It is now clear that the chances of a fire sale of Dubai’s ‘jewels in the crown’ — a reference to blue-chip assets such as Emirates airline and Jebel Ali Free Zone — stand completely mitigated as the emirate takes firm control of its financial situation. Analysts are in near agreement that Dubai’s sovereign debt is stabilising and deleveraging is progressing. A definite improvement has happened in […]
Dubai Financial Market, the Gulf Arab region’s only listed bourse, said on Wednesday that first-quarter net profit surged eightfold, outstripping analysts’ expectations as trading volumes ballooned. The exchange made 215.1 million dirhams ($58.6 million) in the opening three months of 2014, compared with 27 million dirhams in the corresponding period of last year, it said in a statement. Analysts at HSBC and Global Research had expected a […]
Arabtec Holding Co, the United Arab Emirates’s biggest listed construction company, is in talks to buy a large European company and may tap the bond market to pay for the deal, Chief Executive Officer Hasan Ismaik said. Arabtec may announce a transaction in the second half, the CEO said in an interview at the Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference today. The contractor is trying to purchase companies with […]
Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic. The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first such deal between Iran and a Gulf Cooperation Council state in more […]
A majority of private-equity firms inflate fees and expenses charged to companies in which they hold stakes, according to an internal review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, raising the prospect of a wave of sanctions by the agency. More than half of about 400 private-equity firms that SEC staff have examined have charged unjustified fees and expenses without notifying investors, according to a person with […]
A top Dubai economic policymaker said on Monday that an agreement to merge the two main stock markets in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, had been reached in principle but nothing had been finalised. “It is going to be very positive. The agreement has been reached between the two – there is a dialogue but it is not […]
Iran said on Saturday it had useful expert-level nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna, addressing all major technical issues in the way of a final settlement. “The meetings were useful, raised mutual insight into our differing positions,” Iranian negotiator Hamid Baeedinejad told the official IRNA news agency at the end of the three-day talks in Vienna. “Everyone came well-prepared … addressing issues in minute technical details […]
Saudi Arabian conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers (AHAB) estimates its assets are worth less than a quarter of about $5.9 billion in claims made against it, a spokesman said as the group prepares a proposal to end one of the Middle East’s biggest corporate debt disputes. AHAB this week invited more than 70 financial institutions, including Saudi, regional and international banks, to a meeting in Dubai […]
|By TAP Staff|Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company (AHAB) announced that it has invited financial institutions with claims against the company to attend a meeting in Dubai, UAE on May 7, 2014, at which AHAB will outline the terms of a comprehensive settlement agreement. The move by AHAB breaks a stalemate that has existed since late 2009 when AHAB’s last comprehensive proposal was rejected by financial institutions, […]
Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. invited creditors including BNP Paribas SA (BNP) and Standard Chartered Plc to discuss claims on $5.9 billion of debt as it seeks to recover from the Middle East’s biggest default. The Saudi Arabian company, with interests ranging from construction to finance, will “outline proposals aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement” with more than 70 creditors at a May 7 meeting in […]
The shares of indebted mortgage lender Amlak will resume trading on the Dubai bourse in the second half of this year, the United Arab Emirates’ economy minister said on Monday. Trading in shares of Amlak, which is in the process of restructuring debt that sources put at nearly $2 billion, was suspended in November 2008 as credit markets dried up and Dubai real estate prices began a […]
Rifts over foreign policy will likely make it harder for Arab leaders meeting at a summit this week to forge a common stand on regional challenges, including what many of them see as a threat from Iranian-U.S. rapprochement. And while the Arab League meeting may agree more humanitarian action in response to Syria’s war, any communique calling for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad will not reflect […]
Google Inc has settled a landmark copyright lawsuit in which Viacom Inc accused the Internet search company of posting its programs on the YouTube video service without permission. The settlement ends seven years of litigation that drew wide attention from Hollywood, the music industry and Internet companies, and which tested the reach of a federal law designed to thwart piracy while letting people find entertainment online. “This […]
Toyota Motor Corp’s Indian unit has declared a lockout of its workers at two car plants after strained salary negotiations spurred workers to stop production lines. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) in a statement said it has locked out workers at the plants near Bangalore since Sunday. It did not state for how long the lockout will continue. Over the past 25 days, some workers have stopped production […]
|By K Raveendran| The agreement for the roll-over of $20 billion debt between Abu Dhabi and Dubai is expected to help Dubai refinance some of the other upcoming debt maturities with confidence, which depended a lot on the successful resolution of repayments owed to Abu Dhabi government and the UAE central bank, and continue to spend heavily on the ongoing infrastructure development. Dubai has already approached creditors […]
Dubai refinanced $20 billion at a quarter of the original cost, freeing cash to service liabilities and fund expansion plans. The emirate rolled over $10 billion of bonds owed to the central bank and a loan of the same amount due to Abu Dhabi’s government, and will pay a fixed interest of 1 percent on both, according to a statement on state-run WAM news agency yesterday. The […]
|By Eric Balchunas| Coffee is up 80 percent this year. Lean hogs are up 28 percent. Corn is up 13 percent. Gold is up 12 percent. Most of these same commodities were down last year, and any of them could fall at the drop of a hat. So how do rational investors participate in the upside for unpredictable commodities without losing their all-cotton shirts? One approach is […]
|By K Raveendran| Limitless, a major government related entity in the Dubai Inc, is understood to have approached lenders with a waiver request for the first amortization payment of $0.4 billion due in December 2014 under its 2012 debt restructuring agreement of a $1.2 billion loan. It was a similar waiver request in the past that had precipitated Dubai’s financial crisis beginning 2008. The $0.4 billion amortization […]
A diplomatic split between Qatar and its wealthy Gulf neighbors may disrupt billions of dollars of investment in the region and slow efforts to make economies more efficient through trade and transport reforms. Qatar’s vast natural gas wealth means the tiny country, with a population of about 2.1 million, could probably continue operating indefinitely despite the displeasure of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. But […]
United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm du has borrowed $1.17 billion in three separate deals to refinance existing debt and fund equipment purchases, the company said on Tuesday. The deals include a $720 million package reported by Reuters last month and agreements with Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Singapore to refinance and top up existing loans. “The move lowers the company’s funding costs, saving approximately $9 million over […]
BGC Partners, a global brokerage company servicing the wholesale financial and real estate markets, and the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre announced a partnership to promote a Sharia-compliant Commodity Murabaha mechanism. This marks the first agreement between DMCC and an interdealer broker to jointly market Commodity Murabaha on the DMCC Tradeflow Platform, DMCC said in a statement. Launching shortly, this partnership offers the trading community a faster, more […]
Dubai is considering listing some of its largest and most valuable state-controlled companies such as the Emirates airline in a move that could raise billions of pounds in revenue. Mohammed al-Shaibani, Dubai’s finance chief, revealed that some of the state-owned companies could also be partially floated on the London Stock Exchange and signalled that the emirate views the UK as a strategic location for future investment. “We […]
China’s credit-market gauges are triggering alarm bells, as banks grow cautious in lending to each other while investors prefer the safest government bonds. The spread between the two-year sovereign yield and the similar-maturity interest-rate swap, a gauge of financial stress, reached 121 basis points on Feb. 19, the widest in Bloomberg data going back to 2007. Two days later, the cost to lock in the three-month Shanghai […]
Increase in number of seats in flights between India and Dubai will allow for multiple choice of travel and cheap connections for Indian passengers, sectoral experts said. “Enhancement of seat quotas with Dubai is a good thing for both countries. It will help enhance supply of seats, increase competition and help bring down fares,” said Amber Dubey, partner and India head of aerospace and defense at global […]
