Dubai’s Amlak Finance will hold a shareholder meeting on April 16 to seek their approval for lifting a six-and-a-half year trading suspension on the mortgage lender’s shares, according to a bourse filing on Wednesday. If shareholders agree, the board will then seek permission from the “concerned authorities” to resume trade and determine a date to do so. Trading in Amlak, 48 percent owned by Dubai’s biggest developer […]
|By Shakir Noori| The images captured by mobile cameras flicker across the television screen, much in the manner of old Hollywood wild-west movies. The blue waves of the Mediterranean turn crimson with the blood of Egyptian workers in Libya, transforming the small screen into an inferno of bloody rivulets. And yet again, as I sit a spectator to Daesh’s (self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) […]
The next big threat to oil prices isn’t from OPEC or Bakken shale. It’s Russian samovars, or teapots. Simple refineries that process crude into fuel oil are scaling back, because when oil prices slump, the government reduces the discount that these refiners — known as teapots to those in the industry — get for exporting fuel. They use less crude, freeing it up for sale abroad, which […]
DOHA, 23 hours, 10 minutes ago Kuwait’s real gross domestic product (GDP) has been projected to slow this year as the government cuts subsidies before recovering in the next two year as major development projects get underway, according to a report. QNB Group’s ‘Kuwait Economic Insight 2015,’ examined recent developments and the outlook for Kuwait’s economy. Kuwait is well placed to withstand lower international oil prices with […]
Lloyds Banking Group and Natixis have sold their holdings in debt of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate nearing a $14.6 billion debt restructuring, according to sources familiar with the matter. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) also sold at least part of its exposure in the conglomerate, said two sources, which could mean more than $1 billion of Dubai World’s debt has changed hands. The moves help pave […]
Salim Al Aufi, Oman’s undersecretary for oil and gas, likens attempts to cut the reliance on oil during a price slump to acting “with a gun pointed at your head.” If you have to make decisions under pressure, “you will probably make the wrong ones,” he said March 3 in Muscat during a panel discussion on the impact of the oil shock. Oman relied too much on […]
| By Michael Sasso| If you have to fly from New York to New Delhi on April 1, you can book through one of the three big U.S. airlines for at least $1,100 round trip. Or you can take one of Emirates’ luxurious Airbus A380s for less than $900. That choice is at the heart of the complaint raised by Delta, American, and United Continental with U.S. […]
As OPEC ‘s refusal to curb oil production contributes to a nine-month plunge in prices, a new paper suggests the group’s days may be numbered. OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has vowed to defend its market share against higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale drillers and companies developing Canada’s oil sands. Its strategy hinges on the odds that an extended period of low prices will lead other producers to […]
Traders who have been storing oil since the start of the year are selling some supplies back into the market, completing a trade-play that made oil storage profitable, and re-injecting fuel into an already oversupplied market. The selling signals a winding down of a strategy that has seen at least 50 million barrels of oil stored in tankers, equivalent to about one month’s consumption in Britain, although […]
Dubai’s Drydocks World, owner of the Middle East’s largest shipyard, will ask creditors to amend the terms of its $2.3 billion restructuring deal originally signed in 2012, two sources aware of the matter said on Sunday. The move comes as Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate which is also Drydocks’ parent company, is close to finalizing a revision of its own $14.6 billion debt pile which stems from […]
Declining oil prices are adversely affectingthe fiscal profiles of the countries in the region.Image: Reuters Mena sovereign ratings on the decline DUBAI, 4 days ago The sharp drop in oil prices since mid-2014 is likely to lead to weakening economic, external and fiscal profiles for the region, particularly for the GCC, said a new analysis released by Standard & Poor’s. However, of the 12 Mena sovereigns rated, […]
Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium.Image: Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee November/December ‘the best World Cup option’ LONDON, 4 days ago By Mike Collett The Fifa Task Force set up to recommend the best time of year to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were always in an impossible position, from the moment they sat down to consider the options. But Tuesday’s recommendation to stage it over November and […]
