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T3H791 Muslim woman talking on phone

Saudi Telecom’s share surge raises prospect of PIF stake sale

Saudi Telecom Co’s surprise dividend increase announcement has propelled its stock to a 13-month high and increased the likelihood that majority shareholder the Public Investment Fund may sell some of its stake in the former telecom monopoly. On Sunday, STC said it would pay SAR0.55 ($0.15) per share each quarter for three years starting from […]

e&'s AI-integrated robot interacts with people at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2024. The company's shares have rallied from a four-year low in May

Worst is over for Etisalat shares but don’t expect a rebound

Shares in UAE blue-chip e& – more commonly known as Etisalat – have fallen by more than half from a 2022 peak as investors fret over difficulties related to some of the telecom operator’s foreign investments. Yet analysts believe these issues are now priced in and so the worst should be over for the stock. Etisalat […]

Gone are the days when telcos could rely on merely a phone network to turn a profit

Telcos turning to tech to propel growth

Fear of market irrelevance has spurred former Gulf telecom operators such as e& to bet on providing more sophisticated, tech-based services to consumers and businesses. This strategy differs from earlier efforts to create a vast geographic footprint for their operations, which, in many cases, led Gulf telcos to nurse billion-dollar losses. E&, which is listed […]

Drake & Scull Louvre Abu Dhabi

Drake & Scull announces positive note after return to markets

Construction company Drake & Scull International has reported mid-year net profit of AED 30 million ($8.17 million) two months after it resumed trading on the Dubai Financial Market following a scandal-plagued, six-year suspension. Engineer and chairman of the board of directors Shafiq Abdelhamid said in a statement that he was “pleased” with Drake & Scull […]

Saudi forex

Saudi forex reserves at 18-month high in boost to giga-projects

Saudi Arabia’s foreign exchange reserves have shot up by nearly 7 percent this year to $445 billion in May, or SAR167 trillion, the highest since November 2022.  The rise gives the government more scope to pump money into cash-constrained giga-projects.  Saudi Arabia has raised $17 billion in debt markets this year. The Public Investment Fund […]

Banks in Egypt provide returns on equity of 30% and more, which analysts say is high for the region

Reasons to be cheerful for UAE banks with Egyptian subsidiaries

Despite the plunge in the value of the Egyptian pound, UAE banks’ subsidiaries in the country remain a strong long-term asset, analysts have told AGBI. Three Emirati banks – Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Dubai’s Emirates NBD – have acquired Egyptian lenders. The pound-to-dollar exchange rate stood at about EGP31 at […]

HSBC is among the global banks that are reported to be in talks for the upcoming Saudi Aramco share sale.

Saudi Arabia taps banks for new Aramco share sale

Saudi Arabia is set to hire banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and HSBC Holdings for a potential secondary share sale in state oil company Aramco that could raise nearly $20 billion – up from earlier estimates of $10 billion. Bloomberg and Reuters reported that the kingdom is in talks with several banks as it […]

The Aramco IPO raised $30 billion and industry observers believe now is the right time for a second listing that could raise a further $10 billion

Appetite high for Aramco’s $10bn second listing

Now is the right time for the Saudi state oil company Aramco to follow through on its much-anticipated second share listing, industry experts have said. Observers believe that growing international investor appetite for the region’s stock markets makes the timing attractive. However, geopolitical regional tensions, concerns about global oil demand, and high interest rates could […]

Credit Suisse, which was taken over by UBS this week, is part owned by SNB

SNB shares rebound following UBS-Credit Suisse deal

Shares in SNB on Tuesday rose for a second session since the state-backed lender said its profits would be unaffected by the UBS takeover of rival Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank in which it owns a minority stake.  Saudi National Bank’s stock rose 3.4 percent to SR45.90 ($12.24), taking its gains to 10.6 percent from […]