A landmark ruling by the court system in Dubai’s financial free zone suggests the emirate is starting to influence the way international business disputes are resolved in the Middle East, partly taking over that role from London and New York. Last month a court in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) found Switzerland’s Bank Sarasin had mis-sold $200 million of investment products to Kuwait’s prominent Khorafi family, […]
| By TAP Staff| A report titled Future of Travel by flight comparison website Skyscanner predicts that Lebanon will be the ‘new Dubai’ in a decade’s time. The report looks at how hotel rooms and holiday destinations could change over the next decade. It lists 50 destinations that could emerge as holiday hotspots over the next 10 years, ranking them according to the projected growth per annum […]
Dubai construction company Arabtec is close to completing the planning and design stage of its $40 billion deal to build one million homes in Egypt, the company said on Sunday. Arabtec originally announced in March that it had agreed with the Egyptian army to build the homes at 13 locations around the country on land provided free by the armed forces. Construction was to start in the […]
|By TAP Staff| Shareholders of Dubai’s Amlak Finance have approved the issuance of a sharia-compliant instrument convertible into its stock worth up to 2.1 billion dirhams ($571.8 million), a statement from the mortgage provider said on Sunday. The instrument is a key part of the company’s $2.7 billion debt restructuring plan, agreed with creditors in August. Amlak, whose shares have not traded on the Dubai Financial Market […]
Supporters of the Shiite Houthi movement in Sana, Yemen, standing around the coffins of their comrades killed in recent fighting. The rebels seized control of much of the capital last week. By REUTERS September 27, 2014 SANA, Yemen — A splinter group of Al Qaeda fired a rocket toward the United States Embassy in Sana on Saturday, wounding local guards. In a post on Twitter, the group said […]
Deloitte Middle East hires 700 new staff BEIRUT, 2 days ago Deloitte Middle East, a leading provider of audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services, hired 700 new people this year while continuing to deliver double digit growth, said the company’s chairman and chief executive. “The firm is also investing heavily in its internal systems and in developing world-class expertise in such areas as cyber security, Private […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai buyout firm Abraaj is teaming up with TPG Capital, based in Fort Worth, Texas, for a deal to buy a majority stake in Saudi Arabian fast-food chain Kudu, it has been reported. Kudu operates about 200 outlets in Saudi Arabia selling grilled chicken sandwiches, burgers and breakfasts. According to Bloomberg, the pickup in Middle East investment comes as dealmaking by private-equity firms in […]
Demonstrators outside the Barbican make their views clear during a protest against ‘Exhibit B’ Photo: Demotix On Wednesday night, I was planning to visit the Barbican with a couple of artist friends, two African Americans from New York. We wanted to see Exhibit B – an installation which involves actors in various tableaux depicting the degradation and the horror suffered by the victims of the Atlantic slave trade. […]
|By TAP Staff| The United Arab Emirates’ stock exchange plans to offer a trading platform for shares in private joint-stock companies so that they can raise capital with less disclosure of corporate information than publicly listed firms. Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said that trading would begin over the next few months on a special platform set up inside the country’s existing stock exchanges, state […]
|By TAP Staff| The success of Emaar’s malls IPO has prompted Nakheel to consider a flotation on the local stock market. Such a possibility was indicated by top Nakheel official Sanjay Manchanda, who spoke to reporters at the sidelines of Cityscape. “The market is definitely very receptive to Dubai IPOs now. The success of Emaar will be an encouraging sign for us. Should we decide to list […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai Duty Free (DDF) has completed re-pricing a $1.75 billion loan for the second time in about a year with more favourable terms, the leading retailer announced in a statement. It said a second facility worth $750 million has also been renegotiated. The $1.75 billion six-year loan, originally signed in July 2012 but repriced a year later, now carries an interest rate of 1.5 […]
|By TAP Staff| Confirmation of Dubai residential market rents cooling off came on Sunday when real estate consultancy CBRE reported that Dubai’s residential rents recorded the first drop after ten consecutive quarters of consistent increase. The drop has been attributed to an increase in new stock combined with the traditionally slow festive and holiday period. However, the agency pointed out that the transaction market retained some momentum […]
