Indiabulls Housing Falls After Founder Sells to Blackstone - Bloomberg

Indiabulls Housing Falls After Founder Sells to Blackstone - Bloomberg

Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.’s shares slid after founder firms sold about half their stake in the shadow lender to investors led by Blackstone Group Inc. and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The financier’s shares ended down 8.2% in Mumbai Friday, recovering some of its intraday losses when it fell the most since September last year. India’s benchmark index closed 1.5% lower.

Sameer Gehlaut, who founded Indiabulls Housing 21 years ago, and his firms sold 11.9% in the company, bringing down their ownership to 9.8%, according to an exchange filing late Thursday. Gehlaut will resign from the board of the lender by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31.

Blackstone bought 2.27% stake, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought 1.25% stake, according to National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. data. Morgan Stanley and Invesco Mutual Fund are among other investors in the deal.

The deal is valued at about 14 billion rupees ($184 million) based on Indiabulls Housing’s market value as of Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Indiabulls Housing, a leading mortgage lender with a loan book of about 640 billion rupees, has been facing investor scrutiny since the collapse of IL&FS Group in 2018, which triggered a prolonged credit market crisis that led to defaults by more than five non-bank lenders.

#UAE says it will embed gold sourcing rules in anti-money laundering law | Reuters

UAE says it will embed gold sourcing rules in anti-money laundering law | Reuters

The United Arab Emirates said it would embed in anti-money laundering regulation requirements that gold refineries source from responsible suppliers and undergo annual audits to ensure they are doing so.

The move is part of efforts by the UAE, one of the world's main gold trade hubs, to crack down on trading of bullion linked to crime, human rights abuses or conflict.

A Reuters investigation in 2019 found UAE had taken in gold worth billions of dollars smuggled from Africa. The country is under pressure from organisations including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental anti-money laundering monitor, to tighten rules and enforcement.

UAE has said doing so is a national priority. read more

#Saudi Aramco launches tender to upgrade world’s largest offshore oilfield Safaniyah | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Saudi Aramco launches tender to upgrade world’s largest offshore oilfield Safaniyah | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Saudi Aramco has launched a tender for a key engineering, procurement, construction and installation, EPCI contract, to upgrade the world’s largest offshore oilfield Safaniyah.

The state-owned company issued the Safaniyah upgrade tender as a part of its long term agreement with offshore contractors, Upstream reported citing two people with direct knowledge of the development

Safaniyah produces above 1 million barrels per day and has 37 billion barrels of heavy crude in place and is located about 200 kilometers north of Dhahran.

Aramco has been developing Safaniyah through multiple phases to help maintain its production profile, Upstream said.

Oil Prices Could Hit $100 by 2023 Despite Omicron Variant Concerns - Bloomberg

Oil Prices Could Hit $100 by 2023 Despite Omicron Variant Concerns - Bloomberg

Oil at $100 a barrel was considered inevitable not too long ago, as Wall Street strategists predicted a commodities supercycle. And it still remains in play, even with the omicron variant raging and Covid cases rising.

Goldman Sachs said $100 oil is a possibility in 2023 thanks to record demand. The firm believes omicron fears are overdone as governments combat the new variant with more testing than lockdowns. Today’s Chart of the Day looks at Brent crude in 2023 dollar terms, taking into account the street forecasts of inflation and its effect on the greenback. The result? It turns out oil was nearing that threshold anyway. As recently as October it was a mere $7.04 away from hitting $100 in 2023 dollar terms.

The market saw this just a few years ago. In 2011, Brent climbed as high as $126 per barrel and stayed above $100 for the next three years as the Arab Spring cascaded through Northern Africa, impacting oil-producing nations like Libya, an OPEC+ member. Demand slowed in 2014 as China’s domestic growth decelerated and the U.S. shale boom quickly added supply. The result was a more than 70% decline in oil prices that lasted until 2016, when the market found a new equilibrium. Two years of global growth followed, until the trade war between the U.S. and China began in the summer of 2018.

That scenario is similar to today. The global economy is broadly rebounding from last year’s Covid-driven lockdowns. Crude hitting $100 oil has largely been considered inevitable given the hesitance of OPEC+ to unleash supply on the market and battered American producers’ desire to be more fiscally responsible with less drilling and less borrowing. Looking ahead, there’s demand on the horizon as even struggling airlines predict travel will return to 2019 levels in 2023. A global coordinated reserve release would be helpful in pushing prices at the pump lower for American consumers, but is widely considered to be a short-term solution.

Rising oil prices due to pent-up demand has been a key driver of inflation. But it works the other way too. Inflation has an effect on the value of the dollar, the currency in which oil contracts are priced. As the greenback rises, thanks to climbing yields and an expectation of three rate hikes in 2022, $100 oil could come faster than expected.

#UAE Central Bank Extends Economic Support Measures Until June 30 - Bloomberg

UAE Central Bank Extends Economic Support Measures Until June 30 - Bloomberg

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has extended several measures of its Targeted Economic Support Scheme until June 30 help continued recovery of the nation’s economy.

Prudential relief measures regarding banks’ capital buffers and liquidity and stable funding requirements will be extended by six months, the central bank said in a statement. More specifically, the capital buffer measures include temporary lowering of the capital conservation buffer, and the capital buffer for systemically-important domestic banks.

Liquidity measures consist of temporary prudential relief on the liquidity coverage ratio, eligible liquid assets ratio, net stable funding ratio, and advances to stable resources ratio, according to the statement.