Sunday 12 March 2017

Korea's Hyundai Engineering in $3.2 billion Iran deal awaiting funding | Reuters

Korea's Hyundai Engineering in $3.2 billion Iran deal awaiting funding | Reuters:

"An Iranian investment fund signed a deal with Korea's Hyundai Engineering Co on Sunday for a 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) petrochemical project, which is awaiting financing by Korean banks, the oil ministry's website SHANA said. A subsidiary of the Oil Pension Fund Investment Company signed the agreement which covers the construction of the second phase of the Kangan Petro Refining Company, SHANA reported. "The financing of this project will be finalised within nine months at the rate of 95 percent ... by South Korean banks," said Asghar Arefi, the Iranian official who signed the accord, according to SHANA."



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UAE wants closer trade ties with Asia, Africa | Reuters

UAE wants closer trade ties with Asia, Africa | Reuters:

"The United Arab Emirates, one of the Middle East's largest economies, wants to expand trade ties with faster growing nations in Asia and Africa, a senior official said on Sunday. Rich Gulf Arab states are looking at ways to diversify their economies, including who they trade with, after more than two years of depressed oil prices forced a rethink of government spending. The pace of economic growth in Asian and sub-Saharan African economies has made them ideal partners, Abdullah al-Saleh, undersecretary for foreign trade and industry at the UAE ministry of the economy, told Reuters in an interview in Dubai."



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MIDEAST STOCKS-Oil price slide hits Saudi share market, Dubai's Shuaa soars on M&A | Reuters

MIDEAST STOCKS-Oil price slide hits Saudi share market, Dubai's Shuaa soars on M&A | Reuters:

"Major Gulf stock market indexes mostly closed lower on Sunday after oil prices plunged at the end of last week to a three-month low, but shares in Dubai's Shuaa Capital and Saudi Arabia's Bank Aljazira surged in response to company-specific news.

Saudi Arabia's index dropped 1.2 percent as the share prices of all 14 listed petrochemical makers declined, with Saudi Kayan Petrochemical falling 3.1 percent.

Banque Saudi Fransi lost 2.1 percent after Credit Agricole, which owns 31 percent, said it was satisfied with the performance of the business and would not try to prevent rumours about the sale of its stake from circulating. "



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Shuaa Capital to acquire two financial services firms from major shareholder | The National

Shuaa Capital to acquire two financial services firms from major shareholder | The National:

"Shuaa Capital is to acquire two financial services firms from Integrated Financial Group, a unit of Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG). The sale of Integrated Capital and Integrated Securities, represents a move to bolster Shuaa’s financial services portfolio by ADFG, its major shareholder. ADFG acquired a 48.3 per cent stake in the Dubai-based investment bank in 2016. Dubai-listed Shuaa said that the transaction remains subject to regulatory approval, but is expected to close in the coming weeks. The financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed."



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DIFC Courts approved as conduit for foreign judgements and arbitrations | The National

DIFC Courts approved as conduit for foreign judgements and arbitrations | The National:

"A key Dubai judicial committee has given the go ahead to two companies to use the DIFC Courts as a "conduit jurisdiction" for the enforcement of foreign judgements and arbitrations in Dubai’s onshore courts, in a move that may prompt an uptick in similar claims. In decisions related to two separate cases, the Judicial Tribunal for the Dubai Courts and DIFC Courts ruled in favour of institutions attempting to enforce English court judgements worth millions of dirhams against UAE-based entities by way of the DIFC Courts. In the first case, Standard Chartered filed in 2014 a claim against Sharjah-based IGPL seeking the enforcement of a US$129 million English commercial court judgement against IGPL over two alleged defaulted loan agreements dating from 2009 and 2010."



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Reform agenda in GCC, it is different this time | GulfNews.com

Reform agenda in GCC, it is different this time | GulfNews.com:

"Oil prices have improved in recent months following the Opec production cut deal, through it still hovers below the budget break even oil prices in most countries. Despite some signs of recovery it is unlikely to derail both the fiscal and structural reforms that have been initiated by regional governments; said Mark A. Weinberger, Global Chairman and CEO, EY (formerly Ernst & Young). “A low-oil-price environment will always be a catalyst for change. We’ve seen it before in the late 1990s when the fiscal situation was getting so urgent that Gulf countries were beginning to enact serious economic reforms, only for the urgency to reduce once a second oil boom got underway in the mid-2000s. That’s not to say progress wasn’t made — only that things didn’t move as fast as it appeared they first might. But there’s a real appetite for change now,” said Weinberger. Rather than the urgent need to avert a crisis, he sees a clear a shift in mindset across the region that comes with a genuine and deeper desire to move away from oil-price driven boom and bust cycles."



