Thursday 20 September 2012

PRETORIA, South Africa: BAE Systems to Team with UAE-Based International Golden Group | Business Wire | Rock Hill Herald Online

BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa recently signed a teaming agreement with International Golden Group (IGG) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This agreement testifies to the strength of the ongoing relationship between the two companies.

The company secured a contract with IGG in 2011 for the RG31 Agrab Mk2 Mobile Mortar Platform (MMP) mine protected vehicles.

“The Middle East is an important region for us and working with local industry and assisting the UAE defence industry to grow, is our goal,” said Johan Steyn, managing director, Land Systems South Africa. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship, serving the UAE and other customers to ensure safety and security for their soldiers.”

MENA stock markets close - September 20, 2012

 ExchangeStatus IndexChange  
 



  
 
 DFM (Dubai Financial Market)
 
1605.04-0.70%  
 
 ADX (Abudhabi Securities Exchange)
 
2616.15-0.05%  
 
 KSE (Kuwait Stock Exchange)
 
5879.82-0.06%  
 
 BSE (Bahrain Stock Exchange)
 
1082.820.67%  
 
 MSM (Muscat Securities Market)
 
5603.230.02%  
 
 QE (Qatar Exchange)
 
8599.65-0.06%  
 
 LSE (Beirut Stock Exchange)
 
1122.82-0.07%  
 
 EGX 30 (Egypt Exchange)
 
5827.91-1.41%  
 
 ASE (Amman Stock Exchange)
 
1912.090.19%  
 
 TUNINDEX (Tunisia Stock Exchange)
 
4968.60.07%  
 
 CB (Casablanca Stock Exchange)
 
9623.94-1.10%  
 
 PSE (Palestine Securities Exchange)
 
427.22-0.45% 


UPDATE 1-IEA head says oil market well supplied, Saudi helping - Yahoo! News Maktoob

The global oil market is sufficiently supplied with extra oil being pumped from Saudi Arabia helping,
Maria van der Hoeven, head of the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
"We are always closely monitoring markets. We can see that the oil market is sufficiently supplied. Saudi Arabia is bringing more oil to the market. We can also see that the United States and Canada are bringing more oil to the market," she said in the Spanish capital at an energy conference.
Saudi oil minister Ali-al Naimi said last week the world's top oil exporter was ready to take action to calm rising prices, which he said were not supported by market fundamentals. The IEA would continue to monitor developments in the market, van der Hoeven added.

STOCKS NEWS MIDEAST-Dubai drops form 20-wk high; other mkts flat - Yahoo! News Maktoob

Dubai's measure drops from Wednesday's 20-week high as investors take weak global cues to book profits ahead of the weekend, while most other markets end near-flat.
The emirate's index falls 0.7 percent to 1,605 points, trimming year-to-date gains to 18.6 percent.
Emaar Properties was the main drag, falling 1.4 percent. Emirates NBD shed 0.7 percent and Dubai Financial Market lost 1.9 percent.

Having an escrow account doesn’t mean you get money back | GulfNews.com

Many clients who have suffered a delayed handover demand a refund from the developer, in accordance with the clear terms of their contract. If the developer fails to pay, they are forced to take legal action, either arbitration or litigation, to obtain an award or judgement obliging the developer to pay the refund.
Whichever way the purchaser approaches it and however far they take it, the answer from the developer is often the same — we simply have no money.
Developers will often seek to turn the table by referring to the fact that there is usually widespread payment default which has resulted in the effective insolvency of the developer. In other words, it’s not our fault, it’s the collective fault of the purchasers.

Nomura Said to Cut Third of Dubai Investment Bank Jobs - Bloomberg

Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604) is cutting a third of its investment banking jobs in Dubai as Japan’s largest brokerage seeks to reduce costs by $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Nomura is reducing four of 12 positions in Dubai, including Scott Ferguson, head of investment banking in the Middle East and North Africa region, said the person, declining to be identified because the cuts haven’t been publicly announced.
The departures are part of Nomura’s plan to reduce costs by $1 billion, with almost half the savings coming from Europe. The revamp in strategy follows a four-year struggle to build a business overseas following the purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European and Asian units in 2008.

UAE to build weapons systems in JV with Denel | Reuters

The United Arab Emirates is to make guided weapons systems in Abu Dhabi in a joint venture with Denel, South Africa's biggest maker of defence equipment, in the latest push to diversify its economy away from oil.

State-owned investment firm Tawazun Holding said on Thursday the joint venture will develop, manufacture and integrate guided systems for conventional air munitions.

The UAE's Air Force will be the first customer of Tawazun Dynamics, whose facility will be set up in an industrial park on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.

QIB UK to launch first sukuk-linked note this month | Reuters

London-based QIB UK, a subsidiary of Qatar Islamic Bank, plans to launch two structured products this month including a note linked to a sukuk, its head of asset management told Reuters.

