The United Arab Emirates issued rules for the issuance and trading of covered bonds, potentially a major step towards developing its debt market and giving commercial banks a new source of funding. The Securities and Commodities Authority, the UAE’s financial market regulator, set conditions for banks and other companies to obtain licences allowing them to issue covered bonds, state news agency WAM reported on Sunday. The SCA […]
Dubai Group LLC, the investment company that has been seeking payment relief on loans for the past three years, repaid a $300 million syndicated facility led by Citigroup Inc., two people with knowledge of the matter said. Some of the lenders will exit talks on Dubai Group’s $6 billion debt pile, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The Islamic […]
India’s diversified equity mutual funds rose in 2013 but underperformed the broader markets for the first time in five years, as returns were dampened by the losses in the mid- and small-cap shares as well as financial companies. These funds gained 4.8 percent on average in 2013, according to data from fund tracker Lipper, delivering lesser annual returns than the benchmark BSE Sensex after 2008. The Sensex […]
Italian carmaker Fiat SpA struck a $4.35 billion deal to gain full control of Chrysler Group LLC, ending more than a year of tense talks that have obstructed Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne’s efforts to combine the two automakers’ resources. The agreement, announced on Wednesday, cements Marchionne’s reputation as the industry’s consummate dealmaker about a decade after he took the helm of Fiat as a car business newcomer, […]
Hedge funds got less bullish on gold for the seventh time in eight weeks as signs of accelerating U.S. economic and tame inflation growth drive prices to the worst annual drop in more than three decades. The net-long position in gold fell 12 percent to 28,702 futures and options in the week ended Dec. 24, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Short holdings gained 1.1 percent […]
Shuaa Capital, the Dubai-based investment bank, said its chief executive officer Colin Macdonald will be leaving the group upon expiry of his contract on Tuesday. The company did not name a replacement for Macdonald. Shuaa’s Chief Financial Officer Houssem Ben Haj Amor has been appointed as general manager, the firm said in a statement on Dubai’s bourse. The company also announced the appointment of Karim Schoeib as […]
Calls for China to accelerate financial reforms grew louder on Monday after figures showed its indebted local governments owe nearly $3 trillion in a debt build-up that some analysts called alarming. The National Audit Office, China’s state auditor, said in a report local governments had total outstanding debt of 17.9 trillion yuan at the end of June, a sum that includes contingent liabilities and debt guarantees. The […]
The decision by India’s top investigating agency to probe a third billionaire-led mining deal in six months puts at risk government efforts to revive $160 billion of stalled projects. The Central Bureau of Investigation said on Dec. 23 it started probing Anil Agarwal, who runs the country’s biggest aluminum and copper producer. It alleged irregularities in his 2002 purchase of the state’s 26 percent stake in Hindustan […]
As the city gets ready to welcome 2014 by setting new world records, hotel room rates in Dubai seem to be soaring at levels not seen in recent past. Booking websites reveal that room rates in the city seem to have doubled for spending the New Year ’s Eve in Dubai. Room rates at all Dubai hotels – luxury, mid-scale or budget – have been going up […]
Moscow: An explosion on a trolleybus in the city of Volgograd left 10 people dead Monday, a day after a suicide bombing that killed at least 17 at the city’s main railway. The explosions put the city on edge and highlighted the terrorist threat that Russia is facing as it prepares to host the Winter Games in February. Volgograd is about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, where […]
2013 has no doubt been a big year for the UAE property market. Dubai was recently named the world’s strongest housing market in 2013 given the city’s status as a safe haven with improved consumer and investor confidence. Home prices have been recorded at the highest levels since the downturn and the market has also gained a more favorable reputation for tighter regulation, given the spate of […]
Luxury brands are stepping up the battle for travelling shoppers with more outlets at airports and on cruise ships, tapping into one of the fastest growing sections of the market that looks set to keep booming thanks to soaring numbers of Asian tourists. Revenues from travel retail, which also includes sales on airplanes, rose 9.4 percent in 2012 to $55.8 billion, according to a market study by […]
