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GSN has long profiled leading players in the Gulf, focusing on the personal, political and business relations that are rarely covered in the region. In line with this tradition, GSN is running an occasional series of profiles of major families and business entities, starting with the Al-Zawawis

While the secession of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area has occupied most attention, a failure of state-building in post-Baathist Iraq might also see other regions looking for at least Kurdish levels of autonomy, if not outright independence. Of most concern to Baghdad would be the hydrocarbons-rich south. GSN spoke to a range of decision-makers in Basra to test the support for different kinds of decentralisation in the province, which has been called ‘the failed Gulf state’ by historians of the area

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, a son of the UAE’s founding president, has died after a microlight aircraft he was learning to fly crashed in Morocco on 26 March. Sheikh Ahmed was managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) and had substantial business interests.

Abu Dhabi’s ambitious Mubadala Development Company has released results for 2009, which are better than those for 2008, although it appears MDC is substantially dependent on government-related operational activities, external investments and shares in foreign entities to offset losses elsewhere in its portfolio to make an overall profit. “Total comprehensive income was Dh8.6bn, largely driven by revenue from the sale of goods and services at Dh13.1bn and improvements in the fair valuation of investments at Dh6.4bn,” said MDC’s report.

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has revoked Ernst & Young Saudi Arabia Consulting’s securities licence because of “several violations” of the Kingdom’s capital market law and implementing regulations

Atradius Dutch State Business has highlighted a significant series of claims and payment delays.

Atradius Dutch State Business has highlighted a significant series of claims and payment delays. The Dutch export credit agency has received claims on Saudi Arabia and run into payment delays from Qatar and Bahrain “where risk was written in both cases with the 100% support of the government”, director

The Saudi economy did better last year than most analysts expected, with the 2010 budget, the Kingdom’s largest, showing the government’s determination to support the economy through trying times, according to Riyad Capital’s latest Quarterly Saudi Economic Report.

Six Abu Dhabi government-related entities and UAE state-owned Etisalat have been downgraded, while Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s first review lacks detail

The International Monetary Fund has issued a relatively detailed Article IV report on the UAE for the first time in several years. It starts by outlining 2009’s “significant slowdown in growth and strains in the banking system as a result of the global financial crisis, the decline in oil prices, and the continuing fallout from the bursting of the Dubai property bubble”.

Another star of the Gulf’s credit-fuelled boom years, Gulf Finance House (GFH) has reached agreement with creditors to restructure its debt but has been further downgraded by ratings agencies.

Former head of Abu Dhabi’s Hydra Properties Sulaiman Al-Fahim has provided the western media with a bounty of stories over the past two years, but has been in even deeper trouble back home. In December, a Dubai court issued an irrevocable ruling against Al-Fahim and other defendants and ordered them to pay more than Dh8m ($2.1m) plus interest to an Azeri businessman over a property dispute – in another case that has highlighted the pitfalls of doing business in a region where transparency has its limits.

Dubai needs to improve its handling of the DW situation, Iraq taps new $3.6bn IMF programme

It would be hard to tell there was a Dubai financial crisis, with the UAE’s bank reporting season in full swing. On the face of it, results so far suggest there is better news coming out of Dubai than Abu Dhabi, but consideration of UAE financial risk may be better based on transparency rather than good news

Lawyers for businessman Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Suwaidi have said that his case against Gulf Finance House chairman Essam Janahi will be heard by Bahrain’s Court of Cassation. The case has already been rejected by Bahrain’s Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal.