Saudi

Alwaleed gets London court ruling against Forbes

|By TAP Staff|Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud secured a London court ruling in his favour in a defamatory suit against Forbes for an article carried by the magazine on him in April 2013. Alwaleed maintained that Forbes defamed him by falsely accusing him of defaulting on important contractual obligations, dishonestly manipulating the share price of Kingdom Holding Company, and firing KHC’s auditor […]

November 27

Banking & Finance

Flydubai sukuk signals appetite for aviation issues

FlyDubai’s debut Islamic bonds are signaling growing appetite for sukuk from aviation companies in the Gulf as they spend on airports and fleet expansion. The budget carrier raised $500 million this month in the first sale of the debt by a regional airline after Emirates, the world’s largest operator of A380 superjumbo planes. The issue received bids for more than six times the amount offered. Gulf cities […]

November 26

Middle East

Because You Asked: Why Hasn’t US Struck Assad?

I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]

November 26

Markets

Fund buying seen boosting markets

Funds tracking MSCI’s emerging markets index are likely to start buying several stocks in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that will see their benchmark weightings increased after the end of trading on Tuesday. These include Emaar Properties, Dubai Islamic Bank and First Gulf Bank in the UAE, plus Doha’s Industries Qatar, Qatar National Bank, Doha Bank and Commercial Bank of Qatar. Gulf International Services will join […]

November 26

Iran moots million-barrel daily Opec cut

Iran may propose that OPEC cut its output target by as much as 1 million barrels a day to halt the slide in crude prices when the country’s oil minister consults with his Saudi counterpart before the group gathers this week. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi will talk on the sidelines of the meeting in Vienna of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting […]

November 24

Policy-setting Opec meet coming up

A panel of national representatives reviewed OPEC’s oil market outlook for 2015 this week, OPEC sources said, preparing the ground for a policy-setting meeting next week that will decide how to address a looming oversupply of crude. The Economic Commission Board concluded a two-day meeting in Vienna on Friday ahead of the gathering of the group’s oil ministers on Nov. 27. It does not recommend policy to […]

November 22

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INDIA, RUSSIA MULL ‘HYDROCARBON’ PIPELINE

NEW DELHI: After cementing trade ties with China, energy-rich Russia is now looking to strengthen its relationship with India by reviving discussions on a hydrocarbon pipeline, in addition to inviting ONGC Videsh (OVL) to invest in oil and gas projects in the Russian Federation. India and Russia have decided to form a joint working group to study laying a ‘hydrocarbon’ pipeline connecting the nations. Preliminary discussions […]

November 15

Mobily shares hit 32-month low

Mobily shares hit 32-month low RIYADH, 21 hours, 35 minutes ago Shares in Saudi Arabia’s Mobily tumbled for a fourth trading day on Sunday after the company scrapped its third-quarter dividend following its shock restatement of 18 months of earnings last week. Mobily’s shares were down 4.3 per cent at SR56.00 as of 0803 GMT, slumping to a 32-month low and taking its losses to 30 per […]

November 10

Mobily scraps dividend after disappointing results

Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), which has seen its share price fall by the daily limit for three straight days since reporting an accounting error on Monday, said it would not distribute a dividend for the third quarter. The firm, under investigation by the bourse regulator after restating a year and a half of earnings, also said it would evaluate whether to pay shareholders in the coming […]

November 08

INDIA, NEPAL HOLD NEGOTIATIONS FOR 900 MW POWER PROJECT

KATHMANDU: India and Nepal are holding negotiations to sign a second Project Development Agreement (PDA) to generate hydorelectric power in the Himalayan nation endowed with rich water resources. The negotiations for the 900 MW Arun-III project between Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, India, which began here yesterday, continued today, Indian Embassy sources said, adding, they are set to continue tomorrow as […]

November 06

Oil slides to 4-year low

Dubai’s stocks fell the most among global markets as oil extended declines while Saudi shares slumped amid heightened security concerns. The benchmark DFM General Index (DFMGI) dropped 3.3 percent, the most in three weeks, to 4,400.80 at the close. That’s the steepest slide among 93 gauges worldwide tracked by Bloomberg so far today. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index lost 1.6 percent for the third-worst decrease, taking […]

November 06

OIL PSUs LEARN TO SWIM IN ROUGH WATERS

Mumbai: It’s exactly 125 years since the first oil deposits were discovered in India. The big push to India’s oil and gas sector came after the early 1990s, when it was opened up to private players. Yet, the sector is still dominated by public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in oil and gas exploration and production; […]

November 05

Gulf investment in US real estate surges

Gulf investors from sovereign wealth funds to rich individuals increased spending on U.S. real estate, attracted by the pace of economic growth, a survey by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. showed. Gulf Cooperation Council countries invested $1 billion in U.S. property this year, a 51 percent gain over the year-earlier period, according to the survey released in Dubai today. “It’s about grabbing a share of the American economy, […]

November 04

French Hotel Group Accor Plans to Double Mideast Presence

Dubai’s luxury hotel segment is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of business opportunities, says Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin. Reuters Dubai has always had a penchant for luxury hotels and some of the best-known ones such as the sail-shaped Burj al Arab have come to be an integral part of the city’s skyline. As Dubai’s economy has firmly picked up again following the infamous 2009 […]

