News related to Saudi

Mobily chairman quits; new head named

Mobily chairman quits; new head named RIYADH, 8 hours, 43 minutes ago The chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has resigned with immediate effect, the kingdom’s No 2 telecommunications operator said on Tuesday. Abdulaziz Al-Saghyir quit due to health reasons, but will remain on Mobily’s board, the company said in a statement to Riyadh’s bourse. Mobily has appointed Suliman bin Abdulrahman Al-Gwaiz as chairman, effective February […]

February 24

$10 oil in sight?

|By A. Gary Shilling| At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why. U.S. economic growth has averaged 2.3 percent a year since the recovery started in mid-2009. That’s about half the rate you might expect in a rebound from the […]

February 21

Arqaam aims at Q3 IPO

Dubai-based financial services firm Arqaam Capital has invited banks to pitch for roles in arranging its flotation on the emirate’s bourse, three banking sources aware of the matter told Reuters. Arqaam has offices in five countries in the Middle East and Africa and offers services including brokerage, asset management and corporate finance advisory. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The invitation, known as a request […]

February 21

Gulf banks face risk from regulatory blues

Fast-growing Gulf Arab banks plan to bolster their reserves by issuing capital-boosting bonds, but uncertainty over regulation and ultra-tight pricing increase the risks for issuers and investors. Basel III standards, now being phased in around the world, will require banks to hold more capital. While Gulf banks have very high capital adequacy ratios, their rapid expansion, and the fact they operate in emerging markets with lower sovereign […]

February 03

OPEC price war intensifies

|By Florence Tan and Henning Gloystein|Even as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies appear united in their refusal to cut output to boost global oil prices, they are becoming locked in an increasingly fierce battle to secure market share in Asia. Oil prices have slumped below $50 a barrel, the weakest since 2009, triggering a price war between producers to secure customers in Asia. And the […]

January 12

Talking Point

Austerity is not for all

|By Andrew Torchia| It’s a weekend morning at the Dubai Mall, a glitzy complex with 1,200 stores, and the shoppers are pouring in. A traffic jam has formed in the basement parking area. With passenger arrivals at Dubai’s airport at record highs, retailers expect a good month. The 55 percent plunge of oil prices since last June might be expected to usher in an age of austerity […]

January 12

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DIB to reopen Gulf bond market next week

Dubai Islamic Bank will reopen the Gulf bond market next week with a capital-boosting sukuk, the region’s first debt offering in two months as financial markets there wobbled under the impact of falling oil prices. A successful offering would not just bolster reserves at DIB, the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates, but also pave the way for others who may have been waiting to […]

January 07

Oil extends drop below $48

Oil extended losses below $48 a barrel amid speculation that U.S. inventories will expand, deepening a global supply glut that’s driven prices to a five-year low. Futures declined for a fourth day. Stockpiles in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country probably rose by 700,000 barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed before a government report tomorrow. Oil slumped almost 50 percent in 2014, the most since the […]

January 07

Markets

Gulf markets tumble on oil fall

Gulf stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday as Brent crude extended losses after plunging 5 percent a day earlier and the threat of a fresh euro zone crisis in Greece also prompted investors to sell risk assets globally. Brent crude touched a fresh 5-1/2-year low at $52.28 a barrel on Tuesday on oversupply concerns. MSCI’s emerging market index was down 0.9 percent. Saudi Arabia’s main index dropped […]

January 07

Oil caps biggest yearly slump since 2008 amid supply glut

INTERNATIONA. Oil fell in 2014 by the most since the 2008 global financial crisis as U.S. producers and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ceded no ground in their battle for market share amid a supply glut. The U.S. benchmark ended at a five-year low yesterday, capping a 46 percent drop in 2014, as stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline reached seasonal record highs and as OPEC […]

January 06

Middle East

Saudis Report Deadly Border Clash With Infiltrators From Iraq

By BEN HUBBARD January 5, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Four heavily armed men from Iraq attacked a Saudi Arabia border patrol early Monday, firing automatic weapons and detonating suicide belts in a confrontation that left three guards and all the assailants dead, Saudi officials said. The early morning clash, which the Saudis described as an attempted infiltration near an isolated patch of the Saudi-Iraq frontier, was one of the […]

