News

JAPAN / WAM Round one of a tour promoting investment in the UAE has kicked off in Japan, with the participation and organisation of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. During the tour, which visited the Japanese cities of Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo between October 11 and 13, UAE delegation, which was represented by UAE Embassy in ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Leading companies from the largest oil producing region outside OPEC, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will be increasing their presence at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) targeting the event as a hub for global deal-makers. Two of Russia’s biggest oil and gas companies, Lukoil and Gazprom, have each confirmed substantial ...

DUBAI / LONDON / Reuters China is offering to buy up to 5 percent of Saudi Aramco directly, sources said, a move that could give Saudi Arabia the flexibility to consider various options for its plan to float the world’s biggest oil producer on the stock market. Chinese state-owned oil companies PetroChina and Sinopec have written to Saudi Aramco in ...

TUNIS / Reuters Tunisia will raise VAT and other taxes and lay off about 3,000 public sector workers next year in a bid to cut the budget deficit, an economic adviser to the prime minister said. Tunisia will also seek to raise 7.4 billion Tunisian dinars ($3 billion) from foreign loans including 1.4 billion dinars from the sale of bonds, ...

Bloomberg The latest battle for Iraq’s future is unfolding around the country’s oldest oil field. Federal government troops pushed back forces from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region with a rapid thrust into Kirkuk province in northern Iraq, breaking a stand-off over the long-disputed area. Baghdad wants to reassert control of the area’s oil deposits from Kurdish fighters, who seized the territory ...

Bloomberg Egypt plans to renew a $2 billion financing deal with international banks while also developing alternative sources of funding such as issuing dollar-denominated Eurobonds, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said. The repurchase transaction, which international banks offered to increase to $5 billion upon its extension, will remain unchanged in size and probably in duration, El-Garhy said, adding the final details ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s market for initial public offerings is heading for its worst year since 2012 as a combined $20 billion of megadeals are being pushed to next year. State-owned China Tower Corp. was slated to be one of this year’s biggest deals, with a fundraising goal of as much as $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the ...

Bloomberg Indonesia will turn to private investors for the hundreds of billions of dollars in investment needed to develop the archipelago’s infrastructure and natural resources, President Joko Widodo said, brushing off claims he was increasingly becoming an economic nationalist. All major projects will be offered to the private sector, Widodo, also known as Jokowi, told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in ...

Bloomberg India is planning to enhance its meteorological forecasting capability to more accurately predict severe weather in a localised manner. The Ministry of Earth Sciences will send a proposal to the government for spending $308 million in five years to install more radars, supercomputers and special observatories, said M. Rajeevan, secretary of the ministry. The modernisation programme will help the ...

Bloomberg Palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer, climbed for an eighth straight month in September as lower international prices prompted traders and refiners to buy more to meet festival demand. Imports advanced 20.4 percent to 931,637 metric tons in September from a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said. Total vegetable oil purchases, including sunflower ...