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Opec+ sends conflicting messages on policy move

Top Opec producers and their main allies have given a raft of conflicting messages about next oil policy moves, making it particularly difficult to predict the outcome of the next Opec+ meeting in early June. Remarks by Saudi Arabian energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the de-facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries […]

Saudi Italy GCC

Italy woos Saudi and other Gulf nations in trade drive

Italy is courting Saudi Arabia to invest in a new fund, as the European country increasingly turns to the GCC to boost trade and investment volumes. Industry minister Adolfo Urso said Saudi was ready for further investments following a video call with the kingdom’s investment minister, Khalid Al Falih. Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni plans […]

Oil demand is projected to rise to a record 102 million barrels per day by the end of this year, but ageing tanker fleets threaten to create bottlenecks in supply

Billions needed to replace crude oil tanker fleet

Hundreds of billions of dollars of investment is needed to replace ageing crude oil tankers and avert supply bottlenecks, according to the chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said this week that an estimated annual $640 billion investment is needed to maintain current supplies and meet projected growing demand. According to the […]

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Abu Dhabi tops agencies’ GCC sovereign ratings

UAE capital Abu Dhabi is the highest-rated sovereign in the GCC, while Bahrain and Oman are the only sub-investment grade credit ratings, according to the three major US agencies – Fitch, Moody’s and S&P Global. All three ratings agencies use similar systems, although there are differences in the way their ratings are conveyed. In the […]

Lionel Messi and his family visit Riyadh on May 1. The World Cup winner is an ambassador for Saudi tourism, part of its strategy to attract 100m visitors a year

Middle East beats pre-pandemic tourism numbers

The Middle East has become the first region to return to pre-pandemic tourism levels for a full quarter, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. In the first three months of 2023, international visitor arrivals to the Middle East were 15 percent higher than in the same period of 2019, the UN agency said. The […]

Robert Holtshausen Mclaren

McLaren gears up for Middle East supercar spending spree

McLaren is aiming to double supercar sales in the Middle East and Africa this year, largely driven by demand in the UAE and the arrival of its Artura hybrid model. The carmaker, which is based in Woking in the UK and has Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat as its largest shareholder, expects Dubai to be […]

India oil

Indian oil refiner balances Gulf and Russian suppliers

The Indian Oil Corporation remains committed to term contracts with the Middle East, but increased Russian imports have impacted spot purchases from the region. “Spot purchases have gone down because somewhere there has to be a dip to accommodate the Russian oil,” said the company’s chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya at the 30th annual Middle East […]

Covid-19 appointment in Kabul

Gulf insurers paid out only $80m in Covid death claims

Gulf insurance firms paid out only around $80 million in Covid-19 death-related claims over the last three years, according to AGBI calculations based on industry data. The low amount in the Gulf reflects the low uptake of life insurance policies in the region, where the average life insurance penetration is only 0.1 per cent compared […]

Adult, Female, Person, Gulf, Champagne

Champagne sales in the Gulf fizz by 91%

World Cup fans and wealthy expats led to Champagne imports to the Gulf almost doubling in 2022. After a strong marketing push by French producers helped luxury bubbly become more mainstream, the number of bottles of Champagne shipped to the region surged 91 percent last year. Comité Champagne, the industry body representing French producers, told […]

Cleverly and Al Nahyan UK GCC

UK debates merits of GCC bloc trade versus separate deals

The UK’s International Trade Committee has voiced doubts about the country’s ability to strike a free trade deal with the GCC. As negotiations approach a fourth round, a new report from the cross-party committee that scrutinises spending policies of the Department for International Trade raised a number of issues. These include differing net-zero targets, agri-food […]

Wealthy individuals in the Gulf are turning to outsourced investment specialists to manage their portfolios

Gulf warms to outsourced investment market

A growing number of Gulf businesses and wealthy individuals are outsourcing their investment management, experts have told AGBI. Market volatility and a desire to invest in more complex assets are pushing up demand for outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) services, they said. The Gulf’s increased focus on governance and compliance – plus a recognition that […]

Macron

Gulf is ‘ideal playground’ for surging French investment

France aims to boost its investment relationship with the GCC region by hosting an inaugural Vision Gulf event in Paris next month. The flagship conference organised by Business France, the country’s national trade agency, aims to promote increased collaboration between Middle East-based investors and French corporates. Taking place on June 13-14 at the French Ministry […]

The Mavericks and the Timberwolves go head-to-head in Dallas on February 13. In October the NBA teams will play in Abu Dhabi

US sports the latest goal for Mena investors

The $500 billion American sports market could be the next target for Middle East investors, analysts have said, as two more NBA teams unveil plans to play pre-season games in the UAE. The Dallas Mavericks will face the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi in October this year. They follow in the […]

Opec holds 2023 global oil demand forecast steady

Opec’s global oil demand forecast for 2023 was held steady for a third month on Thursday, as the producer group cited the potential Chinese growth to be offset by downside economic risks elsewhere such as the US debt ceiling. World oil demand in 2023 will rise by 2.33 million barrels per day (bpd), or 2.3 […]

Six companies in Saudi Arabia have announced plans to list on its stock exchange, Tadawul, as experts say the IPO pipeline is "healthy" for the rest of 2023

Mena IPO pipeline ‘healthy’ after fall in Q1 listings

A “healthy pipeline” of initial public offerings lies ahead for the remainder of this year, experts have told AGBI, despite a fall in Middle East and North African listings in the first quarter. According to the EY Mena IPO Eye Q1 2023 report, the quarter saw 10 stock market listings with combined proceeds of $3.4 […]

Workers on a construction site in Riyadh GCC

GCC construction dilemma as Saudi ‘sucking up’ skilled talent

Saudi Arabia’s huge construction projects are luring workers out of neighbouring countries in the GCC and resulting in skills shortages, say experts and builders. Construction executives in the UAE and Oman in particular have voiced concerns about the overall resource demands of the region as Saudi Arabia’s market continued to show strong growth during the […]