|By Arabian Post Staff|In further signs of consolidation by pro-reform Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered the replacement of his central bank chief and Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, the most influential personality of the oil industry yet. The moves are understood to be influenced by the sweeping economic changes spearheaded by the Deputy Crown Prince as part of his visionary plan […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Gulf International Bank BSC, National Commercial Bank, Samba Financial Group and Saudi Fransi Capital are also being considered for the Tadawul Stock Exchange IPO, and a decision could come as soon as this week, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The IPO could raise more than $500 million for a 30 percent stake […]
A cushy government job, cheap fuel, a mortgage-free home and a bit of five-star travel and luxury shopping were never too much to expect in the Gulf. Yet what previously was taken for granted in the oil-rich region is being replaced by something more familiar to the western world: spending cuts, taxation, a scarcity of jobs and even strikes. There’s discontentment among young populations rarely seen before […]
By RICK GLADSTONE April 25, 2016 Iran said on Monday that it would seek to sue the United States at the International Court of Justice at The Hague to prevent the distribution of nearly $2 billion in impounded assets from Iran’s central bank to compensate American victims of overseas attacks. Distribution of the impounded assets, which the United States Supreme Court validated in a decision last week, has enraged […]
Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his “Saudi Vision 2030” to reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil. The blueprint, approved by King Salman, includes plans to sell less than 5 percent of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, the creation of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and raising non-oil revenue. Here’s a guide to the main elements of the plan, announced on Monday […]
Saudi Arabia’s plan for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to overcome habits developed over decades of relying on crude sales to fuel economic growth, create job and build infrastructure. Almost eight decades after oil was first found in the country, officials are set to unveil Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” on Monday, a blueprint seeking to reduce the reliance […]
DUBAI // He may be a desert explorer and 11-time world record holder, but there was one thing about Max Calderan that all the pupils at a primary school wanted to know – was he ever bitten by a snake? The answer was yes, but three days later it was the snake that died. The Italian adventurer recently became the first person to cross the 340-kilometres Tropic […]
Oil advanced to a five-month high as declining U.S. crude production provided more evidence that the market is rebalancing. Futures rose 1.3 percent in New York, bringing this week’s gains to 8.3 percent. U.S. crude output dropped a sixth week, while production in Colombia fell last month. Lower prices have curbed investment in new fields. Schlumberger Ltd. cut more jobs in the first quarter as the world’s largest […]
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is seeking to recruit senior bankers to help the kingdom run what may become the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The fund, which holds about $100 billion worth of stakes in local companies, is working with U.S.-based executive search firm Korn Ferry International to hire for positions including the head of private equity, head […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Michael Klein, the former Citigroup Inc. investment banker who runs his own boutique, have been selected to advise on state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. Klein is providing strategic advice to the government, while JPMorgan is working on preparations for the IPO and may be among the banks that underwrite the listing, the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai Mall recorded 80 million visitor arrivals in 2015. Various Emaar malls together received more than 124 million visitors, registering an increase of 9 per cent compared to 2014. “The shopping malls business will gain further traction with the launch of a dedicated Retail District in Dubai Creek Harbour and the expansion of The Dubai Mall by another 1 million sq ft built-up […]
Oil tumbled after output talks Sunday between the world’s biggest producers ended without an agreement, outweighing the supply impact of strikes that cut 60 percent of Kuwait’s output. Futures fell as much as 6.8 percent in New York. The summit in the Qatari capital faltered after Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations wouldn’t agree to a deal unless all OPEC members joined including Iran, which didn’t attend the […]
Saudi Arabia won’t restrain its oil production unless other producers, including Iran, agree to freeze output at a meeting this weekend in Doha, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said. The world’s biggest crude exporter would cap its market share at about 10.3 million to 10.4 million barrels a day, if producers agree to the freeze, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during an interview on Thursday at King […]
|By Matein Khalid| While the S&P500 fell only 1.2% last week, things will get uglier in April and May. Fed chair Yellen is playing with fire in talking down US interest rates and inflation risk. The Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street’s barometer of greed and fear, does not capture the rising global financial and political risks at only 15. Market breadth, sector divergence, smart money flows, sentiment, leadership, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The proposed new Dubai landmark that will surpass the Burj Khalifa in height will be implemented by a joint venture between Emaar Properties and Dubai Holding. The new project comes as Dubai developers continue to announce new schemes despite a softening real estate sector, with the Emaar-built Burj Khalifa expected to be usurped by a tower currently under construction in Saudi Arabia. While […]
|By Alaa Alghamdi| Military force is the most extreme example of use of power. There are many alternatives. Soft uses of power, such as appeals, firmer uses that injure; and between these two there is a large space for diplomacy, media discussions, and more. Regardless of whichever tactic used, credibility comes from the ability to start a real confrontation. Simply the ability to resort to military tactics can be enough to dissuade, to prevent explosive situations and all-out war. Building this kind […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| SAMA’s foreign assets fell by US$9.4 billion in February, which is more than the combined US$1 billion drop in government deposits at SAMA and the US$5.3 billion domestic debt issuance, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in its latest review. This likely suggests persistent capital outflows for Saudi Arabia, it added February data suggests domestic liquidity continues to tighten as M3 growth dropped to […]
Russia’s oil output set a post-Soviet high in March as the success of a proposed crude production freeze between OPEC members and other major producers appeared to be in doubt. Russian production of crude and a light oil called condensate climbed 2.1 percent in March from a year earlier to 10.912 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. That narrowly beat the previous high […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Emaar Chairman and leading Dubai businessman Mohammed Alabbar’s investment consortium Adeptio is learnt to have secured commitments worth $1.5 billion to fund its pursuit of regional KFC operator Americana. The banks lending money for the acquisition reportedly include Citigroup, Standard Chartered , Credit Suisse Group AG, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Emirates NBD, First Gulf Bank and Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank. Earlier this year, Adeptio had […]
|By Matein Khalid| “Stop the murder, stop the lies, out, out, you nest of spies!” So chanted the crowd outside South Africa House on Trafalgar Square in the autumnal mists of London circa 1988. The anti-apartheid struggle was the moral compass of my generation, from the Soweto riots to Steve Biko’s murder to the horrific “necklacings in the townships and killing fields of the Limpopo to Madiba’s release […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Hedge funds which bet on Saudi riyal’s dollar peg are reported to have lost heavily as the price rebound in the oil has apparently removed all immediate possibilities of Saudi Arabia abandoning the currency’s peg with the dollar. Several US hedge funds are understood to be among the losers. According to Bloomberg, contracts used to speculate on the kingdom’s exchange rate in the […]
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump told the New York Times he would consider stopping U.S. oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless the Saudi government provide troops to fight Islamic State. Trump’s comment on Friday was included in a lengthy foreign policy interview published by the newspaper on Saturday and came in response to a question about whether, if elected president, he would halt oil purchases from U.S. allies […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The impact of the massive decline in oil prices has finally reached the door steps of the banking industry and some banks have been affected more than the others. According to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the banking industry in the GCC grew at a lower rate in 2015 than it did in 2014 with just a 7.2 percent increase, […]
|By Alaa Alghamdi| Judicial rulings have shown that the calamitous and tragic events of September 11 were borne out of a relationship between Iran and Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. Will the coming days reveal a similar relationship with Daesh too? Hezbollah is widely known for its support of terrorism, for inciting sectarian strife in the Arab countries, and for the cooperation of its members with drug dealers in Europe, North and South America, Africa, as a means to finance multiple activities, ease the burden on the Iranian treasury offering them substantial financial support, in […]
