Saudi

Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi

Saudi Arabia … expanding population base ofbrand-conscious consumers.Image: Bigstockphoto. For illustration only. Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi DUBAI, 2 days ago High rental rates in the top-tier malls are deterring the growth of Saudi Arabia’s retail market, a report said, noting that the kingdom is currently facing a great challenge due to scarcity of human resources owing to high attrition rates. Availability of substitute […]

July 05

Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi

Saudi Arabia … expanding population base ofbrand-conscious consumers.Image: Bigstockphoto. For illustration only. Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi DUBAI, 15 hours, 58 minutes ago High rental rates in the top-tier malls are deterring the growth of Saudi Arabia’s retail market, a report said, noting that the kingdom is currently facing a great challenge due to scarcity of human resources owing to high attrition rates. Availability […]

July 03

Saudi Prince Vows to Give Away $32 Billion

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Saudi prince pledged on Wednesday to give away his entire $32 billion fortune to charitable causes in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the world. The prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, said the funds would go to his charity, Alwaleed Philanthropies, for causes like disease eradication, intercultural understanding, women’s empowerment, disaster relief and the electrification of isolated areas. The new pledge by one of the […]

July 02

Talking Point

Jihadi threat in Saudi Arabia

Sophisticated attacks by an Islamic State branch in Saudi Arabia show the jihadist group is better established there than previously suspected, and that fueled by anger over Arab civil wars, Riyadh’s militancy problem is not going away. A sustained militant campaign could undermine stability in the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, one of the few major Arab states that has so far mostly avoided […]

June 28

Saudi Intervention Only Fans Yemen’s Flames

SANA, Yemen — For nearly three months, Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, has been bombing Yemen, its southern neighbor, hoping to force the retreat of Shiite rebels who have seized major cities and to return the country’s president from the Saudi guest mansion where he lives to the presidential palace. So far, it has not worked. The rebels, known as the Houthis, have gained ground, more […]

June 24

UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to grow despite lower oil prices, finds Credit;©dit Agricole Private Banking report

UAE. The latest Crédit Agricole Private Banking research report, ‘Macro Comment – MENA Update’, noted that the UAE and Saudi Arabia continues to witness growth despite lower oil prices. The UAE even recorded high levels of job creation during this period. “Interestingly in the UAE, once again new orders and new export orders components reflected strong growth, while job creation hit a three-month high. This is reflected […]

June 23

Advertisements
ADVERTISEMENT

Saudi market opening hype unjustified

|By K Raveendran| There is much hype about the opening up of the Saudi stock market, but any detached view is least supportive of optimism. The more realistic assessment is based on the fact that the market has already factored in the positivity and moved too far ahead in the expectation of large foreign inflows, making the market expensive for any new entrants. According to the assessment […]

June 21

Cables Released by WikiLeaks Reveal Saudis’ Checkbook Diplomacy

Saudi leaders, whose portraits are displayed at the stock exchange in Riyadh, have not confirmed the leak’s authenticity. By BEN HUBBARD June 20, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — It seems that everyone wants something from Saudi Arabia. Before becoming the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi wanted visas to take his family on a religious pilgrimage. A Lebanese politician begged for cash to pay his bodyguards. Even the state news agency […]

June 21

Bombs for attack on Saudi, Bahrain seized

|By TAP Staff| Bahrain’s Chief of Police confirmed that security authorities have seized significant quantities of internationally sourced explosives and bomb-making materials planned for use in terrorist attacks against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The raid on a house in Dar Kulaib on 6(th) June, in the south west of the island, came as a result of forensic intelligence gathered by Bahrain’s security forces following the seizure in […]

June 19

Saudi opening may be non-event with no licences awarded

Saudi opening may be non-event with no licences awarded RIYADH, 11 hours, 30 minutes ago The opening of Saudi Arabia’s stock market to direct foreign investment on Monday may disappoint traders who have been hoping for large and immediate fund inflows, as the kingdom has yet to announce the award of any licences. Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority announced plans to open the market last July, and […]

June 16

Saudi may issue government bonds this year

Bond issue … big shift in Saudi economic policy. Saudi may issue government bonds this year DUBAI, 6 days ago The Saudi Arabian government may resume issuing bonds this year, easing downward pressure on the country’s foreign reserves caused by low oil prices, a senior International Monetary Fund official said after talks with Saudi officials. “The sense we had is this year,” Tim Callen, chief of the […]

June 10

Talking Point

Are Saudi, Iran heading for war?

