|By Shakir Noori| The images captured by mobile cameras flicker across the television screen, much in the manner of old Hollywood wild-west movies. The blue waves of the Mediterranean turn crimson with the blood of Egyptian workers in Libya, transforming the small screen into an inferno of bloody rivulets. And yet again, as I sit a spectator to Daesh’s (self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) […]
DIFC posts 18pc growth in companies DUBAI, 23 hours, 54 minutes ago Dubai International Financial Centre, a leading financial hub connecting the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (Measa) markets with the economies of Europe, Asia and the Americas, has posted an 18 per cent growth in the number of active registered companies. More than 240 new companies were licensed during the last year, compared with 199 […]
EFG Hermes posts $70m profit on bank expansion CAIRO, 1 days ago Egypt’s EFG Hermes turned a profit after tax and minority interests of EGP538 million ($70.51 million) last year after a net loss of EGP540 million the year before, helped by strong growth in its regional investment banking operations, the bank said. The company, one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks, said profit was boosted […]
Lloyds Banking Group and Natixis have sold their holdings in debt of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate nearing a $14.6 billion debt restructuring, according to sources familiar with the matter. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) also sold at least part of its exposure in the conglomerate, said two sources, which could mean more than $1 billion of Dubai World’s debt has changed hands. The moves help pave […]
Salim Al Aufi, Oman’s undersecretary for oil and gas, likens attempts to cut the reliance on oil during a price slump to acting “with a gun pointed at your head.” If you have to make decisions under pressure, “you will probably make the wrong ones,” he said March 3 in Muscat during a panel discussion on the impact of the oil shock. Oman relied too much on […]
| By Michael Sasso| If you have to fly from New York to New Delhi on April 1, you can book through one of the three big U.S. airlines for at least $1,100 round trip. Or you can take one of Emirates’ luxurious Airbus A380s for less than $900. That choice is at the heart of the complaint raised by Delta, American, and United Continental with U.S. […]
Traders who have been storing oil since the start of the year are selling some supplies back into the market, completing a trade-play that made oil storage profitable, and re-injecting fuel into an already oversupplied market. The selling signals a winding down of a strategy that has seen at least 50 million barrels of oil stored in tankers, equivalent to about one month’s consumption in Britain, although […]
Dubai’s Drydocks World, owner of the Middle East’s largest shipyard, will ask creditors to amend the terms of its $2.3 billion restructuring deal originally signed in 2012, two sources aware of the matter said on Sunday. The move comes as Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate which is also Drydocks’ parent company, is close to finalizing a revision of its own $14.6 billion debt pile which stems from […]
The proposal by Dubai Municipality to introduce mandatory affordable housing quotas for all new residential developments in Dubai is long overdue and is expected to bring a wide range of benefits to the emirate, while driving further maturity in the market, according to leading international real estate consultants, Cluttons. With the residential market in Dubai now meandering through the second half of the current property cycle and […]
Oil and gas companies will spend about $450 billion buying each other this year as lower valuations caused by a drop in crude prices stimulate mergers and acquisitions, according to consultants A.T. Kearney. The value of M&A transactions in the oil and gas industry will probably rise by $10 billion from last year when deals totaled $440 billion, said Richard Forrest, A.T. Kearney’s lead partner for energy. […]
Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium.Image: Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee November/December ‘the best World Cup option’ LONDON, 4 days ago By Mike Collett The Fifa Task Force set up to recommend the best time of year to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were always in an impossible position, from the moment they sat down to consider the options. But Tuesday’s recommendation to stage it over November and […]
Gen Odierno said that British defence cuts are already jeopardising US-UK joint operations Photo: AP Ever since the Cold War ended more than two decades ago, America has never entertained any serious doubts about Britain’s ability to fulfil its commitment as a vital military ally when tackling threats to the Western alliance. Until now. For the dramatic cuts to Britain’s defence budget implemented since the Coalition took power […]
