When French wine and cognac bottle maker Saverglass decided to expand three years ago, it chose a relatively remote, less affluent location in the United Arab Emirates for its plant rather than the business hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The company sited its 75 million euro ($105 million) factory, which produces some 400,000 bottles a day, in the desert emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, an hour’s […]
Middle East fund managers have become more cautious about stock markets in the United Arab Emirates because of concern that Dubai may be overheating, a monthly Reuters survey shows. The survey of 15 leading investment managers, conducted over the past 10 days, found they are still bullish about the region’s stock markets in general: 33 percent expect to increase their Middle East equity allocations in the next […]
Dubai’s main airport attracted 2 million more passengers than London Heathrow in the first quarter, with only work on the Gulf hub’s runways likely to stop it becoming the busiest international crossroads this year. Dubai International, home base to Emirates, already the top airline by cross-border traffic, handled 18.4 million travelers in the period, beating Heathrow in each of the three months as the runway-restricted London hub […]
An Abu Dhabi state-owned fund is financing a quarter of Etisalat’s 4.2 billion euro purchase of Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom, said three bank sources with knowledge of the deal, adding it should close this week. The identity of the fund is a closely-guarded secret. The banks that will provide the remaining 3.15 billion euros of loan finance have not been told which of the emirate’s state-owned […]
The first known printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, with the earliest map to call the Gulf “Sinus Arabicus” instead of “Sinus Persicus”, will be on display at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair held from April 30 to May 5, at stand E35, Hall 12. Renowned antiquarian booksellers Mr Hugo Wetscherek of Inlibris, based in Austria, and Mr Laurens Hesselink of Antiquariaat Forum, the Netherlands, are […]
Omar Sharif is undoubtedly the biggest film star from the Arab world, an icon since he first emerged as a wobbling, pixelated speck on a desert horizon in Lawrence of Arabia. Unfortunately, to many he’s the only film star from the Arab world, something that Irish director Jim Sheridan has taken it upon himself to fix. “I used to be very friendly with Marlon Brando,” explains Sheridan […]
Dubai’s government hopes its first 15-year sukuk issue – an unusually long tenor for an Islamic bond – will pave the way for long-term debt sales by its state companies, the Department of Finance said on Wednesday. Dubai drew $2.3 billion of investor demand for the $750 million issue on Tuesday, pricing it at 5.0 percent, the tight end of initial guidance. Demand was lower than in […]
Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest listed real estate developer, predicted on Wednesday that its profits would more than quadruple by 2018 as the emirate’s economy booms and the company’s overseas business expands. The company, about 29 percent owned by the Dubai government, is seen by many investors as a proxy for the emirate’s economy, which relies heavily on real estate development, tourism and the retail industry – sectors […]
Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic. The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first such deal between Iran and a Gulf Cooperation Council state in more […]
Emaar Properties, Dubai’s biggest publicly traded developer, reported first-quarter profit that beat estimates after real estate sales in its home market almost doubled by value. Net income climbed 55 percent to 863 million dirhams ($235 million), the company said in a statement today. The average of four analysts was 739 million dirhams, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Emaar countered a slump in Dubai’s property market by […]
Qatar reduced the number of stadiums it plans to build for the 2022 soccer World Cup by a third amid rising costs and delays. The country, which won the right in 2010 to host the world’s most-watched sporting event, plans to build eight stadiums for the games, Ghanim Al Kuwari, the organizing committee’s senior manager for projects, said at a conference in Doha yesterday. The country originally […]
|By TAP Staff| With mixed availability of commercial space across the Abu Dhabi market, potential occupiers remain focussed on prime Grade A stock, which is sustaining rents at the top end of the market, according to the latest research by real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Abu Dhabi Spring 2014 Commercial Market Outlook report, asserts that with flat rents persisting, occupiers remain in the driving seat and are […]
Qatar is paying the price for its six-week spat with neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council as the nation’s borrowing costs and credit risk increase. The yield on the country’s dollar bond due January 2020 climbed nine basis points since March 4, the day before the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors after Qatar denounced the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. […]
Dubai needs to regulate its off plan property market and monitor the rising levels of cash transactions to ensure sustainable growth and avoid a bust, an industry expert has warned. “There is a lot of capital coming into the market specifically within the residential market,” said Mat Green, head of research and consultancy at CBRE, Middle East. “We are not yet back to 2008 prices but in […]
Office stock in Dubai continues to see significant growth with over 1.8 million square metre set to be delivered by the end of 2017 amid a sustained year-on-year rental rally of 21 per cent, according to CBRE. The average prime annual rental rate now measures dh1830 per square metre in dubai and this figure is expected to experience further upward movement. There is a large pipeline of […]
The masterplan for the $1.6bn Bluewaters Island project off the coast of Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Residences is to undergo a redesign. The island, which is being developed by government-owned developer Meraas, is currently split into three zones. One contains the Dubai Eye – the world’s tallest, 210m-high Ferris Wheel – and is surrounded by other retail and leisure units. A second zone, facing out onto the Arabian […]
Amina al-Rustamani, a member of a prominent UAE family, raised eyebrows among friends and relatives when she started her career in Dubai 13 years ago as an electrical engineer, becoming one of few females in the Middle East to enter the profession. Success in a male-dominated environment helped give her the confidence to rise up the career ladder and break more barriers. She is now chief executive […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is gaining ground in the debt markets of Gulf Cooperation Council states after the biggest U.S. bank helped manage this month’s Islamic bond sale by Saudi Arabia’s utility. JPMorgan is the biggest bond underwriter after HSBC Holdings in the six-nation GCC in 2014, its best start to a year since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based lender advised on […]
|TAP Special| The Mayor of Oakland, California, caused a stir last week claiming that Dubai crown prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum has partnered with the developers of a sports and entertainment centre at Oakland Coliseum complex. According to a report in Oakland Tribune, Mayor Jean Quan, however, retracted her claim a day later. The Mayor’s spokesman said one of the developers did have connections with […]
Grand Prairie-based Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is again attempting to broaden its international reach beyond North America into the Middle East. The theme park owner and operator said it’s partnering with Meraas Leisure and Entertainment, a Dubai-based real estate development company, to open a Six Flags-branded park in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The project will open in 2017 and be located in a multi-themed park […]
For decades the Cleveland Clinic has provided healthcare to the upper echelons of Middle Eastern society who fly halfway across the world for treatment at the Ohio-based private medical center. Soon, they can skip the trip. Early next year the Cleveland Clinic plans to open an ultra-modern, 364-bed specialty hospital on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, one of the most ambitious forays into the oil-rich country […]
Warburg Pincus, the private-equity firm managing about $37 billion in assets, is considering investments in Africa and the Middle East as capital starts to flow back into emerging markets. “We are looking beyond the core euro-zone markets into the rapidly growing emerging markets around Europe for investment opportunities,” Joseph Schull, head of Warburg Pincus in Europe, said in an interview yesterday. “Africa is the next big frontier […]
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Barack Obama declared the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace one of the two main U.S. foreign policy priorities for his second term. Fast-forward to today, the Obama administration faces a stark choice: expend more energy on a faltering peace process or absorb the hit to an already-troubled record in the Middle East and walk away from negotiations. Secretary of […]
|By TAP Staff|Last year the Pay TV market in the MENA region grew 11.2 percent in terms of market share and 14.13 percent in terms of subscriber numbers, according to the findings of the latest Middle East Media Market report released by IHS, a leading global source of business information and insight. Over the last decade (2004 – 2013) the number of primary Pay TV subscribers almost […]