It will be the first time in the industry that a structured note uses a sukuk as an underlying asset, Anouar Adham, head of asset management at QIB UK, told Reuters late on Wednesday. The capital-protected note will be based on a five-year sukuk which Qatar Islamic Bank is expected to issue soon, he said.

"We are planning to launch the product before month-end. We expect this new ground-breaking structure to take off substantially," Adham said.

OCI says it won $400 mln project to build Egypt mall - Yahoo! News Maktoob

Egypt's Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) said on Thursday its joint venture with its BESIX subsidiary had won a $400 million project to build a shopping mall in Sixth of October City on the western outskirts of Cairo.
The 162,500 square metre shopping and leisure mall, which is being developed by Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim group, will include skiing and amusement parks. Construction is scheduled for completion in 34 months, OCI said in a emailed statement.

BRIEF-DP World sells 60 pct stake in Belgium joint venture - Yahoo! News Maktoob

DP World Limited :
* DP World Ltd sells 60 percent stake in Belgium JV DP
World Breakbulk and AProjects to Orienta NV; value of divestment is $61 million

Qatar first in GCC to put ‘yield curve’ in capital market

Qatar is the first country in the GCC to put up a “Yield Curve” in the capital market which will help investors to evaluate the time function of their money. And the Government is also expected to issue a good number of short-term Treasury Bills in the days to come, a financial expert at the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) told The Peninsula yesterday.

He said: “Incidentally none of the GCC capital markets have an “Yield Curve” (the time function of money) in place, so Qatar, for the first time in the region, is taking a lot of initiative to primarily build-up a zero risk “Yield Curve” as it is aspiring to establish a vibrant and well functioning capital market in the region.

The QCB official, who did not wish his name in print, spoke on the sidelines of the two-day Capital Markets Conference that concluded yesterday.

Qatar – rich and dangerous – eyes Syria - CSMonitor.com

The first concern of the Emir of Qatar is the prosperity and security of the tiny kingdom.  To achieve that, he knows no limits.

Stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with the third largest natural gas deposit in the world.  The gas gives the nearly quarter of a million Qatari citizens the highest per capita income on the planet and provides 70 percent of government revenue.

Oil deal between Baghdad and Erbil could spell big windfall - The National

A breakthrough deal between Baghdad and Erbil should allow UAE companies with assets in Kurdistan to cash in.

Iraq's finance ministry, which collects revenues earned from Kurdish crude and is responsible for directing payments to Kurdistan, will dispense 1 trillion Iraqi dinars (Dh3.15 billion) to companies producing oil in the autonomous region, according to the terms of an agreement brokered last week.

The payments will be released in two parts, with US$650 million (Dh2.38bn) to be handed out this year and the rest in the next, said Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish oil minister.

Kurdistan looks to awaken giant - The National

Through war and peace, northern Iraq's Kirkuk oilfield - endowed with 10 billion barrels of reserves, equal to half of America's total - has effectively lain fallow.

Proposals have been floated to revive today's anaemic production of 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) but progress has been blocked by a disagreement over whether the federal government or the Kurdistan regional government has rights to the land.

"Years passed and still we are in limbo," says Ali Salhi, the chairman of the oil and economic development council of the Kirkuk governorate. Today, his hopes are buoyed by the success of Kurdistan, which has partnered the world's biggest oil companies in the face of opposition from Baghdad.

DFSA sanctions Credit Europe Bank | GulfNews.com

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced yesterday that it has accepted Enforceable Undertakings (EU) from Credit Europe Bank (Dubai) Limited (CEBD) and its former Head of Treasury.
The undertakings result from a DFSA investigation into trading conducted by the former Head of Treasury on behalf of CEBD. CEBD is a firm authorised to conduct financial services in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
In May 2011, CEBD’s former Head of Treasury,Ozkan Demirkaya, executed a loss-making foreign exchange transaction on behalf of CEBD. To hide the unrealised loss resulting from that transaction, Demirkaya created a fake forward transaction and caused it to be entered into the accounts of CEBD. The forward transaction concealed the full extent of the unrealised loss arising from the earlier transaction in the accounts of CEBD.

NBQ wins appeal against Global Investment House | GulfNews.com

National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain (NBQ) sent a filing to Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), reporting that Dubai Court of Cassation delivered a judgement on Septemet 18, on the challenge lodged by NBQ against Dubai Court of Appeal’s ruling on appeal No. 746-785/2010 filed by Global Investment House (Global) against the UAE-based lender.
The Court of Cassation overturned the appealed judgment and referred the lawsuit to the Court of Appeal which will have a new panel. The Appellee was ordered to pay court expenses and Dh1,000 attorneys’ fees.
In a hearing on September 11, the Court of Cassation of Dubai decided to reserve September 18, 2012, as the date for issuance of its ruling on the appeal by NBQ. The bank had appealed against the Dubai Court of Appeal ruling issued on May 21, 2012, in Global Investment House’s favour to recover the disputed $250 million deposit along with 9 per cent interest and costs.