UBS Deepens Mideast Footprint With #Qatar Wealth Management Foray - Bloomberg

UBS Deepens Mideast Footprint With Qatar Wealth Management Foray - Bloomberg

UBS Group AG plans to open a wealth-management business in Qatar after its chief executive officer marked his first day on the job by signing a memorandum of understanding with the country’s Investment Promotion Agency.

The Zurich-based bank’s CEO Ralph Hamers and Chairman Axel Weber clinched the initial agreement on Sunday with Ali Al Kuwari, Qatar’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, the government-backed Qatar Financial Centre said in a statement. It didn’t give details of UBS’s plans.

Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is one of the richest nations in per-capita income. Cost-cutting has pushed UBS to focus its wealth management offerings on its top clients, while pushing others to digital offerings.

Hamers became CEO on Sunday, after nearly seven years at the helm of Dutch bank ING Groep NV, where he was credited with driving a digital transformation. Hamers’s predecessor at UBS, Sergio Ermotti, led a pivot from volatile investment banking to wealth management, turning the bank into a world leader that oversees $2.5 trillion in assets.

Top Oil Trader Vitol Says Europe Lockdowns Mere ‘Speed Bump’ - Bloomberg

Top Oil Trader Vitol Says Europe Lockdowns Mere ‘Speed Bump’ - Bloomberg

The world’s largest independent oil trader doubts that new coronavirus lockdowns in Europe will lead to another significant drop in crude prices following last week’s rout.

“This is a speed bump,” Mike Muller, the head of Asia for Vitol Group, said in an interview Sunday with Dubai-based consultant Gulf Intelligence. “We are not going to see a violent reaction in price on Monday.”

Benchmark Brent crude fell 10% in the five days through Friday to $37.46 a barrel, its lowest since May, as daily Covid-19 cases hit a record in the U.S. and nations including France and Germany announced new lockdowns. The U.K. followed suit on Saturday.

While energy demand in Europe is being hit, global oil inventories fell at a rate of around 2 million barrels a day in September and October and that trend will probably continue, according to Muller.

“We are seeing demand destruction unexpectedly from these lockdown measures -- hundreds of thousands of barrels-per-day-equivalent for Europe alone,” he said. “But the bigger, overriding picture is still that the world is in a stock-drawing mode.”

#UAE cuts spending in 2021 federal budget | Reuters

UAE cuts spending in 2021 federal budget | Reuters

The cabinet of the United Arab Emirates approved a smaller federal budget for 2021 in a sign that the country is curbing expenditure amid the coronavirus crisis and lower oil prices.

The budget for next year was set at 58 billion dirhams ($15.8 billion), state news agency WAM reported on Sunday, down from this year’s 61.35 billion dirhams, which was the largest budget since the establishment of the country.

“The UAE economy will be among the fastest to recover in 2021, and the government has dealt with the 2020 budget efficiently and has all the tools to continue its financial and operational efficiency in 2021,” the Dubai media office said, quoting Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-maktoum, who is also the UAE’s prime minister.

The federal budget accounts for only a fraction of consolidated state spending in the UAE as individual emirates such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai also have their own budgets. It is, however, an indication of official plans for the economy.

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg #UAE #Kuwait #Israel #SaudiArabia #Qatar close

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg

ADIA, PIF Invest $1 Billion in Reliance’s Fiber-Optic Assets - Bloomberg

ADIA, PIF Invest $1 Billion in Reliance’s Fiber-Optic Assets - Bloomberg

Reliance Industries Ltd. is raising $1 billion in investment from two sovereign wealth funds as investors double down on the consumer businesses of Asia’s richest man, who’s diversifying his conglomerate away from oil refining.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, or ADIA, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF, will each invest 37.8 billion rupees ($507.2 million) in buying units of Digital Fibre Infrastructure Trust, Reliance said in a post-earnings presentation on Friday. The company highlighted the “induction of strong partners” in what it called a “critical asset base.”

The latest fund infusion underscores the confidence of marquee investors in billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s plans to transform his conglomerate into a retail and technology behemoth and pivot away from its staple oil-refining business that he inherited after his father died in 2002. He has already secured over $25 billion investment from backers such as Facebook Inc. and Google.

