Regional News

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco will increase dividend payments and pay less tax as the government tries to secure the $2 trillion valuation targeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the state oil company’s initial public offering (IPO). The state-run company, which produces about 10% of the world’s oil, plans to announce its intention to float later this month with the ...

Bloomberg When aluminum demand last contracted during financial crisis and unwanted metal started flooding into warehouses, it took more than a decade to work through the glut. Now, the market is bracing for another sharp rise in inventories as demand growth grinds to a halt. Aluminum has tumbled to a two-and-a-half-year low as slowing global growth and the US-China trade ...

Bloomberg Mozambique expects to get $880 million in capital gains tax from Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s deal to sell its Africa assets to Total SA, the presidency said in a statement. The nation, already cashing in on a liquefied natural gas boom even before it starts exporting the fuel in 2023, is home to a $23 billion project that Anadarko Petroleum ...

Bloomberg Kenya plans to invite bids next month for the development of a $1.1 billion crude pipeline as the East African nation prepares to start exports via the conduit in three years. Construction of the approximately 820-kilometer (509-mile) pipeline from the oil fields in South Lokichar to the Indian Ocean port of Lamu may start in the second half of ...

Bloomberg Nigeria LNG Ltd., the operator of Africa’s largest natural gas plant, is in talks with lenders to finance a $10 billion expansion. The company is discussing with the country’s top-10 lenders including Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc, to raise as much as $2 billion, and with foreign lenders and export-credit agencies for the balance, Chief Executive ...

Bloomberg The man in charge of Norway’s trade policies is sanguine about the prospects of the country’s largest export destination potentially leaving the European Union without a deal. Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, Norway’s Trade and Industry Minister, is this week meeting with colleagues in London to discuss trade in the run-up to Brexit and sketch the framework for a permanent agreement ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia has awarded to two Saudi firms contracts to build worker housing for its futuristic mega-city called Neom, as plans for the $500 billion project move forward. Tamimi Group and Saudi Arabian Trading & Construction Co. won contracts to finance, build and operate three residential areas with capacity to house 30,000 people, Neom said in a statement on ...

Bloomberg The United Nations International Court of Justice granted Kenya’s request to postpone a hearing of a territorial dispute with Somalia, less than a week before it was scheduled to begin. The hearing will now start on November 4. Kenya had requested that it be delayed for a year as it recruits a new defense team. The neighbours claim ownership ...

Bloomberg An Indian state-owned refiner is mulling purchase of American oil from Chinese sellers offering cargoes that would be hit by new tariffs on US supplies. Bharat Petroleum Corp. is looking for opportunities to buy some US crude diverted from their original destination of China, according to Refineries Director R. Ramachandran. He said the previously-reported purchase of up to two ...

Bloomberg China’s world-leading train maker CRRC has gained control of one-quarter of the European diesel-locomotive market in a single purchase costing less than 10 million euros. The acquisition of the Vossloh AG business provides China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. with a major toehold in a region where rail travel is ousting cars and planes faster than anywhere else. CRRC’s Zhuzhou ...