Regional News

  KUWAIT / Reuters State-owned refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) has signed the first tranche of financing for its multi-billion-dollar Clean Fuels Project, a major plank of the country’s economic development plan. The tranche, provided by local banks and lasting for 10 years, is worth 1.2 billion dinars ($3.98 billion) and led by National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters The government-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) replaced four of its representatives on the board of Ma’aden, the Gulf’s largest miner, in which it owns 49.99 percent. Saudi Arabia’s Mining Co (Ma’aden) said its board now includes the chairman of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, Khalid al-Falih and prominent Saudi businesswoman Lubna al-Olayan. Besides Falih and Olayan, ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo reported a 75 percent rise in first-quarter net profit driven by foreign exchange gains from Indonesia and Myanmar. The earnings of the former monopoly, which operates in about a dozen territories across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have been volatile since mid-2013 when foreign exchange losses and plunging earnings from Iraq ...

  ASTANA /EMIRATES BUSINESS Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov, on Thursday, opened the 7th session of the Ministerial Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for food security and development of agriculture. Kazakhstan’s candidacy for the post of chairman of the General Assembly of the Islamic Organization for Food Security was endorsed at the session. Karim noted Islamic ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Zain, Kuwait’s biggest telecommunications operator by subscribers, reported a 9 percent year-on-year fall in first-quarter profit on Sunday, extending an earnings slump as foreign exchange losses increased. The former monopoly, which operates in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa, made a net profit of 37 million dinars ($123 million) in the three months to ...

  ABU DHABI / Reuters Indonesia’s governor to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Monday that oil at $45 a barrel was “not bad” and that there would be no urgency to freeze output if crude remained at that price. Despite failure to reach a deal to curb oil output and support prices at an April 17 ...

  Reuters Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ), the Gulf Arab state’s third-largest lender by assets, reported a 36.3 percent fall in net profit attributable to equity holders, below analysts’ forecast. The bank earned a net profit attributable to equity holders of 288.1 million riyals ($79.1 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, it said in a statement. That compares ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has revised its long-term outlook on Jordan’s economy while at the same time allocating a BB-/B rating on the kingdom’s long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. “We have revised downward our economic growth projections and now expect wide current account deficit,” the rating services agency said in ...

  DUBAI / Reuters State-run Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), the Gulf’s largest utility firm, reported a narrowing first-quarter net loss as higher tariffs boosted its operating income. The company, which the government aims to split into several components this year to improve efficiency, made a loss of 1.37 billion riyals ($365.32 million) in the three months to March 31, according ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s National Industrialization Co’s chief executive expects to see the benefits of a restructuring soon and has a more positive outlook for the chemicals market. Like many Saudi petrochemical firms, Tasnee’s earnings have suffered as its product prices are closely tied to oil prices, which have slumped since mid-2014. To combat poor market conditions, Tasnee ...