Grand Prairie-based Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is again attempting to broaden its international reach beyond North America into the Middle East. The theme park owner and operator said it’s partnering with Meraas Leisure and Entertainment, a Dubai-based real estate development company, to open a Six Flags-branded park in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The project will open in 2017 and be located in a multi-themed park […]
For decades the Cleveland Clinic has provided healthcare to the upper echelons of Middle Eastern society who fly halfway across the world for treatment at the Ohio-based private medical center. Soon, they can skip the trip. Early next year the Cleveland Clinic plans to open an ultra-modern, 364-bed specialty hospital on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, one of the most ambitious forays into the oil-rich country […]
Emirates NBD’s impaired loans ratio would drop by a quarter if the biggest bank in the United Arab Emirates reclassifies its loans to Dubai World as performing, according to Arqaam Capital Ltd. The bad loans ratio would improve by 3.6 percentage points to 10.3 percent if the change was made, Arqaam said in a research report dated yesterday. That would allow funds set aside by the bank […]
The Nasdaq suffered its biggest drop in two-and-a-half years on Thursday after another sharp selloff in biotech and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor, increasing investor anxiety about a broader pullback. The Nasdaq biotechnology index .NBI shed 5.6 percent, its biggest one-day drop since August 2011, adding to recent losses since a large drop in Gilead more than two weeks ago triggered a wider selloff for […]
The company planning the first initial share offering on Dubai’s main stock market for five years says it will spend the proceeds on opening more than 100 fashion stores, restaurants and cafes across the Gulf Arab region over the next five years. Marka, created by prominent businessmen in the United Arab Emirates, will offer for sale 55 percent of its capital or 275 million shares at 1 […]
New York’s highest state court has ruled that a lawsuit by the Algosaibi family conglomerate, claiming that a Saudi billionaire who married into the family committed a $150 million fraud, should be heard in Saudi Arabia. In the lawsuit, Ahmed Hamad al Gosaibi & Brothers Co claimed that Maan al-Sanea, the billionaire head of the Saad Group, used its accounts with Dubai-based Mashreqbank PSC to commit fraudulent […]
|By TAP Staff|Last year the Pay TV market in the MENA region grew 11.2 percent in terms of market share and 14.13 percent in terms of subscriber numbers, according to the findings of the latest Middle East Media Market report released by IHS, a leading global source of business information and insight. Over the last decade (2004 – 2013) the number of primary Pay TV subscribers almost […]
Gold ticked higher on Tuesday to within a whisker of the $1,300-an-ounce level, regaining ground from overnight losses as weaker equities increased its safe-haven appeal. * Spot gold rose 0.2 percent to $1,298.11 an ounce by 0026 GMT. It fell 0.5 percent in the previous session as a short-covering rally after U.S. jobs data fizzed out. * Holdings of the world’s largest platinum-backed exchange-traded fund, Johannesburg’s NewPlat […]
Fears that high-speed traders have been rigging the U.S. stock market went mainstream last week thanks to allegations in a book by financial author Michael Lewis, but there may be a more serious threat to investors: the increasing amount of trading that happens outside of exchanges. Some former regulators and academics say so much trading is now happening away from exchanges that publicly quoted prices for stocks […]
Dubai told international bankers on Monday that it was gearing up for another boom and did not regret the pro-growth policies which brought it to the brink of default five years ago. It appeared to win the endorsement of many of the bankers. Over a dozen top Dubai officials and executives met about 100 representatives of financial powerhouses including Deutsche Bank, Nomura Holdings and Fidelity Investments for […]
Abu Dhabi real estate developer Aldar Properties will consider floating its property management unit Khidmah through an initial public offer of shares in coming years, the company said in a statement on Sunday. Aldar, which is majority state-owned and is Abu Dhabi’s largest property firm, is the majority shareholder in Khidmah with a 60 percent stake. “We believe there is a strong case to consider listing the […]
Shareholders of Dubai property developer Deyaar have approved a plan to allocate 25 percent of its share capital to foreigners, the company said on Saturday. At present, investors in Gulf Cooperation Council countries can own up to 49 percent of Deyaar’s shares; they currently hold 3.7 percent, bourse data shows, while those from outside the GCC have not been allowed to own any stake. The company said […]
