Dragon Oil (DGO) proposed a 492 million-pound ($789 million) cash offer for Petroceltic International Plc (PCI) to add exploration and output in North Africa and Kurdistan. Dragon Oil, backed by Dubai’s state oil company and with production in Turkmenistan, is in talks on a 230 pence-a-share offer, a 29 percent premium to the last closing price, Dublin-based Petroceltic said today in a statement. The target’s board is prepared to recommend the […]
|By TAP Staff| RAK Petroleum said it would offer shares worth $25 million to institutional and retail investors in Norway and a private placement to certain international institutions. The IPO would be listed on the Oslo exchange. Current shareholders will be able to place their shares in the offer as well, the company said in a statement. RAK Petroleum said its assets included a 42.8 percent stake in DNO ASA, an […]
A Luxembourg court on Friday rejected a request by two holding companies of Portugal’s Espirito Santo family for “controlled management”, a sort of bankruptcy protection from creditors. Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG) and its subsidiary Espirito Santo Financiere SA still have the right to appeal, and the court has yet to decide on two other holding companies controlled by the family. ESFG is Banco Espirito Santo’s largest shareholder, and […]
Slide Show | Preparing for New Risks in Golan Heights The fighting in Syria has prompted residents of the Golan Heights, Israel’s quietest frontier, to reassess the potential danger. By JODI RUDOREN October 4, 2014 EIN ZIVAN, Golan Heights — The updates poured in by two-way radio and cellphone as Tomer Lahav’s pickup sped around this kibbutz near Israel’s cease-fire line with Syria one recent evening. Mortars were falling […]
The planned merger of the United Arab Emirates’ two main stock exchanges, home to the second-best performing share gauge in the world, will take more time to complete, according to a Dubai government official. “It’s still on the table,” Mohammed Al Shaibani, chief executive officer of Investment Corp. of Dubai, the emirate’s main state-owned holding company, said in an interview today at a Dubai conference. “We were […]
Nasser Al Sayer, chairman of NBK NBK to sell IBQ stake to Qatari investors for $538m KUWAIT, 1 days ago National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has agreed to sell its 30 per cent stake in its Qatari associate, International Bank of Qatar (IBQ), to Qatari investors in a transaction worth $538 million (KD155 million), at a $87 million profit. Nasser Al Sayer, chairman, highlighted that this transaction […]
|TAP Special| When state-owned Investment Corporation of Dubai announced last month that it was taking a minority stake in Nigeria’s largest cement manufacturer Dangote Cement for $300 million, it seemed like something coming out of the blue. But things began to fall in place this week, when the African conglomerate’s chairman Aliko Dangote announced in Dubai that he was contemplating billions of dollars worth of investments in […]
Dubai’s Emirates Airline, the world’s largest carrier by international traffic flown, has signed a deal with TAAG Angola Airlines to manage the carrier for 10 years and cooperate on “commercial opportunities” in Africa. The Gulf carrier, which also has a partnership agreement with Australia’s Qantas Airways, will code-share on cargo and passenger services, participate in each carrier’s frequent flier programs and coordinate ground handling, Emirates said in […]
Boost for healthcare, education Amanat Holdings to launch $374m IPO in Oct DUBAI, 4 hours, 0 minutes ago UAE-based Amanat Holdings, a healthcare and education start-up, will launch a Dh1.375 billion ($374 million) share sale offering on the main Dubai bourse in October, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The initial public offering is set at a price of Dh1.02 ($0.27) per share, representing 55 […]
In a move to tap into the vast opportunities in China’s technology industry, Intel plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion for a minority stake in a holding company there. Intel is acquiring 20 percent of a Tsinghua Holdings operating subsidiary to execute its mission. Tsinghua is a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China. By partnering with Tsinghua, Intel aims to […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai buyout firm Abraaj is teaming up with TPG Capital, based in Fort Worth, Texas, for a deal to buy a majority stake in Saudi Arabian fast-food chain Kudu, it has been reported. Kudu operates about 200 outlets in Saudi Arabia selling grilled chicken sandwiches, burgers and breakfasts. According to Bloomberg, the pickup in Middle East investment comes as dealmaking by private-equity firms in […]
As Google Chairman Eric Schmidt hit the interview trail this week to promote his new book, he addressed a number of contentious topics including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the ever-escalating battle between his company and Apple. Schmidt was on Bloomberg TV Wednesday to talk about “How Google Works: The Rules for Success in the Internet Century,” a book he co-wrote with Jonathan Rosenberg. When mention was […]
