“I have always believed in the integrity of horse racing and all other horse sports,” Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai, said in a statement.

“I have, in light of the unfortunate recent event, directed that a decree be issued making, with immediate effect, the import, sale, purchase or use of anabolic steroids in horse sports a criminal offence under the UAE penal laws.”

Sheikh Mohammed said last month that he was appalled and angered about the positive tests for steroids at Godolphin’s Newmarket stables in England.

Trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni was banned for eight years by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) after 11 horses tested positive in April.

Seven more horses trained by Zarooni proved positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol in further tests, the BHA said last week.

“Regrettably, one of my stables in Europe has recently fallen below the standards that I expect and will tolerate,” Sheikh Mohammed said in Thursday’s statement.

Rules on using drugs in horse racing vary around the world.

Under current rules, the use of anabolic steroids is permitted out of competition in the UAE, as it is in Australia.

Sheikh Mohammed, who temporarily closed the Moulton Paddocks stables and ordered the testing of all the horses in Zarooni’s care after the positive tests, said Godolphin would recover.

“As soon as the internal investigations are complete and the requisite pre-emptory rules are put in place, Godolphin will go from strength to strength and lead, once again, adherence to the highest standards in that gracious sport,” he said.

Godolphin, which takes its name from The Godolphin Arabian, one of the three foundation stallions imported into England nearly 300 years ago, have won 204 Group One races in different countries since Sheikh Mohammed established training operations in Dubai and England in 1992.

Ian Larkin was due to replace the Abu Dhabi-listed lender’s current CEO Graham Honeybill in July but barely six weeks since arriving at the bank to prepare to take the helm the former managing director of Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance has quit, the sources said.

“His style of working didn’t quite fit in with the bank’s way of functioning,” said one of the sources.

A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment.

In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from RAKBANK and Oman’sBank Muscat by hacking into credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATM cash machines in 27 countries.

RAKBANK was targeted in December and had nearly $5 million stolen, although no customers suffered any loss, the bank said at the time.

No decision on a new CEO has yet been taken, the sources added. Larkin resigned earlier this week.

Honeybill was due to become a non-executive director of the bank once he retired in July, sources said in April.

A non-Saudi, whose nationality and age were not given, died on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said on its website late on Wednesday. It said he had been admitted to a hospital in al-Qassim several days ago with an “acute respiratory syndrome”.

“Most cases recorded so far are among elderly patients and people with multiple chronic diseases,” it added.

A World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman confirmed it had been notified of the new death from the disease, which the WHO plans to call Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

“It is in a different area and doesn’t appear to be linked to the recent outbreak and cluster in the eastern part of the country,” Glenn Thomas told reporters in Geneva.

The WHO’s tally of people who have died in the kingdom from nCoV/MERS since it surfaced last year is 18, including one who died in Britain last year after arriving from Saudi Arabia.

The virus, which can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia, is from the same family as the one responsible for an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that killed 775 people worldwide in 2003.

The WHO says a total of 44 cases of the new virus have been recorded so far, 22 of them fatal. Saudi Arabia has had 33 of the cases.

WHO officials say the new virus appears to be transmissible between humans, but only after prolonged, close contact.

With two key prepaid products on offer, the LOADnSHOP and MyNetCard users can recharge these cards at more than 400 locations across the UAE with 24/7 access in some locations.

The LOADnSHOP functions similar to a credit card, and can be reloaded with funds. The MyNetCard is a one-time use prepaid card for online shopping and entertainment.

Prepaid cards have been one of the fastest growing industries in the Middle East, with revenue from prepaid sales in the UAE alone expected to reach $18.4 billion by 2015.

“Prepaid cards are the new generation of shopping for this region, and Majid Al Futtaim Finance is amongst the pioneers of the industry in the UAE,” said Rasool Hujair, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Finance.

Sheikh Mohamed became CEO in October 2011, having previously served as deputy chairman. He replaced long-serving Peter Kaliaropoulos, who became Group Chief Executive Officer for Strategic Assignments.

Batelco has now appointed Kaliaropoulos as chief operating officer and he, along with a three-person committee, will lead the telecom operator until a new CEO is hired, it said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The committee is comprised of three members of the company’s board.

Sheikh Mohamed has left the company with immediate effect. Batelco did not give a reason for his departure, but he was unable to halt a profit slump that the company largely blamed on tougher competition at home.

It competes with units of Kuwait’s Zain and Saudi Telecom Co as well as about 10 internet providers.

Batelco, majority government-owned, has reported declining profits in 11 of the past 12 quarters, with 2012 net profit down 22.2 percent from a year earlier.

The slump has pushed the group to expand abroad and in April it concluded a deal to buy Cable & Wireless Communications’ Monaco and Islands Division, putting Batelco in 10 new markets. It also owns Jordanian telecoms operator Umniah, 27 percent of Yemeni mobile operator Sabafon and minority stakes in internet providers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

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“This unwarranted stoppage had been instigated by a minority group who will be held accountable for their actions,” United Arab Emirates’ largest publicly-listed construction firm said in a statement on Dubai’s bourse.

The firm said all workers had returned to work with no impact on any of its projects.

Thousands of workers employed by Arabtec have stayed away from work from Saturday to back wage demands, a rare labour protest in the Gulf emirate, where trade unions are banned.

Police were called into Arabtec labour accommodations on Monday after labourers refused to report to work.

The workers were demanding a wage hike of about $50 a month.

UAE-based telecommunications operator Etisalat today launched its first global corporate social responsibility and sustainability report to highlight activities across its 15 operating countries.

Entitled “Etisalat CSR & Sustainability Report 2012,” the report was released at The Institute for International Research (IIR) 10^th CSR Summit, held today in Dubai. The heads of CSR departments from Etisalat’s operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Gabon, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Togo and the UAE all presented their latest projects.

Etisalat Egypt included the initiative “Origin”, a project to secure drinking water in 19 governorates to date.

Other African countries, such as Togo, have had aid contributions split between education and health, while Nigeria received aid through its annual Merit Awards Scheme – an educational scholarship program that focuses on undergraduate students of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, and Business Management courses.

The aid to Afghanistan included the distribution of more than 3,000 food packages in Kabul during the holy month of Ramadan.

Benin received supplies for elementary school students and the provision of seating and tables for nine colleges. Additionally, the company has supported the Ministry of Health in Benin through blood donations.

The telecommunications company also provided assistance to both Sri Lanka and Pakistan for water projects, sanitation aid, education, as well as aid to orphans.

During the conference, which was also sponsored by Etisalat, the telco group exhibited its high impact projects, including Mobile Baby (Tanzania), Emirates Energy Star (UAE) and the Etisalat Foundation (Egypt).

The walkout by the workers, who provide security, fire protection and health services for oil firms, began on Sunday but had not affected oil production in the OPEC member state, union official Saad al-Sebayie said.

Well over 1,000 of around 1,400 staff at Oil Sector Services Co. (OSSC), owned by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, have been gathering in a union building instead of turning up for work, he said. OSSC was not immediately available for comment.

The workers were asking for their jobs to be moved to a higher pay bracket, Sebayie said. The union had warned state oil companies of the planned action in advance, he added.

Policymakers and economists have warned that steep growth in public sector salaries is unsustainable in the long-term in a country where over 80 percent of nationals work for the state.