MasterCard , eServGlobal and BICS announced the successful closing of its joint venture HomeSend. HomeSend will provide an important link between developed and financially underserved emerging markets, particularly for foreign workers in need of an instantaneous and cost-effective solution for funds transfer. The World Bank estimates that the world’s 232 million international migrants are expect to remit over US$700 billion annually by 2016. The company will be […]
Dubai will compete with London for a share of Islamic banks’ liquidity management business by offering a new platform for murabaha trading. Many Islamic banks around the world manage their short-term funds with murabaha, in which one bank acquires merchandise and another agrees to buy it at a mark-up. Traditionally, banks from the Gulf and as far afield as southeast Asia use commodities traded on the London […]
The S&P 500 closed at another record high on Wednesday as signs of steady private-sector hiring suggested that the economy was slowly building momentum after a winter-related pullback. That also put more focus on Friday’s government jobs data, which is among the most widely watched economic indicators. “There’s positioning ahead of that report,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president of BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. He […]
Companies with as little as 20 percent of their global assets in India could find themselves facing tax bills in deals involving their domestic units under changes to the tax code that the government proposed on Tuesday. The government’s Direct Taxes Code 2013 recommended the change along with a new income tax bracket that would require rich people to pay higher taxes. A previous recommendation in 2010 said […]
After pouring billions of dollars into cities including London, New York and Sydney, individual investors and developers in China are expanding into Dubai. About a thousand individual Chinese investors spent 1.3 billion U.A.E dirhams ($353 million) on land, residential units and office real estate in Dubai last year, according to data from the Dubai Land Department. That is a nearly threefold increase from the 486 million dirhams […]
A year after Citigroup Inc. declared the decade-long run of commodity gains over, wacky weather, dead piglets and Vladimir Putin have gotten in the way. While Citigroup rang “death bells” in April 2013 for the synchronized super cycle fueled by economic growth in China, extreme weather and supply squeezes led to surprise rallies in 2014’s first three months. Coffee hit a two-year high, cattle and hogs rose […]
|By TAP Staff|Takeovers abroad and a boost in treasury income helped Gulf banks increase revenues by more than 10% last year – the best combined performance since the crisis hit five years ago – with regional lenders easily outperforming their international counterparts, says Boston Consulting Group. “We’re seeing again double-digit growth in the region which, however, comes to a large extent because of international acquisitions of the […]
|By TAP Staff|Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company (AHAB) announced that it has invited financial institutions with claims against the company to attend a meeting in Dubai, UAE on May 7, 2014, at which AHAB will outline the terms of a comprehensive settlement agreement. The move by AHAB breaks a stalemate that has existed since late 2009 when AHAB’s last comprehensive proposal was rejected by financial institutions, […]
Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. invited creditors including BNP Paribas SA (BNP) and Standard Chartered Plc to discuss claims on $5.9 billion of debt as it seeks to recover from the Middle East’s biggest default. The Saudi Arabian company, with interests ranging from construction to finance, will “outline proposals aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement” with more than 70 creditors at a May 7 meeting in […]
The U.S. stock market is rigged in favor of high-speed electronic trading firms, which use their advantages to extract billions from investors, according to Michael Lewis, author of a new book on the topic, “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” High-frequency trading (HFT) is a practice carried out by many banks and proprietary trading firms using sophisticated computer programs to send gobs of orders into the market, […]
Swiss and British regulators stepped up their scrutiny of alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets on Monday, as watchdogs take a closer look at whether banks have a tight enough grip on the behavior of their traders. Switzerland’s competition commission WEKO said it opened an investigation into several Swiss, British and U.S. banks over potential collusion to manipulate currency rates. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meanwhile, […]
Asian stocks were up slightly in a cautious start to the week on Monday, with investors holding out hopes that China would take steps to stimulate the economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS tacked on 0.1 percent after rising to a 3-week high on Friday on the back of heightened speculation Beijing will launch new spending measures and reduced tensions in Ukraine. Australian […]
