Middle East

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US-based private equity firm, received a license to operate from the Dubai International Financial Center.   By Gordon Platt   The building in which the firm, whose 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco was chronicled in ...

The real liquidity crisis in the Middle East, as well as in parts of Asia and Africa, is the shortage of water, according to a report by Standard Chartered Bank. Consumption of fresh water must be strictly limited to the ...

DR NEWS Byblos Bank, one of the leading banks in Lebanon, listed its global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange, which now trades 37 companies based in the Middle East. Byblos Bank, which has expanded rapidly into international markets ...

MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL REPORT RECESSION PROOF Saudi Arabia epitomizes the trend toward big spending on infrastructure by oil-rich nations that is keeping their economies afloat. By Gordon Platt The Middle East is not immune to the effects of the global ...

MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL REPORT   In Dubai and other financial centers around the Middle East, there are increasing signs that prudence and a focus on Islamic financing are paying off.     Sulaiman: Middle East economy is in a better ...

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia shook up his cabinet in February, appointing a new central bank governor, as well as new education, justice, information and health ministers and naming a woman as a ...

BYBLOS BANK LISTS IN LONDON; FIRST LEBANESE FIRM IN 12 YEARS Byblos Bank, one of the leading banks in Lebanon, listed its global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange, which now trades 37 companies based in the Middle East. ...

AFRICA REGIONAL WINNER Standard Bank COUNTRY WINNER Angola BES Angola Botswana Standard Chartered Bank Botswana Cote d’Ivoire Ecobank Ethiopia NIB International Bank Gambia Trust Bank Ghana Ghana Commercial Bank Guinea International Commercial Bank Kenya Barlcays Bank Kenya Libya Al-Wahda Bank ...

GLOBAL BANKS Corporate Bank JPMorgan Chase Consumer Bank HSBC Private Bank Credit Suisse Asset Management State Street Global Advisors Custody The Bank of New York Mellon Investment Bank Goldman Sachs Cash Management Citi Trade Finance BNP Paribas Foreign Exchange Deutsche ...

MIDDLE EAST       All change: GCC countries hope to adopt a single currency   At the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Oman in December, Gulf Arab leaders approved a monetary union to be implemented by the end ...

MIDDLE EAST     Trouble in paradise: Dubai feels the chill of a global recession. Property prices on Dubai’s upscale Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island shaped like a palm tree, fell sharply late last year. Construction work on the Trump ...

MIDDLE EAST Determined to avoid repeating past mistakes, oil-rich nations in the Middle East have worked hard to diversify their economies. So far they have fared well, but pitfalls remain.   Oil is integral to the Middle East's economic fortunes, ...

MIDDLE EAST     Dubai's International Financial Exchange: Simplifying access. In an effort to stimulate more trading by local investors, the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) is now allowing companies to list, trade and clear in UAE dirhams, as well ...

MIDDLE EAST         Safa: Credit crunch could boost sukuk in the longer term. Asudden slowdown in the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, could be the result of the global credit crunch, a ruling by a committee ...

MIDDLE EAST       Dubai International Financial Center: Business is growing. The opening of Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, the largest in the Arab world, to investors from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) couldn’t have come at a better ...

MIDDLE EAST     Bright future: NYSE deal boosts Doha market. General Electric of the United States has formed an $8 billion joint venture with Mubadala Development, a sovereign wealth fund based in Abu Dhabi, to invest in emerging markets ...

REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / ECONOMIC UPDATE     Currency pegs could come unglued as the region’s economies heat up.       Just when it seemed that it couldn’t get any better for the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation ...

MIDDLE EAST       Sustainable development: Abu Dhabi plans to create an eco-friendly city. Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, is building a $22 billion carbon-neutral city near its international airport. Known ...

DR NEWS     Global Investment House, an asset management and investment banking company operating in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has become the first Kuwait-based company to issue depositary receipts. The issue of 35% ...

REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / COUNTRY PROFILE: QATAR   Qatar has plenty of gas for the long drive to becoming a knowledge-based economy.     Doha's constantly changing skyline illustrates Qatar's rapid growth.   Qatar has the world’s third-largest reserves of ...