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The Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority (ADAA) has been charged with setting up a new anti-corruption unit. According to state news agency Wam, the new unit will investigate financial irregularities and corruption, identify gaps in legislation and internal audit regulations and propose means to address them. ADAA – established in 2008 to audit government bodies, investigate corruption and set up anti-fraud programmes - is to draft the appropriate legislation and put mechanisms in place to “realise the leadership’s aspirations for efficient government functioning and an adequate climate for the development process”.

Two members of Kuwait’s royal family, along with a number of other officials, are at risk of being targeted by United States sanctions, in the latest twist in the long-running saga over alleged fraud and embezzlement at Kuwaiti-owned investment vehicle The Port Fund.At least three members of the US Congress have written to Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin in recent months, asking him to start a Global Magnitsky Act investigation into six Kuwaitis for their involvement in the detention, on what they say are false charges, of KGL Investment (KGLI) managing director Marsha Lazareva. KGLI ran the troubled fund.

The scale of projects that are under way and planned in Qatar has been covered widely. MEED Projects estimated in February that $168bn of contracts remained to be awarded for the top 20 megaprojects. This list is headed by Lusail City (a major new suburb to the north of Doha) and the rail network, with the 12 glittering World Cup stadiums at only 15th place by value. Other major projects include a new port, roads (900km and 240 intersections are planned in 2010-17), and real estate projects such as Msheireb, the world’s largest urban redevelopment.With all of these projects under way, most of them within or close to Doha, there are concerns about capacity, such as the availability of building equipment and materials as well as staff and the social infrastructure they require.

Bahrain’s troubled Bank Alkhair has appointed Khalil Nooruddin as managing director and chief executive, the bank said in a statement on 18 September.

ADIC eyes MENA private equity deals; Bahrain banks consolidate their positions; Kuwait enters Palestine telecoms sector; Vodafone Qatar to sell a 40% stake in April IPO

The announcement of a $1bn Real Madrid resort on Ras al-Khaimah’s (RAK) first manmade island has been touted in the local press as evidence of the return of the UAE’s prestigious mega-projects after several years of uncertainty. But with funding not yet secured, analysts are viewing the development with a degree of scepticism.

In his suit against Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa), its former chief executive Peter Barker-Homek says that one of his main concerns was the unsavoury business practices going on at

Merrill Lynch Saudi Arabia has appointed Motashar Almurshed as chief executive.

For long a significant player in project finance and emerging markets, BNP Paribas (BNPP) has become a bigger force still on the Africa and Middle East energy scene with the acquisition, announced on 6 October, of Belgian/Dutch giant Fortis Bank NV/SA and some of its affiliates.

On 31 May, in a case involving a multi-billion dollar litigation that has been going on for almost a decade, Cayman Islands chief justice Anthony Smellie QC ruled there was a fraudulent conspiracy between the business empires of Maan Al-Sanea (MAS) and Ahmad Hamad Al-Gosaibi & Brothers (AHAB). The Gosaibis – which the once high-flying billionaire MAS had married into – had tried to argue they were victims of fraud by MAS and his Saad Group and were therefore not directly liable for claims made against them by their creditors.

The largest energy investor in Iraqi Kurdistan, Sharjah-based Dana Gas, has begun arbitration proceedings against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) at the London Court of International Arbitration. Dana and its partners in Iraq say they want to “clarify certain contractual rights”, and recoup more than $1bn in unpaid receivables. The KRG says there are no outstanding receivables and that, in fact, Dana and its affiliates owe Erbil money. Dana’s KRG interests are held via a 40% share of Pearl Petroleum, which is co-owned by Dana’s main shareholder, Crescent Petroleum (40%), OMV Upstream International (10%) and MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas (10%).


Qatar cemented its growing relationship with Beijing with a two-day visit to China by Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on 3-4 November, during which numerous agreements were signed (see Royals). While there, Sheikh Tamim met at least four of the seven members of the Communist Party’s Politburo standing committee, the centre of power in China, including the president, Xi Jinping, and the prime minister, Li Keqiang, suggesting China places considerable value on its relationship with Qatar.The main economic outcome of the visit was a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Qatar Central Bank (QNB) and its counterpart, the People’s Bank of China, on establishing clearing and settlement in Qatar for Chinese renminbi.

Private investment management company Securities Group (SG), which initially opposed a deal to sell 46% of Kuwait telecommunications group Zain to the UAE’s Etisalat, now says it wants to be part of talks.

The authorities have been trying to shore up confidence in the local stock market, with a $100m fund recently launched to provide stability to the Bahrain Bourse. The seed investors in the fund include local banks BBK and National Bank of Bahrain, Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company and Osool, the investment arm of the Social Insurance Organisation and Military Pension Fund.

The UAE says it will provide $2bn for a series of investment and development projects in Mauritania, along with a soft loan (it is not clear if the loan is included in the headline figure, or will form a separate line of assistance). The package was announced following talks on 2 February between Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and UAE Armed Forces deputy supreme commander Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi.