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Egypt has been suffering a severe shortage of foreign currency despite a 14.5 percent devaluation on October 27

Egyptian banks follow currency devaluation with high-yield CDs

Egypt’s three biggest state banks on Thursday offered three-year certificates of deposit with a 17.25 percent annual yield, a move designed to absorb liquidity and contain inflation after a devaluation of the currency. The move by National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr (BM) and Banque du Caire followed a 200 basis points rate hike […]

Emirates NBD’s Q3 2022 profit climbs 51% on higher income

Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, reported on Thursday a 51 percent rise in net profit in the third quarter of 2022 on higher income, including net interest income and from transactions. Emirates NBD made net profit of AED3.8 billion ($1.03 billion) in the quarter from AED2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021. EFG Hermes […]

Israel’s Bank Leumi interested in investments in Saudi Arabia

Israel’s Bank Leumi would like to tap into investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Chairman Samer Haj Yehia told a business forum in Riyadh, which he is attending in the latest sign of a potential thawing in Saudi-Israeli relations. The presence of Bank Leumi, one of Israel’s two largest banks, at the kingdom’s flagship investment event […]

Mercedes-Benz lifts profit forecast as luxury cars boom

Mercedes-Benz raised its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday as strong demand for luxury cars and cost savings offset the supply chain bottlenecks that have hampered industry output this year. The German automaker said it now expected group earnings to rise at least 15% this year, compared with a previous forecast of 5%-15% growth, after profits […]

Turkey bankers say ballooning debt poses long-term risks

Turkish bank executives raised concerns with authorities this week that a year of new rules forcing them to buy government bonds could ultimately destabilise the sector, even as it sharply reduces costs of a big pre-election spending plan. According to six people who participated in or were briefed on a Monday meeting with finance minister […]

Oman’s sovereign fund eyes investments in UK tech firms

Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, the Oman Investment Authority, is considering investing in the United Kingdom’s technology sector to take advantage of valuations hit by rising interest rates and the fall in sterling, an OIA executive said on Wednesday. Ibrahim Al Eisri, director general of private equity at OIA, told Reuters the wealth fund was looking […]

Morocco shores up finances by choosing IMF deal over bonds

Morocco has not issued an international bond this year due to market volatility and higher interest rates, opting instead for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) credit line to shore up public finances, the finance minister said on Tuesday. Last time Morocco issued an international bond was in 2020 when it raised $3 billion. “This year […]

US bankers at Riyadh summit issue warning over world economy

Top Wall Street bankers renewed their warnings about the world economy on Tuesday amid geopolitical tensions and steep interest rate hikes to tackle decades-high inflation. Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon said economic conditions would “tighten meaningfully from here” and the US Federal Reserve could hike rates beyond 4.5-4.75 percent if it does not see real […]

UAE’s total revenue rose 26% and spending up 1% in 2021

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) state revenues totalled AED463.9 billion ($126.3 billion) in 2021, up 26 percent from 2020, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, citing the finance ministry. State expenditure totalled AED402.4bn in the same period, up one percent on 2020, WAM said. The figures pointed to an overall surplus of AED61.5 billion […]

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman speaks at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh on October 25

Riyadh was more ‘mature’ in spat with Washington, minister tells FII

Saudi Arabia decided to be the “maturer guys” in a spat with the United States over oil supplies, the kingdom’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday. Prince Abdulaziz made the comment during his speech to the kingdom’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) event, which has drawn top executives from the US and elsewhere. […]

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ manages $157bn in assets

Sovereign wealth fund tracker Global SWF estimated on Monday that Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, which last week became the new owner of state carrier Etihad, has seen its assets under management grow to $157 billion. The smallest of Abu Dhabi’s three main sovereign wealth funds, ADQ has emerged as one of the region’s most active dealmakers, […]

Rishi Sunak becomes the UK's next prime minister

Rishi Sunak to be UK prime minister: What you need to know

Rishi Sunak will be Britain’s next prime minister after his rivals quit the race, following one of the most turbulent periods in British political history. Politics Sunak, the 42-year-old former finance minister, will become Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months. His predecessor Liz Truss was brought down after just six weeks in […]

Empower

Empower targets Gulf expansion with IPO cash boost

Dubai’s Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) on the Dubai Financial Market on November 16, as it eyes expansion to neighbouring Gulf states, company executives said on Monday. Subscriptions will open on October 31 and close on November 7.  Final pricing will be set on November 9 […]

Airbus and Boeing battle for jet orders for new Saudi airline

Saudi Arabia is in advanced negotiations to order almost 40 A350 jets from Europe’s Airbus as part of strategic efforts to launch a new airline and challenge heavyweight carriers in the Gulf, industry sources said. If confirmed, the purchase by the sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), worth $12 billion at list prices, could be announced […]

Person, Human, Money

Lebanon to halt purchase of US dollars on Sayrafa platform

Lebanon’s central bank will halt purchases of dollars on its Sayrafa platform starting on October 25 until further notice, a statement from the central bank said on Sunday. The statement said the bank would continue to sell exclusively dollars on its exchange rate platform. The move is intended to strengthen the Lebanese pound after it […]

Egypt to develop new currency indicator to wean off dollar peg

Egypt will develop a new currency indicator partly to wean people off the idea that the Egyptian pound should be pegged to the US dollar, the new central bank governor said on Sunday. Hassan Abdalla, appointed in August, told an economic conference that the central bank was also working to introduce currency hedging and had […]

Money, Dollar, Person

Turkey halts lending to more FX-rich firms to boost lira

Turkey tightened lending rules for many companies with more than $500,000 in foreign currency cash on Friday, sweeping up more borrowers under rules adopted in June in the latest step to reverse a tumbling lira. The BDDK bank regulator said that if companies subject to independent audit had more than 10 million lira ($538,000) of […]

Lebanon and Syria discuss sea border after Beirut’s Israel deal

The Lebanese and Syrian presidents discussed delineating their countries’ shared maritime border on Saturday before a visit to Damascus next week by a Lebanese delegation tasked with negotiating the issue, a Lebanese official said. A dispute over their shared sea boundary emerged last year after Syria granted a licence to a Russian energy company to […]

Saudi Arabia eyes $10bn in supply chain investment

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Sunday launched an initiative to attract investments in supply chains to and from the kingdom, with an aim of raising an initial SAR 40 billion ($10.64 billion). The initiative by Prince Mohammed bin Salman will include allocating about SAR 10 billion in incentives for supply chain investors, state news agency […]