After the cabinet agreed a 25 percent pay rise for state employees in March last year, customs workers responded by going on strike for even bigger hikes. They were joined by workers at state-run Kuwait Airways, whose walkout grounded flights.

Strikes are fairly common among public sector workers in Kuwait, one of the world’s richest countries per capita, whereas industrial action is rare in other Gulf states like the United Arab Emirares, where unions are banned.

The Gulf Arab state’s fifth-largest lender by market value had said in January it would hike its paid-up capital by 50 percent, split equally between a local rights issue and a sale of global depositary receipts (GDRs) in London.

While the $426 million local cash call was completed in March, the expected GDR issue, which was due to be managed by JP Morgan Chase, has yet to materialise.

“The second part, we have multiple options. We can go for a GDR or for hybrid debt that is validated for Tier 1, or for a rights issue again to shareholders,” R. Seetharaman, the bank’s CEO, told reporters at an event in Dubai on Tuesday.

Hybrid debt could include perpetual bonds, whose lack of a maturity means they can count as equity and, therefore, towards a bank’s capital ratio.

“All these options are being contemplated and hopefully we should be in a position to resolve this during this year,” he said, adding the bank’s Tier 1 capital ratio was already above 15 percent after the local rights issue.

Hybrid debt instruments which boost Tier 1 capital – a key measure of a bank’s financial health – are becoming increasing popular in the Gulf, given their competitive costs and the fact they diversify the investor base away from local shareholders.

Dubai’s largest lender, Emirates NBD, is meeting investors ahead of a possible Tier 1 bond, while Abu DhabiIslamic Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank have both completed sharia-compliant Tier 1 sukuk in recent months.

Commercial Bank of Qatar has also picked banks to arrange a deal, sources said last month.

In terms of a regular bond issue, Seetharaman said the bank could “possibly” return to the market next year. The bank completed a $500 million five-year offering in March 2012.

Qatari banks have begun looking outside of the Gulf region for acquisition opportunities - Qatar National Bank and CBQ have bought businesses in Egypt and Turkey respectively – and Seetharaman said last month Doha Bank would look to double its foreign profits to 15 percent of the total by 2015.

However, Seetharaman said on Tuesday it had no acquisition targets and was focused on regional growth, planning to launch corporate- and project-finance operations in the United Arab Emirates.

In the UAE, 5 billion dirhams ($1.4 billion) has been earmarked for distribution in the next eight months as part of a $12 billion allocation to high-potential clients in the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

The new fund will be run by Qatar Holding, Qatar Petroleum International and Qatar Electricity and Water Company , with a formal agreement to set up the vehicle to be signed later on Monday, a bourse filing from QEWC said.

It will invest outside Qatar ”in the fields of power generation, water desalination and treatment, heating and cooling systems, provision of fuel as well as fuel loading and unloading equipment,” the statement added.

A country with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, Qatar has been extremely active in the investment space in recent years, backed by its huge hydrocarbon wealth.

Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the sovereign wealth fund, has bought up a string of high-profile assets, ranging from French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain to stakes in German sports-car maker Porsche, British bank Barclays and Swiss lender Credit Suisse.

The Qatar sovereign fund is “carefully looking at” Versace, the Italian daily said, citing financial sources.

The paper cited market rumours as saying the fund was flanked by FSI, the Italian strategic investment fund owned by state financing company Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

In November, Qatar Holding signed a joint venture agreement with FSI to invest in Italian companies in sectors including food, fashion and luxury.

Il Sole said that there were some 10 other expressions of interest for Versace besides that of Qatar and FSI.

But the paper added things were at an early stage and that the Versace owners had not decided yet whether to sell a minority stake.

FSI said it did not comment market rumours. Versace was not immediately available for a comment.

In April, Versace Chief Executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris told Reuters the house may consider opening the company to outside investors to help fund expansion in overseas markets such as Asia.

Earlier this month Qatar Holding agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in Milan’s real estate development project Porta Nuova for an undisclosed sum.

An investigation traced the “coordinated and simultaneous attacks” to hundreds of Internet protocol addresses in a number of countries, an unnamed source at the Saudi Interior Ministry told state news agency SPA.

The interior ministry website crashed on Wednesday after it received a “huge amount” of service requests, but was back online less than two hours later after the “necessary technical drills” were performed to counter the attack, the source said.

The report made no mention of a possible motive.

Businesses, government agencies and critical infrastructure operators face unprecedented challenges from increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks launched by criminals, hacker activists and foreign governments.

An attack last year on national oil company Saudi Aramco - the world’s biggest oil company – damaged some 30,000 computers and was one of the most destructive cyber strikes conducted against a single business.

That attack used a computer virus known as Shamoon. A group that claimed responsibility said Saudi Aramcowas the main source of income for the Saudi government, which it blamed for “crimes and atrocities” in several countries including Syria and Bahrain.

On Friday, the website and Twitter feed of the Financial Times newspaper were hacked, apparently by the “Syrian Electronic Army”, a group of online activists who say they supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The new virus, known as novel coronavirus, or nCoV, is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003.

“This is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with (novel coronavirus) infection after exposure to patients,” the Geneva-based U.N. health agency said in a disease outbreak update late on Wednesday.

The health workers are a 45-year-old man, who became ill on May 2 and is currently in a critical condition, and a 43-year-old woman with a coexisting health condition, who fell ill on May 8 and is in a stable condition, the WHO said.

France has also reported a likely case of transmission within a hospital, but this was from one patient to another patient who shared the same room for two days.

NCoV, like SARS and other similar viruses, can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia.

Scientists are on the alert for any sign that nCoV is mutating to become easily transmissible to multiple recipients, like SARS – a scenario that could trigger a pandemic.

WHO experts visiting Saudi Arabia to consult with the authorities on the outbreak said on Sunday it seemed likely the new virus could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged, close contact.

This week the Capital Market Authority, operating under a new chairman, announced a series of measures designed to reduce the volatility of shares, make them harder to manipulate and improve the quality of listed companies.

Authorities have tried in the past to lift the market’s tone, with limited success. Currently over 90 percent of daily trading on the Arab world’s biggest stock market, which has a capitalisation of about $400 billion, is conducted by retail investors rather than institutions, officials say.

Because such investors often chase short-term gains in low-priced shares that are easy to manipulate, prices can become very volatile and money is sucked away from blue-chip companies that deserve to be more highly valued. This hurts the market’s role as a stable source of funds for corporate investment.

The CMA’s initiatives this week suggest it is making its strongest effort in years to change that pattern, fund managers and analysts said.

“The new management of CMA has started their work to enhance the market overall – expect a few more changes,” said Mohammad Omran, an independent financial analyst in Riyadh. “These initiatives will try to organise the practices in the market and move it away from illegal and speculative trading.”

If successful, the reforms could make the Saudi market more welcoming to foreign as well as local institutional investors. At present foreigners can invest only via a small number of exchange-traded funds and swap arrangements; Riyadh has for several years been preparing to permit direct investment, though it has not set a date for implementation.

Stock market reform also has political implications. After the Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere in the region, the government is spending billions of dollars to ease social discontent by cutting unemployment and poverty. Stronger capital markets could stimulate the private sector and create jobs.

