Holders of Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties’ convertible bonds have asked the company to convert them into shares, Emaar said in a bourse statement on Sunday. Emaar said its board would discuss the matter at a meeting on December 17. Emaar issued a $500 million convertible bond in 2010. The sale marked the Dubai developer’s return to the debt markets after more than a year and an opportune […]
Alkhabeer Capital, a Saudi Arabia-based investment advisory firm, has bought a majority stake in Dubai-based packaging products company Express Group, Alkhabeer said on Monday. Alkhabeer, in which conglomerate Saudi Binladin Group is a top shareholder, did not disclose financial details of the deal but said it was the firm’s second private equity transaction in the industrial sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Express Group, founded in […]
Dubai’s DAMAC said it raised $348 million from its London share offer on Tuesday, a lukewarm response to the first share sale by a Dubai property firm since the emirate’s real estate crash four years ago. The luxury housing firm, which describes its new villa project as the Beverly Hills of Dubai, had hoped to take advantage of a renewed interest in Dubai’s property market aided by […]
Saudi Arabia seems to have few viable options for pursuing a more independent and forthright foreign policy, despite its deep unease about the West’s tentative rapprochement with Iran. Upset with the United States, senior Saudis have hinted at a range of possibilities, from building strategic relations with other world powers to pushing a tougher line against Iranian allies in the Arab world and, if world powers fail […]
When the British government said last month it would issue its first Islamic bond, the implications went far beyond the debt market: it was a signal that London will not back down in an escalating tussle among cities for Islamic financial business. London has long been the default center for international firms to issue sharia-compliant bonds, part of a fast-growing Islamic finance sector that will be worth […]
Emerging Asian currencies took a battering and regional shares tumbled to six-week lows on Wednesday as mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials raised fresh concerns about an imminent rollback of the U.S. central bank’s asset-buying stimulus. The dour mood looked set to carry over into Europe, where financial spread betters predicted Britain’s FTSE 100 to fall as much as 0.7 percent, Germany’s DAX off 0.4 percent and […]
Merlin Entertainment, the Madame Tussauds and amusement parks operator, in which Dubai International Capital once held 28 percent stake, is setting up a Legoland park in Dubai along with other potential sites in Japan and South Korea. This is part of the company’s plans to expand globally, which will see the setting up Madame Tussauds in San Francisco and Beijing next year. Dubai had sold its stake […]
BlackBerry Ltd’s board does not believe a break-up of the Canadian smartphone maker is currently in its best interests, even though Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd, among others, have expressed interest in acquiring parts of the company, according to people familiar with the discussions. The board rejected proposals from several technology companies for various BlackBerry assets on grounds that a break-up did not serve […]
Mutual funds run by T. Rowe Price Group Inc and Morgan Stanley are poised to send one sweet tweet. These early investors in Twitter Inc will reap exponential gains as the microblogging site goes public, while latecomers struggle for share allocations. T. Rowe’s New Horizons and Growth Stock funds may come out looking smartest, having scooped up millions of preferred shares for a pittance. While mutual […]
Some merchants and dealers were found to have exploited the ‘24 hours’ facility extended by the Dubai government whereby some major shopping malls were allowed to remain open day and night during Eid Al Adha, according to a statement released by Khalid Al Boom, Senior Director of Promotional Events Control Section, at the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED). The outlets announced false promotional offers and this […]
Hosting World Expo 2020, which requires $7 billion in capital spending, will put relatively little financial pressure on Dubai’s government, EFG-Hermes said. Wael Ziada, head of research at EFG-Hermes, said Dubai’s budgeted $7 billion in capital spending for the Expo bid includes $1.4 billion for a metro extension, most of which is likely to be spent towards the end of the decade. In a research report, Ziada argued […]
Dahabshiil Holdings Ltd., a Somali company that provides access for overseas citizens to send money there, asked a U.K. court to stop Barclays Plc (BARC) from closing its bank account. The bank gave a “dearth of detail” on its decision, Alan Maclean, a lawyer for Dahabshiil, said at a hearing in London today. The bank’s dominant position in the market for remittances means it will breach competition law if it closes […]
