By Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank Commenting on Egypt is not something I take lightly, particularly when the death toll there continues to rise. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a difficult region to comment on in general. You cannot apply the usual economic models when doing your research, but have to make a careful assessment of evidence on the ground and by observing the evolution […]
Saudi Arabia and India topped the charts for sending the most tourists to Dubai in the first half of this year as a new report by Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) revealed record-breaking figures. More than 5.5 million tourists visited Dubai from January to June this year, representing an increase of 11.1 per cent over the previous year. Director-General of DTCM Helal Saeed Almarri said: […]
U.S. investment bank Lazard Ltd’s most senior banker in Dubai, Ali Asghar, has left to set up his own emerging markets-focused boutique firm, three sources familiar with the matter said. Asghar, who headed Lazard’s Dubai office as a director, joined the bank in 2007 and focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and capital raising in the Gulf Arab region. Global investment banks scaled back their Middle […]
New cable network Al Jazeera America introduced itself to viewers on Tuesday with reports on political strife in Egypt and the impact of climate change on U.S. cities, shortly after a major pay TV distributor declined to carry the channelThe decision by AT&T’s U-verse pay-TV service stemmed from a contract dispute over terms to carry the new network, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said. Al Jazeera responded by […]
India’s biggest stock-market swings in 16 months are poised to continue, boosting options prices as the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus spurs further weakness in the rupee, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The CNX Nifty index has retreated 10 percent during the past month and the gauge’s 30-day historical volatility reached 21.1 yesterday, the highest level since April 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. […]
(Reuters) – In his full-throated cry of support for the Egyptian authorities, Saudi King Abdullah on Friday described street protests by the Muslim Brotherhood as representing “terrorism and sedition”. That stark view of a crisis that has killed hundreds in the past week shows why the world’s top oil exporter will continue to back Egypt’s crackdown on the Brotherhood even while its Western allies try to convince […]
Airports in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) experience local disruptions – such as those that stem from fog – which, annually, affect over 200 flights and 30,000 passengers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone. In addition, according to Oxford Economics, disruptions from the 2010 spread of Icelandic volcanic ash over European airspace had a $253 million net impact on the aviation sector in the Middle East […]
A.P. Moeller-Maersk, owner of the world’s biggest shipping line, said concern that emerging markets are losing their growth momentum is overdone. “The underlying story is very good,” Maersk Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in an interview on Aug. 16. “Our expectation remains that the U.S. will be the key driver of growth, but we’re also relatively optimistic on emerging markets. There is growth potential, even […]
Saudi bank deposits posted a new record of SR1.36 trillion by the end of first quarter of 2013. The expansion in credit portfolios was facilitated by this enormous depositary base. Demand deposits remain the main beneficiary given the globally suppressed interest rate environment, according to a report by the National Commercial Bank (NCB). NCB’s customer deposits, the largest in the market, reached SR276.7 billion in March 2013 […]
By David Kirkpatrick CAIRO — Gathering Thursday morning around a mosque used as a morgue for hundreds killed the day before, many Islamists waited confidently for a surge of sympathetic support from the broader public. But it failed to materialize. With their leaders jailed or silent, Islamists reeled in shock at the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history. By Thursday night, health officials had counted 638 […]
High oil prices and poor returns on safe assets have pushed the GCC’s huge sovereign wealth funds into riskier investments in recent years, a report from Moody’s Investors Service says. Moody’s doesn’t attempt to quantify the shift, but even minor changes in strategy by Gulf funds are carefully watched given their hefty sway in global financial markets. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which Moody’s estimates to hold […]
Bloomberg By George Smith Alexander & Anto Antony – Aug 13 India’s economy is growing at the slowest pace in a decade, companies are burdened by record debt and governance is so bad that even local cement billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla is reluctant to invest in the country. Yet some foreign entities, from Diageo Plc to Qatar’s government, are undaunted, finding buying opportunities as Indian firms look […]
DUBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Lenders including Deutsche Bank, HSBC and China Development Bank are resisting calls by Saudi Telecom (STC) to restructure a loan that could potentially leave them with losses of up to $600 million, banking and industry sources said. The tussle over the $1.2 billion loan highlights the risks banks face extending loans to state-owned companies in the Middle East, where billions of dollars […]
By Arif Sharif Aug 12 (Bloomberg) Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC (ADIB) plans to expand in North Africa as the lender controlled by the emirate’s ruling family seeks to access more-populous markets. The bank applied for licenses in Algeria and Libya and is considering Tunisia and Morocco, Chief Executive Officer Tirad Mahmoud, said in an Aug. 4 interview. Interest in Shariah-compliant banking has increased since 2011, when […]
BEIJING/MOSCOW (Reuters) – China’s biggest energy firm PetroChina will join Exxon Mobil in developing Iraq’s giant West Qurna oilfield and is in talks with Lukoil to buy into a second project at the field, industry sources said on Friday. China is already the top foreign player in Iraq’s southern oilfields and a deal at West Qurna would boost its dominance and could make PetroChina the biggest single […]
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — In a world where financial rescues dominate headlines, U.S. government bond funds played hero yet again, rescuing portfolios in a tough second quarter. Sound familiar? Analysts have been pegging the end of the decades-long (and surely stretched?) Treasury rally ad nauseam. But Europe’s festering credit crisis, weakening Chinese economic growth, and a bumpy U.S. recovery combine to pressure the Federal Reserve and its counterparts […]
