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Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (left) completed a visit to the UAE in February to sign deals on trade cooperation

Indian investment in GCC falls despite increased trade

Investment from India into Gulf countries has dropped considerably despite growth in bilateral trade due to the country adopting a more protectionist approach. Trade between India and the group of six GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – reached almost 16 percent of the country’s total in the last […]

Mashreq has injected over $125 million so far into India, signalling its readiness to invest further

Mashreq explores presence in India’s new economic zone

UAE lender Mashreq is exploring setting up an office in India’s special economic zone, according to a media report. The bank is exploring opportunities beyond its current footprint, Tarek El Nahas, group head of international banking at Mashreq told Moneycontrol, an Indian financial news portal. The prospect of setting up a presence in the Gujarat […]

ADIA bid Haldiram

ADIA consortium bids for stake in India’s largest snack maker

A consortium including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has submitted a bid to acquire a controlling stake in the snacks business of India’s Haldiram, according to a media report. The consortium, which also include US-based alternative asset manager Blackstone and GIC of Singapore, aims to secure 75 percent of the Indian company’s snacks unit, valuing it […]

Amit Arora the new CEO of Arada, says 'we are seeing a diverse group of investors and residents that want to buy in our communities'

Overseas buyers dominate in Sharjah’s reformed real estate

Overseas buyers in Arada’s two mega-developments in Sharjah have vastly outnumbered locals in the year-and-a-half since the emirate expanded full real estate ownership rights to non-GCC nationals. From when Aljada, Sharjah’s biggest mixed-use project, launched in 2017 until the land reform of late October 2022, Emirati nationals bought more than 63 percent of the value […]

SJP's chief investment officer Justin Onuekwusi, second from right, at the event in Dubai. Other speakers included, from left, Ben Powell of the BlackRock Investment Institute, Angelina Lai of SJP Asia and Middle East, and Robert Willock of the Economist Intelligence Unit

Wealth manager seeks Gulf growth despite setbacks in UK

St James’s Place, the UK’s largest wealth manager, plans to target local customers to expand its one-year-old Gulf operation as it seeks to brush off reputational setbacks in its home market. In February SJP disclosed that it had set aside more than $500 million for potential client refunds after an increase in complaints about its […]

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries which will receive the investment from AIDA and US-based KKR

Abu Dhabi’s ADIA invests in Indian warehouses

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the US-based private equity firm KKR have invested INR 12,000 crore ($1.5 billion) in India’s Reliance Retail Ventures’ warehousing assets.  Both companies have invested equal amounts in Reliance Logistics and Warehouse Holdings (RLWH), The Economic Times, an Indian financial daily, reported, citing informed sources.  RLWH was established in […]

The National Stock Exchange in Mumbai, India. Bahrain's Investcorp is investing in technology and IT services companies worldwide

Investcorp buys Indian tech company for $120m  

Bahrain’s alternative asset manager, Investcorp, is to acquire the digital technology business of India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) for $120 million. NSEIT provides advanced digital transformation and cybersecurity services to global customers in capital markets, insurance and banking in India, North America and the Middle East. The services include digital engineering, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud services […]

A view of Jebel Ali Port. Trade between the UAE and India rose from $72.9 billion to $84.5 billion between 2021 and 2023

UAE and India on track to hit $100bn non-oil trade

The UAE and India will surpass the $100 billion non-oil trade target by 2030, with increasing aviation links between the two countries seen as a potential catalyst. Bilateral trade increased by 15 percent since the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) was implemented in May 2022, the Indian government-owned Press Trust of India reported, quoting Cepa council director […]

Zayed International airport's air traffic controllers have guided planes carrying at total of 6.8 million passengers in the first three months of the year

London and India dominate airport traffic in Abu Dhabi

London and Indian cities dominated traffic at Abu Dhabi’s airports during the first quarter with year-on-year visitor numbers up by more than a third. Close to 7 million passengers passed through the emirate’s five airports in the first three months of the year. Zayed International airport, formerly known as Abu Dhabi International airport, welcomed 6.8 […]

A silver trader in his shop in Ahmedabad, India. India is sourcing an increasing amount of its silver from the UAE

