Egypt announces $35 billion #UAE investment on Mediterranean coast | Reuters

Egypt announces $35 billion UAE investment on Mediterranean coast | Reuters

Egypt said on Friday it had signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop a prime stretch of its Mediterranean coast that would bring $35 billion of investments to the indebted country over the next two months.

The deal with ADQ, the smallest of Abu Dhabi's three main sovereign investment funds, is for the development of the Ras El Hekma peninsula and could eventually attract as much as $150 billion in investments, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a press conference.

Such inflows would provide a huge boost to Egypt's crisis-stricken economy as it faces new pressures linked to the war in Gaza and seeks an expansion of its current IMF support programme.

The country has long struggled to attract large-scale foreign investment outside the hydrocarbons sector. In the financial year that ended in June 2023, net foreign direct investment stood at $10 billion.

Egypt's sovereign dollar bonds soared on Friday ahead of the announcement and continued their rally into the afternoon.

#UAE removed from money laundering ‘grey list’

UAE removed from money laundering ‘grey list’

The international body that oversees the fight against money laundering has removed the United Arab Emirates from its “grey list”, two years after it identified weaknesses in the Gulf state’s ability to tackle financial crime. 

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force said on Friday that the UAE was no longer subject to additional scrutiny by the body, having demonstrated that its ability to police illicit money flows had significantly improved. 

The decision is a victory for the UAE, which has become an increasingly important global trading hub but has faced criticism over lax scrutiny of money flows, with transparency campaigners claiming the country has been used by criminals to hide international corruption. 

“If you are on the grey list you are seen to have crossed the red line,” said Bhavin Shah, a Dubai-based expert in combating financial crime and managing director of Secretariat Advisors. Getting off the list “restores the global business community’s trust in the UAE to have a robust framework to fight financial crimes”. 

Barbados, Gibraltar and Uganda were also removed from the grey list, while Kenya and Namibia were placed on it. 

FATF, which designs international standards to help governments tackle illicit financing for crimes ranging from terrorism to drugs trafficking, said the UAE and others removed from the grey list had taken “substantial steps” to improve their financial crime fighting systems. 

The countries “have demonstrated the necessary political will to sustain and continue these changes”, said FATF president Raja Kumar.

Mideast Stocks: #UAE stock markets fall on weak oil prices

Mideast Stocks: UAE stock markets fall on weak oil prices

Stock markets in United Arab Emirates declined on Friday, tracking oil prices after a U.S. Federal Reserve governor said interest rate cuts should be delayed by at least two more months. 

U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers should delay interest rate cuts by at least another couple more months to see if a recent uptick in inflation signals stalling progress toward price stability or is just a bump in the road, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday.

Oil prices - a key component of Gulf economies - drifted 1.21% lower to $82.66 a barrel by 1042 GMT. Most Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including the United Arab Emirates, peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar and follow the Fed's policy moves closely.

Abu Dhabi's benchmark index slipped 0.4%, hitting a nearly four-month low, weighed down by a 5.5% slump in IHC-owned investment firm Multiply Group, while sovereign wealth fund ADQ-owned real estate firm Q holding lost 4%. Geopolitical tensions and risks surrounding oil markets could continue to weigh on sentiments in Abu Dhabi market, Abdelhadi Laabi, Chief Marketing Officer at KAMA Capital, said.

Dubai's main market edged down 0.1% as majority of stocks were trading in red territory with top lender Emirates NBD Bank losing 1.9% and state-run Dubai Electricity and Water Authority decreasing 0.8%.

The Dubai market continued to see price corrections after hitting a new high this week, Laabi said, adding that market remains on a positive course overall and could return to the upside as it could find some support at current levels.

The Abu Dhabi index recorded a weekly loss of 1.6%, its biggest weekly decline since Oct. 20 last year, while Dubai slipped 0.8% on weekly basis - LSEG data.

Adnoc’s $30bn chemicals deal with Austria’s OMV stalls

Adnoc’s $30bn chemicals deal with Austria’s OMV stalls

Talks over a planned $30bn merger between the chemicals arms of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Austria’s OMV have stalled over recent weeks, putting at risk a complicated deal to create a new market leader. 

The negotiations have cooled to allow both sides to navigate a series of disagreements, according to three people familiar with the matter. Currently the groups have gone “pencils down”, one person said. 

At one point in mid-December, Adnoc and OMV, an energy and chemicals group, had been less than 24 hours away from announcing a deal, even having practice runs of analyst presentations to unveil the agreement, they added. 

The issues outstanding range from the trivial, such as the name of the merged unit in the final deal announcement, to the more serious, the people said.