Qatar�s sovereign wealth fund has announced it will focus on energy and food deals while other Gulf SWFs are taking stock at a time of continued financial turbulence that has affected their international investments. GIB in Bahrain is being bailed out by its GCC owners after running up big toxic debts. Abu Dhabi�s $10 billion bonds issue has gone down well on roadshows in the UK and the US.

For the most recent updates on our activities please access our website: http://www.arabfinancialforum.org/. Please let us know if you have any particular news items that you would like to have printed in the next newsletter. I hope you enjoy this newsletter.

All the best,

Maya Rusinowicz

Editor - projects@meconsult.co.uk

Arab Financial Forum

http://www.arabfinancialforum.org

Articles:

Monetary Union is on the cards?/SPAN>

The investment banking arm of Saudi-based National Commercial Bank believes that even if the Gulf single currency is delayed, monetary union looks certain to happen more than ever before. Far more important than the actual date is the existence of a clear commitment to an institutional arrangement to implement the vision, according to NCB Capital. The precedent of the European monetary union highlights the critical role of a proper institutional driver as now embodied in the GCC Monetary Council

(31 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

National Bank of Oman and NBCI team up to share credit data

National Bank of Oman (NBO) the country��s second largest bank, has signed a membership agreement with National Bureau of Commercial Information (NBCI), Oman��s first private credit bureau. As per the agreement, NBO will be provided access to a credit reference database and bureau service offered by NBCI. This will enable NBO with valuable decision-making tools in extending consumer credit in the Sultanate. NBCI will offer positive and negative credit account information on individuals and companies and credit risk management tools (Credit Scoring) to NBO.

(29 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Abu Dhabi bond sale earns high rating

Abu Dhabi upcoming $10bn bond programme, of which an initial tranche of at least $2bn-$3bn is on a road show in London and the US, received the third-highest rating from three major credit rating agencies. Bankers and analysts expect the bond sale by Abu Dhabi to be used to help finance government-linked companies and provide the private sector with a benchmark sovereign yield curve.

(27 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Gulf liquidity position strong

Gulf economies could be affected this year due to oil price declines, but liquidity is adequate and credit still growing. Gulf states have taken a slew of measures to defrost credit markets, cutting interest rates, guaranteeing bank deposits and offering extra liquidity to banks to stabilise their economies.

(26 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

GCC single currency put off beyond 2010

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will extend the 2010 deadline for a single currency. While the date is to be determined by the monetary council, the GCC member states are likely to decide on the name of the currency and the rate at which each currency would be converted by 2010. The GCC states have until December to ratify a monetary union agreement and the charter governing the monetary council ?both of which were approved by Arab leaders at a summit in December.

(25 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Arab states bail out Gulf International Bank

Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank, one of the worst-hit financial institutions in the oil-rich Middle East, has sold $4.8bn of toxic assets to its shareholders, six Arab Gulf governments. GIB, an investment bank owned jointly by the six hydrocarbon-rich members of the Gulf Co-operation Council, invested heavily in complicated debt-based toxic assets. Due to swingeing impairments and exposure to US banks such as Lehman Brothers, GIB has reported two years of losses totalling $1.1bn.

(23 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Saudi Arabia starts fund to oversee investment

Saudi Arabia is establishing a new company to oversee the investment of the assets of the oil-rich kingdom largest state-run pension fund, in a significant break from tradition. The new fund is to invest in local, regional and international stock markets

(23 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Commercial Bank of Qatar announces participation in Government�s equity investment proposal

Commercial Bank of Qatar, the largest private sector bank in Qatar, announced its participation in the Government of Qatar’s proposal disclosed on 8 March 2009 in which the Government offered to buy part, or all, of the Qatar DSM equity investment portfolios of eight local banks.

(22 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Bahrain�s Islamic banks to strengthen links amid crisis

Islamic banks in Bahrain have agreed to strengthen links in an effort to boost the banking industry in the kingdom amid the global financial crisis. Islamic banks have been perceived as a safer haven for investments, especially in the wake of the financial crisis that has devastated the conventional financial system.

(19 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Libya in move to lure foreign banks

Libya is considering offering private sector banking licences in 2010 in an effort to attract foreign banks to the oil-rich north African country, which has recently shed its pariah status after mending relations with the US and Europe. This would be the second phase of Libya’s move to open its banks to foreign investors after the sale of minority stakes in two of its three state-owned banks in the past two years.

(18 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

HSBC cuts credit card limits by up to 40%

HSBC Middle East has slashed credit card limits by up to 40 percent, tightening lending further as the liquidity crunch deepens in the UAE.

(18 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Qatar fund to target food and energy

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund will turn its focus to commodities, particularly food and energy, in the second half of the year. Qatar Investment Authority, which is estimated to have assets of about $60bn (�46.6bn, ?3.1bn), will do nothing until the beginning of the second half of the year, when it reviews its strategy. After that it is said to focus on sectors such as commodities, food, energy and water because the prices are more likely to pick up.

(12 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

RBS vows to continue lending in the Middle East

Royal Bank of Scotland will continue to lend in the Middle East, albeit in reduced volumes, as the embattled bank seeks to rebuild profits and maintain relationships with rich Gulf governments.

(12 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Syria in exchange debut

Syria intends to take a step towards developing itself as a modern market economy by launching an exchange to boost growth and its nascent private sector.

The Damascus Securities Exchange will trade six listed companies as part of its move to attract investment and develop its commercial sector. The six companies that can be traded are Banque Bemo Saudi Faransi, Bank of Syria and Overseas, United Group for Publishing, Advertising and Marketing, Arab Bank-Syria, AlAhlia Company for Transport, and Bank Audi-Syria.

(10 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Seven charged over alleged $501mln Dubai fraud

Dubai’s public prosecution has charged seven businessmen with crimes related to an alleged scheme to defraud Dubai Islamic Bank of $501m. The bill of indictment, seen by the Financial Times, alleges the crimes were committed between 2004 and 2007 by two former employees of the bank and five businessmen linked to trade finance company CCH and a real estate project in Dubai, the Plantation.

(9 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Qatar to buy shares from banks

Qatar’s government announced it would buy listed shares worth an estimated $6bn within the investment portfolios of local banks to buttress the countrys domestic financial sector. The intervention comes amid mounting concerns that even the Gulf’s fastest-growing economy is suffering from the credit crunch.

(9 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Bail-out for Dubai loses its lustre

Debt and equity investors initially reacted with joy when the United Arab Emirates central bank, after months of speculation, said it would underwrite $10bn of a $20bn bond sale by Dubai. But more than a week on from the announcement, investors who had hoped for a silver bullet have been disappointed. On the first day of trading after the bail-out was announced the Dubai stock market jumped 7.9% but has since lost its gains.

(4 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

Islamic banks urged to show the way

Muslim presidents, prime ministers and princes called on the world to adopt Islamic financial practices to overcome the global crisis and urged Islamic banks to undertake missionary work?in the West to promote Shariah banking.

At the opening of the fifth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Jakarta the excesses of irresponsible, unregulated western financial markets?was blamed for triggering the crisis.

(2 March 2009) Read more?/FONT>

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