India’s silver imports from UAE on the rise

Supplies of silver to India from the UAE have increased this year, as the Emirates’ exporters benefit from an agreement signed between the countries two years ago. The India-UAE comprehensive economic partnership agreement signed in 2022 has significantly boosted imports, according to a report by Indian English-language business newspaper The Financial Express.  The UAE route […]

Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi. Imeec aims to integrate railway routes and link ports along a route spanning from India to Europe

UAE and India to discuss first phase of trade corridor

Senior officials from the UAE and India will meet next month to start work on the first phase of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (Imeec), according to a media report. The officials are slated to meet on May 15 after UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi signed […]

High rises in Mumbai – one of the four locations for Prestige's planned developments along with Bengaluru, Goa and the National Capital Region

ADIA backs Indian developer in $240m deal

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the UAE’s largest sovereign wealth fund, and India’s Kotak Alternative Investment Fund will support Indian developer Prestige Group in building residential projects across four Indian cities. The deal is valued at 20 billion rupees ($240 million), Prestige Group said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. The projects will be […]

An apartment near a beach in Dubai is unlikely to appeal to Brits, according to property experts

What Dubai’s united nations of property buyers want

When purchasing a property in Dubai amenities are important to Brits, while Indian buyers are all about the return on investment, according to real estate experts. Last year Dubai recorded 1.6 million real estate transactions, a record 17 percent year-on-year increase, according to data from the Dubai Land Department. The demand comes from a largely […]

Akasa Air has applied for permission to operate flights to Doha, Qatar, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait

India’s Akasa Air to fly to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Akasa Air, India’s newest low-cost airline, plans to start flights to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by the end of October. “We have traffic rights for Kuwait, Riyadh and Jeddah, all of which we hope to launch by the end of the IATA summer season,” founder and CEO Vinay Dube told the state-run Press Trust of […]

Retailer Lulu has branches across the Mena region, India and the Far East. It plans a billion-dollar IPO before the end of the year

UAE’s Lulu selects banks for potential $2bn IPO

UAE’s retail conglomerate LuLu Group International has appointed local and international banks to lead its proposed $2 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to a media report. The company, which is among the largest hypermarket chain operators in the Middle East, has selected Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC Holdings to […]

In this photo illustration, the MSCI Inc. logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images/Sipa USA) No Use Germany.

Gulf weightings increase on MSCI Emerging Markets

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has increased the weightings of Gulf countries since their inclusion on the benchmark, as regulators loosened rules and companies ease foreign ownership restrictions to make it easier to invest. According to MSCI, more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management (AuM) was benchmarked against its emerging markets indexes as of […]

Aster expects the sale of its GCC business to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024

Aster DM says India, GCC business split nears closure

Hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare has confirmed that the separation of its GCC and Indian businesses and the proposed investment in the former by a Dubai private equity firm are nearing completion.  The company agreed to sell a 65 percent stake in its Gulf business to a state-backed Fajr Capital-led consortium for $1 billion in November […]

UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Gulf region in February

India is top Asian target for Middle East investors

India is more than twice as important as China as a target for Middle East investment, an industry report has revealed. Since 2020, private capital deal value from the Middle East into Asia has soared more than sixfold, from $14 billion between 2016 and 2019 to $83 billion since 2020, data from the Global Private […]

Sellers at the fish market in Jizan, Saudi Arabia. The kingdom brought in regulations in 2021 to curb overfishing

Saudi Arabia and UAE back fishing subsidies ban

The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only GCC countries to back a failed bid by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to curb subsidies that contribute to overfishing and wider fishing sector overcapacity. It had been hoped that the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS), which, according to WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has “been on the […]

Saudi Arabia's stopover visa for Indian citizens is valid for three months and is free of cost

Saudi Arabia starts issuing free stopover visa to Indians

Saudi Arabia has started offering a 96-hour free visa to Indian citizens to help reach its newly set target of 150 million tourists by 2030. The stopover programme provides a four-day free visa to individuals traveling through Saudia or Flynas airlines. Additionally, travellers holding a US, UK or Schengen visa are eligible for an e-visa […]

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum inaugurate Bharat Mart, a market and trading platform for Indian businesses in Dubai

Dubai introduces multiple-entry visa for Indian nationals

Dubai has introduced a five-year multiple-entry visa for Indian nationals to strengthen economic, tourism and business ties with India, the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) has said. The decision follows closely on the heels of prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE, marked by significant developments including the opening of the Middle […]