NEW CHAIRMAN

The move against speculation appears to have backing at the top of the government. King Abdullah appointed Mohammed bin Abdulmalik Al al-Sheikh, previously an executive director at the World Bank, as chairman of the CMA in February.

Al-Sheikh has worked at U.S. law firm Latham & Watkins in Riyadh; the firm said he had nearly two decades of experience representing sovereign wealth funds and government bodies in Saudi Arabia, and that his law practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and project finance.

Last week Al-Sheikh told reporters that with other government bodies, the CMA was developing a strategy to promote institutional trading on the stock market, and was disappointed by the current “high levels of speculation” in shares.

“The CMA should put a limit on this manipulation to safeguard investors. We are currently trying to address this issue,” he said.

Gulf investors, flush with petrodollars and facing limited growth options at home, are stepping into other frontier and emerging markets in Africa and Asia to get a foothold in debt and equity markets.

“We’re also making a push into sub-Saharan Africa, basically the triangle of South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. The plan is to open an office in South Africa by the fourth quarter of 2013,” Riad Meliti told Reuters in a interview.

“This is driven by the growth rate in those markets, opportunities, stock market development, the undervalued stocks and lack of information on companies,” he said.

The four year-old investment bank, which has offices in Dubai, Beirut, Libya and Egypt, is also looking at the best entry point into Saudi Arabia and will not shy away from acquisition opportunities in the largest Gulf Arab economy.

“Organic and inorganic options are available but it all depends on the right opportunity,” Meliti said.

Arqaam capital sees itself as a frontier and emerging market investment bank taking advantage of the flow of money into these markets. The firm currently offers research on 121 stocks across the Middle East and aims to capitalize on investor interest and extend its research coverage to 150 by the end of the year.

“If Tadawul (the Saudi stock exchange) is classified as emerging market, it will attract 5-10 percent of the MSCI, which is $65 billion out of the $1.3 trillion index,” Meliti said, referring to the possibility that Saudi Arabia could be added to influential MSCI Emerging Markets Index for investors.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market is currently not open to direct investments by foreigners but the kingdom is finalising a framework to allow foreign ownership, the head of the market regulator said earlier in May.

According to research by Arqaam, $1.3 trillion of liquidity was allocated to emerging markets in 2012 compared with $200 billion in 2002. In the frontier market world, it was $5 billion in 2002 and is currently close to $100 billion.

Arqaam earlier this year hired ex-Credit Suisse banker Wafic Nsouli to head its institutional equity sales unit, tapping talent from retrenching global banks for its expansion.

Arqaam last year bought Libyan financial services firm Al Rashad Finance and Management Advisory to tap into economic growth as the country rebuilds after civil war.

It also bought Egyptian brokerage firm El Rashad Securities in January.

“We are optimistic on the medium term in Egypt. It’s the right time to position yourself to add value to people who might require the service of financial intermediation,” Meliti said.

The U.S. Treasury Department slapped penalties on Al Hilal Exchange and Al Fida International General Trading, saying they had provided financial services to Iran’s blacklisted Bank Mellat.

Kuwait Airways would pay around 850 million dinars ($2.98 billion) for 25 new planes, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, adding that a deal could be closed as early as this month.

Such an order would be worth $4.38 billion at list prices, but aircraft are often sold at a discount.

Under the deal, which still needs government approval, Airbus would also lease a further 13 aircraft.

The state carrier found that the Airbus offer was better than one by rival Boeing because of the cost and other specifications, Salem al-Othaina was quoted by newspaper al-Rai as saying, confirming reports earlier in the week.

He gave no further details.

The deal would be the most sweeping overhaul of Kuwait Airways since part of its fleet was seized after Iraqinvaded the Gulf state in 1990.

The source said on Monday the 25 new planes would include 10 wide-bodied A350-900 jets and 15 of the slimmer medium-haul A320neo.

Kuwait Airways and Airbus, which is owned by aerospace and defence group EADS, have so far declined to comment on the deal.

“For five years, Gulf Marketing Review (GMR) [The Gulf’s most reliable marketing, advertising and media resource] has been working with Brand Finance Middle East to compile the Top 50 Corporate Brands. This year, we have extended it to include Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, making it the most comprehensive ranking to date. GMR’s target audience is primarily media agencies and marketing professionals,” says Siobhan Adams, group managing editor, GMR.

This year, however, Saudi Arabia’s Al Maraai, affirmed its position as the most valuable food brand in the Middle East, with a brand value growth of 60 per cent. Sitting just behind the telcos and ahead of Qatar’s top banking brand, QNB, Al Maraai is now the seventh most valuable brand in the region. In a ranking traditionally dominated by airlines, telcos and finance companies, Al Maraai has dramatically improved since the list was first published in 2007, becoming the first brand outside of these sectors to break into the top 10.

“This is the first time a food and beverage brand has made it into the top 10, and it is great to see a local FMCG name in there,” says Adams.

The recent rebranding of Qtel to Ooredoo demonstrates the growing self-confidence of GCC brands.  Bold marketing actions and big budgets are now driving the organic growth of GCC brands. This year, Qatar based telecom, Qtel, became the most valuable telco brand in the Middle East, with a brand value of $3.39bn, overtaking Etisalat. Saudi brand, Mobily, has seen the strongest growth this year, increasing its brand value by $892m. Middle East businesses still have a long way to go to capitalise on the full potential of their brand power.

The UAE and Saudi Arabian brands occupy 29 of the 50 places in the table and constitute 68 per cent of the total brand value. While Saudi’s brands have grown by an average of 17 per cent, the UAE’s growth has been less than one per cent, so the race to be the Middle East’s brand champion is heating up.

“For the past five years, the ranking has been dominated by airlines. Emirates has been consistently at number one – not just in the UAE, but across the GCC – followed by telcos and financial institutions, but this year we have a newcomer in the top 10, with Almarai. The ranking is a clear demonstration of the growing confidence in and success of locally created brands and products in a region that was traditionally dominated by imported brands,” explains Adams.

While 20^th century business was concerned about supply, the 21^st century is demand-driven. In this new business paradigm, brands are the crucial catalysts for growth. Businesses in the Middle East have successfully laid the foundations of strong tangible assets, whether in manufacturing, service or distribution. They must build on their existing successes, focusing on the intangibles; emulating local champions such as Emirates, to capture market share and deliver for the global consumer.

For the past 20 years, GMR has been the most authoritative and reliable information source for marketing professionals operating across the Middle East. An indispensable blend of robust analysis, meaningful insights and solid research, spanning a broad range of marketing disciplines, issues and product categories, has kept GMR at the forefront of the region’s business media for nearly two decades. Subscribe to GMR to get your monthly dosage of information by sending your request to info@mediaquestcorp.com, or call +971 4 363 03 32.

Find GMR on iTunes: Gulf Marketing Review Magazine Interactive.

Daily Al-Watan cited sources close to the decision-makers as saying that the airline would start receiving the new aircraft from Airbus, owned by aerospace and defence group EADS , from 2019.

Kuwait Airways plans to buy 10 wide-bodied A350-900 jets and 15 of the slimmer A320 neo, the newspaper said, adding that the deal would include support services.

The airline also aims to lease 13 of the A330 and A320 models for six years, the paper said, without giving details of the leasing cost.

“The sources made clear that the deal, which will be signed with Airbus very soon, is one contract that will include both the leased and purchased planes,” the newspaper said.

