By Andrei Skvarsky. Global verification statistics published by London-based compliance-as-a-service firm Sumsub late last year suggest that online identity fraud attempts in the world economy grew in number by more than 50 per cent between 2021 and 2022. Sumsub said in a report that 1.7 per cent of millions of verified online transaction attempts or… Continue Reading
Category Archives: News
New UAE legislation on business taxation: exemption for some, 9 pct for the rest
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates would exempt smaller and some other types of firms from profit tax and levy a flat tax of 9 per cent on all other businesses under a taxation regime to take effect on June 1, 2023. Annual profits of a maximum of 375,000 dirhams ($102,000) would be exempt… Continue Reading
World Bank expects migrants’ 2022 remittances to home countries to reach $626bn
By Andrei Skvarsky. Remittances from migrant workers play a serious role in their homelands’ economies, according to the World Bank, which estimates that earnings sent by migrants to low- and middle-income countries for the whole of 2022 will reach $626bn, an amount larger than the gross domestic product of Denmark or Ireland. Money that has… Continue Reading
UAE firm launching $100m sharia-compliant VC fund to invest in Gulf, Indian companies
Emirati company Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), which keeps its business in line with sharia (Islamic law), is launching a $100m venture capital fund to invest in Gulf and Indian companies. The new facility, GII Debt Fund-I, will focus on Gulf companies in “resilient sectors” such as healthcare, education, logistics and technology and on Indian companies… Continue Reading
UK experts give advice on how to steer clear of crypto scammers
By Andrei Skvarsky. An online guide to British online casinos has published several tips on how to avoid falling victim to increasingly frequent cryptocurrency scams, mentioning a variety of fraud types some of which may be less familiar than others. One trick used in touting fraudulent proposals is citing alleged recommendations by some celebrity, according… Continue Reading
UAE banking sector’s assets up 1,200 pct since 2000 – senior banker
The assets of the United Arab Emirates’ banking sector have surged to more than $900bn from $75bn since 2000, the head of a major Emirati banking association said, forecasting further massive revenue growth in the sector. The total revenues of the UAE’s banks are likely to swell by 50 per cent by 2030, reaching more… Continue Reading
Prop trader The Trading Pit raises 10m euros in funding round
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Trading Pit (TTP), a Liechtenstein-based proprietary trading fintech startup, has raised 10m euros ($10.4m) in its latest round of growth funding. TTP now has the goal of achieving global access to all key asset classes, including foreign exchange, stocks, futures and cryptocurrencies, within the next six months, the firm said in… Continue Reading
Emirates NBD opens two more branches in India
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai’s Emirates NBD, one of the largest banks in the Middle East, has opened two full-service branches in India in addition to a five-year-old branch in Mumbai in fostering what it calls strategic ties with the homeland of the United Arab Emirates’ largest expatriate community. One of the new branches is located… Continue Reading
M4Markets brokerage gets go-ahead to Europe trade from Cyprus regulator
By Andrei Skvarsky. Seychelles-headquartered foreign exchange and contract for differences (CFD) broker M4Markets has obtained a licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) authorising it to cater to European traders. The authorisation came via the acquisition by The Oryx Group, the Belgian-based company behind M4Markets, of CySEC-licensed investment firm ICC Intercertus Capital, which… Continue Reading
Corporate uni of Russia’s Sberbank to teach Islamic finance
By Andrei Skvarsky. The corporate university of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, plans to launch a course on Islamic finance in a few months’ time, one of the bank’s top managers has announced. Oleg Ganeyev, senior vice-president of Sberbank, made the announcement at a Russian annual Islamic economic forum in Kaspiysk, a city in Russia’s predominantly… Continue Reading
Aussie investment firm Laguna Bay outsources fund admin to Bermuda-based Apex
By Andrei Skvarsky. Australian investment firm Laguna Bay has hired Apex Group, a Bermuda-headquartered financial services provider, to manage a fund for investing in food and agricultural projects in Australia and New Zealand. Laguna Bay Fund 2, the vehicle Apex will manage, is planned to raise and invest up to 1bn Australian dollars (US$672m), according… Continue Reading
Deal enables Apex to use Inveniam blockchain for asset valuation
By Andrei Skvarsky. U.S. fintech company Inveniam has clinched a deal with UK-based financial services firm Apex Group to enable the latter to use blockchain technology patented by the American company and its data operating system for asset valuation. “Using data that is verified on blockchain, through our innovative partnership with Inveniam, will … deliver… Continue Reading
Ampersand, private investor buy out Australian biopharma firm
By Andrei Skvarsky. Global health care private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners and private investor Glenn Haifer have bought out Australian biopharmaceutical company Luina Bio, rebranding it as AcuraBio, according to a joint statement from Ampersand and AcuraBio. Haifer is board chairman of AcuraBio. He is an Australian medical practitioner and entrepreneur. The statement did… Continue Reading
Permira, Ampersand, Abu Dhabi govt co-acquire, merge two biopharma firms
By Andrei Skvarsky. Private equity investment firms Permira and Ampersand, based in London and Boston respectively, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) have jointly acquired and merged two global pharmaceutical companies making remedies from human blood plasma. The merger of Kedrion Biophama, which is headquartered in Tuscany, Italy, and Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), which… Continue Reading
IPO of medical firm advised by Riyadh’s Aldukheil Financial Group 540% oversubscribed
By Andrei Skvarsky. Saudi investment advisory Aldukheil Financial Group (AFG) has piloted a Saudi medical services company through a recent initial public offering (IPO) that was nearly 540 per cent oversubscribed and raised about $22m for the health care firm. Investors subscribed to all 1.4m ordinary shares floated by Naba Alsaha Medical Services Co. at… Continue Reading
