RIYADH: The first manpower company named "Mawten" (Home of Professionals for Recruitment of Labor & Domestic Services) established within the framework of the new regulatory provisions of the Ministry of Labor was formally launched here Tuesday. "The Mawten manpower company is one among the 13 companies that have been licensed by the Ministry of Labor in a new move to streamline the manpower sector," said Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Kharashi, secretary of the Mawten founding committee, here Tuesday.
RIYADH: Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG) said its net profit rose by 18.8 percent to SR100.3 million last year from SR84.4 million in 2010.
JEDDAH: The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended in the green on Tuesday at 6,743.55, up 4.64 points or 0.07 percent, from its previous day’s close at 6,738.91 points.
JEDDAH: Talent management and organizational effectiveness are high on the agenda this year for Middle Eastern companies, according to Hay Group’s Business Outlook study for 2012.
JEDDAH: A senior official at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry highlighted the significance of tapping vast investment opportunities in the Kingdom’s sports sector. Muhiyaddin Hakami, assistant secretary general of the chamber, said the chamber has taken an initiative to explore the avenues of cooperation with a number of sports clubs with regard to pumping private investments into this vital sector. He made the remarks while leading the chamber’s delegation during its visit to the Football Academy of Al-Ahli Club, Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Academy for the Youngsters and Al-Ittihad Club on Tuesday. The chamber’s delegation also included Khaled Sabir, director of activities and committees, Mubarak Al-Siraj, director of business services, and Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, head of the sports investment committee.
JEDDAH: Saudi-based IDEA Polysilicon Co. has signed an agreement for Germany's Centrotherm Photovoltaics to help it build a polysilicon plant in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported.
RIYADH: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held wide-ranging talks with Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi in Riyadh on Tuesday in a renewed bid to boost cooperation in the oil sector.
NEW YORK: The US Energy Information Administration has boosted its forecast for global oil demand growth for the first time since October, and forecast the market would tighten as gains in non-OPEC production lag.
LONDON: BP PLC has raised its quarterly dividend by 14 percent after posting double-digit gains in profit and revenue in the last three months of 2011 despite further big payments to compensate for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
LONDON: At least two top 10 shareholders in miner Xstrata said on Tuesday they would vote against a takeover by commodities trader Glencore, threatening the creation of a powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading.
TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp. raised its full-year profit forecast by more than a third as it cuts costs, trims spending and expects Japanese government schemes to boost sales, though the guidance was still some way below analysts' expectations.
JEDDAH: Saudi shares retreated on Monday as retail investors opted to lock in recent gains.
RIYADH: SR300 billion is be allocated by Saudi banks to finance mini-projects as part of efforts to promote the Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises. This was stated by Nabeel bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak, general manager of small and medium enterprises in the Saudi Credit Bureau (Simah), at a seminar in Riyadh.
RIYADH: The Saudi Small and Middle Enterprises (SMEs) forum will be launched Tuesday with a presence of more than 500 economists and trade experts.
JEDDAH: Etihad Etisalat’s (Mobily’s) revenues achieved a major milestone in 2011. The 59 percent data sales growth propelled total revenues to over SR20 billion (25 percent Y/Y). The quality of revenue stream also improved as post-paid sales comprised 28 percent of the total, Riyad Capital said in its equity research report.
DUBAI: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) launched two main 400/132KV substations at Al-Aweer and Meydan at a total cost of AED883 million recently.
LONDON/ROME: Gas supplies to the frozen European Union from Russia improved at the weekend but have not fully recovered, the European Commission said on Monday, as Italy convened a crisis committee to handle what it called critical shortages of Russian gas.
KUWAIT CITY: Syria's central bank will intervene to prop up its currency — which has plunged under the mounting pressure of sanctions and violence — and has the reserves to back that strategy, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA cited Gov. Adib Mayaleh as saying on Monday.
TOKYO: Japanese companies are again venturing offshore, and this time a new breed of business is striking deals overseas.
ISTANBUL: Growth in Turkish bank loans slowed to less than 27 percent year-on-year at the end of January, adding to signs of an economic slowdown after a year of unorthodox monetary policy by the central bank aimed at preventing overheating.
TAIPEI: Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp. expects to post much lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, underscoring analyst views that it will face another weak quarter and an uphill struggle to prove to investors it still retains its innovative touch.
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, The National Investor (TNI), has shed more than half of its work force and is planning more job cuts in a bid to reduce costs in response to tough financial markets, several sources told Reuters on Monday.
RIYADH: The headline SABB HSBC Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 60.0 in January, from 57.7 in December.
The increase signals a robust start to the year for firms operating in Saudi Arabia’s nonoil private sector, a statement from the Saudi British Bank (SABB).
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) managed to extend gains made in Saturday's session after a sluggish start of trading. The benchmark rose 0.4 percent to 6,759 points.
JEDDAH: Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Secretary-General Adnan bin Hussain Mandourah Sunday said the steel factories in the Kingdom were currently being expanded to produce more than three tons of steel annually from next year.
DUBAI: A Communication Forum, first of its kind in the emirate, will seek to benchmark the emirate’s government communication standards against global best practices and examine ways for infusing fresh methodologies into the communication mechanism among government departments in Sharjah.
DUBAI: Dubai FDI, the foreign investment office in the Department of Economic Development in Dubai, succeeded in attracting and promoting 77 companies in the emirate during 2011.