Kuwait Airways and Airbus were not immediately available for comment.

Rival Boeing also made a bid, but the Airbus offer was deemed more attractive, Al-Watan said.

The state-owned Tourism and Development Investment Company (TDIC) opened a slew of resorts and handed overs hundreds of villas in 2012 but said it might need to sell more assets this year.

“Asset sales remain a viable option for the company and with the success realized on our first two commercial sales the board will make the appropriate determination as we progress through 2013,” Shaun O’Connor told Reuters in an emailed statement.

He gave no details of the assets which were sold.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is investing billions of dollars in tourism, industry and infrastructure as it diversifies its economy away from oil.

But property prices have dropped significantly with residential real estate prices down some 50 percent from their peaks in 2008.

TDIC made a net loss of 2.17 billion dirhams ($591 million) in 2012 due to impairments and depreciation compared with a loss of 1.27 billion in the previous year.

Last year’s asset sales, along with the handover of a large number of residential units, lifted TDIC revenues to 1.27 billion dirhams from 333.8 million in 2011.

Total impairments and depreciation amounted to 2.26 billion dirhams, leaving TDIC with total assets of 41.48 billion dirhams in 2012 compared with 43.37 billion the previous year, its financial statements showed.

The company ended the year with a cash balance of over 2.4 billion dirhams last year.

The company has committed to its board to deliver positive results in another five to seven years, O’Connor said.

The Louvre museum is scheduled to open in 2015 and the Guggenheim in 2017.

The world’s fourth largest carrier in terms of international passengers boosted profit to 2.3 billion dirhams ($622 million), up 52 percent compared with 2011.

The profit rise at the world’s largest customer of the Airbus A380 superjumbo was in sharp contrast to the first-quarter operating loss at Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM and a bigger than expected loss at Germany’s Lufthansa.

Emirates is betting that its location – a third of the world’s population is within a four-hour flight – will continue to attract passengers away from other global hubs such as London, New York and Singapore.

“Our strategy for growth has reaped high benefits this past financial year, which has been our strongest ever in relationship to capacity growth,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates.

Emirates entered a 10-year alliance with Qantas Airways in September, which included switching Qantas’ hub to Dubai from Singapore for European flights.

The Gulf airline, which received 34 new aircraft in 2012, said profit for the wider Emirates Group was 3.1 billion dirhams, including airline services arm, Dnata.

Its fuel bill increased by 15 percent over last year to 27.9 billion dirhams.

The airline, which launched in 1985, flies to 133 destinations and carried 39 million passengers last year.

Saudi Arabia has reported 23 confirmed cases in total, Qatar two, Jordan two, Britain two and the United Arab Emirates one, the WHO said. Although there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human spread, there are concerns about clusters of cases.

France reported its first case on Wednesday.

The latest Saudi outbreak was restricted to al-Ahsa governorate in Eastern Province and all those infected had pre-existing health conditions, Arab News newspaper quoted Doctor Jafar al-Tawfiq, an infections specialist in Eastern Province, as saying.

Officials at Al-Moosa hospital in the town of Hofuf in Ahsa, where the patients are being treated, declined to comment.

WHO spokesman Glenn Thomas said in Geneva on Wednesday that Saudi authorities are organising a mission with two WHO staff and that their focus will be on Hofuf. The first reports of infections in the recent outbreak were on April 14, WHO said.

Saudi state news agency SPA quoted Deputy Health Minister Mansour al-Hawasi on Tuesday as saying the situation “called for no concern” and that the ministry had taken all precautions around anyone who had been in contact with those infected.

Worldwide, there have been 30 laboratory-confirmed infections, including 18 deaths, since it came to scientists’ attention last September, the WHO’s Thomas said.

Other strains of coronavirus can cause common colds as well as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003 and killed 775 people.

A retrospective study in Jordan found that there had been an outbreak of the new virus there as long ago as April 2012, with two confirmed cases and 11 probable ones, including 10 health care workers, the WHO’s Thomas said.

The companies were identified as Al Hilal Exchange and Asia Exchange Centre.

“The first company had major regulatory and anti-money laundering compliance violations and the second company had major regulatory violations,” a central bank statement said without elaborating. Central bank officials did not return calls seeking further comment.

The UAE, a major oil exporter, has more expatriate workers than nationals, and the foreigners use exchange houses to remit money home. There are 114 money exchange firms in the country, according to the central bank’s website.

The group is on track to complete its $4 billion phase two by the end of 2014, when it capacity will rise to 1.3 million tonnes from the current 800,000 tonnes a year, making it one of the largest single-site smelters in the world.

The global aluminium industry is already facing a massive stock overhang, which is growing each month as smelters produce more than the world economy needs.

“Emal is still planning to build further capacity, however, as it expects demand for aluminium to rise from 46 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes by 2015,” Emal chief executive, Saeed al-Mazrooei, told reporters during a visit on Tuesday to the smelter complex sited between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

“The international market is growing for aluminium in many countries – China, India, Brazil, the United States. This demands us to grow,” he added.

Asked if a third phase could be launched around 2017, Mazrooei said he hoped so, adding that the company’s state-backed owners would unveil details later. He declined to elaborate on the investment outlay or production capacity.

The majority of Emal’s production is exported to the US, Europe, southeast Asia and the Middle East. Only approximately 200,000 tonnes is consumed locally, he said.

Emal, which burns vast quantities of natural gas to make the electricity it needs in order to operate the energy-intensive aluminium industry, has secured supplies for phase one and two from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), Mazrooei said.

Cheap gas supplied to state-linked industry has driven a boom of energy-intensive development in the United Arab Emirates over the last decade which, combined with rapid immigration, has turned the UAE from a gas exporter into a net gas importer.

As there is not enough gas to go around, Dubai, which owns half of Emal, has to import increasing volumes of expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from around the world to meet demand for electricity.

Global investor sentiment towards Dubai has improved greatly over the past year, helping the emirate tap capital markets. In January, it raised $1.25 billion from a two-part international bond sale, drawing heavy investor demand.

“The market is right, the price is right, then why not?” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, a close advisor and uncle to Dubai’s ruler, said when asked whether the emirate might make a second sovereign debt issue this year.

Sheikh Ahmed, a key figure in the emirate’s recovery from its 2009 debt crisis, was speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a Dubai travel industry conference. He holds a host of top positions in Dubai including the chairmanships of its largest bank, Emirates NBD, state-owned investment firm Dubai World and the Emiratesairline.

Despite its recovery from the crisis, a major concern among Dubai’s creditors has been the slow pace of asset sales, which are seen as a major means for the emirate to finance repayments of its obligations.

Four years ago, Dubai was forced to request a $25 billion debt restructuring for Dubai World. The restructuring plan envisaged the sale of some assets to meet obligations, but there still has been little progress with sales.

Sheikh Ahmed said the emirate was looking at an alternative plan to repay its debt.

“We will look at something like this. I can’t specify what, since it’s confidential information because of the restructuring,” he said when asked if an alternative to asset sales was in place.

Sheikh Ahmed said that in some areas, asset sales might have to be delayed, “because we might see in six months to one year things will be better.”

RESTRUCTURING

Banks in the region are worried that the emirate might push lenders into a second round of debt restructuring in the absence of a pick-up in asset sales.