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is obtaining a loan of about $344 million from three banks to finance a solar energy project in Dubai, chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said on Sunday. The 27-year amortising loan with an interest rate of 4 percent is being provided by Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank and two Saudi banks, National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group, he told reporters on the sidelines […]
DUBAI, 4 days ago Wasl Asset Management Group has signed a ‘cloud for customer’ agreement with SAP, the largest of its kind in the enterprise software market company’s UAE history. The real estate development and management organisation will be deploying SAP’s latest cloud solutions to transform its business and provide an even higher standard of service for its customers, said the statement. Hesham Al Qassim, chief executive […]
DUBAI, 2 days ago STME, a leading IT solutions provider, has upgraded the infrastructure and software requirements of Dubai-based wasl properties, a UAE semi-government property development entity, by adopting an efficient storage reclamation approach. “We understand that organisations today are struggling to accommodate growing volumes of data on a limited, if not declining, budget,” said Ayman Al Bayaa, CEO of STME. “However, by using a more […]
Mubasher Financial ….. Nasdaq Dubai’s ‘Retail Broker of the Month’ January 2015. Mubasher wins special recognition by Nasdaq DUBAI, 2 days ago Mubasher Financial Services, one of the Middle East’s leading financial institutions, has announced that it has been recognised by Nasdaq Dubai as the ‘Retail Broker of the Month’ for January 2015. This recognition reinforces Mubasher’s market positioning as a widely respected financial services business, […]
Dubai is adjusting regulation of investment firms that handle the money of wealthy people in its financial free zone, a move that could help the zone win more wealth-management business from the Middle East and Asia. Like other financial hubs, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) distinguishes between less-sophisticated retail clients and richer, more experienced professional clients, which are assumed to need less regulatory protection. New rules […]
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS February 25, 2015 WASHINGTON — Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday over his plans to address a joint meeting of Congress next week, saying his actions had hurt his nation’s relationship with the United States. Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to travel to Washington to deliver the speech two weeks before the Israeli elections has “injected […]
Video | Hollande Discusses Kidnapping in Yemen President François Hollande of France confirmed that a Frenchwoman had been kidnapped in the Yemeni capital, Sana. By ALISSA J. RUBIN February 24, 2015 PARIS — A Frenchwoman who works for the World Bank was kidnapped on Tuesday in front of a ministry office in Sana, the Yemeni capital, according to security officials there and President François Hollande of France, who took the […]
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK February 24, 2015 A Cairo court on Tuesday acquitted former President Hosni Mubarak’s longtime interior minister of the last of several criminal charges that have kept him behind bars, opening the potential for his release. The acquittal of the former minister, Habib el-Adly, is the latest in a long string of rulings since the 2013 military takeover that have exonerated former officials jailed after the Arab […]
DUBAI, 8 hours, 45 minutes ago Software AG, a leader in enterprise management software, has appointed Rami Kichli as its new vice-president for the firm’s UAE division. Kichli will expand the company’s Middle Eastern business and reinforce the company’s position as the leading provider of digital business platform solutions through product innovation, strategic acquisitions, and a strong customer focus, said a company statement. The new vice president […]
|By A. Gary Shilling| At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why. U.S. economic growth has averaged 2.3 percent a year since the recovery started in mid-2009. That’s about half the rate you might expect in a rebound from the […]
Dubai-based financial services firm Arqaam Capital has invited banks to pitch for roles in arranging its flotation on the emirate’s bourse, three banking sources aware of the matter told Reuters. Arqaam has offices in five countries in the Middle East and Africa and offers services including brokerage, asset management and corporate finance advisory. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The invitation, known as a request […]
|By Sarosh Zaiwalla| Towards the end of last year, it was announced that the UAE’s long anticipated insolvency reform bill was reaching its final stages prior to implementation. The legal framework was drawn up following the establishment of the Dubai World Tribunal that resulted from the entity’s inability to pay its creditors in November 2009. The case cast a spotlight on the UAE, which until today does […]
