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Subscriber

Sheikh Hasher Al-Maktoum’s alleged involvement in corrupt business dealings will test Dubai’s courts. With real estate scandals blighting Dubai’s image, investors will be looking to the judiciary to restore confidence.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 855 - 13 June 2009

Who is Maan Al-Sanea?

Subscriber

Maan Abdelwahed Abdelmajid Al-Sanea was relatively little known outside the region until he bought a high-profile stake in HSBC in 2007 (GSN 804/10, 803/9). Al-Sanea, in his mid-50s, holds Kuwaiti and Saudi nationality. According to a Kuwaiti source, he grew up in Shamiya, a middle class suburb of Kuwait City. But his maternal family is the Al-Gosaibi, from Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia
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Mubadala Development Corporation (MDC) lost Dh11.8bn ($3.23bn) in 2008, which its first ever annual report puts down to some very substantial impairment charges related to investments made during the boom years prior to the collapse in oil prices and the realisation that Abu Dhabi was not immune to the global economic downturn.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Subscriber

The authorities remain confident that it’s all just a blip, but with some previously well-regarded companies defaulting on payments, the impact of the credit crunch is being felt in Saudi Arabia. The shock downgrading or removal of Al-Gosaibi and Maan Al-Sanea’s ratings has rattled bankers and investors across the region.

Saudi Arabia
Subscriber

An easing in UAE market liquidity could represent an early turnaround signal for GCC trade finance markets that have experienced unwelcome contractions linked to the wider global crisis. GSN canvassed market opinion to see if talk about a speedy upturn were warranted.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Kuwait’s largest telecoms operator has gained a majority stake in the Palestine Telecommunication Company (Paltel) as part of an expansion plan. Showing the depressed mood in the Gulf, even large family businesses are looking away from their traditional home markets. International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on the development and financing of a large scale specialist healthcare project in Muharraq.

Kuwait | Bahrain
Issue 854 - 30 May 2009

Project market clues to recovery

Subscriber

In the project finance market, signals have been mixed. On the one hand, the Saudi market has been through a dour time, not least in its cancellation of the $5.5bn-$6bn Ras Al-Zour independent water and power project (IWPP) as a private sector development after the original bid winner, Malaysia’s Malakoff, failed to come up with financing and decided to withdraw.

Kuwait | Saudi Arabia | Bahrain
Subscriber

Rarely do GCC disputes get more public, and it will take more than warm words from Riyadh to win back the Al-Nahyan into the currency union fold. For Abu Dhabi, bank location is the deal-breaker

United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Saudi Arabia | Bahrain | Qatar
Subscriber

While the Middle East has weathered the global recession better than most regions, the regional dynamics have altered, with the more highly leveraged economies such as Dubai losing ground to more conservative and resource-rich players, led by Saudi Arabia.

Iran | Kuwait | Saudi Arabia | Bahrain | Oman | United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Iraq | Qatar
Issue 854 - 30 May 2009

Dubai finance head goes

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Nasser Al-Shaikh, head of the Dubai government's finance department, has been removed from his post, reportedly after a dispute with a senior

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Cayman Islands-registered BMB Group, set up in 2004 by 31-year-old Rayo Withanage, is emerging as a player in Brunei Dar Al-Salam, until now not the most active of Islamic financial markets. BMB started by offering financial services to members of the Brunei royal family, and apparently to Gulf royals too.

Subscriber

Cayman Islands-registered BMB Group, set up in 2004 by 31-year-old Rayo Withanage, is emerging as a player in Brunei Dar Al-Salam, until now not the most active of Islamic financial markets. BMB started by offering financial services to members of the Brunei royal family, and apparently to Gulf royals too. Withanage's partner Prince Abdul Ali Yil-Kabier

Issue 853 - 16 May 2009

Dubai World’s quest for cash

Subscriber

Reports that Dubai-based private equity house Abraaj Capital Ltd was to buy up to 15% of global marine terminal operator DP World’s equity remained unconfirmed as GSN went to press. But another round of fund-raising is under way among Dubai-based giants, with another Dubai World subsidiary, property developer Nakheel, resorting to a bail out from the emirate’s Department of Finance to help settle its debts.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Free

Saudi Arabia, after all, is to house the planned Gulf Co-operation Council central bank. Following the 11th GCC consultative summit, held in the Kingdom on 5 May, the GCC’s outgoing secretary-general Abdelrahman Al-Attiyah announced that Riyadh would be the new joint monetary council’s base; this institution will eventually evolve into the GCC central bank.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Kuwait | Saudi Arabia
Subscriber

Successful new sovereign bond issues by Qatar and Abu Dhabi have improved the sentiment toward the region, even though impacts of the global recession continue to be felt – not least in the credit profile of Gulf banks, which will deteriorate this year amid tighter liquidity and slumping stock markets, as Standard & Poor’s predicted recently.