Dubai and its state firms have an estimated $48 billion of debt in the bond and loan markets due to mature between 2014 and 2016, which includes about $10 billion in restructured debt at Dubai World and Nakheel

A research note by British-based lender Standard Chartered said last November that conglomerates had made little progress in raising cash from asset sales and that the emirate’s overall debt burden remained a challenge.

A $10 billion restructuring of Dubai Group, a unit of ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s personal investment firm Dubai Holding, is on track and may happen as early as the first half of this year, Sheikh Ahmed said.

There is no need to recapitalise the financial support fund which provides aid to Dubai’s indebted state-linked companies, he added.

“I am confident Dubai companies can take care of themselves,” he said.

Six other people are infected, one of them critically ill, in an outbreak centred on a health care facility in Al Ahsa governorate in Eastern Province, WHO spokesman Glenn Thomas said in Geneva.

Worldwide, there have been 30 laboratory-confirmed infections with the new virus, including 18 deaths, since it came to scientists’ attention last September, he said.

Other strains of coronavirus can cause common colds but also the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003.

There is no evidence yet of sustained human-to-human spread of the new virus, but there are concerns about clusters of cases reported by the WHO in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain.

A retrospective study in Jordan found that there had been an outbreak of the new virus there as long ago as April 2012, with two confirmed cases and 11 probable ones, including 10 health care workers, Thomas told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia has reported 23 confirmed cases in total, Qatar two, Jordan two, Britain two and the United Arab Emirates one, according to the WHO.

“WHO does not advise special screening (of travellers) nor does it recommend that any trade or travel restrictions,” Thomas said, adding that all states should look out for “any unusual patterns” of infection.

Kingdom Holding, Alwaleed’s investment vehicle, has asked investment banks to identify possible acquisition targets around the world and plans to sell its stake in 20-30 hotels in the next two years, he told Reuters on Monday.

“We have talked with certain investment banks to look at opportunities that we may have not seen in our region. This is in motion right now,” said Alwaleed, who owns 95 percent of Kingdom, in an interview in Riyadh on Monday.

“We intentionally try to be diversified by location and by industry so we won’t have much concentration in one arena.”

Kingdom Holding, which went public in 2007, has a market value of around $17 billion, making it one of the largest listed investment firms in the Middle East.

Alwaleed, a nephew of King Abdullah, has also moved to divest some of his investments in real estate and hotels in recent months, and said he plans to sell 20-30 more hotels in Africa, the Middle East and Asia in the next two years.

“Those are traded portfolio. We just take them, we reconstruct them with our partners, we brand them… and then we sell them. It’s like a recycling situation,” he said.

Kingdom owns stock in hotel ownership and management companies such as Movenpick, Fairmont, Raffles and Four Seasons, which Alwaleed said he would not sell. It also has direct stakes in specific hotels run by these companies.

Kingdom has been selling such stock in recent months. It booked a $32.9 million gain from sale of some equity in New York’s Plaza hotel in December, retaining 25 percent. It also sold its interest in Fairmont Hoteland Raffles Suites & Residences in Manila last year.

However, despite these plans, he said Kingdom would retain a stake in major hotel companies and in landmark assets.

“Hotels that we as Kingdom Holding directly own such as the Plaza Hotel in New York, the Savoy in London, the Four Seasons in Toronto and George V in Paris, these are the anchor ones that are not for sale,” he said.

Kingdom Holding first-quarter net profit rose 9 percent year-on-year, but the company’s share price has dropped 18 percent since the start of 2013.

Alwaleed said he thought the share price was “just taking a breather” after being one of the strongest performing stocks in Saudi Arabia’s all-share index last year.

“We are talking to Airbus about A330s to fill in the gap that the Dreamliner delays have caused Qatar Airways … Anywhere between 10 and 15 (aircraft),” Chief Executive Akbar al Baker told Reuters on Monday.

“It’s a new order,” he said, adding the deal would be finalised by June’s Paris Air Show.

Qatar is among airlines expecting to receive compensation for delays to the delivery schedule for the 787 caused by a series of production snags, and for the grounding in January of Dreamliners already delivered due to battery faults.

Baker said at a press conference in Dubai on Monday that the airline had to forego $200 million in revenue up until April 2013 because of the grounding. It expects to have all five of its Dreamliners which were delivered before the grounding back in service with modified batteries before the end of May.

“We have already spoken to them. We are done,” he said on the topic of compensation, declining to provide further details.

Airbus is benefiting from a revival in sales of the A330 since the 787 encountered production delays even though Boeing plans to bring out a new 320-seat stretched 787 that it believes will eclipse the A330′s appeal.

“The 787 should be an A330 killer but it is late and the penalty payments (from Boeing to airlines) are coming straight to Airbus in the form of new A330 sales,” said an aerospace analyst at the Teal Group consultancy in a recent interview.

Boeing is looking for a prominent customer like Qatar to launch the stretched Dreamliner, code-named 787-10X, which it believes will appeal to airlines that do not need the range of other new jets but want the lower fuel costs of the 787′s lightweight design.

Analysts say Airbus has breathed new life into the A330 by playing up its availability and reliability, while discounting the price to ensure total ownership costs come in below the 787.

Boeing on Wednesday launched a race against Airbus for sales of the newest long-haul jets by announcing it had begun selling an upgraded aircraft family code-named 777X.

First seen in the 1990s, the 777 cornered the market for large twin-engine aircraft able to fly routes previously only possible with four engines, earning it the nickname “mini-jumbo.”

Analysts say the 777 is Boeing’s most profitable plane, thanks largely to the 777-300ER, a 365-seat version that began operations in 2004.

Most of the industry’s attention is now focused on a future 400-seat version known as the 777-9X, which is Boeing Co’s response to a growing challenge from the largest version of Europe’s newest aircraft, the Airbus A350-1000.

But talks between Boeing and potential buyers have also generated interest in a 777-8X that would be a successor to the 777-200LR, the industry’s current distance champion, with a range of more than 9,300 nautical miles (17,200 km), people briefed on the talks said.

The 777-8X, boasting a range of 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km), would be designed for some of the world’s longest trips such as from the Middle East to South America.

“They are offering an ultra-long range aircraft in the 777-8X,” said an industry source briefed on the plans. “It’ll be the longest range aircraft in the business.”

Boeing declined to comment on specifics, but spokeswoman Karen Crabtree said the company is working with customers to fine tune the details.

Experts say ultra-long range planes deliver mixed benefits to airlines and so far the market for them remains a niche, overshadowed by the juggernauts designed for trunk routes.

That is because when modern aircraft fly the longest 15-hour flights, the first few hours are spent mostly burning the fuel needed to carry even more fuel for the rest of the flight.

These aircraft “carry more fuel to carry more fuel,” said consultant Richard Aboulafia of Virginia-basedTeal Group.

“They need a very big wing with lots of (fuel storage) capacity, which means lots of structure and weight.”

Fuel is not the only source of extra weight. The long journey times also mean loading extra meals and a reserve crew, so that the fuel burned per hour – a measure of efficiency – can end up greater than if the plane simply stopped en route.

Airlines must balance this against any extra revenue they can charge for a direct flight and the ability to eliminate the fuel wasted in climbing and descending twice, as well as en-route landing fees and other costs linked to a stopover.

In February, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan passed a federal decree to create the zone on Al Maryah island, close to Abu Dhabi’s downtown area.

