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 […]
Bahrain offers direct subscription to govt sukuks MANAMA, 1 days ago Bahrain Bourse (BHB) has announced that from today (January 11) investors can directly subscribe to the Government Islamic Lease Securities (sukuk) in the primary market through registered brokers at the bourse. The subscription period through the registered brokers is until Wednesday, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication. The listing of the issue is expected […]
Liana Technologies ….. shortlisted in the European Business Awards competition. Liana Technologies nominated for European Business Award DUBAI, 1 days ago Liana Technologies, a leading online marketing software provider in the Middle East, has been shortlisted in the European Business Awards competition, for the Customer Focus category. The company is one of the national finalists, in which succeeding requires customer-focused products and services and high quality. The […]
Op-Ed Contributor By MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER January 11, 2015 TEL AVIV — “WHAT are you,” he asked, “a leftist?” We were both wearing the surplus United States Marines uniforms given to prisoners at Israeli Military Jail No. 6. “It depends how you define ‘left,’ ” I said. “Don’t get clever with me. Why are you here?” “I didn’t want to be part of a system whose main task is the violent […]
Dubai’s DAMAC will list on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) on Monday, a bourse spokesman said, after the developer offered holders of its London-listed global depository receipts (GDRs) shares in its holding company instead. DAMAC in December received approval from the United Arab Emirates’ Securities and Commodities Authority to list on the DFM, according to a filing to the London Stock Exchange. The developer offered 23.08 shares […]
|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 […]
Dubai Investments is close to finalising two acquisitions worth a combined 400 million dirhams ($109 million), it said in a statement on Sunday. One of the purchases will be of a financial entity with expertise in asset management, corporate advisory services, debt raising and brokerage capabilities, with the second acquisition coming in the real estate sector, the statement said. It did not name the acquisition targets nor […]
By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:31pm IST U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the French hostage situation during his visit to Pellissippi State College in Knoxville, Tennessee, January 9, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Related Topics Dozens of world leaders lead hundreds of thousands of French citizens in an unprecedented march. Pics WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will highlight plans next week to […]
|By James G. Neuger |The bodies haven’t been buried and the killers are on the loose, but that didn’t prevent anti-Islam politicians across Europe from seizing on the Jan. 7 massacre in Paris. The rhetoric varied in intensity across the European Union’s 28 countries, each with its own religious and social phobias, many gripped by an economic recession that makes convenient scapegoats out of immigrants — especially […]
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 […]
UAE. Dubai announced Saturday adoption of a balanced budget for 2015, the first time there has been no shortfall since the global financial crisis. Spending and revenues are both projected at 41 billion dirhams ($11.2 billion), according to an official statement cited by the official WAM news agency. Spending is set at 9.0 percent higher, while revenues are projected to be up 11 percent. Dubai is one […]
INTERNATIONA. Oil fell in 2014 by the most since the 2008 global financial crisis as U.S. producers and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ceded no ground in their battle for market share amid a supply glut. The U.S. benchmark ended at a five-year low yesterday, capping a 46 percent drop in 2014, as stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline reached seasonal record highs and as OPEC […]
MUMBAI Sat Jan 3, 2015 7:26pm IST A worker displays a Micromax mobile phone inside a store in Kolkata December 4, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files Related Topics Stocks Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone turns 29. Pics MUMBAI (Reuters) – Micromax Informatics, India’s second-largest smartphone maker, plans to raise as much as $500 million through a stock market listing in its financial year beginning in April, […]
FBI Probes Revenge Hacks by U.S. Banks U.S. banks that were attacked by Iran-based hackers in late 2012 reportedly considered hacking the Iranians in response, according to Bloomberg News. That would-be retaliation has apparently gotten the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which is now looking into the banks’ actions, Bloomberg reported. The FBI is “looking into whether hackers working on behalf of any […]
Marka, a retailing and restaurants start-up, has agreed to buy a sporting goods retail firm from state-owned conglomerate Dubai World for 220 million dirhams ($60 million), in a move that will make Marka operationally profitable in 2015, it said on Sunday. The acquisition of Retailcorp, a subsidiary of Dubai World’s investment unit Istithmar World, will be funded by the Marka’s own funds and bank facilities, said the […]
Gulf stock markets rose on Thursday as Saudi Arabia released a 2015 state budget that will keep spending high, reassuring the region that economic growth is unlikely to be hurt much by the plunge of oil prices. The Saudi budget envisions state spending at a record 860 billion riyals ($230 billion) next year, up 0.6 percent from the 2014 budget plan. That would be the smallest rise […]
In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]
DUBAI, 2 days ago Developing countries in Asia—particularly China and India—are rapidly becoming the biggest trading partners with Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries ahead of other regions, according to a new report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in conjunction with Falcon and Associates. The study, entitled ‘GCC Trade and Investment Flows,’ explored the GCC’s economic ties with each world region and identifies major growth drivers. […]
Watan inks strategic tie-up with Natixis RIYADH, 2 days ago Natixis, the corporate arm of France’s banking group Groupe BPCE, and Saudi Arabia’s Watan Investment & Securities Company have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The signing, which took place at the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marks the start of expectantly a long-term cooperation between the two institutions on a wide range of Natixis […]
Women in the Mena region mostly seek employmentin order to be more financially independent. Majority of Mena women see gender equality in jobs DUBAI, 2 days ago While 51 per cent of women in the Mena region consider recruitment and selection opportunities are regardless of gender, 31 per cent believe that women are treated less favourably in terms of salary, a report said. Women in the Mena […]
Wireless giant T-Mobile has agreed to pay more than $90 million as punishment for placing unwanted third-party charges on phones, also known as “mobile cramming,” the Federal Trade Commission said Friday. If the announced agreement is approved by a U.S. District Court, it would resolve an FTC lawsuit filed in July that accused T-Mobile of billing customers for unwanted charges, including horoscope, love tip and celebrity gossip […]
