By Saifur Rahman Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the UAE’s first and largest Islamic lender, said, is set to acquire Noor Bank, enhancing Dubai’s position as the capital of Islamic economy and creating the region’s most powerful Shari’a banking group. The combined asset value is set to reach Dh275 billion post acquisition, it said. “The Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank convened its meeting on 09/06/2019 and […]
By Arabian Post Staff ENOC Group has secured a five-year US$690 million term loan from a Chinese consortium of banks as China’s biggest financial institutions endorse the Group’s operational and financial health. The term loan will finance general corporate purposes as ENOC continues to fuel the local economy through its business divisions in exploration & production, supply & operations, terminals, fuel retail, aviation fuel and petroleum products […]
By Matein Khalid Citigroup, the third largest US money center bank, owns subsidiaries in Latin America whose pedigrees go back almost a century. For instance, Banamex, Citi’s subsidiary in Mexico, is the second largest corporate/retail bank south of the Rio Grande. So it was no coincidence that Citi shares got sandbagged to a recent 61 as President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico’s $350 billion exports […]
The foreign exchange market is gaining in popularity as more exposure of how it works spreads online. It is the world’s most traded market, turning over more than $5 trillion every day and it is openly accessible and relatively easy to start. One of the key attractions of forex is that the market operates 24 hours a day. There isn’t any one centralized place for forex – […]
By Saifur Rahman The oil-rich Gulf countries have started to introduce permanent residency to wealthy foreigners in order to retain the existing businesses and attract more foreign investors to support the economic growth. Within days after Saudi Arabia announcing a ‘Green Card’ scheme for wealthy foreigners, the UAE on Tuesday announced a similar package – Golden Card – to retain the super-rich expatriates and attract more. Vice […]
/By Matein Khalid/ Despite the global fame of its brand ambassadors Leonardo DiCaprio and Snoop Dog, Alternative faux meat specialist Beyond Meat (symbol BYND) electrified Wall Street with its white-hot IPO. The recent panic in financial markets and rising geopolitical risk in the Middle East did not prevent Beyond Meat’s $240 million IPO from being a fabulous winner, rising from 25 to 89 as I write. Of […]
By Matein Khalid I had published a column in the UK/MENA press arguing that the Uber IPO was “absurdly valued” last week. I was vindicated with a vengeance when Uber priced its IPO at 45, well below the level Saudi Arabia’s uber-sovereign wealth fund PIF invested $3.5 billion in the hose of Travis (now Dara) three years ago. Uber opened on the NYSE with a whimper, not […]
/By Matein Khalid/ Uber Technologies goes public in the most controversial and global tech IPO since Facebook seven years ago. Uber bulls claim that the ride sharing colossus is another embryonic Amazon, a firm that will dominate the digital constellation of the next two decades. I disagree. Uber loses $4 billion per annum and has already been forced to surrender Russia/CIS to Yandex, China to Didi and […]
/Arabian Post Staff/ Emirates Group, which operates Emirates Airline – the world’s largest international carrier – reported a 44 percent decline in profits to US$631 million (Dh2.3 billion) in 2018-19 financial year ending March 31, 2019, despite achieving a 7 percent growth in revenue to reach US$29.8 billion (Dh109.3 billion). In line with the overall profit, the Group declared a dividend of Dh500 million (US$136 million) to its shareholder, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| A new whitepaper published by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry on start-ups has called for closer cooperation between universities, government agencies and investment funds to expand the scope of investments that can support the growth of startups in the UAE. The whitepaper has been published in collaboration with Roland Berger. The findings were released during Dubai Startup Hub’s Entrepreneurship Advocacy event series. […]
|By Hassan Ali Mansoor| “Adversity reveals the genius, austerity conceals it”. This adage has emerged as the dominant theme used by a select few players in the GCC where during the last three years, massive cost cutting has emerged as the new dominant theme across the board. The last couple of years, we saw the entire commercial sector including businesses, commercial banks and financial institutions struggle to […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Emaar Group is marking an industry-first by leveraging the significant potential of blockchain technology with plans to offer the Emaar community token for customers and partners by the year end. This highlights Emaar’s intense focus on innovation and providing the most complete experience to drive customer service, loyalty and referral across its businesses, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Emaar grew revenues […]
