Saudi

EY acquires Seren to meet demand in Mena

EY, a leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, has acquired Seren, an international digital consultancy based in the UK with a significant footprint in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Seren has been working closely with governments, banks and media organisations in the Mena region to drive digital business transformation through a customer-centred approach to design, said a statement. Gerard Gallagher, Mena advisory […]

August 20

Featured

Rising Dubai crude prices drive Asians away

Record trading of Dubai crude by two Chinese state companies this month on a decades-old oil pricing system has pushed the benchmark higher, even as other grades are being pressed lower by a global glut. The strong Dubai trade has forced Middle East producers to raise official selling prices (OSPs), driving Asian buyers to seek cheaper oil elsewhere or cut refinery runs due to low margins. Chinaoil […]

August 19

Yemen’s Hadi thanks UAE for its help

RIYADH // President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi has commended the UAE’s contributions in Yemen and praised the level of relations between the countries. The Yemeni leader said his meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, during his recent visit to the UAE had “widened the horizons of the distinguished relations between the two countries”. Mr Hadi […]

August 19

Amnesty International Says All Sides in Yemen Have Committed War Crimes

Amnesty International issued a scathing report Tuesday on the Yemen conflict, accusing all armed antagonists there of complicity in war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians. The report, “Nowhere Safe for Civilians,” called on the United Nations to establish a panel of inquiry to “independently and impartially investigate alleged war crimes committed during the conflict.” Donatella Rovera, a senior researcher for Amnesty who has worked in many […]

August 18

Rising Toll in Libya’s Fractured Fighting

BENGHAZI, Libya — Libya’s internationally recognized government has asked fellow Arab states to conduct airstrikes against the Libyan branch of the Islamic State in the coastal city of Surt, a cabinet statement said on Saturday. In the past few days, the Islamic State has crushed a revolt by a rival Salafist group and armed residents who tried to break its grip on the city. Dozens of people […]

August 15

The Syrian catastrophe and the world's deafening silence

INTERNATIONAL. The word tragic has often been used to describe the civil war in Syria, but it is a pale description of the raging madness on the ground. The bloodletting and massive destruction that has swept the nation is not a mere tragic event; the magnitude of the destruction and loss of lives is catastrophic by any measure unseen since the horror of World War II. The […]

August 15

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Yemeni Government Faces Choice Between a Truce and Fighting On

SANA, Yemen — After five months of war in which more than 4,000 people have been killed, Yemen’s government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, faces a fateful decision: leverage recent battlefield gains to negotiate a cease-fire with a weakened Houthi rebel movement, or try to rout the rebels once and for all. Backed by air support and ground troops from Persian Gulf nations, fighters allied with the government […]

August 15

ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape

QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted. He bound her hands and gagged […]

August 14

U.S. Says Iranian Military Figure’s Visit to Russia Violates U.N. Ban

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Wednesday that a recent visit to Moscow by the head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds force had violated a United Nations travel ban that has been imposed because of concerns about Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. “We’ve raised this travel with senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials,” said Mark Toner, the deputy State Department spokesman. He added that Russia had not responded […]

Gulf-based Islamic banks grapple with weakening regional economies

UAE. After delivering strong results in 2014, Islamic banks in the Gulf region face a gradually weakening operating outlook in 2015-2016, largely due to declining oil revenues, says a report published today by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. But as the report, titled “Gulf-Based Islamic Banks Grapple With Weakening Regional Economies,” also points out, we believe investor demand for Sharia-compliant products and supportive government actions will enable […]

Lifting of Iran sanctions will lower oil prices and boost domestic economy if managed well

INTERNATIONAL. Lifting sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program will have a significant impact on the world oil market, the Iranian economy and Iran’s trading partners. Iran’s full return to the global market will eventually add about a million barrels of oil a day, lowering oil prices by US$10 per barrel next year, according to the World Bank, which also expects economic growth in the country to surge […]

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed holds vital talks with Yemeni President

ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday held talks with Yemen’s visiting leader on the future of his country and plans to help rebuild it. Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi arrived on Wednesday for a two-day visit including talks with Sheikh Mohammed, also Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The two discussed progress made by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, […]

Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker: July's survey marks five-and-a-half years of sustained output growth, but momentum continues to slow

UAE. July’s survey data signalled another increase in overall business activity across Dubai’s private sector economy, which marked five-and-a-half years of continuous expansion. However, growth momentum moderated to its weakest recorded since March 2012 amid softer contributions from all three key sub-sectors monitored by the survey. Private sector companies operating in Dubai are nonetheless still highly upbeat about their business activity prospects for the year ahead, according […]

August 11

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid: fallen soldiers ‘will be forever remembered for their heroism’

The three Emirati soldiers who were killed in Yemen on Saturday will forever be remembered for their heroic actions, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said. “They have written glory and heroism with their blood for the sake of peace and backing trodden people,” said Sheikh Mohammed during visits to the soldier’s families. “Allah will bless our martyrs whose memories and sacrifices […]

August 10

Gulf's days of easy money ending over oil price slump

The days of very easy money are drawing to a close in the rich Gulf Arab oil-exporting economies as money market rates start to rise, partly because of the damage which cheap oil is doing to government finances. Loose liquidity created by inflows of oil money pushed short-term rates in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring states to record lows last year, fuelling frenzied competition […]