Announcing details of the plan on Wednesday, the emirate left little doubt that its zone, to be called the Global Marketplace Abu Dhabi, could become a competitor to Dubai, currently the Gulf’s premier financial centre.

Abu Dhabi’s zone will have an independent regulator with its own board, the Financial Services Regulations Bureau, as well as two courts with a chief justice, the emirate’s Office of Government Communications said in its first public statement on the subject.

The zone, to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2013, will offer benefits similar to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), such as zero tax, easy repatriation of profits and exemption from customs duties on imports.

“Under the law there will be independent authorities that have their independent budgets and mandates under the regulations of the Global Marketplace Abu Dhabi,” the statement said.

Institutions operating in the zone will include various types of bank, trading companies, foreign exchange and commodity trading companies, prime brokerages, pension and investment funds, Islamic financial firms, companies handling stock trading, financial consultancies and others, it said.

“The free zone will bridge the gap in the global markets between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m., between Asia andEurope, due to the strategic location of the UAE,” the statement said.

Neighbouring Dubai launched the DIFC in 2004 with its own independent civil and commercial laws, its own courts and a financial exchange, Nasdaq Dubai.

Abu Dhabi is keen to diversify its economy beyond oil and although it is starting well behind Dubai as a financial centre, it has advantages such as its oil wealth – which Dubai lacks – and one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

“It is an important step in attracting foreign direct investment into Abu Dhabi…It will be interesting if it finds its niche in commodities or forex, which have prospects,” Mohammed Yasin, head of National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s brokerage unit, said of the emirate’s plan.

“We also need to see the relationship of the free zone’s regulator with other local regulators such as the central bank and the Securities and Commodities Authority, and that there is coordination between them.”

The seven cases were discovered in al-Ahsa governorate in the Eastern Province, the Saudi news agency SPA quoted the Saudi Health Ministry as saying in a statement late on Wednesday.

A Saudi man died in March from the virus.

The novel coronavirus (NCoV) is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that first emerged in Asia in 2003.

The new virus is not the same as SARS, but similar to it and also to other coronaviruses found in bats. It was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. There have been confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain.

In a March 26 update on its website the World Health Organisation said it had been informed of a global total of 17 confirmed cases of human infection with NCoV, including 11 deaths.

Alabbar also said market demand for homes in Dubai was very strong but “flipping”, the practice of buying speculatively for quick resale, needed to be controlled.

The complex will be built on 4 million square metres of land, the companies said in a statement without revealing a timeline, financing plans or other details.

The complex is to be a cornerstone of a huge urban development project announced last November by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who said at the time that plans included the largest shopping mall in the world, a park 30 percent bigger than Hyde Park in London, and over 100 hotels.

Dubai International, one of the world’s busiest airports, handled 5.85 million passengers in March compared to 4.85 million a year ago. Year-to-date traffic was up 15.6 percent to 16.49 million passengers.

The largest increase in passenger numbers was recorded on western European routes serviced byDubai carrier Emirates and flydubai, Dubai Airports said. Growth was relatively slow on South American and Middle Eastern routes.

Cargo volume in March rose 14.7 percent to 213,748 tonnes, while year-to-date cargo traffic grew 13.0 percent to 584,847 tonnes.

Grant Cameron, Karl Williams and Suneet Jeerh were arrested in July 2012 during a holiday in the United Arab Emirates. Police said they had found a form of synthetic cannabis in their hire car.

All three had pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing and intending to sell illegal drugs and said police had subjected them to beatings and threatened them with guns – allegations the police deny.

UAE Judge Ali Attiyah Saad sentenced the Britons to four years in jail each at Dubai Criminal Court.

One of the defence lawyers, Issa bin-Haider, said the sentences indicated the court had dropped the charge of intent to sell illegal drugs as that would have carried a more severe punishment.

Abdel-Hamid Mahdi, who represents Grant Cameron, said he planned to appeal the sentence, asking for mercy. It is common for convicts to be pardoned during national and religious holidays in the UAE, particularly first-time offenders.

British Prime Minister David Cameron commented on the case on Sunday, before a visit by UAEPresident Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan who is scheduled to arrive in Britain on Tuesday.

In a letter to Reprieve, a London-based legal charity which campaigns for prisoner rights, he said Britain had repeatedly raised concerns about the torture allegations with the UAE, saying the authorities’ failure to organise a full medical examination of the men was worrisome.

“We continue to press for evidence of a full, impartial and independent investigation,” Cameron wrote.

At a hearing in the case in March, police officer Osman Ali Abdulla, who took part in the Britons’ arrests, denied any of the men were abused or beaten and said they were treated well.

There is zero tolerance for drug-related offences in the UAE, a regional business hub and tourist destination where millions of expatriates live and work. There are severe penalties for drug trafficking and possession.

Reprieve investigator Kate Higham urged Cameron on Monday to push for their release during his talks with the UAE leader.

“The central fact of this case remains that these men were tortured by police, but there has been no proper investigation into their abuse,” she said in a statement.

During his two-day visit to Britain, the UAE leader will be hosted by Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, hold a meeting with Cameron, and have tea with the Prince of Wales. He will be accompanied by a high-level government delegation.

Grant Cameron, Karl Williams and Suneet Jeerh have been held in the UAE since taking a holiday there in July 2012. Police said they had found a form of synthetic cannabis in their hire car. They are due to hear a verdict in their case on Monday.

All three pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of illegal drugs and said police had subjected them to beatings and threatened them with guns, allegations the police deny.

In a letter to Reprieve, a London-based legal charity which campaigns for prisoner rights, Cameron said Britain had repeatedly raised concerns about the torture allegations with the UAE, saying the authorities’ failure to organise a full medical examination of the men was worrisome.

“We continue to press for evidence of a full, impartial and independent investigation,” Cameron wrote.

Cameron’s intervention on the eve of a state visit to Britain by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan was welcomed by Reprieve, which has been supporting the three men, but is likely to irritate the oil-rich Gulf state.

Britain is hoping the visit will boost trade between the two countries, which has in the past focused on defence contracts.

The UAE leader will arrive on Tuesday and be hosted by Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, hold a meeting with Cameron, and have tea with the Prince of Wales. He will be accompanied by a high-level government delegation during the two-day visit.

Reprieve said the case raised troubling questions.

“The prime minister’s concern is welcome, but it is hard to see how a state visit is appropriate for the president of a country which has tortured our own citizens,” Kate Higham, one of its investigators, said in a statement.

“At the very least, the mistreatment of these three men must be a central issue for discussion during the visit.”

There is zero tolerance for drug-related offences in the United Arab Emirates, a regional business hub and tourist destination where millions of expatriates live and work. There are severe penalties for drug trafficking and possession.

Last year, a British citizen and a Syrian were sentenced to death by a UAE court after they were convicted of selling drugs to an undercover policeman. The sentences were later commuted to four years in prison.

The mother of one of the men told BBC TV her son’s arrest had been a “horror story” and that she hoped the UAE leader would intervene.

“I sincerely hope that he is able to look into the case and show a level of clemency to the boys because, sincerely, that’s what needs to happen in this case and hopefully, once he’s made aware, he can make that happen,” said Tracy Cameron. She said lawyers believed her son was likely to be found guilty of at least one charge and could be jailed for 15 years or longer.

