed-use developments, says Louise Adams, former country manager UAE at Aurecon, an engineering, planning, project management and consulting company. Adams describes the importance of investing in master-planning, some of the current opportunities and […]
A sign in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, calls for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. By RICK GLADSTONE June 5, 2015 South Carolina has become the first state to enact legislation aimed at thwarting an international pro-Palestinian economic and disinvestment campaign intended to penalize Israel. Illinois will soon become the second, and advocates say plans are underway for similar laws in 18 more […]
UAE. The Global Economic Conditions Survey for the first quarter of 2015, carried out by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants) also shows that while lower oil prices have helped oil-importing nations such as the USA and Europe, they have undermined performance in many net oil-exporting regions such as Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Confidence has dipped in […]
The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. Reuters/Aly Song/Files BEIJING/SHANGHAI Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will invest in financial media outlet China Business Network in a deal set to be announced on Thursday, Chinese media reported on Wednesday. The investment in China Business Network, part of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), will be worth […]
UAE. According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the UAE outperforms the GCC and the rest of the world in most dimensions – including income, employment, health, education, infrastructure, income equality, civil society, governance, and environment – when it comes to its current-level Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores. Across these dimensions, the UAE topped the average scores of both the GCC and […]
|By Fiona Maharg-Bravo |Big Oil is too confident about crude prices. After a 40 percent rally from January’s six-year low, the momentum has been on the upside. But the current prices – $65 a barrel for Brent and $60 for WTI – look more like a ceiling than a floor. That is not what many insiders seem to think. Some oil service companies expect mid-$70s Brent by […]
UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]