NY fintech Inveniam pulls into in Brazil via deal with Growth Tech
By Andrei Skvarsky. Inveniam Capital Partners, a New York-headquartered financial technology company operating a digital services platform, said it has “definitively entered” the Brazilian market by clinching a partnership deal with Brazilian blockchain developer Growth Tech. Growth Tech, a startup whose blockchain solutions are mainly focused on real estate, “is in the process of incorporating… Continue Reading
Abu Dhabi Uzbek Investment puts $10m into Uzbek fertiliser maker Ifoda via bonds
Uzbek private equity firm Abu Dhabi Uzbek Investment (ADUI) has put 110bn Uzbek soum ($10.1m) into key Uzbek fertiliser producer Ifoda via a bond project. Central Asia-focused Bluestone Investment Bank acted as adviser to Ifoda, the bond issuer, on the placement of the securities. ADUI, a $1bn company headquartered in Tashkent and established by two… Continue Reading
MENA’s 2022 business scene marked by IPOs galore – EY
There were six times as many initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the first half of 2022 as the grouping of about 20 countries witnessed in H1 2021, according to global professional services group EY. Twenty-four MENA-based companies, including two financial firms – the Saudi Home Loans… Continue Reading
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank reports surging popularity of digital platform
By Andrei Skvarsky. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) said deals carried out through its ADIB Direct digital banking platform for businesses have grown in number by 88 per cent since the lender launched the facility in 2019. ADIB Direct offers a suite of solutions and is accessible through the internet, mobile phones and smart watches,… Continue Reading
Half a dozen UAE banks report serious net profit increases
By Andrei Skvarsky. Nearly half of the United Arab Emirates’ banks have published their financial results for the first half of 2022, almost all of them reporting substantial year-on-year net profit increases. First Abu Dhabi Bank reported the highest profit of 8bn Emirati dirhams ($2.2bn) and said in a statement that this was 50 per… Continue Reading
Dubai’s Mubadala spearheads $100m funding for Swedish neobank Juni
Emirati state-owned investment company Mubadala said on Twitter that its asset management arm, Mubadala Capital, had recently led a $100m Series B financing round for Swedish neobank Juni. Juni, which is headquartered in Gothenburg, is a business-to-business firm providing services for e-commerce companies. Mubadala, whose full name is Mubadala Investment Company, is based in Dubai. Continue Reading
EQT, Mubadala to buy out container maker Envirotainer from Cinven, Novo Holdings
By Andrei Skvarsky. Stockholm-headquartered EQT Private Equity and Abu Dhabi sovereign investment company Mubadala have clinched a deal to acquire Envirotainer, a provider of temperature-controlled containers for the air transport of biopharmaceuticals. The price that EQT Private Equity, a division of global investment group EQT, and Mubadala have agreed to pay the sellers, British private… Continue Reading
Reuters Events explains planned global ESG reporting standards
Reuters Events have produced a complimentary report explaining internationally agreed ESG performance reporting standards that are planned to replace the current global diversity of sustainability reporting requirements. Specifically, the 17-page brief goes into similarities and differences between the planned global standards and current European reporting practices. The planned procedural uniformity would put an end to… Continue Reading
Sumsub says its kit enables NiceHash crypto firm to avoid most of fraud, security incidents threatening it
By Andrei Skvarsky. A toolkit developed by identity verification firm Sumsub has enabled its client NiceHash, a cryptocurrency mining platform and exchange, to boost its rate of avoidance of fraud attempts and security incidents by 80 per cent, according to Sumsub. The kit is an all-in-one solution that enables NiceHash to meet differing requirements set… Continue Reading
Advanced training edtech startup Qureos raises $3m in pre-seed funding
By Andrei Skvarsky. Qureos, a Dubai-based education technology startup organising advanced training for graduates to help them find successful employment, has raised $3m in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by venture capital firms COTU Ventures and Colle Capital, the former headquartered in Dubai and the latter in New York, according to a… Continue Reading
Bybit crypto bourse, Sumsub say up to 99 pct of forgery attempts spotted with KYC kit
By Andrei Skvarsky. The know-your-customer (KYC) solution acquired by Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange with more than 6m users worldwide, from identity verification firm Sumsub in summer 2021 has shown excellent performance since then, according to a Sumsub statement on April 4. Using the kit takes about one minute to carry out the entire necessary testing… Continue Reading
Asset manager Apollo’s franchisee EPF buys 68 properties from Italian pension fund
By Andrei Skvarsky. European Principal Finance (EPF), a business franchised by New York-headquartered global asset manager Apollo, has bought an 842m-euro ($923m) portfolio of 68 commercial and residential real estate properties from an Italian pension fund. The properties include hotel, retail, logistics and parking assets and are mostly located in Rome and Milan, Apollo said… Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse joins forces with AirCarbon Exchange in emissions quotas trade
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse (DB1) has made an investment in AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) in what is expected to result in synergic collaboration between Singapore-based ACX and DB1 subsidiary European Energy Exchange (EEX) in selling carbon credits, greenhouse gas emission quotas. ACX, a carbon allowances trading specialist, did not disclose the exact sum received from… Continue Reading
Technical mistake blamed for Russia’s Ozon Bank being under U.S. sanctions
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian online retailer Ozon on February 25 blamed a technical mistake for its subsidiary Ozon Bank’s being among Russian entities and individuals sanctioned by the United States for presumed roles in Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine. Ozon said in a statement it would ask the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of… Continue Reading