With a youthful, well-educated population, strong relationships with both neighbours and world powers, and a strategic location on the Gulf, major oil producer Kuwait should be as dynamic a hub for the region as Dubai or Doha. But while others in the Gulf have powered ahead, attracting foreign investment and developing infrastructure, Kuwait has stagnated, frustrating the people of a country once seen as a Middle East […]
Pricing guidance for a five-year sukuk issue by Dubai’s DAMAC Real Estate was tightened further amid strong investor demand, with final guidance issued in the range of midswaps plus 310-320 basis points. The size of the issue was expanded to $650 million from the originally planned $500 million, a document from arrangers showed. Books, which are to close at 1000 GMT in London on Wednesday, now exceed […]
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 […]
Pricing guidance for a $500 million sukuk issue by Dubai’s DAMAC Real Estate was tightened to the midswaps plus 325 basis points area, according to information from a lead arranger on Tuesday. Earlier, DAMAC set price thoughts for its five-year sukuk at midswaps plus the mid-300s. Books now exceed $2.25 billion. The sukuk is expected to launch and price on Wednesday. Joint lead managers are Abu Dhabi […]
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 […]
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 […]
Dubai World, the conglomerate at the centre of the emirate’s debt crisis, has the means to make its first big repayment on time next year and expects to pay off more of its debt ahead of schedule, a top executive said. Mohammed al-Shaibani, chief executive of sovereign wealth fund Investment Corp of Dubai and a key figure in negotiating the emirate’s debt restructurings in recent years, said […]
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, […]
Gold traded below $1,300 an ounce on Monday, near a six-week low, and could face more pressure from weak physical demand in Asia and growing optimism about the U.S. economy. Spot gold was up slightly by 0.1 percent to $1,295.20 an ounce by 0018 GMT, but remained not far from a six-week low of $1,285.34 hit on Friday. Physical demand in top bullion buyer Asia has been […]
A UN panel on Monday morning released its much awaited report which assessed impacts of climate change on human lives, natural resources and marine ecosystem across the globe. It predicted a gloomy picture for Asia where most of the countries, including India and China, will not only have to face more extreme weather events but also have to experience severe stress on drinking water and food-grains by […]
As investors dump emerging-market equities at an unprecedented clip, they’re turning more and more to frontier markets in search of the next growth story. No exchange-traded fund focused on developing nations has grown faster in the past year than BlackRock Inc. (BLK)’s iShares MSCI Frontier 100 fund, whose biggest holdings are in Kuwait and Qatar. Assets under management surged nine-fold to $594 million, fueled by $465 million […]
Gold imports by India, the second-biggest consumer, will rebound in the second half as a new government may ease trade curbs while festivals and weddings spur demand, said billionaire jeweler T.S. Kalyanaraman. The pickup in shipments from mid-year will help overseas purchases over 2014 match the 825 metric tons imported in 2013, Kalyanaraman, chairman of the Thrissur-India based Kalyan Jewellers Ltd., said in an interview. The curbs […]
A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that a group of international banks must face complaints that they violated the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act by manipulating yen-denominated interest rate benchmarks between 2006 and 2010. In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge George Daniels also granted the banks’ motion to dismiss related claims against them for antitrust violations and unjust enrichment. The banks, which included Mizuho Bank […]
Citigroup Inc.’s capital plan was among five that failed Federal Reserve stress tests, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. passed only after reducing their requests for buybacks and dividends. Citigroup, as well as U.S. units of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Banco Santander SA, failed because of qualitative concerns about their processes, the Fed said today in a […]
Qatar’s ruling family member Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani bought a last minute ticket to win Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup by buying a 50 percent stake in Ruler Of The World, last season’s English Derby winner. “It is very exciting. We managed to get it done as of this morning. The horse vetted so that the deal would take place in time so Sheikh Joaan […]
Dubai property developer Nakheel is a targeting a 15 percent increase in annual profit in 2014 as it launches new projects and expands its leasing income, the firm’s chairman said on Wednesday. Government-run Nakheel agreed a $16 billion debt restructuring in 2011 in the wake of a property crash that sent Dubai’s house prices tumbling by more than half from a 2008 peak, oversupply and the global […]
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) posted a net loss of 2.52 billion dirhams ($687 million) for 2013 because of a non-cash impairment related to the value of its oil and gas holdings in North America, the company said on Tuesday. TAQA swung from a profit after minority interests of 649 million dirhams in 2012. As a result, it said its board had recommended no dividend for […]
The shares of indebted mortgage lender Amlak will resume trading on the Dubai bourse in the second half of this year, the United Arab Emirates’ economy minister said on Monday. Trading in shares of Amlak, which is in the process of restructuring debt that sources put at nearly $2 billion, was suspended in November 2008 as credit markets dried up and Dubai real estate prices began a […]
When a scrap metal dealer from U.S. Midwest bought a golden ornament at a junk market, it never crossed his mind that he was the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia. In a mystery fit for the tumultuous history of Russia’s ostentatious elite, the 8-cm (3-inch) golden egg was spirited out of St Petersburg after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution […]
Investors seeking a hedge against a waning U.S. economic recovery and escalating conflict in Ukraine made twice as much money buying gold-mining shares rather than the metal the companies produce. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF climbed 25 percent this year, more than double the 12 percent advance for the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by bullion. This is the first quarter the company […]
| By Clyde Russel | The price of Middle East crude oils being supplied to Asia appears too high given an increase in supply from Iran, Iraq and rival Russia and muted demand from refiners. While benchmark Oman futures have declined 5 percent since the start of the year to end at $102.93 a barrel on Wednesday, the price relative to global marker Brent has been rising. […]
Two Abu Dhabi lenders have emerged as frontrunners to buy most of Barclays’ retail banking operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a final decision expected next month after a competitive bidding process, banking sources said on Wednesday. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank are vying to take control of the assets, the sources said, after the British lender said in September it […]
BlackRock Inc.’s Sam Vecht says investors are following the herd in selling emerging markets to invest in the most-developed economies, a strategy that has historically yielded “underwhelming” results. Investors “are selling emerging markets which have very low valuations, significant dividend yields but have underperformed in recent times,” Vecht, London-based manager at BlackRock Emerging Europe Trust Plc, said in e-mailed comments yesterday. In exchange, they’re buying assets in […]
Russia’s economy is showing signs of a crisis, the government in Moscow said as the U.S. and the European Union announced sanctions over the country’s support for the Crimea region breaking away from Ukraine. “The situation in the economy bears clear signs of a crisis,” Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said in Moscow yesterday. The cabinet needs to refrain from raising the fiscal burden on companies, which […]
