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By James M. Dorsey An offer by a Saudi-backed bank to lend financially strapped Pakistan US$4 billion is likely intended to bolster Saudi influence when former international cricket player Imran Khan is sworn in in the coming week as the South Asian country’s next prime minister. The offer was most immediately related to a statement by Asad Umar, Pakistan’s new finance minister-in-waiting, that Pakistan would decide on whether to seek […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Ras Al Khaimah Petroleum Authority (RAKPA), the regulator of the petroleum sector in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) in the United Arab Emirates, is seeing a high level of interest from Indian companies to qualify for the 2018 RAK licensing round. Growing demand in the Indian market and the unique opportunity for Indian companies to explore and develop oil and gas in […]

By James M. Dorsey The failure of Western allies to rally around Canada in its dispute with Saudi Arabia risks luring the kingdom into a false belief that economic sanctions will shield it from, if not reverse mounting criticism of its human rights record and conduct of the war in Yemen. It also risks convincing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that acting with impunity will not impinge on […]

DP World today announces the signing of the acquisition of 100% of the Unifeeder Group for €660 million from Nordic Capital Fund VIII and certain minority shareholders. Based in Aarhus (Denmark), Unifeeder operates the largest and most densely connected common user container feeder and an important and growing shortsea network in Europe, serving both deep-sea container hubs and the intra-Europe container freight market. The Group reported revenue […]

By James M. Dorsey Message to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Tel Aviv: Not to worry, US President Donald J. Trump has no intention of meeting his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, unconditionally. On the contrary, Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement that he is willing to talk to Mr. Rouhani is likely part of a plan formulated almost a year before he returned to government service by his national security advisor John […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|An Arbitral Tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration  confirmed the illegitimacy of the Government of Djibouti’s action of seizing control of the Doraleh Container Terminal from DP World. The LCIA Tribunal has ruled that Doraleh Container Terminal’s Concession Agreement “remains valid and binding notwithstanding Law 202 and the 2018 Decrees”. Law 202 and the referenced decrees were devices enacted by Djibouti to […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|  Global DP World Limited handled 35.6 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first half of 2018, with gross container volumes growing by 4.8% year-on-year on a reported basis and 6.0% on a like-for-like basis. The first half of 2018 continues to see an upswing in global trade and all three DP World regions delivered growth, particularly […]

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By James M. Dorsey China appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a developing nation. The emergence of a security component […]

By James M. Dorsey This month’s inauguration of a fibreoptic cable linking Pakistan with China could prove to be a double-edged sword. Constructed by Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, the cable is likely to enhance both Pakistan’s information communication technology infrastructure as well as the influence of Chinese authoritarianism at a moment that basic freedoms in Pakistan are on the defensive. The $44 million, 820-kilometre underground Pak-China Fibre […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|Hindustan Infralog Private Limited (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), announced closure of the transaction to acquire 90% stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation (Nhava Seva) Ltd. CWCNSL’s founders, the Reddy family, will retain the remaining 10% shareholding and will remain involved in the business operations. It is the first investment of HIPL, the recently created […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Noon, the Middle East’s homegrown digital marketplace, announced the launch of two entities in China, one on the mainland and the other in Hong Kong, kick starting noon’s Asia operations. In China, noon aims to establish a trusted network of high-quality Chinese brand owners with unique offerings, to bring the best range of products to customers in the Middle East. A dedicated noon […]

By James M. Dorsey Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago. Prince Mohammed has fuelled expectations by fostering Islamic scholars who advocate a revision of […]

By James M. Dorsey The Pakistani government’s removal of a virulently anti-Shiite militant from its terrorism list at the very moment that an international money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog was deciding to put the country on a watchlist highlights Pakistan’s struggle to come to grips with militancy. The decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that was reported by Pakistani media but has yet to be announced […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) announced up to 70 per cent reduction on licensing and incorporation fees within the DWTC Authority (DWTCA), a free zone offering offshore licenses for businesses, and One Central, the lifestyle development at the heart of Dubai’s Central Business District, to spur business and benefit multi-sector growth. DWTC’s programme seeks to provide highly competitive offerings with the twin objectives of […]

​ |By Matein Khalid| Crude oil prices plunged by 7% in two sessions as Saudi Arabia and Russia confirmed that they would release 1 million barrels a day in the wet barrel markets. Speculative froth in the oil futures markets vanished, to be replaced by a new trading calculus based on the realities of supply and demand – as well as the unknowable (and unquantifiable!) arc of […]

By James M. Dorsey A look at a decade of failed social, economic and political reform in Jordan goes a far way to explain recent mass anti-government protests demanding the resignation of the government. The protests, prompting concerns about the survival of the Hashemite dynasty, also bear witness to the fallout of the region’s epic power struggles and the pitfalls of government failures to respond to long-standing […]

By James M. Dorsey Nothing in a swath of land stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to China is undisputed. Food is often emblematic of disputes over identity, history and political claims that underlie an arc of crisis wracked by ethnic and religious conflict; clamour for political, economic, social, national and minority rights; efforts by states and ethnic groups to garner soft power or assert hegemony, […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi enforcement courts revealed the recovery of more than 3.4 billion dollars (around 13 billion Saudi Riyals) after enforcing a number of foreign rulings. The rulings came from foreign arbitration committees and foreign courts from a number of countries around the world concerning individuals, companies and entities inside the Kingdom. The most recent one came from a Court in Virginia, forcing a Saudi tourism company to pay $3,758,000 (SAR […]

By James M. Dorsey A recent upsurge in insurgent activity in Kashmir likely explains Pakistani and Chinese reluctance to crackdown on internationally designated militant Hafez Saeed and the network of groups that he heads. So does the fact that Mr. Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, an outlawed, India-focused ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim group widely seen as one of South Asia’s deadliest, have assisted Pakistani intelligence and the military in countering […]

 Etisalat Digital announced that it has signed strategic partnerships with four scale-ups as part of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators Program,’ the world’s largest governbment supported accelerator.  The 4th cohort of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators’, launched in March this year with the participation of Etisalat Digital and other government bodies and in cooperation with the world’s most innovative companies, came to a close on xx May. The program […]

Minor International( MINT) announced that it has reached agreement to acquire 30,000,000 shares in NH Hotel Group in a transaction valued at EUR 192 million, which together with its existing shareholding will increase MINT’s stake in NH Hotel Group to 8.6% on a fully diluted basis. NH Hotel Group is the sixth largest hotel chain in Europe and this investment offers important strategic benefits to MINT which, […]

SNC-Lavalin announced that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Central District Cooling Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Tabreed, for the expansion of its Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC) district cooling scheme in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.  Under the contract, SNC-Lavalin is responsible for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of an additional cooling capacity of 12,000 Refrigeration Tons (RT) with all associated […]

By James M. Dorsey Ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif kicked up a storm when he earlier this month seemingly admitted that Pakistan had supported militants who attacked multiple targets in Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. Mr. Sharif’s admission, which he has since tried to walk back, put a finger on Pakistan’s controversial policy of selective support of militant groups at a sensitive time. Pakistan is gearing up for elections that […]

|By Saifur Rahman, Associate Editor|  The historic first cargo of two million barrels of crude oil from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), destined for the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) has been loaded and is en-route to India, in the presence of Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO at a ceremony in Abu […]

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