January 05

Funds positive on UAE market

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt appear the most attractive among major Middle Eastern stock markets in an era of low oil prices, the latest Reuters survey of regional asset managers suggests. The plunge of oil and equity prices over the last several months has stunned managers, and they may therefore invest their 2015 equity allocations to the region only gradually. “I think the next three months […]

January 04

Iran wants Saudi to act on oil price fall

Falling world oil prices will hurt countries across the Middle East unless Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, takes action to reverse the slump, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Reuters. Hossein Amir Abdollahian described Saudi Arabia’s inaction in the face of a six-month slide in oil prices as a strategic mistake and said he still hoped the kingdom, Tehran’s main rival in the Gulf, would respond. […]

January 04

Markets

Gulf markets rise on Saudi confidence

Gulf stock markets rose on Sunday despite oil’s weakness as Saudi Arabia’s plan to maintain government spending at a high level boosted investor confidence. The Saudi government released a 2015 state budget last Thursday that provides for a 0.6 percent increase in spending from this year’s plan. That cheered the retail investors who dominate Gulf stock markets; they had feared falling oil revenues would trigger spending cuts […]

December 28

Gulf markets rise on Saudi budget release

Gulf stock markets rose on Thursday as Saudi Arabia released a 2015 state budget that will keep spending high, reassuring the region that economic growth is unlikely to be hurt much by the plunge of oil prices. The Saudi budget envisions state spending at a record 860 billion riyals ($230 billion) next year, up 0.6 percent from the 2014 budget plan. That would be the smallest rise […]

December 25

Saudis to cut wages to cope with oil slump

Saudi authorities pledged to curb wages and push ahead with investments next year as the world’s largest oil exporter seeks to counter the effect of tumbling crude prices on the economy. The government said it expects the budget deficit in 2015 to widen to 145 billion riyals ($39 billion), from 54 billion riyals this year, the Finance Ministry said today. That amounts to about 5 percent of […]

December 25

No threat yet to Saudi dollar peg

In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]

December 24

Watan inks strategic tie-up with Natixis

Watan inks strategic tie-up with Natixis RIYADH, 2 days ago Natixis, the corporate arm of France’s banking group Groupe BPCE, and Saudi Arabia’s Watan Investment & Securities Company have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The signing, which took place at the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marks the start of expectantly a long-term cooperation between the two institutions on a wide range of Natixis […]

December 20

Oil slump won’t derail $500bn Gulf infrastructure plan

Gulf governments seek to improve the livesof citizens and create jobs. Oil slump won’t derail $500bn Gulf infrastructure plan DUBAI, 2 days ago Slumping oil prices will not halt a massive ramp-up in Gulf infrastructure spending, as rich nations deploy huge reserves to maintain a breakneck development pace and the rest turn to buoyant funding markets. However, states are being urged to consider the most effective funding […]

December 20

Opec says no output cut even at $40 oil

OPEC will stand by its decision not to cut crude output even if oil prices fall as low as $40 a barrel and will wait at least three months before considering an emergency meeting, the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said. OPEC won’t immediately change its Nov. 27 decision to keep the group’s collective output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, Suhail Al-Mazrouei said. Venezuela […]

December 14

Markets

Oil free fall to further weaken markets

A fresh drop in the price of oil looks likely to put more pressure on Sunday on stock markets in the Gulf, where investors appear to be waiting for the commodity to stabilise before opening new positions. Brent crude dropped nearly 3 percent and settled at below $62 a barrel on Friday after the International Energy Agency cut its outlook for demand growth in 2015. A plunge […]

December 14

Panic exposes fragility of Gulf markets

Sliding oil prices, leverage and sheer panic have exposed the fragility of Gulf equity markets just as they are becoming mainstream destinations for international investors. In May, MSCI upgraded Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to emerging-market status, drawing billions of dollars of new money to them. Saudi Arabia will open its bourse to direct foreign investment next year, which could draw tens of billions of dollars […]

December 14