Jebel Ali Free Zone FZE cut the price on a 4.4 billion dirham ($1.2 billion) Islamic loan by 1.25 percentage points, reducing rates after the emirate’s default risk fell. Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai Duty Free, the world’s biggest’ airport retailer, are among companies in the emirate that have lowered rates on their loans. Dubai’s five-year credit default swaps, contract insuring the sheikhdom’s debt against default, […]
Payment defaults by grounded Indian carrier Kingfisher (KAIR) Airlines Ltd. are prompting aircraft lessors to demand a premium to cover risks in the South Asian country. Companies leasing out planes are insisting on a one-year security deposit instead of the usual three-month cover in addition to a commitment to hire the aircraft for as long as nine years, said two officials of Air India Ltd. The state-owned […]
Asian shares ran out of steam on Friday as investors pondered what policy the U.S. Federal Reserve will pursue after it triggered a global market rally by leaving its stimulus level unchanged. The dollar drifted off a seven-month low against a basket of major currencies and U.S. Treasury yields rose after a string of upbeat U.S. data provided a reminder to markets that the day the Fed […]
Dubai’s Mashreq will allow foreigners to own up to 20 percent of the bank’s shares, it said in a bourse statement on Wednesday. Foreign investors currently own only 1.9 percent of the bank’s shares, data from the Dubai Financial Market shows. The change in foreign ownership is effective from Thursday, Mashreq said. About 20 percent of Mashreq’s shares are free float, while the Al-Ghurair family holds a […]
The U.S. Federal Reserve defied investor expectations on Wednesday by postponing the start of the wind down of its massive monetary stimulus, saying it wanted to wait for more evidence of solid economic growth. Investors responded by propelling U.S. stocks to record highs and driving down bond yields. Yields on U.S. Treasury debt had risen over the summer on expectations the Fed would cut back its $85 […]
GEMS Education, a Dubai-based schools operator, is seeking to raise about $500 million to fund growth by selling a stake of up to 20 percent in the privately owned company, Chairman Sunny Varkey said. GEMS, which employs about 11,000 staff, operates around 100 private schools across the Gulf region, home to many prosperous expatriates. Private schools in countries such as the United Arab Emirates are expanding rapidly […]
DAMAC Properties, a privately held Dubai property developer, has hired two international investment banks to help arrange an initial public offering of shares in London and join a growing list of Gulf companies seeking overseas listings. Deutsche Bank and Citigroup Inc will advise on the planned flotation, two banking sources aware of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public. The […]
Just Falafel, a United Arab Emirates-based franchise restaurant offering the traditional Arab food, has hired an advisor to help arrange an initial public offer of shares on the Nasdaq Dubai bourse as soon as October, sources said. The plan suggests IPO activity in Dubai is resuming after a gap of more than four years caused by the global financial crisis and the emirate’s 2009-2010 property market crash. […]
Shares in Oman Telecommunications Co OTL.OM (Omantel) plunged to a 10-week low on Tuesday after the government rekindled plans to reduce its stake in the former monopoly. Omantel was down 5.6 percent at 1.51 rials at 0624 GMT, its lowest level since July 11 and nearly wiping out its 2013 gains as investors gave the thumbs-down to a state move to offload a 19 percent stake in […]
The United Arab Emirates central bank is expected to announce within one or two months rules restricting the amount of exposure which banks can have to the debt of government-related entities (GREs), a top commercial banker said on Tuesday. Abdulaziz al-Ghurair, head of the national banking industry association and chief executive of Mashreq Bank, told reporters that each bank would then discuss the time frame for its […]
Singapore regulators have stepped up their scrutiny of some local branches of Indian banks on concerns about asset quality, three bank executives told Reuters. India’s slowest economic growth in a decade and a weakened rupee have weighed on the balance sheets of heavily leveraged Indian companies, including those that have raised money from Indian lenders in offshore centres such as Singapore. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) […]
Asian shares surrendered earlier gains while the dollar remained under pressure on Thursday, facing growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s impending stimulus reduction might be smaller than some had believed. The waning likelihood of an immediate U.S. military strike on Syria also continued to undermine the dollar as diplomatic efforts to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control intensified. European stocks are seen edging up, as […]
