Adnoc to Keep Crude Supply Focus on China, India as Demand Rises - Bloomberg

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the state producer known as Adnoc, will remain focused on exporting crude oil to Asia as demand from China and India increases, a company official said.

Adnoc, based in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, currently does not export crude to Europe or the U.S., Sultan A. Al Mehairi, marketing and refining director, said in an interview in Seoul today.

“We are not diverting from our main market,” he said, “I expect more demand to come from China and India.” Mehairi did not provide details on the amount of crude the company expects to ship to the world’s two fastest-growing major economies.

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Gulf spends petrodollars on home front - FT.com

In years gone by, the calculation was simple: high oil prices meant excess revenues and Gulf states diverting resources that could not be absorbed at home into assets such as US Treasury bills and the London property market.

Now, although high oil revenues are flooding into Gulf states’ coffers and petrodollars are needed in Europe and the US as never before, much of the extra income is being spent locally, analysts say.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, is leading the way in state spending with plans to exceed this year’s budget by about 40 per cent. Elsewhere, political unrest has pushed governments including Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman to offer sweeteners to their populations.

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UAE's Tabreed repays $200 mln Islamic bond - Maktoob News

Cooling firm Tabreed , which received funding earlier this year from state-owned Mubadala to restructure debt, said it fully repaid a $200 million Islamic bond or sukuk maturing on Wednesday.

The sukuk was launched in 2006 and the total amount paid to certificate holders of the bond was 735 million dirhams, Tabreed said in a statement on Wednesday.

'The repayment of the '06 sukuk today was contemplated in our structuring of the recapitalisation program and improves the company's overall financial position,' Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Tabreed's chairman said in the statement.

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DP World buys controlling stake in two Suriname firms - Maktoob News

Port operator DP World has bought controlling interest in two port services companies in Suriname, cashing in on an expected increase rise in trade volumes in the South American country, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

DP World did not disclose the financial terms for the acquisition of controlling stakes in Integra Port Services (IPS) and Suriname Port Services (SPS), but said it expects to close the transactions in the third quarter.

IPS holds a concession for a container and break-bulk terminal in Nieuwe Haven Port, while SPS owns a private break-bulk facility, both in Paramaribo. IPS is the largest terminal in Nieuwe Haven Port, the statement said.

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Dubai house prices to fall another 10 pct - Maktoob News

Dubai's housing market still has nearly a third too much supply and prices will plummet by another 10 percent, deepening a three-year rout to nearly 60 percent from its peak, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Rents and prices in Dubai's once-booming property market have been in a free-fall over the last few years, pummelled by the global financial crisis, ensuing global slowdown and the Gulf state's own debt crisis.

Residential property prices in Dubai, which boasts of the world's tallest building and man-made islands in the shape of palms, will fall 58 percent from a peak in the third quarter of 2008 according to the median estimate of 11 banks, investment firms and research institutions.

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Emaar's Saudi Arabia Unit Turns to Profit

Emaar Economic City, the Saudi Arabia subsidiary of the Dubai developer, reported 87.6 million riyals (Dh85.2 m) in net income for the second quarter, compared to a loss of 128.4m riyals in the same quarter last year.

The company attributed the turnaround to land sales and 'a revision in the distribution of infrastructure costs' for King Abdullah Economic City, the 168 sq kilometre project it is developing on the Red Sea.

Net income for the first six months of the year was 74m riyals, compared to a loss of 181.9m for the same period last year. Earnings per share for the first half of the year jumped 0.08 riyal, after a loss of 0.21 riyal a share for the same period last year, the company reported in a statement posted on the Tadawul web site.

In May the project received a 5 billion riyals loan from the Saudi Arabian government.

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Opportunities and threats for Etisalat - The National

The Government's plan to allow the public the freedom to choose between phone operators by the year's end is both an opportunity and threat for Etisalat.

The phone company has been losing market share to its rival du over the past year, which has hit its earnings.

On Monday, it posted a 15 per cent decline in second-quarter profit, missing expectations. Not all of the earnings news was bad, however: the company saw a slight increase in mobile subscribers. But as the bigger of the two players in the market, Etisalat may have more to lose from increased competition in the fixed-line broadband and phone market than du, which has been largely confined to operating in Dubai's newer master-planned property developments.

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Emirates’ A380 Awaits India Approval as Rules Block Flights of Superjumbo - Bloomberg

Emirates Airline celebrated the opening of the new terminal at the New Delhi airport last year by flying in an Airbus SAS A380.

The plane has not returned since. India’s government has not acted on requests to change regulations that bar overseas carriers, including Emirates and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), from flying aircraft bigger than the Boeing Co. 747 into the country. That rules out the A380.

The two airlines are eager to tap India’s growing travel market with the A380, the world’s biggest passenger aircraft. They have run up against policies that protect state-owned Air India Ltd., according to Rishikesha Krishnan, a professor of corporate strategy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.

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Egypt Economy May Miss Growth Target, Stoking Social Unrest: Arab Credit - Bloomberg

Egypt’s economy may fail to meet the government’s growth target, a Bloomberg survey showed, threatening the country’s recovery from an uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak this year.

Economic growth may slow to 1.6 percent in the fiscal year that started this month as private investment falters, according to the median estimate of 10 economists. Egypt’s government is predicting an acceleration to 3.2 percent from the previous fiscal year’s 2.6 percent. Prior governments had said 7 percent is needed to keep joblessness from rising.

“The biggest danger is unemployment because it could lead to social unrest,” said Mona Mansour, co-head of research at Cairo-based investment bank CI Capital, who is forecasting a growth rate of 1.8 percent. “For investors to come there has to be security and political stability.”

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Saudi's Kingdom Holding posts 21% profit rise - MarketWatch

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Co. (4280.SA), run by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said Tuesday its second-quarter net profit rose 21% on year to 163.5 million Saudi riyals ($43.6 million), due mainly to higher income from investments.

First-half earnings per share came in at SAR0.07, compared with SAR0.06 a year earlier, while second-quarter operating income rose 4.7% to SAR183.5 million, Kingdom said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website.

'The reason for the change in net income is due to an increase in income from investments and dividends income,' the company said, adding that it the performances from associate companies and hotel operations were hit by the political woes in the Middle East.

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