Emaar Properties has secured a $1.5 billion sharia-compliant loan from five local lenders, two banking sources aware of the matter said on Wednesday, the latest Dubai-based borrower to take advantage of buoyant markets to reprice debt. A number of state-linked entities in the emirate have sought to refinance existing debts, even if the loans have years until maturity, as market sentiment towards Dubai improves after its debt […]
It’s every chief executive’s dream: make a potentially game-changing acquisition and your biggest shareholder gives you a massive no-strings-attached grant to help seal the deal. That’s the reality Etisalat enjoys after the Abu Dhabi government gave the telco a $500 million grant to complete the $5.65 billion purchase of Vivendi SA’s 53% stake in Maroc Telecom, according to a new bond prospectus. “In connection with the acquisition, the group […]
|By K Raveendran| It is indeed a milestone in the history of UAE’s expatriate business. The purchase of a controlling stake in Travelex by Dr B R Shetty is easily the biggest acquisition by an expatriate both in terms of its value and profile. It is also perhaps the biggest global brand acquired by a UAE-based Indian entrepreneur. There have been buyouts of higher values, but these […]
Indian-born economist Arvind Panagariya, who is widely expected to take a top advisory role in prime minister-elect Narendra Modi’s government, wants its first budget to boost capital spending even at the risk of a higher fiscal deficit. Panagariya, 61, whose market-friendly, pro-growth economics has helped shape Modi’s outlook, told Reuters in an interview that higher spending is critical to India’s economic revival. Modi swept to power on […]
Etisalat, which this month bought a 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom, has scrapped an offer to buy the remaining shares in the Moroccan firm, the United Arab Emirates operator said on Friday. In a filing to Abu Dhabi’s bourse, Etisalat said it had been exempted from making an offer to minority shareholders, which is usually required under Morocco’s takeover rules. An Etisalat spokesman separately confirmed this […]
In the world’s biggest country, railways are still a route to riches. With nearly 1 billion passengers a year and $42 billion in annual sales, the state company Russian Railways is a giant commercial opportunity. At its head is Vladimir Yakunin, an old friend and long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin. He oversees a company that strikes international deals, issues bonds to major investors and plans hugely […]
Apple’s blockbuster acquisition of Beats Electronics isn’t for technology. It’s for the talent. Apple reportedly wants music industry heavyweights Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young a.k.a. Dr. Dre on its executive board.(Photo : Beats Music) Apple’s rumored $3.2 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics is still happening, even though sources say the deal almost did not pull through several times, because Apple wants Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre on […]
|TAP Special|UAE Exchange owners are said to be in talks with Apax Partners, the London-based private equity firm that controls Travelex Holdings, to buy majority stake in Travelex. The transaction may be worth about 500 million pounds ($843 million). UAE Exchange is owned by BR Shetty, Centurion Investment and Infinite Investment LLC belonging to Abu Dhabi’s bin Butti family. Bloomberg reported quoting unnamed sources that a deal […]
Emaar Properties, owner of the world’s biggest mall, hired HSBC Holdings and Emirates NBD as bookrunners for the initial public offering of its retail arm, with Rothschild as financial adviser, five people familiar with the matter said. National Bank of Abu Dhabi and EFG Hermes Holding Co. will also be bookrunners on the sale of between 25 percent to 30 percent of the malls unit on the […]
Etihad Airways had access to an interest-free $3 billion loan from Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, the Australian Financial Review newspaper said on Thursday, prompting criticism from rivals that have long complained of state support for the carrier. Citing what it said were leaked documents prepared for prospective financiers in 2011, the newspaper said the loan for government-owned Etihad required no repayments until 2027. The airline, which also […]
A Deutsche Bank stake worth 1.75 billion euros has already been placed with an investment vehicle owned and controlled by Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani, Qatar’s former prime minister. Reuters Qatar is again swooping in to help one of Europe’s biggest banks – this time with a twist. Paramount Holdings Services, a vehicle owned by former prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, agreed to put […]
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) will purchase a 25 percent stake in Indonesian Islamic lender Bank Panin Syariah, it said on Monday, as the United Arab Emirates-based bank looks to expand into the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Under the agreement, DIB – the largest Islamic bank in the UAE – will “jointly manage and operate” Bank Panin Syariah along with parent Bank Pan Indonesia, which will remain […]