August 07

All sectors of Jeddah real estate market remain in growth phase, according to JLL

SAUDI ARABIA. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today has released its second quarter (Q2 2015) Jeddah Real Estate Overview report that assess the latest trends in the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors. Mr Jamil Ghaznawi, National Director and Country Head of JLL KSA, commented: “In the second quarter, the Jeddah real estate market remained in the upturn stage of its cycle. […]

August 06

Emirates NBD UAE PMI: Business conditions improve at faster pace in July

UAE. July data suggested that the UAE’s non-oil private sector regained some of the growth momentum that was lost at the end of the second quarter. Output and new orders both rose at sharper rates, contributing to a robust overall improvement in business conditions. Job creation was also sustained at a solid pace. On the price front, data highlighted divergent trends in July. The rate of cost […]

August 06

Liquefied Natural Gas Makes Qatar an Energy Giant

RAS LAFFAN, Qatar — The temperature hovered around 100 degrees on the jetty here, where a set of pipes were connected to a giant red-hulled ship. But the moisture in the air froze on the pipes and flaked off, creating snowlike flurries on the early summer evening. The incongruous sight is common on the Qatari ship, the Al Rekayyat, which carries a frigid fuel known as liquefied […]

August 05

Investing

A ‘made-in-China’ recession

|By Matein Khalid| Every global recession since the OPEC oil shocks of 1973-74 was triggered by a contraction in the $17 trillion US economic colossus. The failure of Lehman Brothers, the meltdown in US subprime mortgages, the impotence of the implicit “Fed/Uncle Sam” put, the ice age in the commercial paper and interbank money markets all tipped the US economy into recession in late 2008 and triggered […]

August 05

Most sectors of Riyadh real estate market see limited growth in second quarter, says JLL

SAUDI ARABIA. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today released its second quarter (Q2 2015) Riyadh Real Estate Market Overview that asses the latest trends in the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors in Saudi Arabia’s largest city. Mr Jamil Ghaznawi, National Director and Country Head of JLL KSA, commented: “there has been relatively little change in the real estate market in Riyadh […]

August 04

John Kerry Wins Gulf States’ Cautious Support for Iran Deal

DOHA, Qatar — Persian Gulf monarchies issued a cautious endorsement on Monday of the accord Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated last month to constrain Iran’s nuclear program. “This was the best option among other options,” said Khalid al-Attiyah, the foreign minister of Qatar, who hosted a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council that Mr. Kerry attended. In a news conference with Mr. Kerry, Mr. Attiyah said […]

August 03

Payfort launches flexible payment plan

Payfort, a leading online payment service provider, has launched its installments service in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The new service that makes it easy for ecommerce merchants to offer pay-via-installment options to customers and gives consumers greater purchasing power. “Many consumers show a preference for purchasing-via-installments, but methods of processing monthly installments in common usage in the region have proved cumbersome for consumers,” […]

August 03

Mobily swings to Q2 net loss

Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), which last week slashed 27 months of profits following an accounting scandal, swung to a second-quarter net loss on Sunday that missed forecasts. Mobily, an affiliate of the UAE’s Etisalat, made a net loss of SR900.9 million ($240.2 million) in the three months to June 30, it said in a bourse statement. This compares with a profit of SR92.5 million in the […]

August 03

33% of young women in Jeddah prefer to be entrepreneurs

SAUDI ARABIA. A recent study released by Glowork, the leading organization for women employment in the region highlights female’s perceptions before graduation. A total of 2000 women from 10 universities Kingdom-wide were surveyed. There were some interesting statistics revealed as it was broken down by city. 49% of women in Riyadh expected to work in a supervisor or manager level when graduating, it was much higher in […]

July 31

Featured

Subsidy reform helps Abu Dhabi bonds

The yield on bonds of Abu Dhabi has decreased four basis points since 22 July, the day the UAE announced the move to remove fuel subsidies, Bloomberg reported. While the average yield on developing-country debt has increased 13 basis points since the 22 July announcement of fuel-price deregulation, the yield on bonds of Abu Dhabi has declined four basis points. The yield on bonds of the neighboring […]

July 30

Columns, Investing

FT deal and print media mergers

|By Matein Khalid|So Pearson PLC has sold the FT Group (with its flagship Financial Times newspaper) to Japan’s Nikkei Inc for $1.32 billion. Pearson will use the cash proceeds to increase its investment in education publishing businesses in the US and Canada, now 75% of revenues. This deal is a milestone in the history of newspaper publishing and my own life as an investor/financial journalist. I discovered […]

July 29

Mena lagging in adopting cyber security policies

Mena lagging in adopting cyber security policies BEIRUT, 1 days ago Despite the current global focus on cyber security issues including hacking, data losses, breaches and other information leaks, organizations in the Mena region still do not have formal cyber security initiatives in place, a report said. In keeping with international trends, managing Compliance Risk remains a high priority for organizations across Mena region, explained the Middle […]

July 28

Assad, in Rare Admission, Says Syria’s Army Lacks Manpower

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a striking admission, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said on Sunday that the country’s army faced a manpower shortage and had ceded some areas to insurgents in order to hold onto other regions deemed more important. Mr. Assad also acknowledged in a speech televised from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that many Syrians could not watch the address because of the lack of electricity […]

July 26