Holders of Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties’ convertible bonds have asked the company to convert them into shares, Emaar said in a bourse statement on Sunday. Emaar said its board would discuss the matter at a meeting on December 17. Emaar issued a $500 million convertible bond in 2010. The sale marked the Dubai developer’s return to the debt markets after more than a year and an opportune […]
By Lewis Braham Don’t try to catch a falling knife. It’s one of the oldest saws on Wall Street. But to make a lot of money, sometimes you have to get a little bloody. So say contrarians like Brian Singer. The risk is great, “but the return is of such an astounding magnitude, you’re willing to do it,” says Singer, manager of the William Blair Macro Allocation […]
Swiss authorities are urging banks to quash their doubts and enter a U.S. voluntary disclosure program aimed at uncovering American tax evaders. The Swiss financial watchdog Finma requested banks to decide by today whether they will join the first stage of the U.S. Department of Justice program by applying for non-prosecution agreements by the end of 2013. Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is scheduled today to respond […]
Investment Corp of Dubai, the flagship holding firm of some of the emirate’s top companies, has acquired the Atlantis hotel from a unit of Dubai World for an undisclosed sum, a statement said on Thursday. The hotel, which sits at the head of a manmade island in the shape of a palm tree, was set up in 2008 as a joint venture between Dubai World’s Istithmar World […]
Dubai’s benchmark stock index rallied the most in more than two months after the emirate won the right to host the World Expo 2020. The DFM General Index advanced 4 percent to 3,015.65 at 10:02 a.m. in the city, bringing the gain for the year to 86 percent. Emaar Properties , builder of the world’s biggest shopping mall by floor space, jumped 3 percent and Dubai Investments […]
BlackBerry Ltd’s board does not believe a break-up of the Canadian smartphone maker is currently in its best interests, even though Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd, among others, have expressed interest in acquiring parts of the company, according to people familiar with the discussions. The board rejected proposals from several technology companies for various BlackBerry assets on grounds that a break-up did not serve […]
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, raised its estimates for economic growth in the United Arab Emirates this year to 4.4 percent, aided by an increase in oil output. The forecast was raised from 3.8 percent, putting the second-biggest Arab economy on track for a higher growth rate than Saudi Arabia for the first time in at least four years, according to the bank’s quarterly economic report released […]
Investors are becoming more discerning about where they put their money, shying away from countries such as Brazil, India (SENSEX), Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa. Behind the discrimination is a new-found focus on current-account deficits and structural weaknesses exposed by the likelihood of less stimulus from the Federal Reserve and cooling demand in China, according to economists from HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and International […]
Dahabshiil Holdings Ltd., a Somali company that provides access for overseas citizens to send money there, asked a U.K. court to stop Barclays Plc (BARC) from closing its bank account. The bank gave a “dearth of detail” on its decision, Alan Maclean, a lawyer for Dahabshiil, said at a hearing in London today. The bank’s dominant position in the market for remittances means it will breach competition law if it closes […]
International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s investment arm, plans to sell a record $1 billion of rupee bonds offshore to fund its investments as India struggles to lure capital amid the slowest growth in a decade. The bond sale aims to “attract greater foreign investment in a time of renewed economic uncertainty across the world,” the Washington-based IFC said in a statement yesterday. The so-called synthetic debt […]
A stampede by competing apartment buyers in Dubai this week may have obscured signs that Dubai’s latest real estate boom is more restrained than the last one, which pushed the government close to default. Dubai’s property spree in the middle of the last decade was built precariously on bank loans, spelling disaster for indebted developers when prices eventually crashed. The crisis shook financial markets around the world. […]
Anyone who remembers the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. little more than five years ago knows what a global financial disaster is. A U.S. government default, just weeks away if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling as it now threatens to do, will be an economic calamity like none the world has ever seen. Failure by the world’s largest borrower to pay its debt — […]
The HSBC Holdings unit once known as Household International Inc. lost its bid to undo a 2009 securities fraud trial verdict and is liable for about $1.5 billion in damages plus interest, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman in Chicago today denied the lender’s motions for a new trial or a decision in its favor and ordered plaintiffs’ lawyers to submit a proposed final judgment […]
A shareholder of BlackBerry Ltd sued the company and its executives on Friday, accusing them of inflating the stock price by painting a misleadingly rosy picture of the business prospects of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone line. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion Ltd, misled investors last year by saying that the company was “progressing on its financial and operational commitments,” and that previews of its BlackBerry […]
Gold analysts are bullish for a third consecutive week on speculation that the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years and a standoff over raising the country’s debt limit will spur demand for the metal as a haven. Eighteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise next week, eight are bearish and four neutral. That’s the longest positive run since July. Bullion capped a 7.6 percent […]
Investors who behave conventionally are likely to get burned if the political standoff over the federal budget and the debt ceiling ends up forcing the United States to default. But portfolio managers and strategists say that if investors put their trading hats on, they may be able to protect themselves and even possibly come out ahead. “The next two weeks could cause a lot of pain in […]
Reserve Bank of India data showed the highest ratio of short-term external debt to currency reserves in more than a decade, raising alarm bells at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. The $97 billion maturing in less than a year amounted to 34.3 percent of reserves as of June 30, the highest since at least March 2001, RBI figures released Sept. 30 show. The ratio […]
Dubai, which roiled markets with its request to delay $25 billion of debt payments in 2009, faces the prospect of rising borrowing costs if it succeeds in a bid to hold the Expo 2020 World Fair, Bank of America Corp. said. The emirate needs about 26 billion dirhams ($7.1 billion) of infrastructure spending to host the event, HSBC Holdings Plc analyst Patrick Gaffney said by phone. At […]
Fund managers in the Middle East are set to pump more money into Saudi Arabia over coming months but may withdraw some funds from Dubai because of concern its red-hot market has risen too fast, a Reuters survey showed. The survey of 16 leading Middle East-based investment institutions, the first of its kind in the region, was conducted over the past 10 days by Trading Middle East, […]
Bank Dhofar, the Omani lender planning to merge with smaller peer Bank Sohar, said on Sunday that its chief executive Anthony Mahoney had resigned for personal reasons. Bank Dhofar has appointed Abdul Omar Al-Ojaili as its acting chief executive, the lender said in a bourse statement. Mahoney’s resignation was effective Sept. 26, it said. In July, Bank Dhofar said it had approached Bank Sohar with a view […]
The United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab economy, is considering a tax on remittances, according to three bankers with knowledge of the plan. The federal Ministry of Finance has sent a circular to banks proposing the tax and invited suggestions from them on the levy, the bankers said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The ministry plans to hold talks with financial institutions […]
Hedge funds cut bullish gold bets, reducing long contracts to the lowest since June, before prices rose the most in a month as the Federal Reserve unexpectedly decided not to taper stimulus. The net-long position held by speculators fell 17 percent to 70,113 futures and options in the week ended Sept. 17, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Long wagers fell 6.8 percent to 109,217, the […]
Dubai-based oil services firm NPS Energy has put itself back up for sale, hoping to fetch up to $700 million after a deal to be bought by Norway’s Aker Solutions fell apart last year, sources familiar with the matter said. Oil services company Aker agreed to buy NPS Energy for about $460 million in May 2012, including $110 million in debt, but the deal collapsed in November […]
Bahrain-based Islamic investment firm Arcapita has become the first Gulf company to emerge from U.S. bankruptcy under Chapter 11 rules, in a move that could help clarify how Islamic finance is treated in Western courts. Arcapita’s plan, which came into effect on Tuesday, will see it transfer its assets into a new holding company which will dispose of them over time to pay off creditors, effectively a […]
