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Top stories

Bahrain's Minister of Finance and National Economy, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa al-Khalifa speaks during a financial conference in Manama, Bahrain February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Bahrain’s Mumtalakat prizes local investment over global

Bahrain’s multi-billion dollar sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat is looking closer to home for investments, prioritising local over international opportunities. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, minister of finance and national economy at Mumtalakat, said: “What we have found is the most compelling investment opportunities, the highest return on equity investments, are increasingly at home or […]

Trending

  1. Turkish inflation sticks on food and rental costs 

  2. OQ’s methanol unit is latest in Oman’s privatisation push

  3. Huge demand for workers’ accommodation in RAK

  4. Oil gains 3% after Opec+ delays output hike

  5. Egypt awaits $1.3bn loan from IMF as review begins

OPINION & Analysis

Best of AGBI

Global trade deals with Australia and New Zealand could bolster the UAE's global mining presence

How the UAE has made a global mining power grab

Embracing copper from Peru, lithium from Zimbabwe, tantalum from Kenya and bauxite from Pakistan, the UAE’s mining interests nowadays span three continents. Trade deals with Australia and New Zealand agreed in September may also soon see those interests Down Under. Certainly, Australia’s minister for trade and tourism, Don Farell, hopes so. “The negotiated package,” he […]

Middle East, not the West, should lead rebuilding, say experts

Rebuilding Palestine and Lebanon will take upwards of a decade once the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Iran-backed Hezbollah ends, according to the International Monetary Fund. But the two countries should be assisted by Middle East neighbours and not left in the hands of Western superpowers, say experts. The United Nations Development Programme’s initial […]

The remaking of Riyadh ahead of World Expo 2030

Expo 2030 is already propelling real estate development in Riyadh six years before the international fair is scheduled to take place – and, along with other giga-projects, is helping to shift the city’s core to the north. The World Expo, which typically takes place in a different city every five years, is expected to occupy […]

Turkey targets butchers, bakers and tax law breakers

Ankara has opened a new front in its war on tax avoidance, as the Turkish finance minister flags a crackdown on small and medium-scale businesses to help balance the budget and increase transparency. Just weeks after announcing a major offensive against tax avoiders in the corporate world, with hundreds of state auditors to be deployed […]

US Election

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UAE latest

RAK’s masterplan for tourism is expected to transform the landscape of the emirate, increasing the residential capacity from about 400,000 to 650,000 within five years RAK construction

Huge demand for workers’ accommodation in RAK

Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) is adding 40,000 rooms for blue-collar worker accommodation in the next five years, fuelled by the multi-billion dollar Wynn Resorts casino development and thriving construction sector. More than 10,000 rooms have been “fast-tracked” in the last nine months alone, according to Ramy Jallad, group CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone […]

Dubai tram has completed 950,000 journeys and served 60 million passengers since opening in 2014

Dubai undertakes study for trackless tram

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will undertake a study to deploy trackless tram systems at eight locations across the city as part of its Dubai Tram network expansion. The self-driving tram system will operate on virtual tracks, using camera-guided painted lines on dedicated lanes, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported. Powered by electricity, […]

Global trade deals with Australia and New Zealand could bolster the UAE's global mining presence

How the UAE has made a global mining power grab

Embracing copper from Peru, lithium from Zimbabwe, tantalum from Kenya and bauxite from Pakistan, the UAE’s mining interests nowadays span three continents. Trade deals with Australia and New Zealand agreed in September may also soon see those interests Down Under. Certainly, Australia’s minister for trade and tourism, Don Farell, hopes so. “The negotiated package,” he […]

Saudi Arabia latest

Employees at Sabic's Jubail manufacturing site; increased prices for products helped raise profits

Sabic announces SAR1bn profit in dramatic turnaround

Saudi Arabian petrochemical giant Sabic (Saudi Basic Industries Corp) has announced profit in Q3 2024 of SAR1 billion ($266.2 million) in a marked turnaround from the same period last year. In 2023, the company reported a Q3 loss of SAR2.88 billion. Revenues in Q3 2024 were up 3 percent year on year, and the company […]

Global trade deals with Australia and New Zealand could bolster the UAE's global mining presence

