Banking & Finance 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, […] July 25, 2022
Analysis Banking & Finance Kingdom Holding bucks European investment exit trend Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company is investing $269 million in British insurance and asset management firm M&G Plc, despite the trend towards Middle East sovereign wealth funds backing away from Europe. M&G has over $370 billion in assets under management. Kingdom is part-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), manages a global portfolio of […] July 22, 2022
Analysis Banking & Finance Saudi bank assets hit $879bn thanks to mortgages and oil Saudi Arabian bank assets grew by 10 percent to reach SR3.3 trillion in assets ($879.43 billion) in 2021, buoyed by the kingdom’s booming mortgage market and a sharp rebound in oil revenues. That’s according to global rankings from The Banker published earlier this month, which also shows that the kingdom’s credit grew by 15.5 percent […] July 22, 2022
Banking & Finance Saudi Arabia helps fund $100m emergency food aid for Sudan The World Bank has agreed to provide the UN’s World Food Programme with $100 million for an “emergency safety net project” to address food insecurity in Sudan, it said in a statement on Thursday. The programme, whose funding comes from the European Union, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and several other Western nations, aims to provide […] July 22, 2022
Banking & Finance 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 […] July 22, 2022
Analysis Banking & Finance Fresh wave of hedge funds poised to tap UAE The UAE is fast becoming a magnet for overseas hedge funds seeking a low-cost, investor-friendly base amid Brexit, the Ukraine crisis, and changes in working patterns brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. A clutch of hedge funds from the UK and US have set up or expanded operations in Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the […] July 21, 2022
Analysis Banking & Finance One in 10 financial transactions in UAE are malicious cyberattacks An average of one in 10 financial transactions in the UAE are malicious attacks carried out by cybercriminals, with the number of such attacks on the rise in the last 12 months, according to an industry survey. The UAE’s rapid digitisation of company operations, and the rise in popularity of e-commerce platforms during the pandemic […] July 19, 2022
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 […] July 19, 2022
Banking & Finance India to invest more in Sri Lanka on top of $3.8bn already given India is willing to make more investments in neighbouring Sri Lanka after supporting it with $3.8 billion this year, New Delhi’s envoy in Colombo told the Indian Express newspaper. “The idea is to respond to Sri Lanka’s requests for enabling them to meet their foreign exchange crisis,” said Gopal Baglay, India’s high commissioner in Sri […] July 19, 2022
Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa opens branch in Dubai Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) has set up operations in the United Arab Emirates, it said on Monday. The new branch, located in the Dubai International Financial Centre, will serve customers across the region and focus on correspondent banking, relationship management and advisory services, UBA said in a statement. Group chairman Tony O. Elumelu […] July 19, 2022
Banking & Finance Crypto giant OKX plans ‘long-term play’ in UAE after licence win Crypto trading app OKX plans to make Dubai its regional hub and hire 100-plus people in the UAE July 18, 2022
Analysis Biden Middle East The road from Jeddah: US and Saudi set out their 19 priorities Clean energy, investment deals and space exploration are at the heart of the Jeddah communiqué – the partnership agreement issued by the US and Saudi governments after President Joe Biden’s meeting with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Among the agreements reached during the president’s visit on July 15 and 16 was a […] July 18, 2022
Real estate group MNHD rebuffs takeover bid by UAE-backed rival Egyptian property company Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development has rebuffed a takeover bid by rival SODIC, saying on Sunday the offer did not represent the company’s true value and calling on SODIC to reconsider it. MNHD’s board said it was prepared to restart work to conclude a deal if SODIC put forward an offer […] July 18, 2022
Banking & Finance UAE detains Khashoggi lawyer on money laundering charges UAE authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen and civil rights attorney who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said US-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member. A UAE government official confirmed Ghafoor was arrested while transiting through Dubai International Airport on July 14 on charges […] July 18, 2022
Banking & Finance JPMorgan appoints co-heads of Mideast investment banking JPMorgan has appointed Hani Deaibes and Ahmed Salem as co-heads of its Middle East and North Africa investment banking business, the US bank said in a statement on Thursday. Deaibes, at JPM since 2007, was head of the bank’s debt capital markets (DCM) business for the Middle East. He was previously at Merrill Lynch in […] July 15, 2022
Banking & Finance Dubai gives crypto firm OKX provisional licence Crypto trading app OKX said on Thursday it had been given a provisional virtual assets licence by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), which was set up earlier this year to regulate the industry. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been pushing to develop virtual asset regulation to attract new forms of business as […] July 14, 2022
Exclusive Banking & Finance The Gulf is going cashless – and sooner than you think Hany Fekry has been living in the UAE for about six months. In that time he says he has spent a grand total of AED40 in cash transactions. It’s why the group MD (Processing) of regional payments giant Network International is so certain that the UAE will effectively be a cashless society within three years. […] July 14, 2022
Banking & Finance Mubadala in talks to buy asset manager Fortress from SoftBank Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co is in talks to acquire asset manager Fortress Investment Group from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is discussing a deal that would value Fortress at more than $1 billion, said Bloomberg News, which first reported […] July 13, 2022
Banking & Finance IMF says it held productive talks on new programme for Egypt The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it had held productive discussions during a staff visit to Egypt on economic policies and reforms to be supported by an extended fund facility. “In the period ahead, we are continuing our close engagement with the authorities towards reaching staff-level agreement,” the IMF statement said. The IMF […] July 12, 2022
Mubadala leads $400m funding for German ‘insurtech’ Wefox Digital insurance startup Wefox said on Tuesday it had raised $400 million from investors, valuing the “insurtech” business at $4.5 billion. Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala Investment Company led the investment in the Series D round, which will be used to expand into more countries and to develop its platform, Wefox said. A year ago […] July 12, 2022
Analysis Banking & Finance Gulf sovereign investments may be hit by new UK tax plans Gulf-based sovereign wealth funds could see tax exemptions on investments in the UK slashed under new proposals put forward by the British government. Britain is planning to reduce the scope of the exemption to just interest income from investment activity. This would move income profits and capital gains from investment in UK real estate, as […] July 8, 2022
Banking & Finance Latest $11.6bn bank merger to create Gulf’s 7th largest lender Kuwait Finance House (KFH) has agreed to buy Bahrain’s Ahli United for about $11.6billion. The bumper deal would create the Gulf’s seventh-largest lender with $115 billion in assets. Under the revised terms, KFH will offer one share for every 2.695 shares of Ahli, implying an offer price of $1.04 per share – a 13 percent […] July 7, 2022
