Category Archives: News

UAE’s United Arab Bank reports 65 pct. net profit growth for 2023

By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ United Arab Bank (UAB) has reported a net profit increase of 65 per cent for 2023. UAB’s net profit for the year was 255m dirhams ($69.52m). Its total income for 2023 was 576m dirhams ($156.84m) or 15 per cent up on 2022 and its investments portfolio grew by… Continue Reading

Dubai hosts outsourcing event for Uzbekistan

DUBAI, UAE, February 16, 2024 (IT Park, Uzbekistan) – On February 15th, the Uzbekistan Outsourcing Conference in Dubai was held with great success, organized by the Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan and IT Park. The event proved to be a significant gathering, hosting over 100 leading experts and members of the… Continue Reading

Renaissance Capital foresees 1pc growth for Russian economy in ’24

By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital forecasts 1 per cent growth for the Russian economy in 2024, relative near-term stability for the rouble and the reduction of a prohibitive key interest rate this year but argues that inflation tops Russia’s macroeconomic agenda. In 2023, Russia’s economy grew by 3.2 per cent, RenCap estimates.… Continue Reading

Gate.io-Aquanow deal to facilitate ‘access to crypto markets’

By Andrei Skvarsky. Gate.io, one of world’s top-ranking cryptocurrency exchanges, has entered into a partnership with digital assets infrastructure provider Aquanow with the aim of building up liquidity in global crypto markets in anticipation of new blockchain projects. The deal “will help increase access to crypto markets”, a statement from Aquanow quoted the company’s chief… Continue Reading

UAE plans investing in India’s renewable energy, food, healthcare sectors

By Andrei Skvarsky. India’s renewable energy, food processing and healthcare sectors are going to receive substantial investments from the United Arab Emirates, according to memorandums of understanding signed a week ago. The renewable energy investments would fund projects with a combined generation capacity of 60 gigawatts, Emirates News Agency (WAM) cited one of the memorandums,… Continue Reading

Saudi Arabia eases visa rules for investors, professionals

By Andrei Skvarsky. Saudi Arabia has eased residency application rules for foreign investors, entrepreneurs and professionals via five new eligibility-based types of visas. The five eligibility categories are investors; entrepreneurs; professionals including doctors and scientists; individuals owning real estate in Saudi Arabia; and individuals involved in cultural and sports activities, according to a statement from… Continue Reading

UAE’s Al Habtoor to take action vs Lebanon govt over alleged breaches of investment treaty

By Andrei Skvarsky. Al Habtoor Group, a United Arab Emirates conglomerate with interests ranging from real estate to publishing, has announced it planned to confront the Lebanese government in a legal “dispute” over alleged breaches by Beirut of a UAE-Lebanese investment treaty. Al Habtoor accuses Lebanon’s government and central bank of illegitimate restrictions on the… Continue Reading

Rewilding can be profitable business – UK financier

By Andrei Skvarsky. Rewilding, the practice of returning land to its natural state, can bring serious financial profits, a British financier and environmentalist argued at a conference earlier this month. A recent project to rewild marshes and forest land in Somerset was one example cited at the Sustainable Finance Week conference in Guernsey by Ben… Continue Reading

Gresham House fund raises £450m for environmental, social projects in UK

A fund run by alternative asset manager Gresham House has raised a little less than £450m ($574m) for financing environmental and social projects in Britain. The Guernsey-domiciled British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (BSIF) II obtained the money from eight local government pension schemes and four family offices, the London-based asset manager said in a statement. Portfolio… Continue Reading

Some UAE insurance premiums up by 35 pct. since August – newspaper

By Andrei Skvarsky. About a dozen Emirati insurance companies have raised their premiums significantly since August, some of them by 35 per cent, a Dubai-based newspaper said. Since the Covid pandemic the cost of insurance in the United Arab Emirates has been going up steadily by between 15 and 20 per cent a year, but… Continue Reading

Miracle on the Chirchiq: Uzbekistan Goes All In on IT

Miracle on the Chirchiq: Uzbekistan Goes All In on IT

by Anthony Deckoff. Global IT spending climbed a negligible 0.8% in 2022 – a rate that’s expected to tick up to a sturdier 5% in the current year. But it can’t hold a candle to the rapid growth now taking place in one of the world’s hottest new tech sectors. The Central Asian nation of… Continue Reading

Oman’s Bank Muscat says preliminary stats show 9-month net profit of $412.5m

By Andrei Skvarsky. Bank Muscat, Oman’s biggest lender, said preliminary unaudited statistics for the period from January to September 2023 show a net profit of 158.9m rials ($412.5m), marking a year-over-year increase of 7.1 per cent. The bank’s net interest income from conventional banking and net income from Islamic financing together amounted to 281m rials… Continue Reading