How the UAE has made a global mining power grab

Embracing copper from Peru, lithium from Zimbabwe, tantalum from Kenya and bauxite from Pakistan, the UAE’s mining interests nowadays span three continents. Trade deals with Australia and New Zealand agreed in September may also soon see those interests Down Under. Certainly, Australia’s minister for trade and tourism, Don Farell, hopes so. “The negotiated package,” he […]

MBC is one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the Mena region, operating 13 free-to-air television channels

PIF to acquire 54% stake in MBC Group for $2bn

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has agreed to acquire a 54 percent stake in MBC Group for SAR7.5 billion ($2 billion). The fund will buy Istedamah Holding Company’s entire stake through a private transaction priced at SAR41.60 per share, MBC Group said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Sunday. The transaction […]

Around the Middle East

Bahrain's Minister of Finance and National Economy, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa al-Khalifa speaks during a financial conference in Manama, Bahrain February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Bahrain’s Mumtalakat prizes local investment over global

Bahrain’s multi-billion dollar sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat is looking closer to home for investments, prioritising local over international opportunities. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, minister of finance and national economy at Mumtalakat, said: “What we have found is the most compelling investment opportunities, the highest return on equity investments, are increasingly at home or […]

Oil prices were also supported by expectations that Opec+ could delay December's planned production increase by a month or more

Oil prices gain amid growing Middle East tensions

Oil prices extended gains in early Asian trade on Friday, following reports that Iran was preparing a retaliatory strike on Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose $1.24, or 1.8 percent, to $70.50 a barrel by 22:29 GMT after settling up 0.95 percent in the previous session. […]

A sheep farm in Pukekohe, North Island, New Zealand. The country exported meat worth $155m to the GCC in 2023

New Zealand agrees free-trade deal with GCC

The GCC has agreed a new free-trade deal with New Zealand. The agreement will give duty-free access to 99 percent of New Zealand exports over 10 years, according to New Zealand trade minister Todd McClay.  McClay said the agreement was the culmination of an 18-year-long ambition to agree a trade deal in the Middle East. […]

A Saudi man walks at the Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Kuwaiti companies looking at Saudi exchange listings

Kuwaiti companies are eyeing up opportunities to list on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul exchange, according to reports. It comes almost two years since deals were signed between market regulators in both Gulf states to explore collaboration around cross-listings on the Tadawul and Kuwait’s bourse. Firas Al-Salem, chairman of the Kuwaiti Business Council, said that listings could […]

An excavator operates in Sidon, Lebanon. Local observers believe the Middle East should take the lead in rebuilding

Middle East, not the West, should lead rebuilding, say experts

Rebuilding Palestine and Lebanon will take upwards of a decade once the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Iran-backed Hezbollah ends, according to the International Monetary Fund. But the two countries should be assisted by Middle East neighbours and not left in the hands of Western superpowers, say experts. The United Nations Development Programme’s initial […]

Traded volume on Boursa Kuwait grew by 54 percent annually to 43.83 billion shares between January and September 2024

Higher traded volume drives up Boursa Kuwait’s profit

Boursa Kuwait reported a 15 percent rise in net profit for the first nine months of 2024 as traded volume surged. The stock exchange operator’s bottom line reached KD14.43 million ($47 million) during the period, compared to KD12.6 million a year ago. Operating profit increased by 21 percent year on year to nearly KD18 million. […]

Kuwait oil minister

New oil minister in Kuwait after reshuffle

A new oil minister, Tarek Suleiman Ahmed Al-Roumi, has been appointed in Kuwait as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle. Al-Roumi will replace Nora Suleiman Al-Fassam, who is Kuwait’s finance minister and was overseeing the oil ministry temporarily, the state news agency, Kuna, reported. Al-Fassam stepped in after the resignation in September of the deputy […]

OQEP is the exploration and production arm of Oman's state oil company OQ

Shares in Oman’s OQEP recover after poor debut

Shares in Oman’s OQ Exploration and Production rebounded on Tuesday, recovering some of their losses following a shock slump on the Muscat bourse a day earlier as dividend-seeking institutional investors took advantage of the sell-off to acquire at lower prices. OQEP, the upstream subsidiary of state oil company OQ, raised OMR748.8 million ($1.94 billion) in […]