|TAP Special| Are Saudi Arabia and Iran heading towards a direct war? An opinion piece by influential Saudi commentator, carried by Al Arabia News, argues that the Saudi military operation against the Houthis is part of a Saudi policy combining diplomacy and war to stop Iranian influence and ultimately push it out of Syria and Yemen. The veteran commentator, Jamal Khashoggi, quotes Qassem Soleimani, commander of the […]

June 09

Airstrikes in Yemen Kill Allies of Saudi-Led Coalition, Witnesses Say

By SHUAIB ALMOSAWA June 2, 2015 SANA, Yemen — Warplanes from a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia carried out airstrikes Tuesday in Yemen that killed at least 16 fighters allied with the Saudi-led group, witnesses said. The victims were fighters supporting President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this year. Saudi Arabia launched a military offensive against the Houthis in late […]

June 03

Explosion Near Shiite Mosque Kills 4 in Eastern Saudi Arabia

The site of an explosion near a Shiite mosque in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. By BEN HUBBARD May 29, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — A suicide bomber dressed in women’s clothing detonated his explosive belt near the entrance to a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing three other people, according to Saudi state media. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility, as it did just a […]

May 29

Foreigners can buy into Saudi IPOs on case-by-case basis

Foreigners can buy into Saudi IPOs on case-by-case basis RIYADH, 23 days ago Foreigners will be allowed to buy directly into initial public offers (IPO) of shares in Saudi Arabian companies on a case-by-case basis, the chairman of the Saudi Capital Market Authority said on Tuesday. The CMA announced on Monday rules allowing foreign institutions to begin investing directly in the stock market, subject to restrictions such […]

May 29

Foreigners can buy into Saudi IPOs on case-by-case basis

Foreigners can buy into Saudi IPOs on case-by-case basis RIYADH, 22 days ago Foreigners will be allowed to buy directly into initial public offers (IPO) of shares in Saudi Arabian companies on a case-by-case basis, the chairman of the Saudi Capital Market Authority said on Tuesday. The CMA announced on Monday rules allowing foreign institutions to begin investing directly in the stock market, subject to restrictions such […]

May 28

Saudis fast burning up reserves

|By Nafeesa Syeed & Rinat Gaynullin|Saudi Arabia is burning through foreign reserves at a record pace as the largesse of the new king and regional turmoil ratchet up pressure on public finances already hurt by the oil price slump. The kingdom spent $36 billion of the central bank’s net foreign assets — about 5 percent of the total — in February and March, the biggest two-month drop […]

May 01

Deloitte appoints director forensic services in Saudi

Deloitte appoints director forensic services in Saudi RIYADH, 3 days ago Deloitte Corporate Finance in the Middle East has appointed Abdullah Farid Shaker as principal director of forensic and financial advisory services, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “I am delighted to welcome Abdullah to our team, whose joining reflects the growing need for financial advisory services in the Middle East and in KSA specifically,” said Humphry Hatton, CEO […]

April 12

Iran inspires Saudi nuclear plans?

The specter of an atomic arms race in the world’s most volatile region has heightened the stakes in Iran’s nuclear talks after Saudi Arabia’s repeated hints it would seek its own atomic weapons if Tehran ever did the same. Riyadh’s unprecedented action in assembling a coalition of other Sunni Muslim countries to bomb Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen this week has shown how seriously it takes the […]

April 05

Oil below $56; Saudi output near peak

Brent crude oil held below $56 a barrel on Tuesday on signs of slowing growth in China and as Saudi Arabia said its production was close to an all-time high. Factory activity in China, the world’s second-largest economy and top oil importer, slipped in March with the flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reading at 49.2, below the 50-point level that separates growth from contraction. Economists polled […]

March 24

Economy

Saudi firm gets $344m loan for Dubai solar project

Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is obtaining a loan of about $344 million from three banks to finance a solar energy project in Dubai, chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said on Sunday. The 27-year amortising loan with an interest rate of 4 percent is being provided by Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank and two Saudi banks, National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group, he told reporters on the sidelines […]

March 01

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

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

Economy

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

Economy

Saudi seen offering more Asia discounts to protect market share

Saudi Arabia will probably deepen discounts for crude supplies to Asia after leading OPEC to maintain the group’s output target amid a global battle for market share, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders. The world’s biggest oil exporter will announce January official selling prices to buyers in Asia this week, after lifting its Arab Light grade from the lowest level in almost six years a month […]

December 04