By Simeon Kerr The many daily flights between Dubai and Tehran are always busy. But these days the Iranians heading home after business and shopping trips are being joined by rising numbers of briefcase-toting western and Asian passengers. They are part of a new wave of foreign investors eager to investigate business opportunities in post-sanctions Iran, a potentially lucrative trade that Dubai, the commercial hub of the […]
Gulf Finance House EC (GFH) climbed to the highest in more than 22 months after the investment company said it signed an agreement with a group of British investors to sell 75 percent of its stake in Leeds United Plc. The shares gained 9.6 percent to 0.86 dirhams in Dubai, the highest close since March 2012. GFH will retain a 10 percent holding in the club after […]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will court global business in Davos next week after winning an easing of some economic sanctions, but any trade bonanza depends on the long-term success of nuclear diplomacy. A U.S. stranglehold on Iran’s access to the international financial system, the uncertain future of talks on its nuclear program beyond a six-month initial deal, and vested interests in the Islamic Republic suspicious of Western […]
|By Asa Fitch| Iranian traders in Dubai are guardedly hopeful that business will rebound as sanctions relief begins to go into effect next week. The European Union and U.S. are set to give Iran access to some of its oil revenues abroad and allow for freer trade in energy products providing the Islamic Republic meets the terms of a six-month agreement stipulating monitoring of nuclear facilities and […]
Abu Dhabi conglomerate Al Jaber Group has appointed a new chief financial officer (CFO) as it pushes to close a long-awaited $4.5 billion restructuring before the end of the first quarter, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. Al Jaber, a family-owned group with operations in aviation, construction and retail, has been in talks with bank creditors to renegotiate its obligations since 2011 and […]
A deal between Iran and six major powers intended to pave the way to a solution to a long standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions will come into force on January 20, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the European Union said on Sunday. Shortly after the interim accord takes effect, an Iranian official added, Tehran and world powers will start negotiating a final settlement of their differences about […]
The long-term future of fields that produce about half Abu Dhabi’s oil remains unclear with only one day of a 75-year partnership with western oil companies left to run. Some of the world’s largest energy companies – ExxonMobil , Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP – have been pumping crude from the Abu Dhabi desert for decades, taking payment in oil. From midnight on Friday, the 9.5 […]
Abu Dhabi will take full control of the UAE’ biggest oilfields when its decades-old venture with four western oil giants ends this weekend, while it weighs new partnerships that could include its long-term collaborators or Asian newcomers. The OPEC member country has held a 60-percent stake in Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) since acquiring an interest in fields that produce over half the United […]
Negotiations between Iran and six world powers on implementing a landmark November deal to freeze parts of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing some sanctions have run into problems over advanced centrifuge research, diplomats said. The dispute over centrifuges highlighted the huge challenges facing Iran and the six powers in negotiating the precise terms of the November 24 interim agreement. If they succeed, they plan to […]
Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB), a federal government company specialised in providing UAE-based credit reports and other financial information, has announced that it will be operational within the next three months. AECB, which is supported by the UAE federal government, has approached all UAE-based banks to sign agreements and provide credit information via a process which will be completed by the end of January 2014. Additionally, AECB […]
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, […]
The genetic testing for breast cancer made famous by Oscar winning Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie would now be locally available for UAE residents, thanks to the first genome testing lab set to open in Abu Dhabi. Angelina Jolie had rocked the Internet and the medical community earlier this year with a disclosure through New York Times that that she had tested positive for a faulty BRCA1 gene […]
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 […]
BP has signed 30-year deals to develop Oman’s Khazzan tight gas project at an estimated investment of $16 billion, that will help the Omani economy to keep growing and bolster flagging gas exports. The Khazzan gas project, which aims to extract around one billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of gas from deep under central Oman, is a showcase for BP’s tight gas extraction technology and output […]
Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways is examining Alitalia’s books and is expected to decide by Christmas whether to take a stake in the troubled Italian airline, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Alitalia offers access to Europe’s fourth-largest travel market and flies 25 million passengers a year. But the airline, which loses 700,000 euros a day and has net debt of more than 800 million […]
A bipartisan budget deal announced in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, though modest in its spending cuts, would end three years of impasse and fiscal instability in Washington that culminated in October with a partial government shutdown. While praised by the Republican leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the agreement faces a challenge from some House conservatives […]
General Motors Co said it would stop making cars in Australia by 2017 due to high costs and a cripplingly strong currency, fuelling fears rival Toyota Motor Corp will follow suit and put the entire local autos industry at risk. The decision by the world’s second-largest auto maker to close its Holden plants in South Australia and Victoria states is the latest blow to Australia’s manufacturing industry […]
India’s (SENSEX) benchmark stock index surged to a record and the rupee climbed to a four-month high after the nation’s main opposition party won the state polls. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.5 percent to 21,311.03 at 12:03 p.m. in Mumbai and the currency touched 60.8475 per dollar, the strongest level since Aug. 12. Ten-year bonds ended a seven-day losing run. ICICI Bank soared 4.6 percent, sending […]
Swiss authorities are urging banks to quash their doubts and enter a U.S. voluntary disclosure program aimed at uncovering American tax evaders. The Swiss financial watchdog Finma requested banks to decide by today whether they will join the first stage of the U.S. Department of Justice program by applying for non-prosecution agreements by the end of 2013. Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is scheduled today to respond […]
Saudi Arabia seems to have few viable options for pursuing a more independent and forthright foreign policy, despite its deep unease about the West’s tentative rapprochement with Iran. Upset with the United States, senior Saudis have hinted at a range of possibilities, from building strategic relations with other world powers to pushing a tougher line against Iranian allies in the Arab world and, if world powers fail […]
U.S. lawmakers said they aimed to tighten sanctions on Iran to prevent Washington giving away too much in a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program that diplomats said was still possible despite the failure of high-level weekend talks. Their comments reflected widespread Congressional skepticism about a rapprochement between Iran and world powers and coincided with renewed lobbying from Israel against a proposal it sees as leaving open a […]
A surge in passenger car sales across most Gulf Arab countries underlines the momentum behind the region’s consumer spending boom, and sales are likely to continue rising strongly for at least a few years, automobile sector executives said. Car sales are an important indicator of business activity in a region where official macroeconomic data, such as gross domestic product, is often unreliable and released with delays of […]
Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), a global insurance provider, has entered into a strategic partnership Insure Direct, a Dubai-based insurance brokerage, by acquiring a stake in the UAE firm. The strategic partnership adds considerable international and specialist expertise to Insure Direct’s capabilities and will enable Insure Direct to satisfy significant and growing demand from clients in several key sectors, a statement said. Insure Direct’s operations in Dubai, Bahrain […]