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Turkey Latest

A greengrocer at a food market in Uskudar, Istanbul. Turkey's October inflation figure was higher than expected

Turkish inflation sticks on food and rental costs 

Turkey’s inflation remains stubbornly resistant to efforts to bring it under control, easing only marginally in October as food and rental pricing pressures continued to build.  Annualised inflation dipped to 48.5 percent in October, down slightly from 49.3 percent the preceding month. Month on month, consumer prices were up 2.8 percent, just under September’s 2.9 […]

Trendyol

Alibaba-backed Trendyol plans $2bn Gulf investment

Trendyol, Turkey’s largest ecommerce platform, is to invest $2 billion in the Gulf region over the next three years. The company is backed by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, and has established a presence across all six GCC countries. It has had rapid growth in Saudi Arabia, now its second-largest market, in particular. Its group president, […]

The CIF funding will raise $790 million to transform the country’s power transmission system and invest in smart-grid upgrades

Turkey’s clean energy plan gets $1bn backing

Climate Investment Funds (CIF), one of the world’s largest multilateral funds, has backed a $1 billion funding for Turkey’s green energy scale-up. The fund’s board approved a $70 million investment from its renewable energy integration (REI) investment platform, which will contribute to the green expansion of Ankara’s energy system. The CIF funding will raise $790 […]

Finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said “Bakeries are the places where the most tax evasion occurs" in Turkey but those in the industry dispute this

Turkey targets butchers, bakers and tax law breakers

Ankara has opened a new front in its war on tax avoidance, as the Turkish finance minister flags a crackdown on small and medium-scale businesses to help balance the budget and increase transparency. Just weeks after announcing a major offensive against tax avoiders in the corporate world, with hundreds of state auditors to be deployed […]

Turkey's finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said the ban on short selling domestic stocks is under review

Turkey considers easing ban on short selling

Turkey may partly lift a ban on short selling domestic stocks, a policy initiated almost two years ago, in an attempt to woo foreign investors back to the nation’s share market and reverse a capital exodus.  Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC on October 25, Turkish treasury and finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said […]

Egypt Latest

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva and Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly at a press conference

Egypt awaits $1.3bn loan from IMF as review begins

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will conduct its fourth review of Egypt’s loan programme on Tuesday, after which $1.3 billion is expected to be released, Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly has said. The IMF team will collaborate with officials from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and various ministries, local media reported, citing Madbouly’s speech […]

United Marine Egypt Shipping will receive an undisclosed number of the Regent seaglider

Egyptian company buys into Neom-backed seaglider

United Marine Egypt Shipping will be the launch customer for a large passenger seaglider that is designed to travel at high speeds over water.  US maritime transport company Regent said UME will be the first to receive its Monarch seaglider. The Monarch is a 50-to-100-passenger electric craft that Regent says will travel up to 650km […]

Dubai's Emaar Properties owns 79 percent of Emaar Development and also has hospitality and retail divisions

Dubai’s bellwether Emaar to report Q3 profit rise

Dubai’s Emaar Properties, bellwether of the emirate’s bourse, and its real estate development subsidiary, are likely to report sizeable increases in third-quarter profits versus the preceding three months as margins expand and under-construction projects reach revenue recognition thresholds. Emaar Properties owns 79 percent of Emaar Development and also has hospitality and retail divisions. It is […]

Egypt real estate investors. Luxury bungalows in the Red Sea lagoon in el Gouna. Developers are optimistic about foreign investors buying in waterfront communities at least for the next five to 10 years. Video length: 03:31

Egypt’s weaker currency attracting foreign real estate investors

Egypt’s economic recovery and currency devaluation has resulted in the “rediscovery of the real estate market by foreign investors”, according to the chief of the country’s largest waterfront developer, fuelling price rises in the secondary and tertiary segments. Population growth in the Arab world’s biggest country, and wealth creation in some socioeconomic segments, have also […]

Body Part, Finger, Hand Karim Badawi, Egypt's minister for petroleum, has been meeting with international companies to restore trust

Egypt slashes renewables target to focus on natural gas

Egypt has cut its renewable energy goal for 2040 from 58 percent down to 40 percent and will focus on natural gas in order to meet increasing energy demand, according to Karim Badawi, the minister for petroleum. Before hosting the Cop27 climate conference in 2022, the North African state announced a target of achieving a […]