November 04

GAIL SET TO HIKE DOMESTIC PRICE OF LNG

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to force local consumers such as power projects and fertilizer plants to finalize their purchase plans, state-owned gas supplier GAIL (India) Ltd is set to increase the domestic price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 10 cents per unit. Of the total 5.8 million tonnes (mt) of LNG it contracted with US suppliers, GAIL has found Indian buyers for only 2.5 […]

November 04

UK to develop tools to boost liquidity in Islamic banking

The scope of Britain’s Islamic finance market is widening with several initiatives from the government and private sector, although the country is about to lose one of its six full-fledged Islamic banks. In June, Britain became the first Western country to sell sovereign sukuk (Islamic bonds), helping boost its industry credentials as competition intensifies among global financial centres for a slice of Islamic business. Britain has 22 […]

November 03

Commodities

Iran oil revenue down 30%

Iran’s revenue from crude sales, the OPEC member nation’s most important export, dropped 30 percent because of the recent drop in global oil prices, according to President Hassan Rouhani. “International conditions are such that the country’s main source of income, i.e. oil revenues, has been cut by some 30 percent,” Rouhani said in remarks to the nation’s parliament that were published today by the Oil Ministry’s news […]

October 29

Why the Drop In Oil Prices Caught So Many By Surprise

AP It’s not just Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that got it wrong. Energy consultants and even the U.S. government didn’t foresee the sharp slide in oil prices, which have tumbled 25% since June. Goldman shocked the market yesterday with a call for U.S. prices to fall to $70 a barrel in the second quarter of 2015. Barclays just released its second price update in […]

October 29

Gulf oil surplaces face risk of plunge

Gulf Cooperation Council countries may see their current-account surplus decline by $175 billion next year if oil prices stay about $80 a barrel, according to the International Monetary Fund. The projected surplus for the six GCC countries may plunge from $275 billion to about $100 billion next year, Masood Ahmed, director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the IMF, said in an interview in […]

October 28

INDO-BANGLA RELATIONS SET TO IMPROVE

By Ashis Biswas Relations between India and Bangladesh are on the upswing if recent Dhaka-based media reports are any indication. The Government of India’s decisive intervention into the law and order situation in West Bengal, following the Burdwan blast on October 2, ignoring the state Government’s objections, has been welcomed among the ruling Awami League circles in Bangladesh. Significantly, Bangladesh authorities have been interacting […]

October 27

Jazeera eyes big stake in Kuwait Airways

Kuwait’s privately owned Jazeera Airways is preparing to bid for a big stake in state-run flag carrier Kuwait Airways, Jazeera’s chairman told Reuters. If the deal goes through, it will be a sign that the business scene is changing in the Gulf. For several decades, Gulf Arab economies have been dominated by the heavy hand of the state. Governments’ huge oil revenues have eclipsed private sector activity. […]

October 26

Kuwait fund to sell assets to focus on US, Europe investments

Kuwait Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund which started as a Bank of England account dedicated to receiving oil money, will sell stakes in three local companies worth 1.56 billion dinars ($5.4 billion). The KIA, as the fund is known, will sell its Kuwait Investment Co. holding in a public offering in the first half of next year, according to a statement on the website of the […]

October 26

Islamic finance grows twice as fast as traditional banks

The Islamic finance industry…boasts $1.6 trillion in bankingsystem assets Islamic finance grows twice as fast as traditional banks MUSCAT, 2 days ago Islamic finance is growing at twice the rate of the traditional banking industry in its core markets, which include Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey and the GCC countries, according to an expert. The industry currently boasts $1.6 trillion in banking system assets, said Mohammed Mahfoodh Al Ardhi, […]

October 25

Oil price fall below $80 devalues US shale gas boom

The bear market in oil has analysts reassessing the U.S. shale boom after five years of historic growth. The U.S. benchmark price dropped to $79.78 a barrel on Oct. 16, the lowest since June 2012. At that level, one-third of U.S. shale oil production would be uneconomic, analysts for New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. led by Bob Brackett said in a report yesterday. Drillers would […]

October 21

Iran says no need for emergency Opec meet

Iran, which faces sanctions on crude exports, sees no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting, a sign that markets may need to wait a month before the world’s biggest producer group responds to falling prices. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has consulted with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about political and economic reasons for the collapse in prices, the ministry’s news website Shana reported today. No […]

October 20

Markets

Markets resume slide in line with Wall Street

Most Middle Eastern stock markets fell on Monday as a rebound by global equities turned out to be short-lived, but Saudi Arabia’s bourse rose after a string of strong quarterly earnings. Stock indexes in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rose in early trade but quickly gave up all their gains after European bourses once again weakened. Dubai’s index, which was up as much as 2.5 percent […]

October 20

Feel Good Drinks Maker PIPER Mulls Dubai IPO in Growth Push

The founder of drinks maker PIPER says an IPO would help bank roll the firm’s international expansion strategy. Piper Dubai-based PIPER is considering an initial public offering of shares to help fuel the “feel good” drink maker’s global growth plans. “We are looking at ways to raise new capital to expand the brand globally,” said PIPER Founder Jeremy Miocevic. A share sale would help fund the production […]

October 20

Goldman Sachs says oil rout excessive

Oil’s collapse into a bear market is excessive because there’s no oversupply to justify the selloff, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank is “near-term constructive about prices” after they fell too much, too soon, analysts including Jeffrey Currie, the head of commodities research in New York, wrote in a report e-mailed today. While expectations of a glut have driven down crude, the risk of a […]

October 19