Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, is making his first foreign trip since taking office, fulfilling a promise to undertake a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Ghani’s office said in a statement Saturday that he will perform Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year. The president will also meet with Saudi King Abdullah and other officials during his visit […]
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, […]
China reduced oil imports from Saudi Arabia even as the world’s largest crude exporter cuts prices to lure Asian customers amid intensifying competition from Colombia to Oman. Oil deliveries from Saudi Arabia fell 2.7 percent to 4.74 million metric tons last month from a year earlier, according to data released today by the General Administration of Customs in Beijing. Shipments from Colombia surged 389.6 percent, while Russian […]
ACWAs Chief Executive Paddy Padmanathan says the company wants to expand its presence in the renewables sector and make a push for fuel diversification. ACWA Saudi Arabia-based water and power project developer ACWA Power has recently received a $100 million equity investment from the International Finance Corp (IFC), a unit of the World Bank. The investment is aimed at funding renewable energy projects to help meet the […]
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 […]
Saudi Arabia’s closure of an offshore oilfield it shares with Kuwait has revived speculation of renewed tensions between the two, and put Chevron’s role in the shared Neutral Zone in focus. Crude output from their jointly-run offshore Khafji oilfield has been halted temporarily to comply with environmental rules. “Little things lead to big things, it’s an accumulation of the past. Each party says a different story,” said […]
The Saudi riyal fell sharply against the U.S. dollar in the forwards market on Tuesday because of a surge of demand for dollars in the spot foreign exchange market, where the riyal is pegged to the U.S. currency, traders said. One-year dollar/Saudi riyal forwards jumped to 90.0 points, their highest level since a peak of 91.50 points hit in March 2011, when the Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere […]
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 […]
Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to raise at least 10 billion riyals ($2.7 billion) through the sale of shares in its ground-handling, cargo and maintenance units. An initial public offering of the ground-handling unit valued at 2 billion riyals will take place “in weeks,” Saudi Arabian Airlines’ Chief Financial Officer Muhammad Albakri told reporters in Dubai. The sale of shares in the cargo unit is planned for next […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A “limited fire” broke out on a subsidiary oil pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday after assailants fired shots at a security patrol, the state news agency SPA said. An industry source told Reuters there was no impact on oil operations in the world’s top crude exporter. SPA, citing the spokesman for police in Eastern Province, said authorities were at the scene quickly and had put […]
NEW DELHI: India is likely to next month sign a deal to lay an oil pipeline to Nepal for supply of petrol, diesel and ATF, said Sunil Kumar Thapa, Commerce Minister of the Himalayan nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Nepal in August had “assured that India will assist in putting up a pipeline,” he told reporters after meeting Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan […]
New Delhi: Oil companies’ gains on diesel sales jumped 87 per cent within a fortnight on a historic slide in global crude prices. Their profits from diesel, recorded for the first time ever, continue as the government delays a decision on deregulating its price. “The over-recovery on high-speed diesel (HSD), applicable for the second fortnight effective October 16, is now Rs 3.56 per litre. The over-recovery […]
An advertisement by the highway outside Dubai’s massive Jebel Ali Port tells firms they don’t need to ship goods through the Strait of Hormuz, the traditional gateway to the Gulf. Instead they can have goods delivered to a port in Oman, outside the Gulf, and bring them into the region by road. “Why go through the Strait when you can go straight to the Gulf,” the billboard […]
The price of oil suffered its biggest drop in nearly two years earlier this week after the International Energy Agency reduced its forecast for demand for this year and next. Associated Press A slump in oil prices has eroded investor confidence in Persian Gulf stock markets, some of which are among the leading performers globally this year. The major oil-exporting states in the region such as Saudi […]
Still haunted by its failed attempt to prevent a steep drop in oil prices by slashing production by almost three quarters in the 1980s, the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined not to make the same mistake again. The oil glut of the 1980s, the early days of the modern crude market and a distant memory for most traders, has resurfaced recently in conversations with […]
Stock markets across the Middle East tumbled on Sunday, led by Dubai and Saudi Arabia where the main indexes sank 6.5 percent, as declines on global bourses and falling oil prices sparked a broad sell-off in the region. Global markets took a big hit on Friday as investors fled to the safety of government bonds after a raft of weak indicators from Europe and China collided with […]
Iran will sell its oil to Asia in November at the biggest discount in almost six years, matching cuts by Saudi Arabia as global crude benchmarks slide deeper into a bear market. State-run National Iranian Oil Co. cut official selling prices of its crude to buyers in Asia for November, two people with knowledge of the pricing decision said yesterday. The decrease came a week after Saudi […]
An employee counts money at an exchange office in downtown Cairo. Reuters First the good news: Egypt’s foreign reserves ticked up to $16.87 billion at the end of September – enough to comfortably cover imports for more than three months as the country’s economy strengthens and foreign investors continue to buy Cairo-listed stocks. But the Arab country–slowly recovering from a tumultuous past few years that left its […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) hired senior bankers from Rothschild and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) for its investment banking business in the Middle East. The New York-based bank named Majed Al Mesmari, previously at Rothschild, as head of investment banking coverage in the United Arab Emirates, it said in a statement today. Fahad Al-Deweesh has joined from British lender Standard Chartered to lead investment banking coverage in […]
Emerging market-focused private equity firm Abraaj Group has bought a majority stake in Liberty Star Consumer Holdings (Libstar), a South African food and personal care product manufacturer, it said on Wednesday. Dubai-headquartered Abraaj bought shares in unlisted Libstar from its existing shareholders including Metier, Old Mutual Private Equity, Development Partners International and Lereko, it said in a statement. Abraaj said it would continue to support Libstar’s pan-African […]
Hedge funds cut bullish bets on Brent crude to the lowest level in three years amid speculation that Saudi Arabia may refrain from paring output to tackle global oversupply. Speculative bets that prices will rise, in futures and options combined, outnumbered short positions by 36,704 lots in the week to Sept. 30, the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange said today in its weekly Commitments of Traders report. […]
