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GCC

Business news and financial news, analysis, opinion and statistics covering the six Gulf Corporation Council members Bahrain, Kuwait,  Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Emerging market fund managers 'allocate more time and money to bigger markets like India and China' than Dubai or Saudi Arabia, says one expert

Foreign investors still underweight on Gulf stocks

International investors have pumped more than $60 billion into Gulf stocks over the past five years but their share of ownership is still relatively low, putting into question the success of GCC states’ economic diversification policies. Governments in the world’s largest oil-producing region have long sought to increase foreign direct investment into their economies and […]

Gulf hotel franchise

Gulf hotel owners switch to franchises in search of profits

Hotel owners in the Gulf are increasingly choosing franchise agreements with international hotel brands over the less profitable direct management route, industry experts and analysts say.  This is especially true in the UAE and Saudi Arabia where the hotel industry is maturing and hotel owners know their business better, driving them to manage their own […]

Gulf consultancy consulting

Gulf consulting market expected to cross $8bn this year

The Gulf consulting sector is expected to outperform the rest of the world in 2025 with growth of 12 percent, twice as fast as the United States. Although the regional market is predicted to be worth more than $8 billion, growth will be at a slightly slower pace. Last year the GCC market grew by […]

Borouge chairman Sultan Al Jaber visits the Borouge 4 project, which will increase the company's petrochemicals production by almost one third

Gulf oil companies turn up petrochemicals investment

Gulf national oil companies (NOCs) are increasingly focusing their investment attention on petrochemicals as they seek to move up the value chain and as global demand growth for crude slows, experts say. The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the petrochemical industry to account for one third of global oil demand growth by 2030 and […]

Side view of professional female IT developer from Middle East coding at ease on laptop while sitting at workstation with several computers in office

Gulf digitalisation growth barely moving needle in productivity

Improvements in the availability and quality of digital infrastructure and services have yet to impact productivity growth in the Gulf economies in any meaningful way, according to IMF officials, past and present. The digitalisation of government services – through online portals for administrative tasks or e-procurement platforms – as well as the advent of tele-health […]

The tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange was rocked by the emergence of DeepSeek, and S&P and Dow Jones have fallen, too

The Gulf is not immune to global economic fluctuations

It has been a torrid week in the US markets. The S&P 500 has fallen 8 percent over the past month – close to correction territory – while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 6 percent. The dollar, too, has been hurt, which is of consequence to the Gulf’s dollar-pegged economies. The greenback has […]

Project finance is becoming ever more important in funding the growing number of major infrastructure projects across the Gulf region

Project finance central to funding Gulf infrastructure

Financing a project and project finance are not necessarily the same thing. Irrespective, project finance is as important as ever in the Gulf in funding billions of dollars of infrastructure projects, from energy and water schemes to data centres and battery storage facilities, according to experts.  Abbas Hussein, global head of infrastructure and development finance […]

2X5K4RN Multi-Ethnic Office Conference Room Meeting: Diverse Team of Top Managers, Executives, Share Digital Tablet Computer Talk. Businesspeople Discuss Strategy, do Analysis.

Growth-stage investment heats up as Gulf IPOs gain traction

Global investors are increasingly vying for stakes in later-stage Gulf startups, betting on the region’s economic expansion and stronger exit opportunities, as the regional IPO markets gain momentum. The region, long overlooked for growth-stage capital – minority investments in established companies aimed at accelerating expansion – is witnessing a surge of interest from giants such […]

Workers at a construction site near Riyadh. The need for project finance has grown as Gulf governments push ahead with mega-projects

The changing face of project finance around the Gulf

Contrasting trends are emerging in Gulf project finance, with deals increasing in duration but also more likely to be refinanced early. Project finance is a funding model often used for infrastructure, in which repayment comes from revenue generated by the completed facility rather than being guaranteed by the owners. “Repayment depends on the project succeeding,” […]

Wealthy investors have another asset to trade with securitisation

Asset securitisation in the Gulf takes its first baby steps 

Asset securitisation, a $14 trillion business in the United States, seems to be finally gaining ground in the Gulf. Last week the UAE lender Deem Finance sealed a $400 million asset securitisation deal with JP Morgan. Emirates NBD of Dubai and Rasmal Ventures in Qatar have also co-invested $7.6 million in the Turkish startup TeamSec, […]

A soybean farm in Brazil. Brazil's Agribrasil traded in 1.858 million tonnes of soybeans and corn in the first nine months of 2024

GCC companies vie for stake in Brazilian grain trader 

Brazilian grain trader Agribrasil has held talks with suitors interested in buying a stake in the company, according to two sources familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private, and GCC companies are reported in the mix. Two sources named Solaris Commodities, an independent commodity trader headquartered in Dubai, […]

The prospect of passing down wealth to the next generation is forcing families to rethink financial governance

Citigroup hiring to tap the Gulf family office market

Citigroup says it is expanding its presence in the UAE, the second-largest Arab economy, as it competes to manage more of the assets of wealthy Gulf merchant families. $1 trillion of these assets are expected to shift to the next generation by the end of this decade. To boost its capabilities, the US bank says […]

Workers carry fertiliser bags to be mixed with water at a farm in Sharjah: the World Bank’s fertiliser price index has rebounded to 124 from a three-year low last May of 108

Gulf investors urged to switch from petrochems to fertiliser

Gulf fertiliser companies are trading below their fair value, with investors not seeming to price in a rebound in product prices that analysts say is more than just a seasonal upswing. In the Gulf, fertilisers and petrochemicals are considered adjacent industries, since both rely on natural gas as a feedstock. While petrochemical companies’ earnings have […]