Archive - Al Arabiya English

Tadawul chairwoman congratulates Saudi stock exchange for ‘yet another success’

Thursday, 21 June 2018

The decision to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s Standalone Market to an Emerging Market status is evidence of the success of development efforts in that regard, chairwoman of Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange Tadawul, Sarah al-Suhaimi, said in a press conference on Thursday.The status upgrade will greatly facilitate foreigner investments, she added.Suhaimi also said the time period that the Saudi stock market was supervised by the MSCI Index is the shortest in comparison to other markets.In a ...

Turkey strikes back, taxing $1.8 billion worth of US goods

Thursday, 21 June 2018

Turkey is imposing tariffs on nearly two dozen US products, ranging from cars to sunscreen, to strike back at Washington’s sanctions on imported steel and aluminum.According to documents filed with the World Trade Organization, Turkey will slap $267 million in tariffs on $1.8 billion worth of products the United States exports to Turkey.The tariffs, which take effect Thursday, are in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision to tax foreign steel and aluminum. The US says the ...

MSCI upgrades Saudi Arabia’s stock market to Emerging Market status

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Global index provider MSCI announced on Wednesday the re-classification of Saudi Arabia’s stock index from Standalone Market to Emerging Market status. The upgrade, which was widely anticipated by investors, follows a market classification review after MSCI put Saudi on a watch list for a potential upgrade last year. The decision comes after the implementation of a number of reforms by the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (CMA) which facilitate foreigners’ access to equity ...

Air Arabia has $336 mln overall exposure to Abraaj

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Air Arabia has an overall exposure of $336 million to Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj, which has filed for provisional liquidation, the airline said on Wednesday. The carrier said in a statement emailed to Reuters that it had appointed a legal representative to protect its business. Shares in Air Arabia, the only listed airline in the United Arab Emirates, plunged 7 percent this week because of the link between the airline and Abraaj. Abraaj, the Middle East’s biggest private ...

General Electric loses place in elite Dow Jones Industrial Average

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

General Electric Co has lost its spot in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after over a century in the blue chip stock index, a new blow to a company that once towered over the American business landscape but is now struggling to retain its standing as an industrial powerhouse.S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Tuesday that GE, an original member of the Dow when it was formed by Charles Dow in 1896 and a continuous member since 1907, will be replaced in the 30-component stock average by drug store ...

Why European firms are unlikely to protect their business interests in Iran

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday said that most French companies hoping to continue doing business in Iran after the US imposes new sanctions on the country will find it impossible to do so. Le Maire said that these companies “won’t be able to stay because they need to be paid for the products they deliver to or build in Iran, and they cannot be paid because there is no sovereign and autonomous European financial institution” capable of shielding them. Besides ...

Lebanon’s finance minister warns over slow formation of government

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said on Tuesday that Lebanon was not forming a new government fast enough and he had not seen serious headway made on the matter. Political leaders and foreign donors have said Lebanon, which held a parliamentary election on May 6, needs to establish a government quickly to maintain confidence in the country and get to work on reforms to help an ailing economy. “It is important for political forces to be aware that time is not on ...

Egypt says to receive $2 bln IMF payment by end of July

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Egypt says it will receive the next $2 billion instalment of a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the second half of July, newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted Finance Minister Mohamed Maait as saying this would be the fourth instalment of the loan, agreed in late 2016, and would bring the total Cairo has received so far to $8 billion. The IMF loan requires Egypt to enact tough economic austerity measures. The latest fiscal reforms have ...

Abraaj gets $50 mln Abu Dhabi bid for investment management business

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

An Abu Dhabi Financial Group company has made a conditional $50 million offer to buy private equity firm Abraaj’s investment management business, a document reviewed by Reuters shows. Abu Dhabi Capital Management’s (ADCM) bid is well below the $125 million offered by New York-based Cerberus Capital Management before Dubai-based Abraaj filed for provisional liquidation in the Cayman Islands last week. It was unclear whether the terms of the offer that ...

Suez Canal revenues rise to $503 mln in May

Saturday, 16 June 2018

Egypt’s Suez Canal revenues rose to $503.13 million in May, up from $479.3 million in April, according to figures released by the head of the Suez Canal Authority, Mohab Memish. Memish said revenues rose by $63.33 million last month compared to May 2017, an increase of 14.4 percent. The Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia and one of the Egyptian government’s main sources of foreign currency.