UK's Serco loses #Dubai Metro contract after 12 years - Arabianbusiness

UK's Serco loses Dubai Metro contract after 12 years - Arabianbusiness

Dubai’s metro and tram network spans about 100km and has 64 stations.

A French-Japanese consortium has won a contract for the operation and maintenance of the Dubai Metro, replacing UK-based Serco which has been on board since its launch in 2009.

The new contract, which also includes the operation of the Dubai Tram, covers a total of 15 years, including six renewable years, and is worth about AED542 million per year.

The consortium consists of three companies - Keolis, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and Mitsubishi Corporation.

The award of the contract follows a public tender released by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in which four consortiums and international firms specialised in rail operation and maintenance took part.

Proposals made were analysed and the contract was awarded to the French-Japanese consortium for submitting the best technical and financial proposals, a statement said.

Wall Street Spots Buying Opportunity After Oil’s Price Rout - Bloomberg

Wall Street Spots Buying Opportunity After Oil’s Price Rout - Bloomberg

Oil’s recent price rout is likely transitory and offers an entry point into a market that’s been surging this year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley analysts.

Thursday’s price plunge came amid a combination of factors, including signs of softening physical markets in Asia, renewed lockdowns in Europe and an unwinding of long positions by commodity trading advisers. But fundamentals haven’t changed that much, analysts say. If anything, the recent sell-off could be just what the market needed to attract more buying.

The sell-off is a “transient pullback in an otherwise large oil price rally and a buying opportunity,” Goldman analysts including Damien Courvalin said in a March 18 report. “Despite this sharp move lower, we still forecast a rapid oil market rebalancing in coming months.”

Oil’s worst week since October came after prices had rallied more than 30% this year ahead of the rout. Vaccine breakthroughs late last year and accompanying hopes of a full-fledged demand rebound helped break prices out of a months-long trading range, while gains were further accelerated this year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies keep output restrained.

Those factors still largely hold, and the market should face an average supply shortfall of 1.6 million barrels a day, allowing inventories to normalize during the third quarter, Morgan Stanley analysts Martijn Rats and Amy Sergeant wrote Friday in a note. With the selloff, the analysts said there’s now a “compelling entry point” for wagers on strengthening Brent timespreads -- where traders bet on the price difference between contracts of different months.

“Don’t mistake a correction for a derailment,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Natasha Kaneva said Thursday in a note. “Though not much has changed in the fundamental picture this week, the price move was likely accentuated by a washout of investor length which has been steadily rising since late last year.”

High oil cuts GCC borrowing needs; credit issues remain: Moodys | ZAWYA MENA Edition

High oil cuts GCC borrowing needs; credit issues remain: Moodys | ZAWYA MENA Edition

During the past week, oil prices have risen to nearly $70 per barrel, up from $52 at the end of last year. If sustained during the rest of the year, higher oil prices will reduce the immediate government borrowing and external financing needs of GCC sovereigns, most significantly for Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, according to Moodys' Investors Service.

They will also increase the resources available to advance economic-diversification projects, stated the top ratings agency.

However, Moodys cautioned that the duration and durability of the current rally remains uncertain and there is a risk that the prospect of higher than budgeted oil prices will prompt governments to relax their fiscal consolidation efforts planned for the year and boost spending in areas that may be difficult to reverse when oil prices are lower like social spending and wages.

Despite the weak global oil demand, crude prices have risen in anticipation of a strong economic recovery this year on the back of the global vaccination drive and large government stimulus packages, especially in the US.