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Finance

Finance, economics, markets and trade news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan with tech boss Elon Musk during Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this week

Saudi Arabia trims bets on US tech stocks

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) rejigged its US equities portfolio during a tumultuous first quarter for Stateside stocks, expanding its direct investment in Amazon but trimming its bets on some of the other so-called Magnificent Seven technology companies. PIF has submitted filings to the US market regulator each financial quarter from 2020 onwards when […]

EBRD announced a €1.5 billion investment package to support the recovery and reconstruction of the earthquake-hit regions in Turkey

Turkey gets $219m to develop projects in quake-hit cities

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide €195 million ($219 million) to two infrastructure projects in Turkey’s earthquake-hit cities of Adiyaman and Hatay. The development bank will provide €95 million ($106 million) to cover the construction of wastewater and stormwater networks and facilities in Adiyaman, it said in a statement. Another €100 million […]

Jordan banks: Bank al Etihad, one of Jordan's biggest lenders, provides a range of mainly retail services

Jordan’s Bank al Etihad buys smaller Investbank

Jordan’s Bank al Etihad has acquired smaller peer Investbank in a deal that will create one of the kingdom’s biggest lenders, bank officials said on Thursday. The two banks’ boards agreed to a stock-for-stock acquisition that will create an entity with a total equity value of over $1.4 billion, Bank al Etihad chairman Basem Salfiti […]

Arabian Construction Company's projects include Abu Dhbai's Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Arabian Construction Company hires banks for IPO

Arabian Construction Company (ACC), a family-owned business in Abu Dhabi, has reportedly picked local and global banks for its proposed initial public offering. First Abu Dhabi Bank and HSBC will advise the company on its domestic listing, Bloomberg reported. The listing is expected to take place in the second half of the year, sources said. In […]

Dockside view of King Abdullah Economic City. Emaar EC cut its losses by over half as revenues grew helped by property sales and industrial growth in KAEC

Emaar EC trims losses as revenue nearly triple

Emaar EC, the master developer of King Abdullah Economic City, trimmed net losses by more than half in the first quarter of 2025 as revenues almost tripled. Net loss narrowed to SAR123 million ($32.8 million) in the quarter ended March 31, 2025, from SAR352 million a year earlier, the developer said in a statement published on […]

Gulf wealth funds are 'keen to deploy more capital in specific jurisdictions, and secondaries offer a way to get more access to technology in the US' says Alex Chauvin

Gulf sovereign wealth funds tap secondaries market

The Middle East’s sovereign wealth funds are using the surging secondaries investment market to take strategic stakes in emerging technologies, experts have told AGBI. A secondaries investment is the acquisition of interests in already formed private market funds or a portfolio of direct investments from existing investors. Global secondaries transactions rose almost 50 percent last […]

Despite successful fundraising, Oman struggles to attract foreign equity investors amid post-IPO price declines

Oman’s state IPO history raises question over future sales

Oman’s privatisation programme of state-owned companies has boosted government coffers and helped improve the sultanate’s credit rating, but it has brought little joy for equity investors. Since the start of 2023, five state-controlled businesses have sold shares to the public in initial public offerings (IPOs), raising almost $4 billion in total. These span four subsidiaries […]

Syrian finance minister Yisr Barnieh said there has been strong interest to do business from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and several EU countries

Syria invites foreign investors after US sanctions removal

Syrian finance minister Yisr Barnieh made a call to global investors on Wednesday to come and do business with Syria after US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that he would lift all of Washington’s sanctions on the country. “Syria today is a land of opportunities, with immense potential across every sector—from agriculture to oil, tourism, infrastructure, and transportation,” Barnieh […]

Donald Trump in the Gulf, with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Al Thani said the countries were 'going to another level of relationship'

Qatar takes centre stage on Trump’s Middle East mission

Major deal announcements kept rolling in on Wednesday as Donald Trump travelled from Riyadh to Doha on the second day of his visit to the Gulf. Qatar Airways agreed to purchase up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X jets for $96 billion in what the White House described as Boeing’s “largest ever wide-body order”. […]

Saudi Arabia and China agree $3.7 billion in deals, strengthening agricultural trade ties and boosting Saudi food security efforts

Saudi Arabia and China sign deals worth $3.7bn to boost agriculture

Saudi Arabia and China have signed 57 agreements worth SAR14 billion ($3.7 billion) to strengthen their trade relations, focusing mainly on the agriculture sector. The two nations signed 31 agreements in the field of greenhouses, livestock, poultry and fisheries during the Saudi-Chinese Business Forum, the ministry of environment, water and agriculture said in a post […]

Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's minister of finance, insists economic transformation is progressing despite recent market turbulence, highlighting disinflation

Turkish minister says economy on track despite slower growth

Turkey’s finance minister has said the country’s economic transformation was on track and that the country was prepared to deal with slower growth. Finance minister Mehmet Simsek said that tighter financial conditions, lower oil prices and a weaker dollar were likely to be disinflationary, boosting the economy. “Growth is slower but we can live with […]

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Economic promises seem to outweigh Oman's diplomatic efforts on President Trump's current trip

Why Oman is off Trump’s travel plans

Oman may have negotiated a ceasefire between the US and Yemen’s Houthis, and is the go-between the US and Iran in negotiations around nuclear weapons capability. But it is not among the countries President Donald Trump is visiting in the Arabian Gulf this week. “These Gulf countries Trump is currently visiting are offering trillions of […]

Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made a raft of deals after the president arrived in Riyadh

Arms, investment and AI top list of deals on busy day for Trump

Tens of billions of dollars in new partnerships between the US and Saudi Arabia were announced on Tuesday in Riyadh during the first day of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf. Artificial intelligence, aviation, energy and defence dominated the flurry of deals, with the White House again touting that the kingdom will invest $600 […]

2YJHBFX A young happy Muslim woman using mobile phone and holding credit card checking balance account or making money transfer. Online Payment Internet

Rise of Middle East fintechs gives banks a run for their money

The growth of fintech in the Middle East is driving traditional banks to refocus on better serving their customers and invest in their own dedicated subsidiaries as the sector eats into their market share, industry experts say. In the three months to March 31, fintech funding accounted for almost 60 percent of all venture capital […]

Saudi Arabian and US flags on display in Riyadh for Donald Trump's visit. The Saudi stock market has around 4,000 qualified foreign investors

Over half of foreign investors on Tadawul are from US

More than half of qualified foreign investors (QFIs) in the Saudi stock market are from the US, according to Saudi Tadawul Group, the operator of the stock exchange. The Saudi exchange has more than 4,000 QFIs, Sarah Al-Suhaimi told the Saudi-US Investment Forum. “I can say that approximately 55 percent of foreign investments through the […]

City Walk Dubai, part of the Dubai Holding REIT

Dubai Holding seeks up to $500m from REIT listing

Dubai Holding aims to raise a maximum of AED1.8 billion ($490 million) from its residential real estate investment trust (REIT) listing. This month the investment conglomerate owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the emirate’s ruler, announced floating 12.5 percent of its Dubai Residential REIT, or 1.63 billion units, on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).  […]

Advertising for cryptocurrencies is on the rise in Egypt but regulators have issued warnings

Egypt renews warning over dealing in cryptocurrencies

Egypt has issued a fresh warning against dealing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies following a surge in local online advertisements for investment in these tools. The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) said these currencies lack official financial backing that guarantees their stability and that they could be used in terror funding. In a weekend statement on […]