Regional News

  Reuters Barclays has begun a formal process to sell its Egyptian unit, with at least two banks from the Middle East and North Africa region expressing interest in the business, sources familiar with the matter said. The UK-based lender is offloading its Africa unit as part of a plan by Chief Executive Jes Staley to simplify its structure and ...

  Reuters State oil giant Saudi Aramco signed four engineering contracts to build its Fadhili gas processing project, the company said on Wednesday. The project is worth more than 50 billion riyals ($13.3 billion) and, when completed in 2019, will be the first programme in the kingdom to treat gas from both onshore and offshore fields. The company signed a ...

  WAM The foreign investment volume in Sudan increased to US$ 42 billion following a package of incentive measures to increase the flow of investments and encourage investment in transformational manufacturing, according to the Sudanese Minister of Investment Mudathir Abdul-Ghani. In a statement issued today, he said that the government of Sudan has allowed investors to bring along their equipment, ...

  REUTERS Saudi Arabia’s government has contacted banks to sell them about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) of bonds in its domestic debt sale this month, the Maaal financial website reported, quoting unnamed sources. Since last August, government has been selling around 20 billion riyals of domestic bonds to banks every month to fund a budget deficit caused by low ...

  REUTERS Qatar Insurance reported second-quarter net profit that was unchanged from a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations. The insurer made a net profit of 280.1 million riyals ($76.9 million) in the three months ending June 30, Reuters calculated based on financial statements in lieu of a quarterly breakdown. That compares with a net profit of 280.9 million riyals ...

  Doha / Reuters Five years ago Samer Habib moved to Qatar where he opened a restaurant that turned a profit serving Lebanese salads and sandwiches to expats. In June, the business folded. The European lawyers and Indian clerks who for years frequented Habib’s restaurant have been leaving the country in recent months, he said, many laid off in sweeping ...

  Reuters Algeria has boosted output in recent months at two major oil fields, including the Hassi Messaoud field, an oil official said, as the OPEC member strives to maximise production to make up for lost revenue. Production at Hassi Messaoud, 800 km (500 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers, has risen to 470,000 barrels from 420,000 barrels, the official ...

  Manama / TNS Around 200 small businesses are facing major financial difficulties that could force them to close down and let go of thousands of employees. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which have been struggling to stay afloat since last year, have called for urgent measures to be taken, including new legislation, to protect them from going bankrupt. The SMEs ...

  REUTERS Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), the Gulf’s largest miner, beat analysts’ forecasts despite posting a 50.95 percent fall in second-quarter net profit on Monday, as sales revenues declined on low commodity prices. The firm made a net profit of 132.5 million riyals ($35.3 million) in the three months to June 30, it said in a bourse statement. This ...

  REUTERS Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest lender by assets, reported a 5.7 percent rise in its second-quarter net profit on Monday, broadly in line with analyst forecasts. The bank made 2.05 billion riyals ($546.7 million) in the three months to June 30, up from 1.94 billion riyals in the same period a year earlier, it said in a ...