Kuwait’s Americana owns the franchise for popular fast-food chains such as TGI Friday’s, KFC (pictured above) and Pizza Hut in the Middle East and North Africa region. Bloomberg Kuwait’s Americana is in demand. Several investors, both regional and international, are apparently interested in acquiring a stake in the company that owns the franchise for popular fast-food chains such as TGI Friday’s Inc, KFC and Pizza Hut in […]
Local lenders in Saudi Arabia are dominating the market, prompting overseas banks to surrender their licenses as they struggle to compete, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered (STAN) Plc in the country said. “International banks have found this market more challenging to find their edge and differentiate themselves enough to build a viable business,” Boutros Klink, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Capital Saudi Arabia, said […]
Kuwait Food Co (Americana) said on Monday that it had no knowledge of any talks with Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group on a possible acquisition of Americana. “The board and executive administration deny knowledge of any negotiations with Savola regarding an acquisition of Americana,” the Kuwaiti company said in a statement to its stock exchange. A recent meeting between the two companies was intended only to discuss the […]
|By TAP Staff| Oil prices have never been so stable as they are now since the breakup of Bretton Woods system in 1971. Despite major geopolitical tensions in Libya, Syria, Iraq, or the Ukraine, global crude oil prices have been remarkably steady in the past three and a half years. Global oil prices have not been this stable since the break-up of the Bretton Woods system in […]
Seventy-year-old Saudi Arabian stock speculator Mohamed al-Otaibi says he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the crash of 2006, but he’s back trading again as the Arab world’s biggest bourse prepares to open to direct foreign investment. The activities of Otaibi and many thousands like him mean there will be a clash of investment cultures when international institutions enter the $580 billion Saudi market early next […]
|By TAP Staff| Indians were the biggest foreign investors in Dubai property in the first half of this year, while Saudis dominated the GCC investors. According to statistics published by the Dubai Land Department, more than Dh10.5 billion was invested into the emirate’s property market by Indians out of a total of Dh37.5 billion spent by foreigners in the first six months of the year. During the […]
Major Saudi food producer Savola Group said on Wednesday it had begun preliminary talks on a potential acquisition of Kuwait Food Co (Americana) , one of the Middle East’s largest food companies. Savola has attended an investor roadshow held by Americana’s management, but talks have not yet reached a stage that would require disclosure, the company said in a bourse filing. Reuters reported in April that the […]
Dubai’s two biggest builders are turning to bank borrowing to help fund projects as a rise in late payments from their customers takes the shine off a booming construction market. Arabtec Holding PJSC, the contractor that helped push Dubai stocks into a bear market in June, said money owed by clients rose to 8.8 billion dirhams ($2.4 billion) through the second quarter from 7.2 billion dirhams at […]
The number of pay-TV subscriptions in the Middle East and North Africa will increase from 10.6 million last year to 15.2 million by the end of 2019, according to research group Ovum. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images It’s no surprise a U.S. buyout firm bid for a large stake in Dubai-based pay-TV player OSN – the prospects for the sector in the Middle East and North Africa are bright, […]
Luxembourg will start meeting investors in the next two months to drum up support for a debut sale of shariah compliant bonds as sukuk sales surge worldwide. The country, which has an AAA credit rating at Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, is planning to become the second non-Muslim nation to issue a sovereign Islamic bond after the U.K. raised 200 million pounds ($335 […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
As players stepped on the pitch of King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh to kick off the new Saudi football season, the sound of money came louder than the cheers of sports fans. A few minutes before the game started on Thursday, Middle East Broadcasting Center Group inked a deal with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation worth 3.6 billion riyals ($960 million) over 10 years to buy […]
Saudi Arabia has advised the kingdom’s citizens and residents to avoid all travel to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea until further notice due to the Ebola outbreak. The warning issued late Wednesday by the Ministry of Health comes after a Saudi man, who recently visited Sierra Leone and was suspected of having the virus, died earlier in the day when his heart stopped and attempts to resuscitate him […]
Qatar’s emir has issued a law providing for foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of listed Qatari companies, part of reforms to expand the stock market and develop the financial industry. “The law stipulates that non-Qatari investors are allowed to own no more than 49 percent of the shares of Qatari shareholding companies listed on Qatar Exchange,” the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) said on […]
A return to an era of higher interest rates could derail attempts by Islamic finance to create alternatives to a short-term funding instrument that has dominated the industry, but which some scholars and regulators want to see replaced. Islamic finance has been trying to diversify away from so-called commodity murabaha, a common cost-plus profit arrangement, in an attempt to reduce reliance on a single tool, stop money […]
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government while censuring previous Congress government for ignoring state’s interests while signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), has banked on the HPCL’s own consulting firm, SBI Caps’ report.
Chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, during her budget speech, said that based on appraisal report, the project will earn revenue of more than 68,000 crore within 15 years, from the day of production.
According to government officials, the data was cited from the report prepared by HPCL-appointed consulting firm, SBI Caps. Riding on these figures, the government is firming its stand on renegotiating the terms. “These facts came
Muslims from across the United States held a rally at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia on August 5, to protest what they called the Saudi Kingdom’s destruction of Islamic religious and historical sites and support for extremism around the world. The protest was organized by the Al-Baqee Organization and the Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA), according to an announcement by the body. The organization alleges that […]
Egypt plans to build a new channel parallel to the Suez Canal in a 60 billion Egyptian-pound ($8.4 billion) venture to boost capacity at the vital global waterway, marking a new era of regeneration after the 2011 revolution. Construction of the new passage is scheduled to take three years, though President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered it to be completed in a year, Mohab Mamish, head of the […]
When Saudi Arabia started to seriously tackle its labor market problems a few years ago, it had to take decisions that made it quite unpopular with both businesses and the general public. The government argued that some tough measures must be taken even if they are painful. After decades of depending on low-paid foreign workers, it was clear that fixing the labor market would be difficult and […]
Video | Cease-Fires of the Gaza-Israel Conflict With the Israeli Army now moving into defensive positions, a historical look at how the fighting could end. By MARK LANDLER August 4, 2014 WASHINGTON — When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American […]
The value of shares bought by foreign investors through swap arrangements on the Saudi stock exchange jumped in July, official statistics showed on Sunday. Authorities in the kingdom granted long-awaited approval on July 21 to open up the bourse to direct foreign investment for the first time in early 2015. Foreigners currently can only purchase shares through swap arrangements, contracts in which a local broker or investor […]
Challenges such as large current account and fiscal deficits remain, but three years after the Arab Spring uprisings, the tide is turning in favour of the economies of North Africa, says London-based Capital Economics. A gradual return to political stability in Egypt and Tunisia should support activity there, while exports are likely to pick up on the back of the modest recovery in the global economy, its […]
Dubai is once again proving to be the choicest destination for Saudis this summer, with hotels in the city showing 35 percent occupancy by them during the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, Al-Riyadh daily reported. The more than one-third occupancy of rooms by Saudis during the holidays complements the statistics revealed by Dubai tourism authorities that more than 2 million Saudis visited the city during the past six months, […]
