Regional News

  Reuters Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) expects to finalise a loan of well over $5 billion to finance its Clean Fuels project by the end of the first quarter of next year, sources involved in the project said. The state-owned refiner had originally said it planned to complete the fundraising, one of the world’s largest-ever loans backed by export ...

  Reuters Saudi Oger has begun talks with potential buyers for its 20.93 percent stake in Arab Bank in a deal that could raise about $1 billion for the embattled construction giant, sources aware of the matter said. Oger was one of two large Saudi contractors charged with implementing the kingdom’s grand infrastructure plans before the fall in oil prices ...

CAIRO / AP For two weeks now, the shelf once piled with bags of sugar — for better or worse Egypt’s most loved commodity — has stood empty at this grocery store in bustling downtown Cairo. “This is nothing — they’re missing even more things in my village,” said Mahmoud Sulayman, a former army conscript from the Nile Delta now ...

  Reuters Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr have signed licence deals allowing them to operate fourth-generation (4G) mobile services in Egypt, the country’s telecoms regulator said on Sunday. Egypt is selling four 4G licences as part of a long-awaited plan to reform the telecoms sector and to raise money for stretched government finances. The country’s three existing mobile phone operators ...

  Reuters Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) said on Sunday it closed a $1.5 billion loan with regional and international banks that will fund its Line 6 expansion project. Alba will become the world’s largest single aluminium smelter complex, boosting its annual output by 540,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes per year by adding a sixth “potline”, used in producing the metal ...

  Kuwait City / Emirates Business GE marked a new milestone in its operational presence in Kuwait with the opening of the GE Kuwait Technology Center (GEKTC), a flagship facility that will foster localized research, provide hands-on training and build an innovation ecosystem specifically for the power sector. Approved by the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) for a Foreign ...

  AWEIL / AP The mother faced an anguished decision: choosing which of her children to save. With hunger gripping this remote region of South Sudan, Elizabeth Athiel could either get urgent medical attention for her 8-month-old daughter, Anger, or make sure her other five children could eat. The little girl was shockingly thin, but the medical clinic was a ...

  Bloomberg Orange SA’s Egyptian unit is set to become the country’s second 4G mobile-phone operator after acquiring an airwaves license Thursday, joining the state-controlled landline monopoly Telecom Egypt. Orange Egypt will pay $484 million for 2 x 10 megahertz of 4G spectrum and $11.3 million for a virtual fixed-line license, Jean Marc Harion, chief executive officer of the unit, ...

Bloomberg Egypt has appointed Citigroup Inc. as financial adviser to help with a potential sale of its stake in Arab African International Bank, according to people familiar with the matter. Central bank authorities are still determining the size of the holding they want to sell and whether to pursue an initial public offering or a sale to a third party, ...

  Bloomberg Egypt has received a $2 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia, an Egyptian central bank official said, bringing it closer to securing a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. The official, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t yet public yet, didn’t specify when Egypt received the funds. Net foreign reserves rose by $3 ...