Legal Leaders Europe 2022, a conference in London on November 10-11 organised by Reuters Events, is going to bring together senior lawyers from scores of companies, among them Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Lloyds, Zurich Insurance, KPMG and Thomson Reuters. There is a diversity of issues on the agenda, including trends in legal tech, the… 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
EVENTS: NorthAm food industry, supply chain issues to be raised at Reuters-hosted forums in November
Reuters Events is going to host two conferences in Chicago on November 1-2 to deal with key issues in North America’s food industry, agriculture and supply chains – Transform Food USA 2022 and Transform Supply Chains 2022. More than 60 speakers are expected to address each of the two in-person co-located conferences. There are about… 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
The Trading Pit hires Periklis Hanna as head of marketing operations
The Trading Pit, a company headquartered in Bavaria and trading in a variety of assets, including futures and cryptocurrencies, has announced it has hired Periklis Hanna as head of marketing operations. The Trading Pit offers facilities for trading in assets such as cryptos, shares, foreign exchange, options, futures for a diversity of commodities and contracts… Continue Reading
Permira Credit hires ex-Carlyle manager Ian Jackson to oversee strategy unit
Global investment firm Permira said Ian Jackson, a former senior manager at financial services corporation Carlyle and Deutsche Bank, has been hired to head Permira Strategic Opportunities (PSO) at Permira Credit, the firm’s credit investment arm. Jackson spent 13 and a half years at The Carlyle Group, which is a multinational company headquartered in Washington,… 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
EVENTS: Legal Leaders USA 2022, NY, May 23-24
More than 40 speakers are going to address an audience of over 200 at Legal Leaders USA 2022, an in-person conference of company lawyers in New York on May 23-24 with a busy agenda including challenges such as increasingly numerous and complex regulations, business based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, and new technology.… Continue Reading
ActivTrades-Conv.rs to offer traders omnichannel messaging solution
Foreign exchange broker ActivTrades has formed a partnership with Conv.rs, a company running an omnichannel messaging platform that can enable a trader to reach an ActivTrades representative directly through a web chat, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger or Line. Conv.rs plans to add more channels to the platform, according to a statement from ActivTrades. Conv.rs is… 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
EVENT UPDATE: Commodities Trading USA, June 7-8
Energy transition, cutting-edge technologies and financing issues are among a variety of points to be discussed at Commodities Trading USA 2022, a planned conference in Houston, Texas, on June 7-8 organised by Reuters Events. Four themes will be in the focus of this in-person forum: – impacts of energy transition; – digitalisation of trading, including… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Struggle between two factors to keep gold price stable
London-based brokerage ActivTrades forecasts that the price of gold, which stayed flat on March 15, will remain stable for the foreseeable period as it is the result of a current tug-of-war between two factors that are almost equally powerful – a U.S. inflation control policy and geopolitical risks stirred by the ongoing war in Ukraine.… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Three events to be hosted by Opal in Florida town on March 27-29
Conference organiser Opal Group is going to host three in-person annual financial events in Palm Beach, a town in Florida, on March 27-29. They are: ESG & Impact Investing Forum, a conference to look at opportunities in various asset classes for investment aiming to produce environmental, social and governance impacts alongside yielding substantial returns; Opal… 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
Reuters Events, Tradecloud: Understanding energy transition crucial to commodities trading
A business strategy geared to energy transition requirements is crucial to successful trading in commodities today, according to a report released by Reuters Events, organisers of Commodities Trading USA 2022, a planned conference in June. “Commodities Trading 2022. Market Insight Report”, written by Reuters Events in partnership with supply chain platform Tradecloud, says the energy… Continue Reading
Starting a business costs under $15.5 in UK, over $2,200 in Italy – money.co.uk
By Andrei Skvarsky. The minimum cost of setting up a business in Britain is less than $15.5, making the country the best place in Europe to choose an entrepreneurial career, according to money.co.uk, specialists in comparing financial products and services. The exact minimum sum needed to establish a firm in Britain is 11.68 pounds ($15.45),… 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
Euronext Dublin registers 5-year $5bn Eurobond programme to be launched by Russia’s Sovcombank
By Andrei Skvarsky. Euronext Dublin (the Irish Stock Exchange) has registered a five-year framework $5bn Eurobond programme to be launched by Sovcombank, one of Russia’s top ten lenders. Multinational investment banks J.P. Morgan and Renaissance Capital are acting as co-arrangers of the programme while Bank of New York Mellon is the trustee and principal paying… Continue Reading
Russia to give cryptocurrencies full legitimacy, scraps ban proposal
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian government has announced a plan to grant full-scale legality to cryptocurrencies as the central bank has obviously ditched a proposal for what, to all intents and purposes, would have been a blanket ban on digital money. Today cryptocurrencies have an ambiguous legal status in Russia. While it is allowed to… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank announces restructuring, staff moves
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, on February 15 announced plans for structural changes and for a consequent senior staff reshuffle. The changes are due to be completed by June 1, 2022, according to a statement from the bank. Sberbank’s key non-banking business, e-commerce, would be overseen by a holding company to be set… Continue Reading