Features

Diwali gold buyers change their approach as prices rise

Dhanteras, the first day of Diwali, is seen as an auspicious time to buy gold by the Gulf’s roughly three million Hindus. But as the price of gold hits record levels consumers are shopping differently, gold traders told AGBI. Gold’s price has surged by 34 percent in the past year alone. This trend is being […]

US sanctions unlikely to stop Iran’s oil smugglers

Tighter US economic sanctions are unlikely to disrupt Iran’s oil exports in the long run because Tehran has developed a sophisticated system of oil smuggling, using a dedicated fleet of tankers and middlemen in multiple countries, industry observers say. The regime in Tehran has been under US sanctions since the Islamic revolution of 1979.  But […]

Health sector next target for Saudi private equity

Private equity is looking to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare and wellness sectors for the kingdom’s next growth areas as it tries to manage a burgeoning young population.  Some 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s 32 million-plus population are under 30, and analysts from research company S&P say the kingdom’s demographics are the main reason for a sustainable […]

People & Lifestyle

A perfume shop in Sabya, Saudi Arabia. The country's fragrance sector is worth $2.3bn

Investors scent riches in Middle East perfume

The retail offering of Al Majed for Oud Company was more than nine times oversubscribed this week, as investors rushed to buy up the first tranche of 1.5 million shares in the Riyadh-based perfume and oud products manufacturer. The full listing of 7.5 million shares, or a 30 percent stake in the company, will raise […]

Saudi Arabia tourism projects Dragon Ball theme park

Arab Disneyland and Da Vinci: Saudi Arabia’s two great hopes

Saudi Arabia is spending billions on tourism projects at the heart of its grand plan to transform a once isolated kingdom into a global tourist destination. But a nagging question is haunting policymakers: will the world pay attention?   Tourism numbers are rising, hitting 27.4 million in 2023, but half of those were religious visitors.  The […]

Lionel Messi poses for a photo at Dubai Expo 2020. He and his Argentina teammates will soon be appearing on 'giant billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road' to advertise property

Project stardust: why Dubai developers still want celeb tie-ins

Lionel Messi, Rohit Sharma and Chris Hemsworth are just some of the famous faces who have promoted UAE real estate in recent years. Superstar sportsmen and Hollywood heroes do not come cheap, but are they really a good investment for developers or just an excuse for the CEO to get a selfie?  Many industry observers […]

Around 3.5 million bottles of Champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent

Champagne shipments to the Gulf slow but still flowing

The growth in champagne shipments to the Gulf has slowed in recent years but the market is still one of the strongest in the world, bucking a global trend for declining sales. Around 3.5 million bottles of champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent, according to data […]

Around the world

Swiss gold

Record gold price dents demand for Swiss bullion in Gulf

Swiss gold exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE have slumped in the past year, as its price rose by more than 30 percent driven by geopolitical challenges. Gold passed $2,700 per ounce on Friday for the first time ever. A year ago it was $1,980 per ounce, and a month ago $2,559. While global […]

Manara's stake in First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian operations could be worth between $1.5bn and $2bn

PIF’s Manara in talks to buy minority stake in Zambian mines 

Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) and the sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), is in advanced talks to acquire 15 to 20 percent in Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian copper and nickel assets. The stake could be potentially valued between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, Reuters reported, citing informed […]

Visitors tour the exhibition halls at Gitex Global. This year's expo runs until October 18

Tech startups drive rise in Ireland’s exports to UAE

Exports from Ireland to the UAE rose by 21 percent last year, driven by Irish technology and healthcare companies.  The trade agency Enterprise Ireland says exports to the GCC increased 13 percent last year, reaching €532.5 million ($580 million). Qatar had the region’s fastest growth in exports from Ireland last year, with a rise of […]

A Mitsubishi H3 rocket on the launchpad in Japan. The UAE will use the model in its asteroid belt mission

UAE and Mitsubishi sign agreement for asteroid belt mission

The UAE has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to provide services for its 2028 mission to the asteroid belt.  The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt – the first multiple-asteroid tour and landing mission to the main belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter – will launch the Mohammed Bin Rashid Explorer spacecraft […]