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The financial backers of Rex and Eric Wempen, owners of Excalibur Ventures which is suing both Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) and its sister company Texas Keystone for a 30% stake in the Shaikan field in Iraqi Kurdistan, have been ordered to pay £8m ($12.2) into court as additional security for the defendants’ costs, having lodged an initial £9.5m in April 2012.
According to Articulating a Dubai Model of Development: the Case of Djibouti, a September 2010 report by the Dubai School of Government, Dubai built its commercial relationship with Djibouti on co-ordinated investments in port, free zone and logistics infrastructure and amenities.
Global Investment House (Global) shareholders approved a plan to delist the company from the Kuwait Stock Exchange at an extraordinary meeting on 2 December. The company wants to proceed with a significant restructuring, and had asked the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to grant it an exemption from mandatory tender offer regulations that were standing in its way
Glencore and Xstrata shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger worth an estimated $31bn on 20 November, a deal whose twists and turns have been in large part dictated by Xstrata’s second largest shareholder, Qatar Holding (QH).
China has overtaken the US to become Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $64.3bn in 2011. GSN takes a look at the interesting history of a relationship which has largely been driven by Riyadh.
Turkish businesses have been turning away from Europe towards the markets of the Middle East and Asia. Banks have followed suit, taking advantage of growing trade, particularly with Iran, Iraq, the UAE and Saudi Arabia
Kuwait has given final approval to a settlement with Iraq over Gulf war-era debts. Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah signed decree number 23 for 2012, endorsing the agreement reached by the two sides earlier this year to settle the dispute between Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) and Iraqi Airways.
Gulf Finance House (GFH) plans to acquire the UK’s Leeds United Football Club through its wholly owned subsidiary GFH Capital Limited. In a statement on 27 September, GFH said it had signed “an exclusive agreement to lead and arrange the acquisition of Leeds City Holdings, the parent company of Leeds United Football Club”.
Commodities giant Glencore and miner Xstrata have finally agreed terms for a long-anticipated merger, which was threatened in June by objections from Qatar Holding (QH), Xstrata’s second largest shareholder.
Standard Chartered has agreed to pay a $340m fine to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), for facilitating transactions of Iranian clients. On 6 August, DFS superintendent of financial services Benjamin Lawsky called the UK multinational banking and financial services company a “rogue institution”.
The King’s son, deputy foreign minister Prince Abdelaziz, has won a civil law suit against the City of Los Angeles related to his plans to build three large family homes in Benedict Canyon, near Beverly Hills.
The UK’s Financial Services Authority is investigating deals in which Gulf financiers from Qatar and a senior member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family saved Barclays from becoming a nationalised bank during the 2008 financial crisis
Qatar has bought two buildings in Paris worth a combined €600m plus ($760m), one of which houses the Figaro Group and satellite offices of the US embassy.
Qatar Holding (QH)’s unusual outspokenness on the proposed merger between Glencore and Xstrata has put the deal in limbo, just two weeks before it was due to be approved. The two Switzerland-based companies agreed on terms for an all-share merger, valued in excess of $50bn, in February.
Qatar Airways (QA) is considering launching an airline in Saudi Arabia, but wants Riyadh to ease restrictions on domestic operators first, the airline said on 3 July.
