Blackstone Group is close to its first investment in the Middle East as the private-equity firm nears a deal to acquire a minority stake in Dubai’s GEMS Education, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Blackstone, based in New York, has teamed up with Fajr Capital Ltd. to invest in the world’s biggest privately held schools operator GEMS through its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities unit, the people […]
DP World Jebel Ali, UAE. DP World After posting a decent set of numbers in the first half, a company can be excused if it sounds optimistic about its growth outlook. In DP World’s case – the numbers are more than decent. The Dubai-based ports operator, one of the largest globally, reported a solid 26% jump in six-month earnings as it added new capacity amid a pick […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to finish his first 100 days in office, but India Inc CEOs are convinced an economic revival is around the corner. A huge majority of 50 CEOs ET polled in the run-up to this special edition are preparing to make fresh investments and are also stepping up hiring, all in anticipation of 6-8% GDP growth most feel is possible over […]
Two months ago, the U.K. became the first Western nation to sell Islamic bonds. But missing from the list of advisers and arrangers on the £200 million transaction were any of the country’s six shariah-compliant banks. One of them, Bank of London and the Middle East, doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings about it and applauds the rise in sovereign sukuks as they will help accelerate […]
Shares of Arabtec Holding Co. (ARTC) climbed to the highest since July 16 as some investors speculated former Chief Executive Officer Hasan Ismaik is close to selling part of his stake in the builder. The stock added 2.5 percent to close at 4.57 dirhams, taking gains in the past four days to 7.5 percent. Arabtec was the biggest advancer and the most traded on Dubai’s DFM General […]
UAE. With its oil wealth, population growth and strong demand for all manner of industrial and consumer goods, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is an attractive market for many manufacturers. There are, however, potential pitfalls in doing business in the region, particularly when it comes to appointing local agents to distribute products in the region. Many states in the MENA region have enacted commercial […]
|By TAP Staff| Forbes has ranked Dubai ahead of Los Angeles, Beijing and Sydney as the most influential city in the world. Dubai was ranked seventh on a list topped by London. The rankings are based on eight factors including the amount of foreign direct investment they have attracted; the concentration of corporate headquarters; how many particular business niches they dominate; air connectivity (ease of travel to […]
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) is in talks to sell a $3 billion stake in a gas field to Abu Dhabi-owned Mubadala Development Co., Petroleum Intelligence Weekly reported, without saying where it got the information. The companies are discussing the sale of as much as 30 percent of the $10 billion Shah natural gas project in the United Arab Emirates, the newsletter reported. Two officials at Mubadala’s media […]
A revival of international bond issues from the Gulf is set to draw heavy demand from local and foreign investors, despite the latest geopolitical upheavals in the Middle East and the approach of higher U.S. interest rates. Gulf bond issuance has dried up since early July, because of a traditional summer lull in local investor activity as well as global market instability due to the crisis in […]
By Ashok B Sharma Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardass Modi is slated to visit US in September for the UN General Assembly. He will also meet Barak Obama in Washington and co-chair the India-US Summit. Defence cooperation will be one of the area to come up for discussion. The US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel during his recent visit to India has spelt out in broad terms what US […]
MUMBAI: Deposit growth at Indian banks has picked up pace after remaining subdued for two consecutive months. Latest data from the RBI show that bank deposits rose close to 14% yearon-year in the fortnight to August 8 as investments in mutual fund products flowed to term deposits. A strong deposit growth may encourage banks to lower deposit rates and may, subsequently, lead to lower lending rates, too. […]
NEW DELHI: Government has started the process for setting up four new ultra mega power projects in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, which will together add 16,000 MW capacity to the country’s power generation. UMPP is a thermal power project of at least 4,000 MW capacity, with an approximate investment of Rs 25,000 crore. Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for ultra mega power projects (UMPPs), […]
SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia set out draft proposals on foreign-shareholder limits as one of the world’s most restricted stock markets prepares to open its doors for the first time to investors outside the region. The Capital Market Authority may cap foreign ownership of a single stock to 49 percent, it said in plans posted on the Riyadh-based regulator’s website today. It may also set a 5 percent […]
A broker monitors stock prices on a screen at the Saudi Investment Bank in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia plans to open its stock market, the Arab world’s biggest, to direct investment by foreign financial institutions in the first half of next year. Reuters The Wall Street Journal lists the top 10 companies by market value that might interest foreign investors once the market is opened up for direct […]
|By TAP Staff| Abu Dhabi, along with London, Shanghai, San Fransisco, Mumbai and other global cities, will be the venue for the meeting of Global Opportunity Network panels to discuss how the pressure for change can be used to create more resilient and sustainable societies. Global Opportunity Network has presented five risks that will inspire this year’s opportunity panels. The Abu Dhabi meeting will take place on […]
By Orange Peel Investments: The news today was that Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) came up with $16.65 billion to resolve the biggest liability having to do with the subprime crisis from 2008. It’s the end of a process that has been a dark cloud hanging over the head of Bank of America since they made a proper mess out of the Countrywide deal; widely regarded as one […]
By Lowell Herr: As an experiment I set out to test the SHY cutoff model with a group of Dividend Aristocrat stocks. The SHY model is explained in detail in this Seeking Alpha article. In the software I used for this experiment I had spots for nine stocks plus SHY. To fill those nine openings I pulled down a list of Dividend Aristocrat securities and selected the […]
Saudi Arabia set out draft proposals on foreign-shareholder limits as one of the world’s most restricted stock markets prepares to open its doors for the first time to investors outside the region. The Capital Market Authority may cap foreign ownership of a single stock to 49 percent, it said in plans posted on the Riyadh-based regulator’s website today. It may also set a 5 percent limit for […]
Switzerland’s Bank Sarasin mis-sold $200 million of investment products to Kuwait’s prominent Khorafi family, a court at Dubai’s financial centre found on Thursday in a ruling that could set a precedent for similar disputes in the region. The Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) Court of First Instance ordered Sarasin to pay compensation in what may be one of the biggest awards in the 10-year history of the […]
Topaz website For proof that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats look no further than Dubai’s Topaz Energy and Marine. In the dark days following the global recession it scrapped a planned $500 million London IPO in 2011 that valued the company between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion. Since then regional economies and capital markets have recovered strongly. Fast forward to Wednesday and Standard Chartered Private […]
Dubai is changing its financial rules in an effort to attract more asset managers – particularly those serving the richest and most risk-tolerant investors, such as hedge funds and private equity funds – to base themselves in the emirate. The rules create a new class of funds that can be domiciled in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), facing less stringent regulation and thus lower costs than […]
People wait to buy Ooredoo SIM cards in Yangon, Myanmar. Zumapress Qatar-based Ooredoo on Friday became the first foreign telecommunications company to offer services in Myanmar, setting up the country to be one of the world’s first predominantly mobile-Web nations. Ooredoo’s rollout, more than a year after the company won one of two coveted licenses to operate in Myanmar, will be followed by service from Norway’s Telenor […]
Local lenders in Saudi Arabia are dominating the market, prompting overseas banks to surrender their licenses as they struggle to compete, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered (STAN) Plc in the country said. “International banks have found this market more challenging to find their edge and differentiate themselves enough to build a viable business,” Boutros Klink, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Capital Saudi Arabia, said […]
Kuwait Food Co (Americana) said on Monday that it had no knowledge of any talks with Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group on a possible acquisition of Americana. “The board and executive administration deny knowledge of any negotiations with Savola regarding an acquisition of Americana,” the Kuwaiti company said in a statement to its stock exchange. A recent meeting between the two companies was intended only to discuss the […]
