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Wealthy families from the Gulf still like the idea of a second home in London

Britain’s plunging pound rattles Middle Eastern investors

As Britain battles multiple headwinds of an unstable parliament, spiking inflation and a weakened sterling, global investors have taken note. The pound fell to two-year lows against the dollar this month – trading below $1.19 at one point – and Middle Eastern investors are now looking to spread their UK risk, a senior executive at the […]

MediaCityUK in Salford

Gulf investors head outside London to fill up on UK property

The Midlands and Northern England are looking ever more appealing to commercial real estate investors from the GCC, according to a new report GCC investors’ appetite for UK property continues to grow, new research has found, driven in part by the surging appeal of regions outside of London. A report from Bank of London and […]

Ecommerce or bust: in-depth analysis on Gulf online shopping

The coronavirus pandemic encouraged many people to embrace online shopping for the first time, leading to a huge spike in global ecommerce.  But what does the sector look like now across the Middle East and North Africa?  Its three largest ecommerce markets are the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and together they account for more […]

Net zero is old hat, says the mall owner that wants to go bigger

Sustainability is high on the agenda of the region’s major retailers, and in early July, Majid Al Futtaim gave an insight into what it is doing to limit its environmental impact, with the release of its latest environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) report. The retailer, which owns and operates 29 shopping malls across the […]

World’s richest families are shifting investments to Gulf

Qatar’s World Cup, Saudi’s Vision 2030 and UAE’s dynamism are all helping attract wealthy family investors to the region, says UBS Investments in the Middle East by ultra-high-net-worth family offices will increase by at least 50 percent over the next decade, a senior executive at the Swiss global wealth manager UBS told AGBI. Family offices, […]

Money, Dollar, Person

Gulf bond hopefuls wait in wings after plunge in volumes

Middle East companies waiting for a favourable window to sell bonds face some tough choices in terms of when to tap the market, a situation that has already contributed to an 80 percent plunge in issuance volumes in the region in the first half. Some issuers in the Gulf, which typically makes up some 40 […]

dubai mall fashion avenue

Luxury retail rebounds from Covid in the GCC

The GCC’s luxury retail market has made a quicker than anticipated recovery following the coronavirus pandemic. An increase in local spending has been a major factor driving the upturn, together with the expansion of the personal luxury market in Saudi Arabia.  Figures from Bain & Company show that the GCC luxury goods market shrank by […]

Electronics, Person, Human

Netflix lost 770,000 users in Europe, Middle East and Africa

Netflix Inc on Tuesday averted its own worst-case scenario of subscriber losses, posting a nearly 1 million drop from April through June, and predicted it would return to customer growth during the third quarter. Shares, which have fallen roughly 67 percent this year on concerns about the company’s long-term prospects, rose 8 percent in after-hours […]

Road, Intersection, City

Gulf bourses extend rebound as Saudi outperforms

Saudi Arabia’s stock market outperformed its Gulf peers on Tuesday, as the region continued its rebound from the recent selloff, although the markets were cautious about inflation and global economic growth. The benchmark index in the kingdom advanced 1.8 percent, led by a 2.1 percent rise in Riyad Bank and a 2 percent increase in […]

Dome, Architecture, Building

Oil price windfall tests Gulf’s fiscal discipline as inflation rises

A petrodollar windfall is helping some Gulf Arab states pay down debt and providing cash for others to diversify their oil-reliant economies, but it is also testing commitments to fiscal discipline as governments try to shield citizens from inflation. Gulf oil producers have promised more prudence this time as crude prices have spiked higher, seeking […]

Women in meeting

Think women make bad bosses? Think again, says Visa senior VP

Is a man better at running a business than a woman? The Visa Entrepreneur Study, commissioned by the global payments giant, found that nearly four in 10 (38 percent) of male business owners surveyed in the UAE believed men have better business instincts than women. Furthermore, 34 percent said businesses founded by women couldn’t compete […]

Union Coop’s store in Jumeirah, Dubai

Major Gulf bourses gain, while Union Coop falls 9% on debut

Most stock markets in the Gulf ended higher on Monday as an uptick in oil prices lifted sentiment, with the Saudi index leading the gains. Crude prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets, extended gains on a weaker dollar and tight supplies as concerns deepened around gas shipments from Russia. The benchmark Saudi […]

Erika Blazeviciute Doyle, managing director at Drink Dry

Gulf firms tap thirst for no-alcohol drinks

On St Patrick’s Day this year Irish drinks brand Guinness seized the opportunity to promote one of its biggest innovations since its launch in 1759. Four years in the making, Guinness 0.0, a non-alcoholic version of the famous stout brew – first launched in the UK and Ireland in 2020 – has now gone global. […]

Most Gulf indexes drop ahead of concerns over new Fed rate hike

Most stock markets in the Gulf slipped into negative territory on Wednesday, as traders awaited US inflation data for cues on a large Federal Reserve rate hike this month. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index fell 1.1 percent to a near six-month low, with oil behemoth Saudi Aramco losing 3.4 percent and Sahara International Petrochemical Co plunging […]

Women are struggling to get into leadership roles since the pandemic struck

Closing the MENA gender gap could take 115 years

It will take 115 years to close the gender gap in the Middle East and North Africa according to the latest World Economic Forum report. The analysis, which benchmarks the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes, reveals that women’s employment has suffered as the […]

Muslim spend on food increased by 6.9 percent in 2021

Muslims defy pandemic to spend $2trn globally in 2021

Bucking the global trend of tightening the purse strings, the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims spent the equivalent of $2 trillion at the height of the Covid pandemic. This spending reflects an 8.9 percent year-on-year growth from 2020 across a range of sectors offering halal food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fashion, travel, and media/recreation. According to the 2022 […]

Israeli finance minister Avigdor Lieberman

Israel says Biden visit may lead to common Middle East market

Israeli finance minister Avigdor Lieberman said today he hoped a regional visit by US president Joe Biden this week will lead to a common Middle East market that includes Saudi Arabia. Biden arrives in Israel on Wednesday and continues to Saudi Arabia on Friday. The White House has said the visit’s aims include “expanding regional […]