Arab Bank gets $250m bond issue listed on London Stock Exchange

By Andrei Skvarsky. Jordan’s Arab Bank, one of the Arab world’s biggest lenders, has issued bonds to a total of $250m as a private placement project and has had the issue listed on the London Stock Exchange. The additional tier 1 (AT1) securities, which offer 8 per cent interest, have attracted institutional and individual investors… Continue Reading

OMAN NEWS

Oman’s Sohar International Bank launching business in Saudi Arabia By Andrei Skvarsky. Oman’s Sohar International Bank has been given the go-ahead by the Saudi central bank to launch operations in Saudi Arabia, an Omani newspaper said. Sohar International’s branch in Riyadh will offer a comprehensive range of corporate and retail services, according to Oman Daily… Continue Reading

Kuwait banks’ investing in public services plunges by two-thirds YoY – newspaper

By Andrei Skvarsky. Kuwaiti banks cut investing in public services by 68.8 per cent year-over-year by September 1, a Kuwaiti newspaper said, largely attributing the decline to extensive state control of the public services sector. Kuwait’s banking community put 21.7m dinars ($70.5m) into education, healthcare and other public services in the period from January to… Continue Reading

Agency says 25 states in default on sovereign loans from Kuwait

By Andrei Skvarsky. Twenty-five nations are delaying instalment repayments of sovereign loans from Kuwait, having built up arrears totalling 118m Kuwaiti dinars ($380.24m), a Kuwaiti government agency said. Ninety per cent of the sum are the debts of five countries – Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba and North Korea, – Kuwaiti English-language daily Arab Times cited… Continue Reading

QATAR NEWS

Franklin Templeton to manage multi-asset fund launched by Qatar’s Commercial Bank By Andrei Skvarsky. Global asset management firm Franklin Templeton Investments will manage a global sharia-compliant multi-asset retail fund that has been launched by Commercial Bank of Qatar, CBQ said in a statement. According to the statement, the Shariah Global Multi-Asset Fund project is part… Continue Reading

UAE regulator slaps $1.3m fine on forex broker

By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ central bank has imposed a fine of 4.8m dirhams ($1.3m) on a foreign exchange broker for “weak” mechanisms to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism. An inspection showed the exchange house to have “a weak compliance framework regarding the required risk analysis and due… diligence policies… Continue Reading

UAE regulator strikes off forex broker, remittance firm

By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates Central Bank (CBUAE) said on August 9 that it had revoked the licences of foreign exchange broker Dirham Exchange and remittance specialist RMB Commercial Brokers for “serious regulatory misconduct”. The delicensing was a penalty for offences “including AML [anti-money laundering] misconduct”, the CBUAE said in an English-language statement.… Continue Reading

Ministry: Alleged scammers made to pay back Emiratisation allowances

By Andrei Skvarsky. An Emirati ministry said on August 9 that 107 Emiratis were made to pay back an equivalent of a total of $632,700 they were accused of obtaining fraudulently as allowances under the Emiratisation programme, a scheme aiming to promote local talent and skills in a country where expatriates make up 88.5 per… Continue Reading

S. Korea’s MBK Partners creating fund to target China home market

By Andrei Skvarsky. South Korean private equity firm MBK Partners, which has $25.6bn in assets under management, is putting together a 10-trillion-won ($7.6bn) buyout fund to target the Chinese domestic market. MBK co-founder and partner Michael Kim has been in talks with South Korean pension institutions in seeking inputs from them into what would be… Continue Reading

Sotheby’s uses Dubai bourse to unveil arguably unique ruby, diamond

By Andrei Skvarsky. The Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) was the venue for the recent unveiling by Sotheby’s of what are considered the largest ruby and the most vivid pink diamond in world auction history and are expected to be offered at a planned Sotheby’s auction in New York on June 8. The 55.22-carat (11.04-gram) Estrela… Continue Reading

UAE GDP growth pace doubles in 2022 – central bank

By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ central bank estimates that gross domestic product grew by nearly 7.6 per cent in 2022 or at double the 2021 pace, CBUAE said on May 10. Inflation in the UAE closed at 4.8 per cent by the end of 2022 compared with the global average of 8.8 per… Continue Reading

UAE’s GDP doubles since 2006 – PM

The United Arab Emirates’ gross domestic product has doubled over the past 17 years, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said. GDP has reached 1.8tn dirhams ($490.1bn) since he became the UAE’s prime minister in February 2006, Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the president of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, was cited by… Continue Reading

UAE payment services firm MBME listed on Abu Dhabi exchange

Emirati payment services provider MBME Group began to trade on April 17 on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), becoming the United Arab Emirates’ first family-owned fintech to list on the bourse, Dubai-based English language daily Khaleej Times said. MBME shares, which were listed on the Growth Market, the ADX platform tailored to privately owned… Continue Reading