DUBAI / WAM Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to West African countries increased 12 percent to $11.4 billion in 2016, supported by recovering investment in Nigeria, a recent analysis conducted by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed. The analysis, based on data from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, was released by the Chamber as it ...

MOSCOW / LONDON / Reuters Russia’s biggest oil company, Rosneft, has agreed to take control of Iraqi Kurdistan’s main oil pipeline, boosting its investment in the autonomous region to $3.5 billion despite Baghdad’s military action sparked by a Kurdish vote for independence. The move appears to be part of a strategy by President Vladimir Putin to boost Moscow’s Middle Eastern ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters The global oil market is improving and stabilising, Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih said in Baghdad on Saturday. In a speech at the opening of the Baghdad International Exhibition, Falih praised the cooperation between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which he said had helped to boost global oil prices. Speaking later to reporters, he said Saudi Arabia and ...

LONDON / Reuters Oil producers are working to build consensus on extending their deal to reduce supplies, OPEC’s secretary general said, with the potential for continuat- ion throughout 2018 forming a basis for talks. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until ...

KHOBAR / Reuters National oil firm Saudi Aramco plans to set up a construction company with local and international partners to build non-oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, industry sources familiar with the plan said. Saudi and foreign companies have expressed interest in the project, and will form consortiums which apply to take part at a later date, one of the ...

Bloomberg US shale drillers are tapping on the brakes in the wake of a growing investor revolt that’s held down company values, even as they’ve scored historic production numbers. The evidence is stacking up: The latest rig count showed the biggest one-week drop in the Permian Basin in 19 months, while Schlumberger Ltd. and Baker Hughes, the two largest oil ...

Bloomberg Investors are getting plenty of chances this month to tap one of the best-performing segments of the year’s initial public offerings: Asia-based companies listing in the US. Fifteen Asian companies have raised $3.2 billion in US-listed IPOs and seen their shares climb 46 percent since their listings this year, according to weighted-average share price data compiled by Bloomberg. That ...

Bloomberg Typhoon Lan, which is forecast to strike near Tokyo, may cause an estimated $25 billion to $35 billion in damage, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research in Georgia. Lan is about 1,169 miles south of Tokyo with top winds of almost 150 miles per hour. That would make it the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane ...

Bloomberg Is Masayoshi Son the next Warren Buffett? A note from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. argues that Son’s SoftBank Group Corp. is the next Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “We like to think of SoftBank as a tech-focused Berkshire Hathaway,” analyst Chris Lane wrote, noting that investor returns have been similarly strong. In fact, Lane finds a lot that the Japanese ...

Bloomberg India moved to curb gold-trade irregularities by preventing some trading houses from importing the metal following a surge in shipments in recent months. The second-biggest consumer won’t issue or renew authorisation to firms nominated by the Reserve Bank of India that fall under the so-called four- and five-star categories, the trade ministry said in a notice on its website. ...