ADIA Is Said to Weigh Bid for £2 Billion Stake in UK Ports Giant - Bloomberg
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is among parties considering a bid for a 34% stake in Associated British Ports, the UK’s biggest port operator, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Infrastructure investors Stonepeak Partners LP and Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corp. are among others interested in the stake being sold by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, according to the people. The stake could be valued at about £2 billion ($2.4 billion) or more, they said.
ABP owns and operates 21 ports in England, Scotland and Wales and handles around one quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade and more than £150 billion of UK trade annually. CPPIB bought its stake in the ports group from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Prudential Plc for £1.6 billion in 2015.
Other ABP shareholders include Omers Infrastructure Management, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and Wren House Infrastructure.
Mideast Stocks: Gulf markets drop as oil prices slip in volatile session
Gulf stock markets ended weaker on Tuesday, tracking subdued oil prices and global peers lower, as investors feared that the U.S. Federal Reserve would get more aggressive with interest rate hikes to tame inflation. Traders are also awaiting minutes of the latest U.S. Fed meeting, due on Wednesday, after recent data on core inflation raised the risk of interest rates remaining higher for longer.
Most Gulf currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar usually mirror U.S. monetary policy changes.
The benchmark index in Saudi Arabia dropped 1%, extending its losses to a fourth session. The index was pulled down by a 1.9% loss in luxury real estate developer Retal Urban Development and a 2.1% drop in Dr Sulaiman Al-habib Medical Services.
Oil prices - a key catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets - eased in a volatile session as concerns about a demand-denting global economic slowdown outweighed support from supply curbs, and prompted investors to lock in profit following previous session's gains.
In Abu Dhabi, the index fell 0.3%, weighed down by a 2% loss in Abu Dhabi National Energy and 1.5% drop in real estate developer Aldar Properties. The conglomerate Alpha Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates's biggest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank dropped 1.4% and 0.7% respectively.
Dubai's benchmark index dropped 0.1%, dragged down by losses in almost all sectors with Emaar Properties declining 1.6% and Dubai Islamic Bank falling 0.7%.
Qatari Stock Index eased 0.2%, snapping a four-session winning streak. Islamic bank Dukhan Bank dropped 31.2% after it started trading on Tuesday with opening price of 4 Qatari riyals and closing at 2.992 Qatari riyals.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index closed 1.3% higher, snapping a three-session loss, with most of its constituent stocks in positive territory. The index was helped by a 1.4% gain in Commercial International Bank and a jump of 6.2% in Egypt's petrochemical producer and distributor Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals.
Dubai airport annual passenger traffic jumps 127% | Reuters
Dubai's main airport registered a 127% jump in annual passenger traffic to 66.1 million last year, it said on Tuesday, beating its own forecast.
Dubai International Airport (DXB), a major international hub, is forecast to welcome 78 million passengers this year as the United Arab Emirates prepares to host major international events including the COP28 climate conference.
Dubai Airports, the airport's operator, in November forecast DXB passenger traffic to reach 64.3 million in 2022.
About 60% of people travelling through DXB, the hub of airline Emirates, are origin and destination travellers while 40% are transfers, Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths told Reuters in his office at DXB.
Saudi Arabia Wants to Be A Movie Capital. Will Hollywood Go Along? - Bloomberg
Is Saudi Arabia the next China for Hollywood?
In early December, dozens of global celebrities descended upon Jeddah, a city of more than 4 million people on the Western coast of Saudi Arabia. Jeddah has long served as a gateway to the holy city of Mecca, as well as a port of entry for foreign travelers coming to Saudi Arabia. For 10 days last year, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city attempted to transform itself into a cultural hub akin to Cannes or Sundance by hosting the Red Sea International Film Festival.
The attendee list for the second edition of the event includes many members of the Hollywood A-list in 1995. Oliver Stone served as the president of the jury, while Spike Lee, Antonio Banderas and Andy Garcia sat down for conversations about cinema. There were plenty of contemporary stars in attendance as well, including Henry Golding, Joel Kinnaman and Michelle Rodriguez. Bruno Mars performed on opening night.
Saudi Arabia, awash in oil money, is eager to extend its influence on the world stage by investing in pop culture. It has already spent billions of dollars to stand up a new golf league, invested billions more into video-game publishers and is now turning its attention to Hollywood.
The presence of famous people on Saudi soil at a film festival lends credibility to those efforts — even if the organizers didn’t get all the biggest stars to show up. The country is also offering generous incentives to filmmakers and studios if they shoot there and these incentives have already enticed a couple of productions, including a film starring Anthony Mackie.
Saudi Oil Revenue Drop Rounds Off Year of $326 Billion Windfall - Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia’s receipts from oil sales abroad fell for a sixth straight month but still capped a year that saw the kingdom rack up the highest annual income during Mohammed bin Salman’s time as crown prince and de facto ruler.
The second-biggest windfall in Saudi history gives the crown prince more cash to power his drive to diversify and open up the economy of the world’s largest crude exporter. Saudi officials have repeatedly said the kingdom wants to use its energy windfall to accelerate projects that contribute to weaning it off a reliance on oil.
With crude prices ending last year near $80 per barrel after earlier skyrocketing into triple digits, Saudi Arabia fetched 85.5 billion riyals ($22.8 billion) in December from exporting crude and refined products, according to data from the kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics.
Prices in Dubai’s top property market to slow in 2023 but will lead globally
Dubai’s property market is expected to lead the global price charts in 2023 as it continues to attract high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), but rising interest rates and sustained headwinds are likely to soften the demand.
Across the emirate, prices of high-end homes will jump by 6% to 7.9% this year, the highest in the world, according to real estate consultancy Savills. However, Dubai’s capital value growth, which will be similar to Singapore’s, is lower than the 12.4% increase recorded last year.
The pace of growth in Dubai, as well as Singapore, will outrank those in Miami and Milan, where prices are likely to increase by around 4% to 5.9%, as well as Cape Town and Rome, which are both expected to record a 2% to 3.9% increase this year.
“Both cities (Dubai and Singapore) will continue to see sustained inflows of high-net-worth individuals; however, they are not immune to higher interest rates and wider economic headwinds,” Savills said in its report.
UAE's Crescent Petroleum to develop natural gas fields in Iraq | Reuters
United Arab Emirates-based energy company Crescent Petroleum has signed three contracts to develop natural gas fields in Iraq's Diyala and Basra provinces, two government sources and the company said on Tuesday.
Crescent Petroleum said it will develop two fields in Diyala province to initially produce 250 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas within 18 months to supply nearby power plants.
The company said it plans to explore and develop a third block in Basra province to add further supplies of oil and gas.
Most Gulf markets in red on fears of global economic slowdown | Reuters
Most Gulf stock markets fell in early trade on Tuesday, in line with Asian peers and subdued oil prices, after U.S. economic data prompted bets that the Federal Reserve would get more aggressive with interest rate hikes to battle inflation.
Traders are awaiting the minutes of the latest Fed meeting, due on Wednesday, after recent data on core inflation raised the risk of interest rates remaining higher for longer.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI) dropped 0.5%, and is on course to extend losses for a third session, weighed down by a 0.6% fall in Retal Urban Development Co (4322.SE) and a 2.9% decrease in Riyad Bank (1010.SE).
The market is now pricing U.S. interest rates to peak at 5.30% in July and remain above 5% by the end of the year, moving away from expectations of deeper rate cuts this year.
Most Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have their currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar and follow the Fed's policy moves closely.
In Qatar, the index (.QSI) dropped 0.5%, with Qatar Islamic Bank (QISB.QA) losing 1.4%.
Oil prices - which fuels growth in Gulf economies - fell as fears that a global economic slowdown would reduce fuel demand prompted investors to take profits on the previous day's gains.
Dubai's main share index (.DFMGI) lost 0.4%, hit by a 1.8% fall in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties (EMAR.DU).
The Abu Dhabi index (.FTFADGI) retreated 0.4%.