Analysts are predicting a pre-Ramadan correction on the Dubai Financial Market. They say this has happened twice before: in early 2006 after the near doubling of the market in 2005; and in 1999 when the Emaar-IPO bubble burst. It will happen again. The price-to-earnings ratio has swung from an under-valued 10 to an extremely over-sold 21. Emerging markets in the MSCI Index, whose highly prized inclusion of […]
Egypt’s weak currency, unstable security situation, energy crisis and a government that’s almost bankrupt after three years of political uncertainty hardly make ideal conditions for a market rally. But even as periodic blackouts hit Cairo and Islamist militants carry out attacks on security forces, Egypt this week is welcoming its first initial public offering since a revolution toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Arabian Cement, a […]
Qatar Investment Authority is acquiring joint control of a group of luxury hotels in five European cities including the Carlton InterContinental in Cannes and Amsterdam’s Amstel InterContinental. The Qatari sovereign wealth fund’s Katara Hospitality unit is also taking joint control of InterContinental hotels in Frankfurt, Madrid and Rome, according to a notice on the website of the European Commission’s competition authority. The hotels are managed by and […]
|By TAP Staff| Sunil John, founder and CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the region’s leading public relations consultancy, has been awarded the “SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement”, the first person from the Middle East to be honoured with this prestigious global award. The SABRE Awards, which are presented by The Holmes Group, a leading global public relations publishing organisation, acknowledged John’s position at the “forefront of change” […]
Dana Gas, an energy company based in the United Arab Emirates, is trying to leverage its government’s financial aid to Egypt to get preferential treatment on payment for its goods there. Dana has operations in the Nile delta, Upper Egypt and the Gulf of Suez that produced the equivalent of 39,100 barrels of oil a day on average during the first quarter. Yet like other foreign energy […]
Etisalat has completed its purchase of a 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom from Paris-listed Vivendi for 4.14 billion euros ($5.67 billion), the United Arab Emirates operator said in a statement on Wednesday. Etisalat has bought into Maroc Telecom through a separate legal entity, Etisalat International North Africa (EINA). Etisalat owns 91.3 percent of EINA, with Abu Dhabi Fund for Development holding the remainder. The latter is […]
Emirates’ ground services unit Dnata is “very interested” in acquiring the world’s largest in-flight catering business from Lufthansa, if it is put up for sale again, Dnata’s president said on Tuesday. Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline by revenue, had put LSG Sky Chefs up for sale in 2012 but then abandoned the plans. “They have said they are not ready to sell,” Gary Chapman,told reporter on the sidelines […]
Samsung Electronics Co Chairman Lee Kun Hee, who leads Asia’s biggest technology company and helps generate about a quarter of South Korea’s economic output, remains in stable condition after emergency surgery following a heart attack. Lee, 72, is at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul after being resuscitated following an acute myocardial infarction, Rhee So Eui, a spokeswoman for Samsung Group, said in an e-mailed statement. Lee, who […]
Kingdom Tower, the Saudi skyscraper set to be the world’s tallest building, will probably have construction funding in place by the end of the first half, the developer’s chief executive officer said today. The company is in talks to bring in Riyadh-based Alinma Bank as an adviser and lender, Mounib Hammoud, CEO of Jeddah Economic Co., told reporters today on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai. […]
With Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filing to go public, the biggest winner won’t be founder Jack Ma or his fellow executives or even venture capital backers like Silver Lake Management LLC. It’ll be Japan’s Masayoshi Son. Fourteen years ago, Son’s SoftBank Corp. started with a $20 million bet on a then-unknown Web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. That site evolved into China’s biggest Internet shopping […]
Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. slumped by its trading limit in Mumbai after Chairman Jignesh Shah was arrested by the police as part of an investigation into the biggest payment default in India’s commodity market. The shares fell 5 percent to 276.30 rupees, the lowest close since Feb. 13. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX), in which Financial Technologies owns 26 percent stake, declined 6.7 percent to […]
One year into the delivery of Dubai’s ‘Tourism Vision for 2020,’ significant first steps have been taken to achieve the target of attracting 20 million annual visitors by 2020, leading the emirate’s tourism authority to state a new ambition: for Dubai to become the world’s most visited city. If a growth rate similar to that achieved in 2013 is maintained – a 10.6 percent year-on-year increase equating […]
