Blog Layout

Aramex buys Saudi TAL in $80mn deal

RIYADH / WAM Aramex, the global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, anno-unced the acquisition of the KSA-based firm, Saudi TAL for Comm- erce and Contract Company, for approximately $80 million. Bashar Obeid, CEO of Aramex, said, “Saudi Arabia is Aramex’s largest market in the Middle East and holds significant gro-wth potential for the business. Our acquisition of Saudi ...

Read More »

Markets signal US more likely hurtling towards recession

Bloomberg Many financial markets are already signalling that the US is more likely than not hurtling towards recession. But will they prove prescient or overly fretful? The prospect of a widespread yield inversion in the Treasury market, which has preceded US downturns for more than half a century, has generated the most alarm and is edging even closer to fruition. ...

Read More »

Tech stocks witness solid gains in 2019

Bloomberg Technology stocks have seen solid gains since tumbling to a 15-month low late last month, but investors aren’t convinced that that low represents a bottom for the sector, which has been volatile amid questions over growth and valuation. The S&P 500 information technology index is up 10 percent since the close of trading on December 24, when it ended ...

Read More »

Saudi Aramco could sell $10bn bond to acquire stake in Sabic

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco could tap the bond market for about $10 billion to help fund the acquisition of petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp, according to the country’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The kingdom will decide in the “next few weeks” about the size of the proposed bond, though the offering would not be “huge,” Al-Falih told reporters in Abu ...

Read More »

Russia eyes island storage for Arctic gas

Bloomberg Russia’s Novatek PJSC is looking at storing liquefied natural gas produced in the Arctic on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu so it can better meet spot demand from China and cut shipping costs. Saibu Gas Co, which last month signed a preliminary deal to allow Russia’s biggest LNG producer to use its storage facilities, said it may build two ...

Read More »

Chevron touts shale as electric cars dim big oil’s future

Bloomberg Chevron Corp will spend about half its capital budget on projects that yield quick returns over the next three years, underscoring the importance of shale as it prepares for growing uncertainty in how the world consumes energy. The US oil giant will spend about $9 billion to $10 billion a year on “short-cycle investments” through 2022, primarily focussed on ...

Read More »

Alberta keeps oil cuts at January levels

Bloomberg Alberta’s government maintained its mandated oil curtailment in February at the same level as January even as Canadian heavy oil prices surged. The province’s oil producers collectively must cut February output by 325,000 barrels a day, according to an email from Mike McKinnon, an energy ministry spokesman. The baseline for the cuts is the highest single month of production ...

Read More »

Denmark tests extreme ‘mortgage pricing’

Bloomberg Danes may soon be able to get 30-year home loans at just 1.5 percent. That’s considerably less than many sovereign states pay to borrow for that period, including the US government. It’s not the first time Denmark’s mortgage-backed covered-bond market — the world’s biggest — has tested such extreme levels. It tends to occur when investors from Germany to ...

Read More »

Cutting economic outlook kept growth risks balanced: ECB

Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) officials agreed that a cut to their 2019 growth projection in itself acknowledged that risks to the outlook for the euro-area economy had increased. That effectively allowed President Mario Draghi to avoid saying in December that the balance of risks was to the downside, which would have jarred alongside a decision to halt bond buying ...

Read More »

China’s biggest bank cuts space at New York’s Trump tower

Bloomberg Two of China’s New York power players are pulling back from Trump — Trump Tower, that is. First, a big Chinese conglomerate, HNA Group Co, moved to sell a Manhattan office tower four blocks from Trump Tower after US authorities raised national security concerns. A deal has finally been cut. Now, China’s biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of ...

Read More »