By Se Young Lee and Harro Ten Wolde SEOUL/BARCELONA Mon Mar 2, 2015 9:39am IST 1 of 5. A hostess displays the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 1, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea SEOUL/BARCELONA (Reuters) – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones, featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade […]
Gen Odierno said that British defence cuts are already jeopardising US-UK joint operations Photo: AP Ever since the Cold War ended more than two decades ago, America has never entertained any serious doubts about Britain’s ability to fulfil its commitment as a vital military ally when tackling threats to the Western alliance. Until now. For the dramatic cuts to Britain’s defence budget implemented since the Coalition took power […]
Gold imports by India, the world’s biggest consumer, are poised to surge after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley belied industry expectations for a reduction in tax. Overseas purchases may jump to 100 metric tons in March from about 25 tons in February as jewelers and traders, who delayed purchases in anticipation of the tax cut, replenish stockpiles, Rajesh Mehta, chairman of Rajesh Exports Ltd., said by phone from […]
The tide may be turning in the retreat of the U.S. oil explorers. Rigs targeting oil fell by 33 to 986, the smallest decline since Jan. 2, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Energy rigs in the Permian Basin shale region dropped by seven to 355 after dropping by as much as 49 earlier in the month. The Eagle Ford in Texas lost three rigs. […]
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK February 24, 2015 A Cairo court on Tuesday acquitted former President Hosni Mubarak’s longtime interior minister of the last of several criminal charges that have kept him behind bars, opening the potential for his release. The acquittal of the former minister, Habib el-Adly, is the latest in a long string of rulings since the 2013 military takeover that have exonerated former officials jailed after the Arab […]
|By A. Gary Shilling| At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why. U.S. economic growth has averaged 2.3 percent a year since the recovery started in mid-2009. That’s about half the rate you might expect in a rebound from the […]
Politicians have exchanged blows over the A&E crisis Photo: Alamy The A&E crisis is rapidly becoming the dominant story of the election. Last week, Ed Miliband and David Cameron laid into each other in blood-curdling terms. The Tory denounced as “disgusting” his rival’s plan to “weaponise” the NHS as a political issue; his Labour rival proclaimed that this was “a crisis on his watch, as a result of […]
|By Andrew Torchia| It’s a weekend morning at the Dubai Mall, a glitzy complex with 1,200 stores, and the shoppers are pouring in. A traffic jam has formed in the basement parking area. With passenger arrivals at Dubai’s airport at record highs, retailers expect a good month. The 55 percent plunge of oil prices since last June might be expected to usher in an age of austerity […]
Limitless, a Dubai government-related real estate developer, has asked for a three-month extension to talks with creditors after failing to secure a new restructuring on its $1.2 billion debt pile, four banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. The company, which has already restructured the debt once before after falling victim to the emirate’s property crash at the end of the past decade, is aiming to secure another […]
Dubai Islamic Bank will reopen the Gulf bond market next week with a capital-boosting sukuk, the region’s first debt offering in two months as financial markets there wobbled under the impact of falling oil prices. A successful offering would not just bolster reserves at DIB, the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates, but also pave the way for others who may have been waiting to […]
Oil extended losses below $48 a barrel amid speculation that U.S. inventories will expand, deepening a global supply glut that’s driven prices to a five-year low. Futures declined for a fourth day. Stockpiles in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country probably rose by 700,000 barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed before a government report tomorrow. Oil slumped almost 50 percent in 2014, the most since the […]
Gulf stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday as Brent crude extended losses after plunging 5 percent a day earlier and the threat of a fresh euro zone crisis in Greece also prompted investors to sell risk assets globally. Brent crude touched a fresh 5-1/2-year low at $52.28 a barrel on Tuesday on oversupply concerns. MSCI’s emerging market index was down 0.9 percent. Saudi Arabia’s main index dropped […]
