30-31 January: Middle East and North Africa Energy, London
6-7 February: E & P Information and Data Management, London
6-8 February: PowerGen Middle East, Doha
13-15 February: Kuwait Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition, Kuwait
14-15 February: 9th Annual Trade and Export Finance Conference, Dubai
27-29 February: Offshore Arabia, Dubai
March (date to be confirmed): Middle East Alternative Investment Summit (location to be confirmed)
3-5 March: Saudi Safety and Security, Saudi Arabia
5-8 March: Middle East Investment Summit, Dubai
5-8 March: Hedge Funds World Middle East, Dubai
6-7 March: Saudi Downstream, Saudi Arabia
5-8 March: Middle East Investment Summit, Dubai
20-21 March : 3rd Annual Middle East Securities Forum, Abu Dhabi
25-27 March: Gulf Environment Forum, Saudi Arabia
25-27 March: Saudi Innovation, Diversification & Investment, Saudi Arabia
24-25 April: Middle East Real Estate Summit, Abu Dhabi
9-10 May: SMI's LNG 2012, London
13-15 May: WEPower, Saudi Arabia
18-20 June: Iraq Petroleum, London
Briefings & Reports
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Need an expert briefing to support an investment decision?
GSN’s team of experienced analysts are often called on by governments and their agencies, financial institutions, and energy companies to comment on developments in the Gulf region. Our analysts are available for private briefings (either by telephone or in person) and can produce tailored reports and research on a range of topics and issues. For more information contact Mark Ford. Email:mark@cbi-publishing.com
Politics, succession & risk in Saudi Arabia report
Politics, succession and risk in Saudi Arabia is a GSN special report, published in January 2010. The new report analyses Saudi policy on issues including succession, domestic and regional politics, defence, energy and financial trends, and features extensively researched biographical entries on 1,200 Al-Sauds from the ruling family’s main branch, together with profiles of leading cadet branch businessmen, and a range of maps and graphics.
Read more about the report
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announcements
Need an expert briefing to support an investment decision?
GSN’s team of experienced analysts are often called on by governments and their agencies, financial institutions, and energy companies to comment on developments in the Gulf region. Our analysts are available for private briefings (either by telephone or in person) and can produce tailored reports and research on a range of topics and issues. For more information contact Mark Ford. Email:mark@cbi-publishing.com
Free email alerts of GSN's latest coverage
Keep track of the financial sector developments that affect your business by signing up for email Issue Alerts. You'll receive an email update when each issue is published, including excerpts of articles and links to full articles and other resources on our website. Sign up for eMail Issue Alerts
Issue 913 - 25 November 2011
IRAN
Sanctions bite ever harder, but German financiers are still open for Iranian business
Western powers have added more sanctions to a raft of measures intended to pressure Iran into modifying its nuclear ambitions, but a pocket of finance is still available for businesses seeking to trade with the Islamic Republic more
REGION
Volatility hits trade finance
Risk perceptions and, consequently, trade financing margins have changed markedly during 2011, the most volatile year in recent Middle East history, according to trade finance market participants. more
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi l/c trade unaffected by turbulence
The Al-Gosaibi/Maan Al-Sanae saga has had a significant knock-on effect on risk perceptions for Saudi Arabia (GSN 899/11). more
ECGD eyes $2bn Saudi exposure
UK Export Finance (until recently the Export Credits Guarantee Department) is set to insure project finance worth some $2bn for the massive petrochemicals project planned in Jubail by Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company (GSN 903/11). more
Issue 912 - 11 November 2011
BAHRAIN
Ex-Alba chief held, former oil minister fingered in Bahrain’s Dahdaleh bribery scandal
The arrest of a UK-based metals magnate for his alleged role in a scam to defraud Bahrain’s industrial flagship Alba of hundreds of millions of dollars provides another window onto the severe governance shortfalls apparent in some major corporates’ business practices more
SAUDI ARABIA
MBI pushes on with Standard Bank battle
It is not just Russian billionaires who have been fighting their business battles in UK courts. Saudi magnate Sheikh Mohammed Bin Issa Al-Jaber (MBI) has failed to get success in the latest round of his High Court battle with South Africa’s Standard Bank, which he accused of a conflict of interest when it recruited his personal adviser Salim Khoury while he was still employed by the tycoon. more
Issue 909 - 30 September 2011
Arab Spring faces credit crunch while Gulf economies exhibit vulnerabilities
The World Bank’s latest report suggests the regional economy has weathered the first phase of Arab Spring turbulence, but the global downturn and structural weaknesses in Mena economies means that few countries can rest easy, as social spending demands rocket and revenues come under new pressures more
Issue 908 - 16 September 2011
Iraq exchange defies global and regional trends
There will be a range of traditional and niche opportunities for investors when regulatory hurdles are overcome more
Qatar’s pay and pension rises could store up problems for the future
