Regional News

  REUTERS Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar’s second-largest bank by market value, reported a 5.4 percent increase in second-quarter net profit on Monday, according to Reuters calculations, broadly in line with analysts’ expectations. Net profit for the three months to June 30 was 514 million riyals ($141.2 million) compared to 487.6 million riyals in the same period a year ago, Reuters ...

  REUTERS Egyptian dairy company Arabian Food Industries Co (Domty) is planning to invest 240 million Egyptian pounds ($27 million) in 2016-17 to fund expansion and increase production capacity, Vice-Chairman Mohamed Damaty told Reuters on Monday. Domty, which raised a combined 1.13 billion pounds in private and public share offerings in March, has two factories in the 6th of October ...

  Riyadh / TNS The Colors of Saudi Arabia Forum, the largest event in the Kingdom for photography, short films in tourism, culture and heritage to encourage professional and amateur photographers, will witness in its fifth edition this year, greater diversity. Started in 2012, the forum is annually organized under the patronage of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage ...

  Algiers / Reuters Algeria’s parliament has approved a new investment law that the government hopes will improve the business climate outside the oil sector after a drop in energy earnings of almost 50 percent due to falling oil prices. The law is part of reforms planned by the OPEC member state to diversify its economy away from oil and ...

  AFP German container shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd has announced it is teaming up with United Arab Shipping Company to become one of the world’s top five shipping companies as consolidation in the sector continues apace. “Hapag-Lloyd AG and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) have signed a Business Combination Agreement to merge both companies, subject to the necessary regulatory and contractual ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia will build a maritime complex on its east coast, with shipbuilding capability, to provide sufficient capacity for exporting oil, Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said. The country, the world’s largest oil-producing nation, eventually will have a shipping fleet that will match its oil capabilities, Al-Falih said in Riyadh. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, will need more ...

  Reuters National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) is planning to increase its fleet size to around 46 ships by the end of 2018, a senior executive said on Sunday. The figure would likely make the company, the exclusive oil-shipper of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest operator of very large crude carriers (VLCCs), Naser al-Abdulkareem, Bahri’s president of oil ...

  Reuters A wetland in southeast Iraq, thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden and almost completely drained during Saddam Hussein’s rule, has become a UNESCO world heritage site, Iraqi authorities said on Sunday. Fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the marshlands of Mesopotamia are spawning grounds for Gulf fisheries and home to bird species such as the ...

  REUTERS Kuwait’s Zain has communicated to Egypt’s telecommunications regulator its preliminary interest in obtaining a fourth-generation (4G) licence, the operator said in a bourse filing on Monday. Zain “is studying a number of investment opportunities available in the region, one of which is the Egyptian telecommunications market as a strategic market in the Middle East and Africa”, the company ...

REUTERS Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) has obtained a $166 million, three-year loan from international banks for general corporate purposes, it said on Monday. Seven lenders participated in the deal, with Mizuho Bank acting as sole co-ordinator, sole bookrunner and mandated lead arranger. Agricultural Bank of China, State Bank of India and Bank of Taiwan were also mandated lead arrangers; ...