Dubai held first place worldwide as the most attractive destination, getting 13 out of 15 points, according to a recent survey on global tourist destinations. London also got the same ranking. The survey, which was conducted by Britain’s Dealchecker Blog and saw the participation of 1.2 million respondents, was based on a range of basic standards for determining the points and rank of each city. These include […]
A call for the United Arab Emirates to consider allowing expatriates to apply for citizenship has sparked a debate about national identity in the Gulf Arab state, where foreigners outnumber the local population by more than five to one. Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, a member of one of the UAE’s ruling families, is one of the federation’s pre-eminent commentators and also one of the most well-known Twitter users […]
Some retailers in a popular Dubai electronics fair this week are offering the BlackBerry Z10 at a hefty discount to its launch price. The Canadian company’s plight is best illustrated this week in Dubai, one of the six cities used in February for the global launch of the operating system and smartphone: the Z10 is being sold at a hefty discount to its launch price at a […]
Chemical warfare and car bombings are just a few of the hazards working in war-torn countries such as Iraq and Syria. For Supreme Group BV, it’s the cost of doing business. Dubai-based Supreme delivers fuel and food — 100,000 meals a day — to troops stationed in some of the most inhospitable parts of the world, including Liberia, Mali and Sudan. The perilous business, where contractors dodge […]
Saudi water and power project developer ACWA Power plans to sell an $800 million debut Islamic bond this year and list on the Saudi stock exchange around the end of 2014 as it ramps up production capacity, its chief executive said on Thursday. ACWA, which aims to have a gross production capacity of 38,000 megawatts (MW) of power by 2017 from its current 15,850 MWs, has said […]
International funds selling investments in the UAE plan to lobby financial regulators to ease new product registration fees which they complain are much higher than the charges on local operators and could run into tens of thousands of dollars. “You do not create an efficient and competitive landscape by charging different amounts for local and international firms,” said one Dubai-based head of a global asset management firm […]
Abu Dhabi and Dubai have hired banks to advise on a possible merger of their two main stock exchanges, a state-backed deal that could energise financial markets in the United Arab Emirates, sources familiar with the plan said. Any merger of the exchanges would be one of the biggest reforms in the country’s financial industry in recent years; by making it easier for investors to operate across […]
Amid low levels of trust in the financial industry and concerns over product mis-selling, a new CFA Institute report aims to improve transparency and investor protection by examining disclosures on costs, performance, and risks associated with packaged retail investment products (PRIPs) Packaged Retail Investment Products: Investor Disclosure Considerations for a Key Information Document, informs the EU policy debate and the draft regulation on PRIPs from the investor […]
Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank priced its debut $500 million five-year sukuk issue, a document from lead managers said on Tuesday, as Gulf issuers flood back to the market to take advantage of conducive market conditions. The transaction priced at par with a profit rate of 3.267 percent and a spread of 170 basis points over midswaps, the document said. The spread had tightened significantly from […]
Today hospitals and health systems worldwide are facing a plethora of challenges; these include aging populations, evolving disease profiles, increasing demand by patients for quality care, mounting cost pressures and an uneven distribution of expert resources. In addition, healthcare delivery is shifting from a focus on specific health episodes to a continuum approach, with a greater emphasis on education and prevention. Luckily, however, technology may hold the […]
Most regional markets slipped on Monday as fears of a U.S. government shutdown spurred slight profit-taking, but Dubai’s bourse booked its biggest quarterly gain in nearly six years. Dubai’s index shed 0.3 percent, easing off Sunday’s near five-year high. That trimmed its third-quarter gain to 24.3 percent, its best performance since late 2007. Trading volume in the quarter was the highest in four years. Shares in Dubai […]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose public support after a trip to the U.S. outweighed the detractors that tried to pelt his convoy with eggs, also has backing from the one who matters most: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After returning from a trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, dozens of people tried to block Rouhani’s way, chanting anti-U.S. slogans. The demonstrators were […]
