Banking and Finance Saudi’s Almarai draws $4bn in sukuk orders Saudi Arabian food and beverage company Almarai is set to raise $750 million from a sale of 10-year Islamic bonds that drew over $4 billion in orders, fixed income news service IFR said on Tuesday. The sukuk launched at 145 basis points (bps) over US treasuries, IFR said, tightened from initial price guidance of around […] July 19, 2023
Economy A new era of much slower growth dawns in China China is entering an era of much slower economic growth, raising a daunting prospect: it may never get rich. Whether the world’s second-largest economy chugs ahead at three to four percent annually or flirts, as some economists expect, with Japan-like “lost decades” of stagnation, it looks set to disappoint its leaders, its youth, and much […] July 18, 2023
Energy BP and Socar join bid for Israeli offshore gas BP and Azeri national oil company Socar have taken part for the first time in an Israeli licencing round for natural gas exploration, the latest sign of growing international interest in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, sources said. BP and Socar jointly placed a bid along with Israel’s NewMed Energy for two offshore blocks in the […] July 18, 2023
Banking and Finance Lebanon to phase out Sayrafa exchange platform Lebanon’s central bank will decommission the controversial exchange platform known as Sayrafa after governor Riad Salameh’s 30-year tenure ends this month, one of the institution’s vice governors told Reuters on Monday. Salim Chahine said the bank’s leadership was talking with government and parliament policymakers, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about the need […] July 18, 2023
Banking and Finance Abu Dhabi’s Masdar hires banks for green bonds sale Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar has hired banks to arrange a debut sale of green bonds, a bank document showed on Monday. Citi and First Abu Dhabi Bank are joint global coordinators, joined by BNP Paribas, HSBC, SMBC Nikko, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners, a document from […] July 18, 2023
Banking and Finance South Korea warns of surge in household debts South Korea’s central bank said on Monday there was a need to manage financial stability in addition to price risks as the country’s high household debts have started to climb. “In terms of monetary policy, it should consider financial stability more actively to prevent excessive leveraging or risky asset investments when monetary policy is loose,” […] July 17, 2023
Economy Turkey hikes fuel tax to balance budget spend Turkey raised tax on petrol on Sunday to help fund a 1.12 trillion lira ($42.2 billion) increase to its 2023 budget. February’s earthquakes and the May presidential election sent spending soaring. The additional fuel tax will help with a budget deficit that jumped to 263.6 billion lira in the first five months of the year, […] July 17, 2023
Energy Four groups bid for Israel gas exploration tender Four groups of companies have made bids in Israel’s latest tender for offshore hydrocarbon exploration, the energy ministry said on Sunday. The ministry said the groups include a total of nine companies, five of which were new to the Israeli market. It did not name which companies took part. Huge deposits of natural gas have […] July 17, 2023
Banking and Finance Kuwait plans new fund to develop local economy Kuwait plans to establish a new sovereign fund to develop its local economy, spearhead mega projects and attract funds from foreign investors and the private sector, according to a government plan seen by Reuters on Sunday. The government has tasked the finance ministry and the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) with studying plans for the proposed […] July 17, 2023
Tech Elon Musk says Twitter’s cash flow still negative Twitter’s cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could reach cash flow positive by June. “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” […] July 16, 2023
Oil & Gas Iraq and Iran gas-for-oil barter faces US sanctions A barter of Iranian natural gas for Iraqi oil as described by the Iraqi prime minister this week would likely violate US sanctions on Tehran unless the US issued a waiver permitting it, three former US officials said on Thursday. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani on Tuesday said Iraq would begin trading crude […] July 16, 2023
Banking and Finance Turkey’s forex reserves rise to $13bn as lira support ends Turkey’s central bank’s net international reserves rose more than $3 billion to $13.17 billion in the week to July 7, continuing a strong rebound from record lows after the bank stopped using the reserves to support the lira. The central bank’s net reserves fell to $5.7 billion in the week to June 2, their lowest […] July 14, 2023
Banking and Finance Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan plans dollar sukuk Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co has hired banks to arrange a planned sale of US dollar-denominated Islamic bonds, a bank document showed. The joint lead managers and bookrunners were due to hold fixed-income investor calls and meetings from Thursday. A benchmark-sized sale of senior unsecured sukuk maturing in February 2029 will […] July 14, 2023
Retail Israel lifts tax on imported milk to end shortages Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich is cancelling the 40 percent customs duty on imported milk for three months to combat a shortage across supermarket chains. Milk production in Israel is subject to centralised planning and government-approved quotas. Since milk prices are set by the state, dairies have been reluctant to boost output and prefer to […] July 14, 2023
Oil & Gas Opec sees 2.2% oil demand growth in 2024 Opec has raised its forecast for oil demand growth for 2023 and predicted only a slight slowdown in 2024. This is despite economic headwinds as China and India continue to drive the expansion in fuel use. In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said it expects world oil demand to […] July 14, 2023
Health Mubadala-backed Recursion secures new $50m funding Chip designer Nvidia will invest $50 million to speed up training of biotech firm Recursion’s artificial intelligence models for drug discovery, the companies announced, sending Recursion’s shares surging about 83 percent. Recursion, whose advisers include AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, will use its biological and chemical datasets exceeding 23,000 terabytes to train AI models on Nvidia’s […] July 13, 2023
Manufacturing Saudi-backed Lucid shares down as deliveries take hit Lucid Group said its second-quarter production dropped from the previous three months while deliveries stayed flat, sending the shares of the luxury electric-vehicle maker down about 12 percent on Wednesday. The Saudi Arabia-backed startup has been struggling to ramp up production in the face of supply chain issues, while a price war started by market […] July 13, 2023
Energy Saudi output cuts drive up sour crude oil prices Prices for sour crude oil have climbed globally this month after top exporter Saudi Arabia hiked prices and expanded production cuts of higher sulphur oil. It was the first sign that its efforts to prop up global prices is having an impact. The de facto leader of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) […] July 12, 2023
Logistics Israel to privatise postal service company Israel has put its postal service on the block after completing a recovery and financial stabilisation process and formulating a strategic plan for the coming years. The state’s privatisation agency said it would sell 100 percent of Israel Post Co. to an investor or group of investors. Bids are due by September and the winning […] July 12, 2023
Banking and Finance Two Abu Dhabi banks tap debt markets for $1.25bn Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) have raised $1.25 billion in total from the sale of conventional and Islamic bonds, seizing a window of opportunity to raise debt amid a lull in regional issues. ADCB launched $500 million five-year senior unsecured bonds at 120 basis points (bps) over US treasuries, […] July 12, 2023
Energy Russian petrol exports to Asia and Africa increase Russia’s petrol exports rose in January to June despite the introduction of the European Union’s (EU) embargo, thanks to healthy supplies of the fuel to Africa and Asia, data from market sources showed and traders said. Petrol production at Russian refineries rose by about 4 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2023 to about […] July 12, 2023
Economy S&P Global sees positive signs in Nigeria and Kenya Nigeria and Kenya have both had positive economic policy developments in the last couple of months, one of S&P Global’s top sovereign rating analysts said, adding that South Africa was a slow-moving story of steadily rising debt to GDP. Nigeria is a country that S&P is now “watching closely”, Frank Gill, one of the ratings […] July 12, 2023