Fitch Ratings has upgraded UAE-based Tamweel PJSC’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘A’ from ‘BBB+’, Short-Term IDR to ‘F1’ from ‘F2’ and Support Rating to ‘1’ from ‘2’. Fitch has simultaneously withdrawn Tamweel’s ratings. At the same time, the senior unsecured programme rating of Tamweel Funding III Limited (TFIII) has been upgraded to ‘A’ from ‘BBB+’ and withdrawn, and the senior unsecured Long-Term rating of the […]
Saudi Arabian retailer Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair plans to open nearly 250 stores at home and abroad this financial year, a top executive said, as the kingdom’s booming retail sector provides a platform to expand into new markets. Alhokair has benefited in recent years from a buoyant consumer goods sector, boosted by rising incomes on the back of government efforts to improve the plight of Saudi nationals after […]
Asian stocks rose to three-week highs on Thursday as Indian shares and the rupee rallied a day after the country’s new central bank chief unveiled measures to support the currency and the banking sector. But worries the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon scale back stimulus kept markets in check. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS advanced 0.6 percent, having earlier hit a high last […]
India’s newly installed central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan burnished his international credentials at a 2005 U.S. conference warning about the danger of a potential crisis. Now he has one of his own to contend with. Rajan, 50, joined the front lines of a battle to forestall a record slump in the rupee yesterday with a package of measures that may lure $10 billion in foreign-exchange inflows over […]
Dubai International Airport is working to increase capacity to help accommodate more of the Airbus SAS A380 super-jumbo for Emirates, the largest operator of the double-decker jet, the airline’s chairman said. The expansion may help the Middle Eastern hub become the word’s busiest airport by next year, Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told reporters today at the airport. “We are going according to plan […]
By Peter Garnry, Equity Strategist at Saxo Bank Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division means three things. It is a good deal for Nokia. It has the potential to be a disaster for Microsoft. As for BlackBerry, the deal means that patent portfolio may be the only valuable asset. Nokia, the once largest mobile manufacturer in the world, has seen its mobile division deteriorate since 2007. Operating […]
Media outlets as reporting that the Soffers’ big-name partner in the Miami Beach resort Fontainebleau , the government of Dubai, is ready to sell its 50 percent stake back to the family’s Turnberry Associates. The deal would mark a satisfying bookend for Jeffrey Soffer, who spearheaded buying the resort in 2005 and then completing a $700 million renovation in 2008 on the eve of the financial crisis, […]
A surge in lending to investors by brokerages in the United Arab Emirates has helped make Dubai the world’s second-best performing market this year, but has left it prey to volatility. Some investors have been able to make profits in the range of 40 to 60 percent this year on local stock markets but the question is whether such margin lending – borrowing with cash or holdings […]
National Bank of Ras al-Khaimah (RAKBANK) has named Peter England, previously a senior banker at Malaysia’s CIMB Group, as its new chief executive, the bank confirmed in a statement on Sunday. Reuters reported last month that England, who was the head of retail financial services business at CIMB, would replace current CEO Graham Honeybill, citing sources familiar with the matter. Honeybill had initially been due to retire […]
CEOs of 73 percent of companies in the UAE say prepared to lose profit in the short term for the sake of protecting long-term reputation. Once the sole remit of the marketing and PR departments, reputational risk is now seen as a critical company-wide concern, according to a global survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). The survey […]
The patriotism of wealthy overseas Indians has helped the country avert economic crises in the past and it is little surprise that embattled policymakers are turning to them again to plug a record trade gap that is battering the rupee. This time, though, big investors among the more than 25-million overseas Indian community – the world’s second-largest diaspora – are staying away as the economic outlook darkens […]
DP World Ltd., the world’s third-largest ports operator, posted a 9.1 percent increase in first-half profit, beating analysts’ estimates, as it focused on fast-growing markets and monetized assets in Hong Kong. Net income rose to $264 million, or 31.8 cents a share, from $242 million, or 29.1 cents, the Dubai-based company said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai today. The mean estimate of three analysts was for net income […]