A federal decree was passed by the United Arab Emirates’ President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in February to create the area, known as the Abu Dhabi World Financial Market, on Al Maryah island, the sources told Reuters.

Detailed regulations covering the zone will be outlined shortly, an Abu Dhabi government source said, declining to be named under briefing rules.

“It will have all the offerings of a financial free zone – 100 percent foreign ownership, tax and capital repatriation, internationally accepted laws and regulations and other things,” the source said.

The UAE’s free zones are areas in which foreign companies can operate under light regulation, and where foreign investors are allowed to take 100 percent ownership in companies; outside the zones, they generally need to have local partners.

One of the country’s most successful free zones is the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), established in 2004 with its own civil and commercial laws, its own courts and a financial exchange, NASDAQ Dubai.

It has become the Gulf’s top financial centre, housing regional headquarters for many of the world’s biggest banks and finance firms. Others have tried to emulate its success; the Qatar Financial Centre was set up in 2005 in Doha, and the Bahrain Financial Harbour opened in 2009.

Unlike neighbouring Dubai, Abu Dhabi has huge oil reserves, so it has less economic need to develop as a financial centre. But Abu Dhabi is keen to develop its economy beyond oil and make its mark on the global stage.

Al Maryah island, formerly Sowwah island, is close to downtown Abu Dhabi and has an area of about 114 hectares. It has been developed by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala since 2007, and some 50 local and international firms have set up offices on the island.

Because of its oil wealth and the monetary resources of its banks and sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi will have some strengths as a financial centre, but it is not clear whether it can draw much business away from Dubai, which has a well-entrenched position and a more freewheeling business culture.

“The challenge for Abu Dhabi would be to find a niche, a competitive edge for how to compete with Dubai,Qatar and Bahrain and capture its market share,” said Tariq Qaqish, head of asset management at Al Mal Capital.

The United Arab Emirates reinstated a visa waiver for Canadian citizens in April which it withdrew amid a dispute over landing rights more than two years ago.

Canada was one of more than 30 countries, mostly Western, that benefited from a visa waiver the UAE offered to their citizens. But Canadians were told in November 2010 they had to obtain a visa in advance at a cost of as much as $1,000.

Etihad and Dubai carrier Emirates had been lobbying the Canadian government to boost thrice-weekly direct flights to Toronto and more Canadian destinations, with support from the UAE government, but failed to gain greater access.

“On the back of UAE normalising the visa rules with Canada, (the codeshare agreement) gives us the opportunity to sell beyond Toronto to the other Canadian cities,” Etihad’s chief executive James Hogan said.

There has been no indication on whether renewed cooperation between the two countries would lead to more landing rights.

“We’ve always been very clear that we want to go there daily,” said Hogan.

The codeshare is part of a series of partnerships for Etihad, as it pursues ambitious global expansion plans.

It sealed a $379 million deal for a 24 percent stake in India’s Jet Airways on Wednesday.

Etihad and Air Canada will offer customers through-checked bags, reciprocal codeshare services and frequent flyer benefits, the airlines said in a statement, adding that the codeshare services would be introduced in the third quarter.

The world’s top oil exporter and biggest Arab economy is pushing to reform its housing and labour sectors to make it easier for citizens to get places to live and jobs at private companies.

A shortage of land in big cities has frustrated efforts to build half a million homes – a project ordered by King Abdullah in 2011 which analysts say was one of several steps taken to avert ‘Arab Spring’-style unrest.

Wealthy Saudis have bought residential land plots around the country as long-term investments, pushing up prices and making them too costly for developers of lower-income housing. Under a previous system, other plots were awarded as land grants to citizens who could not afford to develop them.

A royal decree earlier this month ordered ministries to give up land for development to the Housing Ministry.

“The expropriation of properties for the public interest is done around the world. We might do it in a limited way,” said Housing Minister Shuwaish al-Duwaihi in comments in a television interview reported by the Arab News newspaper.

Unused military land will also be used for future housing, he added. “We are coordinating with military sectors to take their lands which they don’t need,” he said.

“We think there is demand in high-dividend sharia equities,” particularly with interest rates currently very low, Abdul Kadir Hussain told Reuters at Zawya‘s MENA Asset Management conference in Dubai on Wednesday.

“Equities have very attractive yields in this region,” he added.

The investment unit of Mashreq bank hopes to raise between $75 million and $100 million for the fund, and will seed it with a $20 million investment from the bank.

Hussain said the fund would be Mashreq Capital‘s fourth as it now manages two fixed income funds and one conventional equity fund, with a total of $800 million of assets under management.

Last October Dana became the first company in the United Arab Emirates to miss repayment of a maturing bond, but it subsequently agreed new terms with a creditor committee representing bondholders, which included investment firms Ashmore Group and BlackRock.

Under the plan, the company will repay $70 million in cash, with the remaining $850 million split equally between two new five-year sukuk – an ordinary Islamic bond and a convertible sukuk – which will pay an average coupon of 8 percent. The new sukuk will be issued on May 8.

Helou was brought in by Barclays‘ investment banking arm, Barclays Capital, from Rothschild in 2010 to lead the division which advises banks and other financial institutions in the region on mergers and acquisitions, fixed income and equity capital markets transactions.

Dubai-based Helou left the bank few weeks ago, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public. Both Barclays and Helou were not immediately available to comment on why he left and his plans for the future.

Helou originally moved to Dubai in 2006 to set up Rothschild’s regional office. At Barclays, he worked on several prominent deals including Qatar Holding’s 2010 purchase of a stake in Santander’s Brazilian unit, and Kuwaiti lender Burgan Bank’s purchase of EFG Eurobank’s Turkish unit, the sources said.

He was also involved in the planned merger of Qatar‘s Al Khaliji Commercial Bank and International Bank of Qatar, a deal which stalled in 2011 after the parties failed to agree terms.

Middle Eastern deal activity has been picking up after a subdued period. Cash-rich Gulf Arab sheikhs and governments are buying European assets, lured in part by attractive valuations due to weak markets.

Barclays topped the Middle Eastern M&A fee rankings for completed deals in 2012, according to Thomson Reuters data, raking in 9 percent of the overall fee pool in the segment.

The Middle East, home to some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, will be a key area for investment banks including Barclays in coming years, Barclays‘ global vice-chairman for investment banking, Makram Azar, told Reuters in an interview last year.

The Gulf carrier said in an emailed statement it would subscribe to 27.3 million new shares at 754.74 rupees per share.

Jet said in a brief statement to the stock exchange earlier on Wednesday that its board had approved the allotment to Etihad.

Etihad, which is on an aggressive expansion drive, will also make a $150 million equity investment in Jet’s frequent flyer programme and spend $70 million to buy Jet’s three pairs of Heathrow slots through the sale and leaseback agreement announced in February.

Jet’s majority ownership will remain with Indian nationals and Jet’s founder and non-executive chairman Naresh Goyal will hold 51 percent of the airline after the deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, the statement added.

As part of the deal Jet will establish a hub in Abu Dhabi and expand its reach through Etihad Airways’ global network. (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi hit multi-year highs on Monday as investors positioned themselves for results, with banks in particular attracting attention.

Three of the four largest banks in the country by market value – National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank – will report this week.

“The expectation of good Q1 numbers has boosted the markets and this flow should continue, as long as the turnover is good,” says Marwan Shurrab, vice president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments.

