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Dubai’s Union Properties is in the final stages of a comprehensive debt restructuring process, the company said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market.
Debt restructuring negotiations with banks began during 2020.
“This move will support the company to improve its overall financial position,” the real estate developer said.
“The restructuring agreements are expected to include various types of solutions such as tenor date extension and reduction of interest rates,” the company said.
Earlier this month, Union Properties elected Khalifa Hassan Ali Saleh Al Hammadi as the chairman of the board.
Saudi Arabia's stock market ended higher on Sunday buoyed by National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group after they signed an initial merger agreement, while Egypt's index extended losses.
The benchmark index in Saudi Arabia gained 0.8%, with Samba Financial Group rising 9.9% for its biggest intraday gain since June 2017, while National Commercial Bank (National Commercial Bank6) was up 5%.
NCB, the kingdom's biggest lender, said on Thursday it had signed an initial agreement with smaller lender Samba to create a combined entity with almost $214 billion in assets.
The offer would value each Samba share at 27.42 to 29.32 riyals ($7.82), giving it a maximum market value of $15.63 billion, 27.5% above its market value of nearly $12.3 billion based on Wednesday's closing price.
The two banks intend to conclude a reciprocal due diligence process and sign definitive agreements in relation to the proposed transaction within four months.
The combination of National Commercial Bank and rival Samba Financial Group would create the third-largest lender in the Gulf Cooperation Council and a national champion to compete with regional players.
In what’s set to become the biggest banking takeover this year, Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets proposed to pay as much as $15.6 billion to acquire rival Samba.
The merged lender would have total assets of about $210 billion, making it the region’s largest behind Qatar National Bank QPSC and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Saudi Arabia has almost 30 lenders catering to over 30 million people, compared with only about a dozen listed banks in the U.K. -- a country of about 65 million people. The kingdom has been taking steps to shore up its banking sector from the double whammy of the coronavirus shock and lower oil prices.
Chesapeake Energy Corp., the archetype for America’s extraordinary shale-gas fortunes, filed for bankruptcy, becoming one of the biggest victims of a spectacular collapse in energy demand from the virus-induced global lockdown.
The Oklahoma City-based company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas on Sunday, listing assets and liabilities in the range of $10 billion and $50 billion, and more than 100,000 creditors.
The company also entered into an agreement to eliminate about $7 billion in debt and secure $925 million in debtor-in-possession financing.
“We are fundamentally resetting Chesapeake’s capital structure and business to address our legacy financial weaknesses and capitalize on our substantial operational strengths,” Chief Executive Officer Doug Lawler said in a statement.
Saudi Arabia’s net foreign assets rose in May, reversing three months of declines.
The stockpile climbed by about 3 billion riyals ($800 million) to reach $445 billion, according to a monthly report from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on Sunday.
Officials have said a cumulative decline of more than $47 billion in March and April was mainly due to a $40 billion transfer from the central bank to the sovereign wealth fund, intended to support investments abroad to take advantage of market turmoil during the coronavirus pandemic.
With reserves at the lowest in almost a decade, the world’s largest oil exporter has tried to rein in spending at home as it faces a double crisis from the outbreak and a major decline in energy revenue. The government, which counted on crude for over 60% of its income this year, is now contending with oil output cuts and prices well below its break-even level.
Updated stock indexes in Europe, Middle East & Africa. Get an overview of major indexes, current values and stock market data in Europe, UK, Germany, Russia & more.
A merger between Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group would create the biggest lender in the kingdom "by some way", with a 30 per cent share of the market, according to EFG Hermes.
NCB is already the kingdom’s biggest bank in terms of assets, with a 21 per cent share of the market. Samba is the fourth-biggest, with an 11 per cent share.
The combined bank will have a total asset base of 800bn Saudi riyals, ($214bn/Dh783bn). "It will be just shy of [the] UAE’s FAB [First Abu Dhabi Bank] in terms of assets,” EFG Hermes’ analysts said.
On Thursday, the two lenders said they were working on a merger, in which NCB would be the merging bank and Samba Financial the merged lender. The terms agreed will see Samba shareholders receive between 0.736 and 0.787 newly-issued shares of NCB in exchange for each Samba share they hold.
The main equities index in Israel dropped the most in the Middle East as investors catch up with a decline in Wall Street last week amid a resurgence in coronavirus infections in different parts of the U.S.
The TA-35 declined 2% as of 11:45 a.m. in Tel Aviv, with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries pressuring the index the most. Israel’s stock market is highly correlated to the U.S., where many Israeli shares are cross-listed. The S&P 500 dropped 2.4% on Friday as Texas and Florida halted drinking at bars and Arizona reported a surge in infections.
Elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index rose as much as 0.9% boosted by Samba Financial Group and National Commercial Bank. The banks are in talks for a merger that could create the third biggest lender in the Middle East. Shares in the United Arab Emirates rose while those in Kuwait and Qatar fell.
The $75 billion that Saudi Aramco doles out in dividends every year dwarfs what any other listed company gives to shareholders. It’s roughly equivalent to the payouts from Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., BP Plc, Total SA, PetroChina Co., Eni SpA, Petroleo Brasiliero SA and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. or Sinopec — put together.
That makes Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser’s promise to continue that level of returns for the next five years an extraordinary vote of confidence in an oil market awash with uncertainties. Saudi Aramco will be prepared to borrow money to ensure that it meets its commitment this year despite oil prices heading into negative territory, he said this month.
An oil trade that made its way into Donald Trump’s press briefings -- and earned big profits for commodity merchants and tanker owners alike -- is fading away with every dollar that the price of crude rallies.
When oil demand cratered earlier this year because of the coronavirus and a flood of cargoes, the U.S. president talked about “oil all over the oceans.” It was a reference to the tens of millions of barrels of unwanted crude that traders were hoarding on ships at profit. Tanker owners including Frontline Ltd. and Euronav NV also reaped windfalls as a frenzy to book the ships on storage charters drove up rates.
Those days are done. The big financial incentive to store, known in trader jargon as contango, has all but vanished. Worse still for tanker owners: it’s disappeared partly because the OPEC+ oil-producer alliance has drastically curtailed the supply of cargoes. In other words, no incentive to store and fewer shipments.
“For now, this play is largely over,” said Richard Matthews, an analyst who monitors the trade at E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers Ltd. “Quite simply the contango is no longer there, so it does not make any economic sense to enter into a new floating storage trade, unless the deal was locked in when the contango was sufficient to cover freight costs.”
I know what you’re thinking: How can the founder of the Middle East’s largest hospital operator be entirely clueless as to billions in undisclosed debt and fraud in the company he spent decades building?
But hear me out.
Say you’re BR Shetty: a 77-year-old who made his billions in the UAE by setting up successful businesses in healthcare, financial services, hospitality, F&B, pharmaceutical manufacturing and real estate as early as the 1970s. You were given at least a dozen awards including the highest civilian award in Abu Dhabi by the Crown Prince himself, and the Padma Shri by the President of India. You wear the latter gold medal at every possible occasion: private dinners, corporate ceremonies, media interviews, you name it. Your reputation matters to you. Your reputation means the world to you. Your reputation precedes you. You’re one of India’s richest billionaires rubbing shoulders with world leaders. You own two floors in the world’s tallest tower, lavish villas on a man-made island and more money than you could care to count.
Why throw it all away to steal from your own company? It just doesn’t add up.
Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose on Sunday, boosted by National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group Bank after they signed an initial merger agreement, while Qatar’s index retreated in early trade.
The benchmark index in Saudi Arabia rose 0.9%, with Samba Financial Group jumping 9.9% and National commercial Bank (NCB) up 5.2%.
NCB, the kingdom’s biggest lender, said on Thursday it had signed an initial agreement with smaller lender Samba Financial Group to create a combined entity with almost $214 billion in assets.
The offer would value each Samba share at 27.42 to 29.32 riyals ($7.82), giving it a maximum market value of $15.63 billion, 27.5% above its market value of nearly $12.3 billion based on Wednesday’s closing price.
Updated stock indexes in Europe, Middle East & Africa. Get an overview of major indexes, current values and stock market data in Europe, UK, Germany, Russia & more.
Samba Financial Group jumped in Saudi Arabia after rival National Commercial Bank, the kingdom’s largest lender by assets, offered to acquire it for as much as $15.6 billion.
The shares advanced 9.9% to 26.30 riyals as of 10:16 a.m. in Riyadh, while National Commercial Bank rose 7.3%. National Commercial Bank proposed paying as much as 29.32 riyals per share for Samba, a premium of about 27.5% to its closing price on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia has been taking steps to shore up its banking sector from the double whammy of the coronavirus shock and lower oil prices. Lenders in the world’s largest oil exporter are expected to be hit hard as lockdown measures and lower spending impact earnings.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is the major shareholder of both lenders, with a 44.3% stake in National Commercial Bank and 22.9% of Samba. The combined bank would have assets of about $210 billion, making it the third-largest in the Middle East behind Qatar National Bank QPSC and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
