By Andrei Skvarsky. United Arab Emirates company Al Ansari Financial Services expects to raise about $2m by selling 750m ordinary shares through an initial public offering (IPO) it plans to launch early next month with subscriptions due to start on March 16. The shares, to represent 10 per cent of Al Ansari, will be floated… Continue Reading
Mubadala buying into Truist Insurance Holdings, world’s 7th-largest insurance broker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Mubadala, an Emirati state-owned investment company, has struck a deal with U.S. private equity firm Stone Point Capital and other investors to jointly buy a $1.95bn 20 per cent stake in Truist Insurance Holdings, the world’s seventh-largest insurance broker. Truist Insurance Holdings is valued at $14.75bn by its parent company, investment bank… Continue Reading
UAE’s ADIB bank reports 2022 ROE of 21.4 pc, to pay $462.9m in dividends
By Andrei Skvarsky. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has reported robust performance for 2022 with a 21.4 per cent return on equity (ROE), which it called “one of the highest” in the United Arab Emirates’ banking sector, and has approved cash dividends making up nearly half of the bank’s net profit for the year. A… Continue Reading
UAE’s RAKBank to put up to $163m into 4-year diversification strategy
RAKBank, a lender based in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, plans to put between 400m and 600m UAE dirhams (between $108.9m and $163.4m) into a four-year strategy to diversify its business, its chief executive said. RAKBank – the trading name of the National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah – is… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Family Office Winter Forum, New York, March 9
The Family Office Winter Forum is a conference in New York on March 9 organised by event management company Opal Group to discuss topics such as family governance, alternative investments and impact investing and hear speakers some of whom are Wall Street’s most sought-after managers and advisers. Only stand-alone speakers will be allowed to use… Continue Reading
EDB bank, Abu Dhabi financial centre admin to help companies get established
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ state-owned Emirates Development Bank (EDB) and the authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre in UAE capital Abu Dhabi, have announced a joint plan to provide better facilities for companies seeking ADGM licensing. EDB and the ADGM authority would provide services such as the… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Four conferences in San Diego on March 6-8
Event management company marcus evans is going to host four invitation-only U.S.-focused financial conferences next month, all of them to be held at the same venue in San Diego, California, and on the same dates, March 6-8, 2023: Venture Capital Investors Summit. The agenda includes opportunities in a “new normal”, ESG-compliant investment, and ways to… Continue Reading
Candriam to hand over the reins to Vincent Hamelink as current CEO moves to NY Life
By Andrei Skvarsky. The role of CEO of global asset manager Candriam is going to pass to the company’s current investment chief Vincent Hamelink from Naim Abou-Jaoude, who is leaving as chief executive for a senior job at U.S. insurer New York Life, Candriam’s parent firm, in a reshuffle to take effect on May 1.… Continue Reading
France’s Carmignac makes two hires to run merger arbitrage funds
By Andrei Skvarsky. Paris-based asset management firm Carmignac has enlarged its alternative investment team by hiring Fabienne Cretin-Fumeron and Stéphane Dieudonné from Candriam, a subsidiary of U.S. insurance company New York Life, as merger arbitrage managers. Cretin-Fumeron and Dieudonné both have 18-year experience in merger arbitrage, also known as risk arbitrage, a risk avoidance investment… Continue Reading
‘GDP’ the least-understood financial term – City Index
By Andrei Skvarsky. Of the multitude of financial terms, “gross domestic product (GDP)” is generally the least-understood one, according to a study by London-based financial services company City Index. Definitions of GDP are on average googled 166,300 times a month and nearly 2m times a year worldwide, City Index said in a statement in citing… Continue Reading
Balyasny Asset Management promotes seven execs to partner role
Chicago-headquartered global firm Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) has made seven additions to its group of partners. All seven joined BAM between 2013 and 2021, according to a statement from the asset management firm. They are: Mayank Chamadia, a portfolio manager and co-head of BAM’s New York office. Chamadia’s pre-BAM career included jobs with Barclays Capital,… Continue Reading
Dubai’s buy-now-pay-later lender Tabby worth $660m after 3rd-round funding
By Andrei Skvarsky. Tabby, a Dubai-based fintech providing a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service, – making easy-term point-of-sale instalment loans, – has raised $58m in its latest round of funding, which boosted its valuation to $660m. Tabby’s 2022 revenue was five times the sum it made in 2021, the company said in a statement.… Continue Reading
UAE banking sector’s assets hit $986bn mark by end of October – central bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. The total assets of the United Arab Emirates’ banking sector, including bankers’ acceptances, reached AED 3.62tn (about $986bn) by the end of October 2022, having gone up 0.9 per cent month-on-month, the central bank said in a report made public last week. Gross credit rose by 0.2 per cent to AED 1.88tn… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Connected Banking East Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, March 7
Connected Banking East Africa, a conference themed “Accelerating Digital Inclusion Through Sustainable Transformation”, is the seventh event in the Africa-focused Connected Banking Summit series organised by the International Center for Strategic Alliances (ICSA), an event management company based in Bengaluru, India. The previous conferences in the series, which is entitled “Africa Digital Banking Summit –… Continue Reading
UAE fines companies failing to meet Emiratisation quota
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates, a country with expatriates making up about 89 per cent of the population, has slapped fines on private companies for failing to meet the 2022 target for hiring Emirati nationals that was part of a 15-year-old policy of promoting the recruitment of Emiratis. A 2022 decree, part of… Continue Reading
India makes three arrests in ICICI Bank fraud probe
By Andrei Skvarsky. India’s top crime detection agency made three arrests late in December in connection with an alleged fraud scheme of over a decade ago in which ICICI Bank, one of the country’s biggest lenders, made loans that ran against its rules and ultimately caused it to suffer heavy losses. One of those arrested… Continue Reading
Bangladeshi expat driver scoops $9.53m bounty in UAE draw
By Andrei Skvarsky. A cash-strapped Bangladeshi working as a pick-up driver in Abu Dhabi became a millionaire instantly on January 4 by winning 35m Emirati dirhams ($9.53m) in a major United Arab Emirates draw, according to Gulf, Bangladeshi and Indian media. Mohammed Rayful, 39,was going to share what was the biggest-ever grand prize in Abu… Continue Reading
ActivTrades analyst: Jan 2 European share rise may be short-lived
According to an analyst at the ActivTrades global brokerage, it is too early to see a remarkable rise in European shares during this year’s first trading session on January 2 as a stable long-term situation. A “lack of any major macro news” suggests the share price surge with the FTSE 100, EURO DAX 50 and… Continue Reading
Sumsub: Identity fraud in world economy up 50 pct between 2021 and 2022
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
Tempo remittance firm to get verification services from Sumsub
By Andrei Skvarsky. Tempo France, a Paris-headquartered digital money transfer company, has become a client of London-based compliance-as-a-service and verification firm Sumsub. Tempo, which is licensed by French financial services regulator ACPR, has gained access to the full range of Sumsub’s know-your-customer and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) services, according to a statement from the London firm,… Continue Reading
BCG: UAE retail banking revenues to grow by leaps and bounds
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ retail banking sector is going to have revenues growing at a pace 64 times as fast for the period from 2021 to 2026 as was the case between 2016 and 2021, according to calculations by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCQ forecasts in a report that the sector’s revenues… Continue Reading
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
Prop trader The Trading Pit hires Daniela Egli as CEO
Proprietary trading company The Trading Pit has hired Daniela Egli as its chief executive officer. Egli will be based at The Trading Pit’s business headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus, according to a statement from the company. The firm is formally domiciled in Liechtenstein, where its office is headed by Thomas Heyden. Egli comes to The Trading… 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