Volumes have been subdued in recent days, in particular in Abu Dhabi, and Shurrab believes that any sustained move up needs good turnover to support it.

Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas holds a shareholder meeting on Tuesday to vote on the restructuring plan for its $920 million sukuk, which the company failed to repay last year. The plan is widely expected to pass.

In Saudi Arabia, Petro Rabigh will be watched once more, after it ended the previous session limit down. The firm reported on Sunday a big loss in the first quarter and warned second-quarter earnings would be hurt by a 12-day shutdown for maintenance at its ethane cracker.

Elsewhere, Industries Qatar will be in focus after it reported an estimate-beating 36.8 per cent hike in first-quarter net profit after Monday’s market close.

Islamic bank Masraf al Rayan also beat analysts’ forecasts with its first-quarter earnings.

Cues from Asia are negative. Shares and other riskier assets lost ground after a preliminary reading showed manufacturing growth in China slowed in April, highlighting recent market concerns about global growth prospects.

The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for April also weakened oil prices, with Brent crude slipping towards $100 a barrel, due to fears over the outlook for fuel demand in the world’s second largest oil consumer.

Some local business leaders and economists say the existing Thursday to Friday weekend is bad for the economy because it limits the amount of time Saudi companies can work with partners overseas.

However, some members of the powerful conservative clergy in the birthplace of Islam have opposed the move in the past, citing concerns it is intended to bring the kingdom closer to the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Oman said this month it would shift to a Friday to Saturday week in May. That will leave the biggest Arab economy as the only Gulf Arab state to maintain a Thursday to Friday weekend.

“Especially for the financial sector it’s vital. They’re only connected three days a week now to the international financial system. For other companies it would also be much more convenient, with one more day when we overlap,” said Les Jenka, chairman of the American Business Group in of Riyadh.

Any switch might have important ramifications for the Saudi bourse, which is heavily influenced by international energy prices and world equity markets, but only shares three working days with them.

The websites of al-Riyadh and al-Medina newspapers reported on Monday that the Shura Council, a body appointed by the king that has advisory powers but no veto on new laws, had decided to recommend to the government it should change the weekend days.

Medina reported that 83 Shura Council members voted to recommend, while 43 voted against it. Most laws passed get an initial go-ahead from the council, but a recommendation does not necessarily mean it will be become law any time soon.

Saudi law sets the weekend for the large government sector, but private companies are only officially required to give one day of holiday a week.

At the start of this month, the world’s top exporter was poised to raise oil supply to meet higher requirements in Asia. With Europe mired in debt and the United States using more of its own oil, Asia is the primary target for producers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

But three weeks on and the outlook for growth in top energy consumer China and elsewhere looks decidedly uncertain, Europe‘s recession has deepened and Brent crude has lost 10 percent of its value to trade below $100 a barrel.

Sources familiar with Saudi oil policy said demand for crude from outside the kingdom was expected to remain flat through June, although it could burn more crude domestically to cover an increase in power generation.

“Loadings of Saudi crude for April and May look fairly flat versus March, so we expect little, if any change in Saudi supply through May,” said a major buyer of Saudi crude.

Neighbouring Gulf producer the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was also keeping production steady.

“It will produce roughly the same in the second quarter,” UAE OPEC Governor Ali al-Yabhouni told reporters on Monday.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s leading producer and holder of the world’s only significant spare capacity, cut output by around 700,000 bpd over the last two months of 2012, helping drive an oil rally from early December to February.

Saudi production so far this year has stabilised at around 9.1 million barrels per day (bpd).

Riyadh has long insisted that it adjusts oil supply to accommodate its customers and not to drive the price. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said last month that crude around $100 was “reasonable” for consumers and producers alike.

But Gulf OPEC producers are likely to take a different view of an $85-$90 Brent price, which delegates say could prompt discussion of a cut in OPEC’s official 30 million bpd supply target.

The price slide has prompted price hawks Iran and Venezuela to suggest the idea of an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries before the next scheduled gathering on May 31.

The idea got little traction from the group’s members across the Gulf. For now, Gulf Arab OPEC producers, led by Saudi Arabia, say they are likely to keep production steady throughout this year.

The 12-member group is pumping roughly 30.5 million bpd.

“We believe that the situation will stabilise,” Qatar‘s energy minister Mohammed al-Sada told reporters on Sunday.

“Usually the second quarter of every year we see less demand, but in the third quarter we see stronger demand and this is what we expect. The (current) situation in the market does not call for any panic.”

The firm made a net profit of SAR110.1 million ($29.4 million) during the three months ending March 31, compared with SAR100.8m riyals in the same period a year earlier.

Kingdom Holding attributed the growth to a gain on investments, a decrease in finance charges and the reversal of an impairment loss.

The investment firm has minority stakes in some of the world’s top companies. Aside from being one of the largest shareholders in Citigroup, it owns stakes in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and microblogging site Twitter.

Talal, a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder and a nephew of King Abdullah, hit the headlines last month in a spat with Forbes over his position in the magazine’s billionaires list. He was listed as number 26 estimate on the rich list, with the estimation of $20 billion undervaluing him by $9.6bn, according to the prince himself.

($1 = SAR3.7501) (Reporting by David French; Editing by Andrew Torchia)

Pudner is expected to stay in the job until the end of this year; “then he will hand over the role to a new leader as part of the succession planning process and the organisation’s strategy for change and transformation,” ENBD said in a brief emailed statement.

The statement noted that Pudner had joined ENBD more than seven years ago and had contributed to all of the achievements of the bank.

ENBD is due to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday; the average forecast of three analysts is for the bank to post a 5.4 per cent rise in net profit, versus the same quarter last year to AED676 million ($184 million).

Pudner’s departure comes at a key time for the bank as it embarks on overseas expansion. Pudner told Reuters last November that ENBD aimed for international revenues of approximately 15 to 20 per cent of its total in five years’ time, up from five per cent at present.

ENBD, 56 per cent owned by state fund Investment Corp of Dubai, is close to completing a $500 million purchase of BNP Paribas’ Egyptian assets.

Pudner joined Emirates Bank as chief executive in early 2006. A year later the bank merged with the National Bank of Dubai in one of the region’s largest tie-ups to form ENBD. Previously, Pudner worked for more than 24 years at HSBC.

The loan, which is a mix of Islamic and conventional financing, was lead-managed by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Mashreq, Dubai Islamic Bank and Noor Islamic Bank.

“Recently we announced our intention to build ten new schools in the UAE over the next two years to meet growing demand and the quality targets set by the local authorities. This new bank facility supports this expansion plan,” Dino Varkey, GEMS chief operating officer, said in the statement.

In March, sources told Reuters that the firm was in the process of merging its global operations to create a business worth up to $2 billion, and was considering an initial public offer of shares in 2013. Founder and chairman, Sunny Varkey, said there were no plans for an imminent share listing.

GEMS operates popular private schools across the Gulf Arab region.

“It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan on Tuesday and tremors were felt in India and Gulf states.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:44 GMT at a depth of 15.2 km (9.4 miles). The epicenter was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert.

It was located 201 km (125 miles) southeast of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said.

Tall buildings shook in India’s capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said. People also evacuated shaking buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said.

A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two villages.

Most of Iran’s nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A U.S. Institute for Science and International Security map did not show any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan.

*Photo Credit