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Second plane bought under sanctions deal arrives in Iran | Reuters

Second plane bought under sanctions deal arrives in Iran | Reuters:

"An Airbus A330 airliner arrived in Tehran on Saturday, the second of 200 Western-built passenger aircraft ordered by IranAir following the lifting of sanctions on Iran last year. The long-haul aircraft, carrying IranAir Chairman Farhad Parvaresh and other officials, landed at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, the official news agency IRNA reported. The A330 was handed over in Toulouse, France on Friday and joins a smaller A321 delivered to Iran earlier this year."



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Kuwait's Zain in final stages of selling towers -vice chairman | Reuters

Kuwait's Zain in final stages of selling towers -vice chairman | Reuters:

"Kuwaiti telecommunications group Zain has reached the final stages of selling its mobile transmitter towers in the country, the company's vice chairman Bader Nasser al-Kharafi said on Sunday.

The company is awaiting approval from the telecommunications regulator, Kharafi said at a shareholder meeting. He did not give details of the planned sale.

Sources told Reuters in March last year that Zain was narrowing the field of potential bidders for its towers in Kuwait."



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BRIEF-Investcorp says UAE's Mubadala completes deal to take 20 pct stake in its parent | Reuters

BRIEF-Investcorp says UAE's Mubadala completes deal to take 20 pct stake in its parent | Reuters:

"Investcorp:

 * Says Mubadala Development completes second step of transaction to acquire 20 percent stake in Investcorp’s parent

 * Says UAE's Mubadala now owns 20 percent of Investcorp Bank following receipt of required regulatory approvals"



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UAE's Sharjah Islamic Bank says plans convertible sukuk issue | Reuters

UAE's Sharjah Islamic Bank says plans convertible sukuk issue | Reuters:

"The United Arab Emirates' Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) plans to issue convertible sukuk equivalent to 10 percent of the lender's capital, it said on Sunday. Funds raised through the debt sale will be used by Islamic endowments selected by the government of the emirate of Sharjah. The bank also authorised a capital increase to 2.67 billion dirhams ($726 million) from 2.43 billion dirhams, it said in a bourse announcement. "



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Saudis Are Right Back Where They Started - Bloomberg Gadfly

Saudis Are Right Back Where They Started - Bloomberg Gadfly:

"Saudi Arabia has ended up with precisely what it wanted to avoid. Its output cut has left it supporting rival producers, while its sacrifice of volume has yielded little in the way of higher prices. Crude fell back on Thursday to levels not seen since before the producer group announced its historic oil output cuts on Nov. 30. What went wrong, and where do they go from here?First things first. The oil price jumped after OPEC announced its decision to cut output by around 1.2 million barrels a day. It rose further when a group of non-OPEC countries joined them the following month.The crude oil market barely batted a sleepy eyelid when the cuts began at the start of January. It rolled over with a gentle snore when the first month's production figures showed an almost unprecedented level of compliance of over 90% among the OPEC countries who were party to the deal."



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MIDEAST STOCKS-Plunge in oil dents Gulf; Shuaa, Bank Aljazira surge | Reuters

MIDEAST STOCKS-Plunge in oil dents Gulf; Shuaa, Bank Aljazira surge | Reuters:

"Stock markets in the Gulf were mostly lower in early trade on Sunday after crude oil prices plunged at the end of last week to a three-month low, but Dubai's Shuaa Capital and Saudi Arabia's Bank Aljazira surged in response to company-specific news.

A little over two-thirds of Saudi Arabia's 14 listed petrochemical makers traded lower with Saudi Kayan Petrochemical retreating 2.5 percent, helping drag the overall Saudi index 0.7 percent lower.

Shares in Banque Saudi Fransi lost 1.2 percent after Credit Agricole, which owns 31 percent of the Saudi lender, said it was satisfied with business at the bank. On Wednesday Reuters reported the French major stakeholder had hired JP Morgan for a potential sale of its stake valued at around $2.4 billion."



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