Regional News

Riyadh / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said on Monday it is creating a 4 billion riyal ($1.07 billion) ‘fund of funds’ to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The special fund will aim to boost SMEs’ access to capital by investing in venture capital and private equity funds, according to a PIF statement. The ...

Bloomberg Sasol Ltd., the world’s largest maker of fuel from coal, abandoned a plan to sell about 13 billion rand ($950 million ) of shares to meet its obligation to repay debt owed by a black investor group. A decline in the company’s stock since the mid-2014 slump in crude prices precluded payouts to more than 250,000 black South Africans ...

Bloomberg For years, investors have played Popeye to the energy industry’s Wimpy, the cartoon character famous for his “I’ll gladly pay you for a hamburger today” motto. In return for the promise of future profits, they’ve funded loss-making energy producers and explorers through a generous mix of loans, bonds and equity. That may be changing, according to a chorus of ...

Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo ordered Sinohydro Corp. and China Railway Construction Corp.’s local mining venture to stop exporting unprocessed copper and cobalt and refine all its metals within the country. Sicomines must ship “only high-value products” as the government looks to “ensure the prompt repayment” of the country’s continuing $6 billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China, Mines Minister Martin ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration will formally propose repealing former President Barack Obama’s sweeping plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by arguing it went beyond the bounds of federal law, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not prescribe an immediate replacement to the plan, and instead will soon ask the public ...

Bloomberg National Agricultural Development Co., (NADEC) the Saudi dairy producer part owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to start talks with Danone SA’s venture in the country for a potential combination. Shareholders of the privately-held Al Safi Danone will own 38.75 percent of National Agricultural Development Co. at the completion of the proposed transaction, according to a statement ...

Bloomberg Even for commodities deal king Ivan Glasenberg, it’s been a busy week. Glencore Plc announced two acquisitions potentially worth as much as $2 billion within days of each other. One to capture a stake in Chevron Corp.’s oil refining and fuel service stations in South Africa and Botswana, the other to take a bigger stake in Latin America’s top ...

Bloomberg Not every oilman is gaining from the US shale boom. Just ask Joe Warren. Warren, a partner at Brown & Borelli Inc., is caught in a historical hiccup, of sorts. More than a third of the 65 to 70 old-line vertical wells his company operates in Oklahoma are negatively affected by horizontal drilling, he says. The new-style wells can ...

Bloomberg Nigeria’s oil minister sent a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari listing at least $24 billion of contracts involving the state oil company that he said were never discussed with him or the firm’s board, a copy of the document seen by Bloomberg shows. Emmanuel Kachikwu, the state minister for petroleum resources, complained in the seven-page, August 30 letter to ...

TOKYO / Reuters Tokyo Gas Co, Japan’s biggest city gas supplier, will not accept new contracts for long-term purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that contain clauses that restrict where the gas can be sold, the company’s president said. “We have no intention of signing new contracts unless the destinations are free,” Tokyo Gas President Michiaki Hirose said during a ...