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e& has fully acquired Norway telecom-owned Telenor Pakistan, which serves 45m subscribers

Shares in Etisalat slide after Vodafone’s UK deal

Shares in UAE telco Etisalat, Vodafone’s biggest shareholder, fell on Thursday after the British firm announced it would merge its domestic mobile operations with those of rival CK Hutchison. The long-anticipated tie-up heightens uncertainty over the potential benefits to Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat, now branded as e&, of its stake in Vodafone. Since first announcing it […]

Nesma & Partners Kent

Scottish firm buys Dubai oil and gas consultancy

A Scottish company that trains drilling personnel for the energy sector has bought a Dubai oil and gas consultancy in an effort to double its customer base in the Middle East and North Africa. Aberdeen Drilling School said it will add services including new hire assessments, role-specific progression programmes and rig reactivation support following the […]

Manchester United Qatar takeover bid

Manchester United shares up as Qatar bid tipped to win

Shares of Manchester United rose 13 percent to hit a two-month high on Tuesday after a news report indicated that Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar was likely to succeed with his takeover bid for the English football club. Qatar’s Al-Watan newspaper reported that Sheikh Jassim was likely to be announced as the […]

Opec Russia

Opec+ grants Russia higher production baseline

Opec+ has granted Russia a slightly higher oil production baseline after the country agreed to work with several think-tanks and agencies to review its output figures, Opec+ said. Oil production baselines are used by Opec to determine levels from which production cuts are made. Russia has made its production figures classified since the West imposed […]

Geneva Gulf visitors

Geneva’s Gulf visitors not put off by Swiss bank crisis

Switzerland’s banking system may have suffered a dent to its reputation this year, but the headlines have not put off Gulf visitors from visiting Geneva. For the first 10 months of 2022, Gulf visitors accounted for 191,139 room nights in the European country’s second city, according to data from its official tourism body. Travellers from […]

Ursula von der Leyen and other EU leaders met Tunisia's President Kais Saied on June 11

EU offers Tunisia $1bn loan – if it accepts IMF reforms

The European Union has offered Tunisia a €1 billion ($1.07 billion) loan to prop up its economy and tighten border controls. Under the proposal, Tunis must agree to sweeping economic reforms, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The International Monetary Fund agreed a $1.9 billion bailout for Tunisia last September, but it has […]

One of AIR's businesses produces flavoured molasses for shisha pipes

UK private equity firm to sell stake in Dubai shisha company

Kingsway Capital is in talks with tobacco firms as it tries to sell its stake in Dubai’s Advanced Inhalation Rituals (Air). The British private equity company, the majority owner of Air, has met with potential investors including British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco, two sources told Reuters. The talks are part of a dual-track process, where a seller pursues a sale and an […]

Clean energy and tech driving UAE-Scotland trade

Clean energy and tech power UAE-Scotland trade

It’s a long way from the icy waters of the North Sea to the saline depths of the Straits of Hormuz, but the world’s first offshore floating wind farm is proof of a burgeoning arrangement between Scotland and the UAE. Masdar, the UAE’s government-owned clean energy company, has a 25 percent stake in the 30 […]

The UAE Banks Federation has launched a steering committee focused on ESG issues

Denmark’s Orsted to invest $68bn in renewables by 2030

Renewable energy group Orsted will invest 475 billion Danish crowns ($68.3 billion) by 2030 to achieve its goal of 50 gigawatts (GW) of installed power capacity at the end of the decade. The Danish company said the plans were fully self-funded and that it expected to outperform goals set in 2021 for earnings before interest, […]

Vodafone

Vodafone and Hutchison to announce UK merger soon

Vodafone and CK Hutchison are in the final stage of agreeing to merge their British operations, with an announcement expected as soon as Friday or early next week, three sources have told Reuters. Vodafone will own 51 percent and Hutchison 49 percent of the combined group, which could be worth around £15 billion ($18.6 billion) including debt, […]

Airlines seek cooperation to meet ‘tough’ net-zero targets

Global airlines called on Tuesday for broad co-operation to reach “very tough” emission targets and pledged to release interim climate targets next year as the industry aims for a goal of net-zero by 2050. Aviation, which produces around two percent of the world’s emissions, is considered one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and the […]

Simon Penney UK trade commissioner to Middle East

GCC countries urged to stick together for UK trade deal

GCC countries negotiating with the UK for a free trade agreement must stick together as one rather than seeking individual national deals, according to the outgoing UK Middle East trade commissioner. Trade talks between the six countries in the Gulf bloc – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain – and the UK […]

Iata’s Willie Walsh hits out at the EU as ‘anti-aviation’

Airlines took aim at Europe over green fuel mandates and its failures to stem France’s air traffic control strikes as they weigh on carrier capacities at a global airlines meeting in Istanbul on Monday. European regulators have introduced a new mandate demanding airlines use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), an alternative to jet fuel that produces […]

Smaller UK firms attractive targets for PE buyouts

Even as higher costs of borrowing continue to choke dealmaking, fund managers and bankers believe smaller UK-listed firms remain attractive to private equity players flush with unspent funds of nearly a trillion dollars. Central banks have been battling high prices by hiking borrowing costs for more than a year now and market participants expect the […]

GCC EU reps UAE minister Al Zeyoudi and Dombrovskis European Commission

GCC-EU trade soars 77% on back of Ukraine crisis

Energy exports from the GCC sent its trade with the European Union soaring last year. Trade between the two regions increased to nearly 175 billion euros ($186 billion) last year after the global energy market disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trade with the Gulf jumped 77 percent from approximately $124 billion in 2021, […]

Crowd, Person, People

Italy to create $1.1bn fund for local strategic firms

Italy’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill to create a fund to support domestic firms, the industry minister said in a statement, in a move aimed at shoring up strategic supply chains. The upcoming national strategic fund for “Made in Italy” products will have an initial endowment of €1 billion ($1.10 billion) in state cash, […]

Miner Saudi

Saudi and UK to strengthen supply chain for minerals

The UK and Saudi Arabia have signed a declaration of intent to develop supply chains for critical minerals. The agreement aims to support the global energy transition by increasing the supply of minerals used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Lithium, nickel and copper are among the metals covered by the declaration, which […]

A doorman at the London department store. The Qatar Investment Authority bought it in 2010

Harrods checks into hotels as it awaits return of Chinese shoppers

Harrods, the London department store owned by Qatar, has opened its first branded hotel project, diversifying into hospitality overseas as the retail sector faces challenges at home.  In late March it launched the Harrods Residence Suite, a two-storey luxury suite in Swire Hotels’ Beijing property the Opposite House. The retailer also has a hospitality outpost […]

A Golden Fields site. It has farms and processing facilities across the Baltic region

Abu Dhabi agribusiness links up with Estonian forage firm

An Abu Dhabi agribusiness has signed a supply agreement that will drive construction of forage processing facilities in the Baltic. Al Dahra Group has made the deal with Golden Fields, an Estonian animal feed company. Under the partnership, Al Dahra has an exclusive offtake agreement for forage – such as corn silage, grasses, alfalfa and […]