After months of speculation that the ruling Al-Thanis would make a grand gesture to unite a swathe of the Qatari population behind them, heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on 6 September announced Decree 50/2011, ordering salary, social allowance and pension increases for civil service and military employees (current and retired). The decree orders increases of 60% in the basic salary, social allowance and pensions of civil service employees, 120% for military officers and 50% for other military ranks. Qatar News Agency said it would cost the state an additional QR30bn ($8.2bn). more
Issue 907 - 22 September 2011
GOVERNANCE
Bahrain PM confronts corruption
Bahraini prime minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa in late August called for new measures to combat economic crime in an effort to fight corruption. Local media reported him as saying that establishing an anti-corruption agency was vital to ensure a just economic system. more
Issue 906 - 5 August 2011
Stormy weather forecast for Dubai banks
Some say Ahmed Humaid Al-Tayer walked out of his job as governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in a fit of pique, because he learned only from media reports in the previous month that he had been removed from another post that he had held for 28 years at the emirates’ biggest bank, Emirates NBD. The Dubai rumour mill ground into action following Al-Tayer’s end-July departure from DIFC, asking how an apparently trusted grandee from one of the emirate’s oldest merchant families could suddenly fall from grace. more
US and Eurozone crises shake GCC bond market
Many corporations and quasi-sovereign entities remain bearish about their bond issuances, leading to mixed opinions on the state of the GCC bond market from a range of sources canvassed by GSN. While a US default has been avoided, a possible debt downgrade before year-end could further shake the market more
SAUDI ARABIA
Jadwa forecasts long-term fiscal problems
The government faces a difficult long-term future unless its spending and oil trends change, according to Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment. In a hard-hitting report on the Kingdom’s oil and fiscal challenges, Jadwa argues that, while the country will be in a strong fiscal position for the next decade (the ‘breakeven’ oil price is comfortably below the global oil price at around $84/bbl, there are some $481bn of net foreign assets and very low debt), it will face a very different environment after that. more
Issue 905 - 22 July 2011
Omani political risk market stable despite unrest
Oman has emerged relatively unscathed from its spring protests, with major projects continuing to take shape as the political and risk environments have restabilised more
INVESTMENT
GCC states eye opportunities in South Sudan
Gulf Co-operation Council states have formally recognised the Republic of South Sudan and welcomed ties with the new country. South Sudan’s vice-president Dr Riek Machar Teny said at a press conference in Dubai in early July that its first embassy in the Gulf would be in the UAE. He also visited Saudi Arabia in June. more
Issue 904 - 8 July 2011
Trade finance and insurance cover tightening across volatile Middle East markets
Increased sanctions and political unrest are causing banks and trading firms to back away from markets such as Syria, Yemen and Iran, although Iraq is starting to regain momentum more
Issue 903 - 24 June 2011
Aramco-Dow petrochemicals project: the ‘beast’ limbers up for huge export credit financing
Project finance is soon to be sought for the huge chemicals and plastics complex to be built at Jubail by Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemicals. Its eventual financing will provide another signal that markets are back after the credit crunch more
Saudi Arabia dominates regional PF market, but Abu Dhabi is thinking big
Saudi Arabia was overwhelmingly the dominant player in the Middle East project finance market last year, accounting for about $20bn – or 70% – of the total raised in the Gulf Co-operation Council region and Egypt in 2010. more
SYRIA
Syrian magnate Makhlouf converts to charity on road from Damascus
Leading businessman Rami Makhlouf – a maternal first cousin of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad – has said he will quit business and move into charity work. Makhlouf – detested by many of the Syrian protestors – owns Syria’s largest mobile phone company, Syriatel, duty free concessions and several large construction and oil firms. He or his immediate family also have a 5.76% share in the London AIM-listed Gulfsands Petroleum. more
Issue 902 - 10 June 2011
Bahrain banks downgraded, investors nervous
The recovery of the banking sector remains shaky, but analysts say the country has strong financial foundations more
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi private sector feels the squeeze
There has been a ‘crowding out’ of the private sector as the government increases state funding and changes the way it sponsors major developments more
Issue 901 -27 May 2011
Ex-Taqa boss’s campaign against Abu Dhabi firm raises new questions about Morocco IPP deals
A dispute between Taqa and its former boss has revived speculation about a contract to expand Morocco’s biggest power plant, fanned by politicking over the issue in Morocco, as the kingdom works through its own Arab Spring more
REGIONAL
Spotlight on Bin Laden money trail
US investigators are seeking to uncover a ‘golden chain’ of Al-Qaeda financiers as the discovery of its now deceased leader Osama Bin Laden and his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May has prompted questions about his sources of funding.