The Middle East e-commerce market forever be changed with the region’s largest-ever acquisitions and new expansions. In particular, 2019 year has seen such big investments that will let the fastest growing eCommerce market of MEA to take a great turn. The business formation in MEA taking up diverse strategies by companies to establish business in unique places to compete strongly with the upcoming. MEA leave a great […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| OYO Hotels & Homes signed an MoU with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which reiterates OYO’s commitment to the Kingdom and the business potential it sees in the market. OYO Hotels & Homes also confirmed the launch of its operations in Saudi Arabia. It is also noteworthy that OYO is one of the first Public Investment Fund and SoftBank Vision Fund backed company […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| International Holdings Company, one of the UAE’s foremost holding companies with investments in diversified operating businesses, signed today an Implementation agreement to acquire PAL Cooling Holding LLC (PAL) – subject to final shareholders and regulatory approval – which allows International Holdings Company to enter into the utilities market. The acquisition will see the two companies conduct a share-swap arrangement, with IHC acquiring PAL’s […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Home Owners Direct (HOD) has launched a new e-marketplace platform -HOD.co – that directly connects property owners with buyers, tenants and developers. Placing total control of property deals in the hands of the consumers, the platform will help deliver significant savings for users with zero commission to be paid on any property deal as it is directly made between the two parties. Democratising the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| DP World announced the acquisition of the holding company of P&O Ferries and P&O Ferrymasters (together P&O Ferries) for a purchase consideration of about $420 million, implying a 2017 EBITDA valuation multiple of 6.1x. P&O Ferries is a pan-European integrated logistics business consisting of a market leading roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferries operation and a European transportation and logistics solutions provider, P&O Ferrymasters. P&O […]
|By James M. Dorsey| Continued, albeit slower-paced US and Turkish leaks potentially provide insight into far more than the circumstances of the October killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. They focus attention on crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s strategic thinking as well as his tightened control of the kingdom’s media. In the latest disclosure, The New York Times, quoting anonymous US intelligence sources, reported […]
|By Matein Khalid|The GCC currency pegs to the US dollar have been prominent in international finance in place since the early 1980’s, in times of war and revolution, in times of economic boom and bust, in times of crude oil price surges and crashes. Yet the oil crash of 2014-16 was an inflection point in the economic history of the Arabian Gulf. Crude oil prices were $115 […]
|By Matein Khalid| Dropbox, founded by MIT students, venture financed by Sequoia Capital, is one of the world’s most valuable software startups. Even the Irish legend Bono of UB40 is an early stage investor. Its March 2018 IPO was a blowout. Dropbox broke syndicate at 21 and closed at up 50% on its first day. The shares peaked at 43 in June, but as Sophocles observed two […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Gulf Capital, one of the largest tive alternative asset managers in the Middle East, announced that it has successfully exited its investment in Amana Healthcare, the UAE provider of specialised continuum-of-care services including long-term care, medical rehabilitation and specialised home healthcare. Gulf Credit Partners fully realised an early exit from its investment in Amana Healthcare when a controlling stake in the business was […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the IFC Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Fund, a fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company, LLC (AMC), are investing $19 million in equity in Yellow Door Energy. The investment will support the deployment of lease-to-own rooftop and ground-mounted solar-power and energy-efficiency solutions to commercial and industrial customers in Jordan, UAE, and beyond. The investment is part of […]
|By Matein Khalid| I had recommended buying the British pound at 1.2700 against the US dollar in successive columns in the past two weeks. Sterling is at 1.3200 as I write, the trade is already hugely profitable. Cable has now closed above its crucial 200 day moving average in a clear trend reversal. As markets dismiss the risk of a no deal Brexit, I believe the pound […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The Port Fund called on the general manager of the Kuwait Port Authority (KPA), Sheik Yousef Al-Abdullah, to correct misstatements he made in a CNBC Arabia interview aired on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 regarding The Port Fund and its efforts to distribute $496 million to its investors and stakeholders. The general manager made inaccurate statements that conflict with the official position of the […]