Gulf Capital buys into top Egypt glass firm ABU DHABI, 21 hours, 31 minutes ago Gulf Capital, a leading alternative investment firm, has completed the acquisition of a strategic minority stake in Middle East Glass Manufacturing (MEG), Egypt’s largest container glass and PET manufacturer. MEG is a worldwide approved supplier of glass bottles for Coca-Cola, an approved supplier for Pepsi, Nestle and other major beverage producers locally […]
| By Peter Garnry| What is clear post the Alibaba IPO is that the market is presumably mispricing Yahoo. Basically, it does not make sense if we assume markets are rational. Yahoo closed at $40.93 last Friday but based on a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) analysis the stock should trade closer to $45. The table below outlines the SOTP analysis behind Yahoo’s fair value. The company has $3,408 million […]
Actress Emma Thompson and her daughter Gaia take part in the “People’s Climate March” in central London Photo: REUTERS Down with climate change! Listen – and heed – Emma Thompson’s dire warning on global warming! There now, how’s that? Having satisfied everyone’s environmental conscience, let’s tackle the other burning (but, let me stress, not fossil-fuel) issue at the heart of the People’s Climate March in London at the […]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index is the only stock market index that covers both the second and the third industrial revolution. Calculating share indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and showing this index in a historical graph is a useful way to show which phase the industrial revolution is in. Changes in the DJIA shares basket, changes in the formula and stock splits […]
As PayPal girds up to go after a big new rival in the online payment arena, it’s doing so by taking shots at that competitor’s security track record. Not long after Apple unveiled Apple Pay, its new contactless payment system, PayPal took out a newspaper advertisement slamming the new service. Apple Pay, suggests the ad, is no more safe than a selfie in the iCloud, making reference […]
A rush by Dubai’s retail investors to take part in the initial public offer of Emaar Properties’ malls unit put pressure on the emirate’s stock market on Tuesday, while successful fund-raising for the Suez Canal expansion lifted stocks in Egypt. Emaar said late on Monday that institutional investors had committed to buying all the shares offered to them in the flotation of its shopping malls business, only […]
Arabtec Holding said on Tuesday it was unaware of any stake sale agreement between its largest shareholders following reports that the company’s former chief executive was about to sell at least part of his stake. Arabtec “does not have the information” on such a deal, it said in a bourse statement. Shares in Arabtec jumped 3.7 percent to 4.77 dirhams on Monday following a report that its […]
|By TAP Staff| Qatar National Bank announced the acquisition of an additional holding of 11 percent shares in pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank). The cost of the additional holding is equivalent to $283 million. QNB Group’s total stake in Ecobank is now 23.5 percent. This enables QNB Group to become the largest shareholder whilst strengthening the partnership with Ecobank, a leading pan-African bank and is a […]
Savola Group, a Saudi Arabian food producer, hired JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) to advise on a potential bid for the operator of KFC restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Non-binding bids for the $4.3 billion Kuwait Food business, known as Americana, are due next month, the people said, asking not to be identified as the […]
On the face of it, Jordan must be a tough sell to international investors: there is the ubiquitous threat of instability and violence lurking from neighboring Syria and Iraq while the kingdom’s small economy, which is reliant on foreign aid, is strained by high unemployment and budget deficits. Nonetheless, some foreign private equity groups are willing to take the risk. Buyout giant Carlyle Group last year bought […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar is eying significant investments by Chinese companies in its King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. According to Fahd Al Rashed, chief executive of the city, several Chinese firms have shown interest and the company hopes to rope in up to 20 percent of investments from the Chinese. The King Abdulla Economic City envisages a port and business district as well as residential […]
President Obama on Wednesday in Washington. Mr. Obama says he is aware of the “political price” he pays for being deliberate. By PETER BAKER September 13, 2014 WASHINGTON — Just hours before announcing an escalated campaign against Islamic extremists last week, President Obama privately reflected on another time when a president weighed military action in the Middle East — the frenzied weeks leading up to the American invasion of […]
