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 […]
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 […]
DIFC posts 18pc growth in companies DUBAI, 23 hours, 54 minutes ago Dubai International Financial Centre, a leading financial hub connecting the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (Measa) markets with the economies of Europe, Asia and the Americas, has posted an 18 per cent growth in the number of active registered companies. More than 240 new companies were licensed during the last year, compared with 199 […]
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 […]
Dubai Investments, a diversified Gulf-based investment group, plans to float shares in at least one subsidiary next year and could also divest other holdings, its chief executive said on Monday. The firm, which reported a 63 percent rise in annual profit to 1.34 billion dirhams ($364.8 million) last year, has primed three subsidiaries – in financial services and property, plus district cooling firm Emicool – to potentially […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hundreds of foreign construction workers staged a rare public protest outside the opulent Dubai Mall on Tuesday in a pay dispute with their company, witnesses said. Dubai authorities deployed riot police to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard in downtown Dubai, where the world’s tallest building is located, blocking some roads while negotiators tried to settle a dispute about overtime pay. The workers, from south Asia, said the […]
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 […]
The proposal by Dubai Municipality to introduce mandatory affordable housing quotas for all new residential developments in Dubai is long overdue and is expected to bring a wide range of benefits to the emirate, while driving further maturity in the market, according to leading international real estate consultants, Cluttons. With the residential market in Dubai now meandering through the second half of the current property cycle and […]
Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates contributes 6.8 billion euros ($7.6 billion) to the European Union economy, it said on Tuesday, in an apparent response to criticism from rivals that government subsidies give Gulf carriers an unfair advantage. Emirates’ operations, which include 220 unique connections to European destinations, supported 85,100 jobs across the EU in the 2013-2014 financial year, it said in a statement, revealing the results of a […]
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 […]
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is obtaining a loan of about $344 million from three banks to finance a solar energy project in Dubai, chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said on Sunday. The 27-year amortising loan with an interest rate of 4 percent is being provided by Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank and two Saudi banks, National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group, he told reporters on the sidelines […]
RIYADH, 2 days ago Saudi Arabia’s Mobily on Wednesday said it swung to a full-year loss in 2014 after the telecommunications operator announced its audited results, also revealing it had breached loan covenants with various lenders. Mobily — formally called Etihad Etisalat — made a loss of SR913 million ($243.4 million) in 2014 after it took an additional charge of SR1.13 billion, it said in a statement […]
Mubasher Financial ….. Nasdaq Dubai’s ‘Retail Broker of the Month’ January 2015. Mubasher wins special recognition by Nasdaq DUBAI, 2 days ago Mubasher Financial Services, one of the Middle East’s leading financial institutions, has announced that it has been recognised by Nasdaq Dubai as the ‘Retail Broker of the Month’ for January 2015. This recognition reinforces Mubasher’s market positioning as a widely respected financial services business, […]
Dubai is adjusting regulation of investment firms that handle the money of wealthy people in its financial free zone, a move that could help the zone win more wealth-management business from the Middle East and Asia. Like other financial hubs, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) distinguishes between less-sophisticated retail clients and richer, more experienced professional clients, which are assumed to need less regulatory protection. New rules […]
Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai’s largest publicly-traded real estate developer, plans to sell shares in its hotels unit in the second half and hired Rothschild as an adviser, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The offering is planned for later in the year because of conditions on the Dubai Financial Market, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. […]
HSBC Holdings, struggling to contain a scandal over tax evasion at its private bank, reported lower-than-predicted fourth-quarter profit as costs and conduct provisions rose. The shares slumped the most since 2011. Pretax profit dropped 56 percent to $1.7 billion from the year-earlier period, London-based HSBC said in a statement on Monday. That missed the $3.7 billion average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Full-year profit fell […]
|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 […]
Dubai-based financial services firm Arqaam Capital has invited banks to pitch for roles in arranging its flotation on the emirate’s bourse, three banking sources aware of the matter told Reuters. Arqaam has offices in five countries in the Middle East and Africa and offers services including brokerage, asset management and corporate finance advisory. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The invitation, known as a request […]
|By Sarosh Zaiwalla| Towards the end of last year, it was announced that the UAE’s long anticipated insolvency reform bill was reaching its final stages prior to implementation. The legal framework was drawn up following the establishment of the Dubai World Tribunal that resulted from the entity’s inability to pay its creditors in November 2009. The case cast a spotlight on the UAE, which until today does […]
Dubai Investments PJSC, the company with interests in real estate and manufacturing, will buy a 60 percent stake in investment bank Al Mal Capital PSC as part of a plan to boost financial services assets. The company will pay about 150 million dirhams ($41 million) for the stake and expects to complete the purchase by March 15, Chief Executive Officer Khalid Jassim Kalban said in a phone […]
State-owned conglomerate Dubai World edged closer to a second major restructuring in four years on Monday after announcing it had reached agreement with a “substantial majority” of creditors to back its $14.6 billion debt deal. However, despite having enough backing to effectively prevent challenges to its new deal, a relatively untested court process to impose it will mean formal completion is still months away. Dubai’s economy has […]
Kalban … expansion plans. Dubai Investments plans $108m acquisitions DUBAI, 1 days ago Dubai Investments (DI), a leading investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market, has announced expansion plans across its diversified portfolio, which include two new acquisitions worth Dh400 million ($108 million). The new acquisitions in the financial and real estate sectors, to be finalised soon, are expected to reinforce Dubai Investments’ robust growth across […]