#SaudiArabia Red Sea Development Co, PIF: Latest News on Coastal Tourist Resort - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia Red Sea Development Co, PIF: Latest News on Coastal Tourist Resort - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Development Co. plans to close on a 14-billion riyal ($3.7 billion) loan from five domestic banks by the end of the year as it steps up construction on a luxury tourism project about the size of Belgium, its chief executive said.

The developer has been seeking financing since last year for the project, which stretches across dozens of islands off the kingdom’s west coast. Chief executive officer John Pagano didn’t say which banks would be providing the loans.

So far the company has awarded 7 billion riyals of contracts and plans to award a total of 15 billion riyals by the end of the year, Pagano said in an interview. A public-private partnership deal for the project’s utilities should be signed within days, and once that’s in place and the financing is secured, capital for the first phase of the project will be committed, he added.

“We’re now starting to ramp up our construction spend so it’s a good time to get the debt facility in place,” Pagano said.

Expanding tourism is a key focus of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to transform the kingdom’s economy. The twin strains on the budget created by the coronavirus pandemic and lower oil prices haven’t slowed work on two sprawling tourism developments on the Red Sea and an entertainment hub near the capital.

Surging Libyan Oil Output Nears 1 Million Barrels a Day - Bloomberg

Surging Libyan Oil Output Nears 1 Million Barrels a Day - Bloomberg

Libya’s oil production is rising rapidly toward 1 million barrels a day, as a truce in the nation’s civil war allows the state energy firm to ramp up operations at previously idled fields and ports.

Daily crude output has reached 800,000 barrels and the country is targeting 1.3 million by the beginning of 2021, Mustafa Sanalla, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp., said in an interview Saturday in the eastern city of Brega.

The OPEC member was pumping less than 100,000 barrels a day in early September. The quick revival of its production -- following an almost total shutdown in January as fighting in the war intensified -- has taken oil traders by surprise. It’s weighed on crude prices just as a resurgence of coronavirus cases hammers global demand for energy. Benchmark Brent crude fell 10% last week to $37.46 a barrel, its lowest level since May.



Output at Libya’s biggest field of Sharara, in the west, will rise to 245,000 barrels daily this week, said Nuri Esaid, chairman of Akakus Oil Operations, a company based in the capital of Tripoli. Sharara will pump around 300,000 barrels each day by the end of the year, he said on Saturday.

Arabtec board follows up liquidation progress | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Arabtec board follows up liquidation progress | ZAWYA MENA Edition

After two failed attempts, the board of Arabtec has finally convened to discuss the liquidation.

In a statement to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) on Sunday, the company said the board had met to follow up on the progression of its liquidation plan, and discussed the strategy for the way forward, on Wednesday afternoon (October 28).

No other details were revealed in the statement.

The construction firm’s shareholders voted to liquidate the company on September 30, and the board was given a two-month deadline to discuss the move with the main stakeholders before an application is submitted to the competent courts.

Mideast Stocks- #Dubai leads major Gulf markets lower in early trade | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Mideast Stocks-Dubai leads major Gulf markets lower in early trade | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Stock markets in the United Arab Emirates fell early on Sunday, with Dubai hardest hit by losses in property shares, while the Saudi index was on track to extend losses for a third session.

Dubai's main share index retreated 1.6%, as most of the stocks in the index were in negative territory including blue-chip developer Emaar Properties, which fell 2.6%.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council faces a steep economic contraction this year before partially rebounding in 2021, with most countries facing sharper drops than previously estimated, a quarterly Reuters poll showed.

The United Arab Emirates, which has seen a surge in new COVID-19 cases, is expected to see GDP decline 6.0% this year, grow 2.7% next year and expand 3.8% in 2022. In July, analysts expected a 5.1% decline in 2020 and 2.6% growth in 2021.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index declined 0.7%, dragged down by a 1.2% fall in Al Rajhi Bank and a 3% drop in Dr Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Services.

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg #UAE #Kuwait #Israel #SaudiArabia #Qatar mid-session

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg