By Saifur Rahman Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the UAE’s first and largest Islamic lender, said, is set to acquire Noor Bank, enhancing Dubai’s position as the capital of Islamic economy and creating the region’s most powerful Shari’a banking group. The combined asset value is set to reach Dh275 billion post acquisition, it said. “The Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank convened its meeting on 09/06/2019 and […]
By Saifur Rahman The oil-rich Gulf countries have started to introduce permanent residency to wealthy foreigners in order to retain the existing businesses and attract more foreign investors to support the economic growth. Within days after Saudi Arabia announcing a ‘Green Card’ scheme for wealthy foreigners, the UAE on Tuesday announced a similar package – Golden Card – to retain the super-rich expatriates and attract more. Vice […]
|By Saifur Rahman, Executive Editor| UAE Central Bank said, it has downgraded seven money exchanging houses for violating the Central Bank’s regulations, including Anti-Money Laundering rules. The UAE has 140 money exchange houses with 835 branches spread across the length and breadth of the country while some of the exchange houses have branches in other countries. Following the downgrading, Taher Exchange Est., Al Hadha Exchange LLC, Al Hemriya Exchange […]
|By Saifur Rahman, Executive Editor| The International Monetary Fund (IMF) finally recognised the Islamic banking principles by endorsing a proposal on the use of the Core Principles for Islamic Finance Regulation (CPIFR), according to a statement. This effectively means that the IMF now accepts Islamic financial principles to become a globally accepted system in parallel to the conventional interest-based economy. “The CPIFR will complement the international architecture for financial […]
|By Saifur Rahman, Associate Editor| The historic first cargo of two million barrels of crude oil from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), destined for the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) has been loaded and is en-route to India, in the presence of Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO at a ceremony in Abu […]
By Saifur Rahman Dubai Government expects its Dh376.8 billion (US$102.67 billion) economy to grow at 3.5 per cent in 2018, slightly lower than the UAE economic growth, pegged at 3.9 per cent, according to a news release issued by the Department of Economic Development (DED), the government’s trade licensing body. The country has just implemented a 5 per cent Value-Added Tax (VAT) from January 1, 2018, expects […]
By Saifur Rahman Indian investors top the list of foreign nationals with Dh15.6 billion investment in Dubai’s real estate in 2017, according to Dubai Land Department. Although this is higher compared to Dh12 billion invested by Indian nationals in Dubai’s real estate in 2016, this is still lower compared to the peak figure of Dh20 billion invested by Indian nationals in 2015, Dubai Land Department statistics show. Indians […]
By Saifur Rahman Emirates Group, which include Emirates Airline and its ground handling and ticketing arm Dnata, today reported a 77 per cent jump in net profits to Dh2.3 billion (US$631 million) for the first half of the 2017-18 financial year, starting from April 1, 2017, up from Dh1.3 billion (US$364 million) recorded in the first half of its last financial year – in what is perceived […]
|By Saifur Rahman| As many as 1.43 million bank cheques – worth Dh75.77 billion (US$20.64 billion) – out of 31.36 million issued in 2016 were returned, according to the UAE Central Bank. On an average, each bounced cheque carried a sum of Dh52,732. The number of cheques placed with banks averaged 2.61 million per month, or nearly 85,933 per day. The total amount of money involved in 31.36 million […]
|By Saifur Rahman| Remittance by foreign workers in the UAE rose 7.6 per cent to US$43.81 billion (Dh160.8 billion) in 2016, up from US$40.73 billion (Dh149.5 billion) in 2015, according to the UAE Central Bank. The outflows of the workers’ remittances that were settled through the exchange houses grew 9.4 per cent – by Dh10.1 billion to US$32.17 billion (Dh118.1 billion) despite a slowdown in the economy and […]
|By Saifur Rahman | Executive Editor|Emirates, the world’s largest carrier of international passengers, has raised US$47.43 billion (Dh174 billion) to finance its fleet over the last 10 years, its recently-released annual report for 2016-17 shows. “Having raised Dh174 billion (US$47.3 billion) over the last 10 years, Emirates continues to maintain a well-diversified and evenly spread financing portfolio. Tapping into various sources of funding, both in terms of […]
|By Saifur Rahman| Intex Technologies Ltd, an Indian technology accessories manufacturer with an annual turnover of US$1 billion, is investing INR 25 billion that will push its annual turnover ten-fold to US$10 billion in 5 years, a senior official told The Arabian Post. India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market and has registered strong growth in the past decade and half.The total mobile services market revenue in […]
|By Saifur Rahman|Dubai added 26,707 new companies last year to the existing 107,043 trade licenses, reflecting strong investor confidence in the emirate, the Department of Economic Development, Dubai’s trade licensing authority, said in a statement. “The number of licenses renewed in 2016 was 107,043 while 20,873 initial approvals were issued and 38,918 trade names were reserved,” the statement said. This means Dubai now has 133,750 companies active […]
|By Saifur Rahman| Indian investment in Dubai’s real estate fell 40 per cent to Dh12 billion ($3.2 billion) in 2016, down from Dh20 billion ($5.4 billion) in 2015, Dubai Land Department reports show. However, Indian nationals remain the top foreign investor group by nationality. As has been the case in previous years, more than 7,000 UAE nationals from across the GCC, Arabs, and foreigners invested nearly Dh22 […]
|By Saifur Rahman| Sales transactions fall 20.76% to Dh103 billion The total value of land transactions declined marginally by 2.99 per cent to Dh259 billion in 2016, down from Dh267 billion recorded in 2015, and 18.8 per cent up from Dh218 billion recorded in 2014, according to Dubai Land Department (DLD) reports. The number of real estate transactions also declined 4.9 per cent to 60,595 last […]
|By Saifur Rahman| US President-Elect Donald Trump said he’s rejected a Dh7.3 billion (US$2 billion) deal with Damac Properties at a press conference on Wednesday, just nine days before his inauguration as the 45th President of the United States. “Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man ‑ my friend Hussain [Sajwani] ‑ a […]