Dubai has emerged as one of the best performing stock markets globally in 2013, according to Global Equity International, a global consultancy that advises business leaders. By the end of November, the Dubai benchmark stock index had increased by 82%. Abu Dhabi appreciated by 46% during the same period. The Dubai Financial Market started the year strongly by appreciating 16 per cent in the month of January […]
Dana Gas, the energy producer that restructured debt last year due to delayed payments, rose the most in eight years after it received $53 million from Egypt, stoking bets of better cashflow. The stock surged almost 15 percent, the most since December 2005, to 86 fils at the close in Abu Dhabi. More than 311 million shares were traded, almost nine times the three-month average daily volume. […]
A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent. Amazon.com responded with an email to affected customers offering shipping refunds and $20 gift cards to compensate. A convergence of factors, including higher volume than expected and recent patches of bad weather, […]
Foreign portfolio investors in India would be subject to the same tax treatment as foreign institutional investors, the Securities and Exchange Board of India clarified on Tuesday. India had approved new rules in October aimed at streamlining the registration process for foreign investors according to which overseas investors will be classified into a newly created foreign portfolio investors category as long as their equity stake in a […]
The Index tower on Dubai’s answer to Wall Street has 23 floors of empty offices out of the 25 it opened in 2011. A few hundred feet away, buildings controlled by the Dubai International Financial Centre are almost full. The difference is ownership. The office space in the Index on Sheikh Zayed Road was sold in pieces to nine different investors under a system known as strata […]
After suffering steep declines in trade starting in 2012, seaborne transfer of goods between Iran and Dubai is picking up again, highlighting the U.A.E.’s delicate balancing act in maintaining important commercial ties and satisfying its Western allies. A combination of economic factors in Iran — attributed to tough international sanctions over its contested nuclear activities — resulted in a decrease in trade with the U.A.E. from $24 […]
Bond issuance from the Gulf Arab region is set to surge next year on the back of heavy infrastructure spending and refinancing needs, while the Abu Dhabi sovereign may return to the market after an absence of nearly five years. The region’s issuance of conventional bonds and sukuk fell to $28.97 billion this year from $36.90 billion in 2012, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters unit. That […]
While it may be the most common given name in the world, the global banking system seemingly can’t cope with Mohammed and its various different spellings. When it comes to false positives – where a person or transaction is incorrectly flagged for contravening sanctions – the total at Middle Eastern banks is around twice that of many international lenders because of the high use of names like […]
Dubai’s success in bidding to host the 2020 World Expo will trigger billions of dollars of investment in the emirate, but it may risk a repeat of the boom-and-bust cycle which nearly caused financial collapse just a few years ago. After competing against three cities, Dubai was awarded the world’s fair by the Bureau International des Expositions on Wednesday, setting the seal on a dramatic economic recovery. […]
Istithmar World, a unit of Dubai World, has sold its 50 percent stake in Miami Beach’s landmark Fontainebleau hotel back to south Florida developer Turnberry, a source close to the seller said on Tuesday. Dubai World, one of the emirate’s big state-owned conglomerates, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Reuters had reported in September that the Fontainebleau deal was close to being completed; the price was […]
Commercial Bank of Qatar is open to tie-ups with local financial institutions and could sell bonds next year to fund infrastructure lending in the Gulf Arab state, its recently appointed chief executive was quoted as saying. The lender, which earlier this year completed the purchase of a 74.2 percent stake in Turkey’s Alternatifbank, is also open to further foreign acquisitions but will wait to see the performance […]
Dubai is considering tests of ‘robot’ or driverless cars on its busy highways, the local transport agency said, after a Google executive told Al Arabiya News he would “love” to bring the technology to the emirate. So-called driverless cars navigate traffic and road signals automatically, using special sensors like radar, GPS and computer vision. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) says it is considering whether to allow […]
