Regional News

  Reuters Kuwait’s Equate Petrochemical has set initial price thoughts for a two-part US dollar-denominated bond that is expected to be sold on Thursday, according to a document from the lead arrangers. The company’s initial guidance for a long-five-year bond was at the low end of 200s basis points over midswaps, while price thoughts for a ten-year debt tranche were ...

  Reuters Kuwait’s National Real Estate Company (NREC) plans to issue a $500 million sukuk early next year to help fund new projects and to refinance existing debt, its chief financial officer said on Monday. The company is about to obtain a credit rating from Standard & Poor’s and will then seek to appoint banks to arrange the planned Islamic ...

  Bloomberg Egypt has been facing a shortage of sugar for weeks as a currency crunch and rising global prices curbed imports. Authorities have accused traders of hoarding, and seized stocks from companies including Edita Food Industries — one of Egypt’s largest producers. With inflation at a seven-year high, the sugar crisis is making it harder for the government to ...

  AFP Political stalemate and the conflict rocking Libya are preventing the North African country from taking advantage of its vast oil resources and pushing the economy towards collapse, experts say. When the 2011 uprising toppled the regime of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libyans dreamt of transforming their country into another Dubai. Today, they have somewhat lower expectations. “To live in ...

  Reuters Oman’s government is covering between 60 and 70 percent of this year’s budget deficit via international borrowing such as eurobond issues, direct placements of debt and other instruments, the central bank’s executive president said. The rest of the deficit will be financed locally by drawing down financial reserves, such as money held by the State General Reserve Fund, ...

  Reuters Petrochemicals giant Sabic is scouting for more overseas ventures to ease its dependence on domestic Saudi Arabian natural gas as it pushes ahead with its largest foreign investment with U.S. partner Exxon Mobil. “We do have projects that we evaluate with our existing partners or potential partners… We are a global company, we have the capability to start ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA settled four lawsuits brought by investors including Pacific Investment Management Co. after the nation’s biggest-ever corruption case torpedoed the company’s market value. Petrobras’ board approved agreements with Pimco Total Return Fund, Janus Overseas Fund, Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund and Al Shams Investments, according to a statement filed with Brazil’s ...

  Emirates Business Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest global provider of sales, marketing and distribution services to independent luxury hotels, continues to expand its Middle East portfolio with the addition of two new five-star hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and another five-star hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The three additions consist of a duo of ...

  Reuters Borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbour has rarely been so contentious in Egypt. At supermarkets across the country sugar has all but vanished, prompting media talk of a crisis and pushing the state to rapidly increase imports despite an acute dollar shortage and soaring global prices of the sweetener. Egypt consumes around 3 million tonnes of ...

  Reuters Western insurers are slowly reaching deals with Iran as they seek to re-enter a multi-billion dollar market although the pace of business is hampered by banking restrictions ten months on from the lifting of international sanctions. Shut out of international financial markets for years, Iran is still trying to reap the benefits of last year’s nuclear deal with ...