Search results

QIA sticks with London real estate but spurns Wall Street

The Serious Fraud Office is to crack down on companies that offer inducements or ‘kickbacks’ to foreign governments in return for preferential treatment. The move is a result of a new Bribery Act drawn up by the former Labour government after the SFO abandoned an enquiry into BAE Systems’ £43bn Al-Yamamah arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

There is renewed speculation that the UAE’s two main airlines – and flagships for their respective emirates – Emirates and Etihad Airways may merge, after it emerged that the expensively assembled Abu Dhabi-based carrier has been offering its pilots the opportunity to move to Dubai-based Emirates for two years on secondment. Loss-making Etihad is in the midst of a restructuring effort that has seen it abandon its strategy of investments in struggling airlines in Europe and Asia, drop unprofitable routes, scale back its fleet and replace its management team.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has served Section 2 notices on former board members of Barclays, as part of its probe into the bank’s dealings with Qatar, according to a 24 September report in the Financial Times (FT). Section 2 notices require a person to provide information, whether through interviews, producing material, or having premises searched, and are usually given to people who have a duty of confidence to their clients. The SFO is investigating Barclays’ capital raising from Qatari investors in 2008, and has been struggling with accessing evidence.

European powers finally launched a watered-down version of a new payments system with Iran on 31 January, after months of delay. Designed to bypass United States sanctions on Tehran, the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex) has been developed by France, Germany and the UK and has, initially at least, been limited to dealing with areas of trade not subject to US sanctions, such as food, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Its scope may be expanded to cover more contentious good and other trading partners in the future.

A wealthy Kuwaiti family is in line for a substantial, but still to be finalised pay-out, after winning a case in the High Court in London on 27 November against Credit Suisse (UK) Ltd. Mahmoud Haji Haider Abdullah and three of his sons – Maytham, Mahdi and Mansour – sought damages having claimed the bank had provided unsuitable investment products.The Kuwaitis had come to the attention of the bank in 2003 when the Haider family sold its interest in Wataniya Telecoms, generating $150m in cash.

Finance minister Nayef Al-Hajraf announced his resignation on 6 November, after being chosen as the Kuwaiti government’s nominee to be the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)’s next secretary-general. Deputy foreign minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said Kuwait hoped other members would support the nomination at the GCC’s next summit (whose date has yet to be agreed).

Sharjah-based port management and logistics company Gulftainer has bought a 51% stake in Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company. In a statement on 23 June, Gulftainer said the acquisition had allowed it to assume full management of three Saudi terminals in Jeddah and Jubail. On the west coast, Gulftainer will operate the Northern Container Terminal at the Jeddah Islamic Port, and on the east coast, it will operate Jubail Commercial Port and Jubail Industrial Port.

There was symbolism in the fact that petroleum and mineral resources minister Ali Bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, for long the government’s most senior non-royal, was in Beijing as King Salman Bin Abdelaziz reshuffled his government and control of the oil industry, in moves which should have lasting impact on Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and the industry pecking order (see page 1). The separation of Aramco from the oil ministry, and the appointment of Saudi Aramco chief executive Khalid Al-Falih as health minister and as the oil giant’s chairman triggered further speculation about Naimi’s future, which the veteran petroleum minister immediately side-stepped by focusing on relations with China, which could prove critical to the kingdom’s future economic health.

Oman has signed an OR250m ($649m) tourism deal with Qatari Diar, which will see the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)’s real estate company develop Ras Al-Hadd in Al-Sharqiyah South. The development stretches over 1.848m square metres. Under the terms of the deal, Qatari Diar will own 70% of the development, and the Oman Tourism Development Company the other 30%, according to Oman’s state news agency. The development will include tourist resorts, housing units and recreational facilities. The first stage, to include an 100-room five star hotel, 50 hotel villas, 150 residential villas and retail areas is due to be completed in 2018. The second stage includes another hotel, a wildlife centre and another 196 residential villas.

Indexing firm FTSE Russell is to include the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in its FTSE Emerging index next year, in a widely-anticipated change announced on 28 March. The decision is an important success for Riyadh, which has made a number of reforms since 2015 to make the Tadawul more attractive to international investors. Saudi stocks will be included into the index over five stages, from March to December 2019, eventually accounting for around 2.7% of the total index.

Egypt urgently needs funds and Qatar is willing to invest, as its mega-rich and politically savvy leaders look for opportunities both to make money and to shore up its position as central to a changing Arab world.

Samsung Engineering and Alcoa Inc have reached a “settlement in principle” over a complaint the Korean firm filed in March against the aluminium producer, which sought $202m in damages, according to recent filings at the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement, once finalised, will result in the dismissal of the action with prejudice (which means the case is over forever).

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa returned to Bahrain on 18 September after an official visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. It was King Hamad’s first visit to China at the invitation of the president, timed to coincide with the first China-Arab States Expo, whose opening ceremony in Yinchuan he attended. During his visit, on which he was accompanied by finance minister Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, he held talks with Jinping and Chinese premier Li Keqiang on “close co-operation between the two countries in various areas”, according to state news agency BNA. The visit was hailed by official media in Bahrain as a historical success, and a turning point in China-Bahrain relations.

As the crisis spreads, sovereign wealth funds are being called on to help rescue ailing institutions abroad and at home. Many have already done so: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) invested in Citibank last year, followed by the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which invested $5bn in Citi and Merrill Lynch. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has invested in