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Banking & Finance

Banking & finance news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

Turkish banks to pay dividends after record 2022 profits

Several big Turkish banks want to issue dividends to shareholders after posting record profits in 2022 and the country’s BDDK banking watchdog is considering the request, three banking sources familiar with the issue said. Each year the BDDK makes recommendations regarding banks’ profit distribution. In 2021, dividends were up to 10 percent of lenders’ net […]

Gold prices hit all-time high in Egypt as local currency weakens

The price of gold in Egypt has risen to unprecedented highs as nervous savers seek refuge from a weakening currency and some companies export bullion to raise scarce dollars to fund imports, industry experts say. Figures from the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce’s (FEDCOC) gold division show the price of 21-carat gold surpassing EGP […]

India

Saudi Arabia’s investments in Egypt hit over $6bn

Saudi Arabia has invested $6.1 billion into 6,017 projects across Egypt, becoming the second largest investor in the country, local media reported. The kingdom’s investments cover various sectors, including industry, construction, tourism, agriculture, services, finance, communications and information technology, Arab News reported, citing Egypt’s minister of trade and industry Ahmed Samir. Bilateral trade exchange rose […]

Sanctions forcing Russia’s Sberbank to close UAE office

Russia’s dominant lender Sberbank will be forced to close its office in the UAE early next year, first deputy chairman Alexander Vedyakhin said on Monday, blaming sanctions pressure. Sweeping Western sanctions targeted Russia’s financial system after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24. Sberbank is one of several major Russian banks to have been […]

People, Person, Crowd

Bloomberg has no plans to buy Dow Jones or Washington Post

Bloomberg LP has no interest in acquiring either Dow Jones or the Washington Post, a spokesman has said. “There have been no conversations with anyone or either organisation about an acquisition,” spokesman Ty Trippet said in the tweet, which was retweeted by billionaire owner Michael Bloomberg. News website Axios reported on Friday that Bloomberg was […]

The Bank of Israel building is seen in Jerusalem

Israel awards licence to investors to set up new digital bank

Israel’s banking regulator on Sunday approved a conditional licence and control permit to a group of entrepreneurs to establish a new online bank, the second addition to the highly concentrated banking sector in three years. The Bank of Israel said its banking supervision department had completed the inspection process for the new institution named Esh […]

ECB must be ready to take the heat and raise rates further

The European Central Bank (ECB) must be prepared to take the heat and raise interest rates further, including by more than the market expects, if that is needed to bring down inflation, ECB policymaker Isabel Schnabel said in an interview published on Saturday. The ECB raised rates for a fourth straight time last week and […]

World Bank approves $500m to expand social security in Egypt

The World Bank’s executive board has approved $500 million in development financing for Egypt to expand its social safety net and protection programme in the face of global economic pressures filtering through to the country’s economy, the international cooperation minister said on Friday. The funds will support the government’s Takaful and Karama conditional and unconditional […]

Qatar to invest $2bn in Turkish eurobond issue in January

Qatar is expected to buy $2 billion worth of Turkish eurobonds next month, delivering on an earlier agreement to shore up Ankara’s forex reserves, said two officials with knowledge of the matter. The Turkish economic officials, who requested anonymity, said Doha had already invested some $1 billion as part of that broader deal. In November, […]

Dubai VC

Dubai key as 30% of UK’s VC investors target Mena in 2023

Nearly one in three UK-based investors plan to look towards the Middle East and North Africa for venture capital deals next year, according to new research. The region is the third most popular destination for planned investments during 2023 by UK decision makers who invest in venture capital, after their home market and North America. […]

UK and Saudi Arabia plant seed for closer ties on green finance

Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with the UK to foster greater cooperation on green finance as the kingdom looks increasingly at ethical funding for its transformative giga-projects. Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, and Mohammed Al-Jadaan, the Saudi minister of finance, met on Tuesday in London to sign a memorandum of understanding […]

UAE-based Fintech Galaxy acquires Egypt’s Underlie

UAE-based Fintech Galaxy has acquired Underlie, an Egypt-based open banking platform offering application programming interfaces (APIs) to banks and businesses.  The deal will help set up the company’s open finance and banking across the region, develop and launch new digital solutions and push financial inclusion forward. No financial details were given. Egypt is quickly becoming […]

Turkish central bank expands bond holding requirements

Loans given to Turkish companies’ small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) subsidiaries will be included when calculating the amount of bonds that lenders are mandated to hold, according to new regulations from the central bank. In a letter sent to banks and seen by Reuters, the central bank said that for the loans to be considered […]

Oman sovereign fund targets $5bn spend in 2023

Oman Investment Authority (OIA), a sovereign wealth fund, aims to spend OMR 1.9 billion ($4.95 billion) on investment projects in 2023, state media reported on Tuesday. The OIA said financing for the investment projects will come from the local and foreign private sector, from financing institutions, or from the agency itself or its subsidiaries. The […]

Clinic, Person, Human

EBRD provides $80m to support Turkey’s hospital infrastructure

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a €‎75 million ($80 million) long-term convertible loan to a subsidiary of Turkey’s Ronesans Holding for investment in hospital infrastructure. Ronesans Saglik Yatirim, the unit of the conglomerate that runs hospitals, will undertake to complete the newly acquired hospital project in their portfolio, EBRD said. […]

Turkey lira

Turkey extends forex-protected lira deposit scheme for a year

Turkey has extended by a year a scheme that it had adopted in the throes of a 2021 currency crisis, which protects lira deposits from depreciation versus hard currencies. A presidential decree published in Saturday’s official gazette amended the deadline for opening new so-called KKM accounts to December 31, 2023. President Tayyip Erdogan’s government introduced […]

Saudi’s Neom signs agreements to fund green hydrogen project

Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) has signed facility agreements with local, regional and international banks and completed a commitment letter with the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) for the $5 billion green hydrogen production facility in the Neom mega project.  The financing for the world’s largest green hydrogen production facility is structured with significant participation […]

Turkey’s central bank unlikely to change policy rate next week

Turkey’s central bank is expected to keep its policy rate unchanged next week, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, having decided to end the cycle after cutting it to nine percent in line with President Tayyip Erdogan’s call for single-digit rates. The central bank has lowered its one-week repo rate by 500 basis points in […]

Mubadala Capital's Brazil Special Opportunities Fund II will invest in mature companies facing some form of complexity or distress

Mubadala and Ardian in $2.1bn private equity partnership

Paris-based private equity fund Ardian and Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala’s asset management arm said on Thursday they were forming a $2.1 billion private equity partnership. Ardian would invest in a portfolio of private equity assets managed by Mubadala Capital, and make a primary commitment to its private equity funds, a joint statement said. As […]

Barclays weighs Saudi re-entry amid capital markets boom

Barclays is exploring a return to Saudi Arabia in a bid to capture a slice of the country’s burgeoning capital markets, two people close to the matter told Reuters. The British bank is looking at securing a license in the kingdom to be able to manage deals including initial public offerings (IPOs), the people said, […]