David Cameron has said he will keep the Barnett Formula but Scotland must expect extra responsibility and any deal must be fair to all parts of the UK Photo: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA The Scottish inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, coined the phrase “When one door closes, another opens”. His fellow Scots’ nail-biting rejection of independence shelves the debate on secession. But it prises open the possibility of […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai’s Emaar Properties said on Wednesday that its existing shareholders will be allocated one share in its malls unit IPO for every 36 held in the parent firm. Shareholders can buy the shares in Emaar Malls Group (EMG) on a preferential basis at the price that is set by the institutional book building process, the company said in a statement to Dubai’s bourse. Emaar […]
| By TAP Staff |With deadline fast approaching for Standard Chartered to exit part of its retail business, there is intense speculation over the likely suitor. Mashreqbank, one of the first names normally thrown up as a probable for such acquisitions, has ruled out any interest. The British bank is aiming to sell part of its business in the UAE after it agreed to close some accounts […]
|By TAP Staff| The UAE Securities and Commodities Authority plans to introduce new rules that will make it easier for local companies to raise resources from the market through dirham-denominated bonds. The new rules will also seek to reduce the cost of issuing bonds while making it faster for companies to issue and list their bonds. “We would like to see more active bond and sukuk markets […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties said the IPO of its shopping malls business unit has been sold out to institutional investors on the first day itself. The leading developer aiming to raise as much as AED 5.8 billion ($1.58 billion) from the offer of shares in Emaar Malls Group (EMG), which is expected to be the Gulf’s biggest stock sale since 2008. On offer are 2 billion […]
|By TAP Staff| Qatar National Bank announced the acquisition of an additional holding of 11 percent shares in pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank). The cost of the additional holding is equivalent to $283 million. QNB Group’s total stake in Ecobank is now 23.5 percent. This enables QNB Group to become the largest shareholder whilst strengthening the partnership with Ecobank, a leading pan-African bank and is a […]
|By TAP Staff| The growing political instability in the Gulf has not affected spending on infrastructure development, which is expected to swell by 77 percent in 2014 over last year. According to latest compilations by Global Investment House, the value of new infrastructure projects in GCC is expected to surge to $86 billion this year. The value of new projects in Qatar and the UAE would rise […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai added to its financial market profile when Bank of America-Merrill Lynch announced on Monday it was moving its head of frontier markets research to the city. The move reflects the bank’s plan to take advantage of growing investor interest in the Gulf and surrounding region. Global firms have been strengthening their presence in the wake of surging stock markets, index upgrades and most […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties said it’s seeking to raise as much as $1.58 billion from the initial public offering of its malls unit in the UAE’s biggest IPO since 2007. Emaar Malls Group PJSC plans to sell 2 billion of its founders’ shares, or about 15 percent of its equity, in a price range of 2.5 dirhams to 2.9 dirhams apiece, according to a company statement […]
|By TAP Staff| Ramesh S. Ramakrishnan, Chairman of Transworld Group, a Dubai headquartered shipping, logistics and marine services provider, was honoured as “The Visionary and Businessman of the Decade” at the prestigious Maritime And Logistics Awards 2014 held in Mumbai, India on Friday. Ramakrishnan was recognised for his many pioneering and innovative initiatives, outstanding vontributions, visionary leadership and commitment to the development of maritime industry, both in […]
|By TAP Staff| Just over a year ago, China’s Xiaomi was little more than a mid-sized smartphone-maker with an odd name (Xiaomi means “millet”), trailing household brands such as Samsung, Lenovo, Coolpad and others. During the first six months of 2014, however, this four-year old company sold 26m smartphones, propelling it to pole position in the Chinese market. Next year, Lei Jun, its founder and CEO, expects […]
|By TAP Staff|The rising popularity of Islamic finance in the West is prompting analysts to conclude that the world is finally recognizing the fact Islamic finance is not just for Muslims and it ready to go mainstream. Islamic finance received a shot in the arm recently with the move by US investment bank Goldman Sachs to revive plans to issue its first sukuk. In June when the […]