ABU DHABI: Mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East and North Africa rose slightly in 2011, but the combined value of deals fell by more than a quarter as slower economic growth weighed on prices, Ernst & Young said on Sunday.
DUBAI: Deyaar Development, Dubai's second largest developer by market value, swung to a small profit in 2011, it said in a statement to the Dubai bourse on Sunday.
AMMAN: Jordan's Central Bank on Sunday raised benchmark rates by 50 basis points, its second hike since June, to encourage savings in dinar denominated assets at a time of regional political uncertainty, bankers and the central bank said.
DUBAI: The Dubai Al-Khaleej sugar refinery, facing competition from containerized European sugar, is operating a start-and-stop strategy, filling silos, then stopping and resuming operations when stores have wound down.
JEDDAH: The year 2012 will likely see Europe suffer from the hangover of the 2011 sovereign debt crisis. The H1, 2012 is crucial as major repayments come up. What happens in Italy is particularly important as it is the third largest economy in the region and accounts for around a third of the total debt repayments due in Q1, 2011. The crisis in the euro zone is likely to have an impact on oil prices as was witnessed in 2011 through its effect on the EUR/USD exchange rate. In addition, austerity measures undertaken by the regional economies to bring fiscal deficits to manageable levels will continue to have an adverse impact on oil demand growth in the region in the medium-term due to a slowdown in economic growth. IMF now expects euro-area GDP to decline by 0.5 percent in 2012, according to a report by Global Investment House (Global).
JEDDAH: The year 2011 ended with mixed signals for Dubai's real estate market. Although pockets of stability and even growth were to be found these are still the exception rather than the rule. Oversupply issues remain prevalent with demand fundamentals being outpaced by the completion of new stock.
JEDDAH: After two quarters of meager growth in Q2 and Q3, 2011, demand for oil around the world surprisingly contracted in the last quarter of the year by 300 thousand bpd. In just four quarters, the world economy moved from posting the second largest annual oil demand surge in more than three decades to experiencing an outright demand decline.
JEDDAH: Saudi shares closed higher on Saturday, boosted by gains in the banking and tourism sectors.
RIYADH: The Maaden Alcoa aluminum joint venture announced that it had poured the first concrete in the construction of the region's first alumina refinery at the fully integrated aluminum complex at Ras Al-Khair.
DOHA: A recent report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Global Employment Trends 2012, highlighted a number of challenges in the global labor market. The world will need to create 600 million jobs over the next decade to provide 400 million new jobs for the growing global labor force and eradicate worldwide unemployment of 200 million.
SAN FRANCISCO: For all the huge numbers in Facebook's IPO papers, a surprisingly small figure stands out: $4.39, the amount the site generated per user last year.
JEDDAH: The Kuwaiti market closed on a mixed note this week. The price index traded horizontally gaining 0.07 percent closing at 5,856.4 points, according to a report from Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz).
DUBAI: The central banks of UAE and Qatar have told lenders to stop financing trade with Iran, bankers said, cutting another source of credit for a country struggling under Western economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.
AMMAN: Arab stocks scored gains across-the-board last week as investors appeared upbeat over annual earnings and the improving prospects of a world recovery, financial analysts said Friday.
The last fortnight has witnessed several events, which have cast a pall of gloom across the Gulf region and imbued global energy markets with grave uncertainty.
NEW YORK: Oil prices rose after the government reported that the US economy added more jobs last month, which could drive up demand for fuel with more people heading back to work.
LONDON: Banking software firm Misys and Swiss rival Temenos are in talks about an all-share merger in response to weak demand from their customers, six months after another suitor dropped a bid for the British company.
LONDON: Forecasts that cheap gas from the United States will one day reshape the global natural gas market are increasingly commonplace. Now the first hard evidence is beginning to emerge.
TOKYO: Japan's Parliament has approved a 2.5 trillion yen ($32.9 billion) extra budget bill, the fourth one to fund reconstruction projects after last year's disasters and support the nation's economy.
ALKHOBAR: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are pushing ahead with plans to develop the undisputed part of the offshore Dorra gas field with the front-end engineering and design (FEED) work expected to be completed by June, industry sources said.
ABU DHABI: National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s largest lender by market value, expects slower loan and deposit growth this year with its overseas performance "tempered a bit" by Arab political unrest, its chief executive said.
NEW YORK: Stocks and the euro seesawed as data signaling further improvement in the US labor market and remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the economy were weighed against concerns over resolving Europe’s debt crisis.
JEDDAH: A decision by the Indian Supreme Court ordering the cancellation of 122 second-generation mobile licenses granted in 2008 is likely to fall disproportionately on the smaller operators in the market, strengthening the hand of the largest players — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications.
DUBAI: Talk of a Middle Eastern green energy boom is likely to prove no more than a mirage with little hope of the region saving clean technology companies from the shrinking project pools of Europe.
NAIROBI: Kenya has marked out eight new offshore exploration blocks which it expects to list in the government gazette by end-February and France’s Total is negotiating for the rights to one of the blocks, a senior energy ministry official said.
NEW YORK: The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said it posted a voluntary recall of some fax machines made by Hewlett Packard Co. that pose fire and burn hazards.
RIYADH: Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance Company’s customer base in Saudi Arabia expanded by more than 141 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, according to a top executive.
JEDDAH: Siemens has received another major order for Saudi Arabia’s combined cycle power plant.
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's efforts to usher in the next stage of industrial development is set to receive a major boost as the 2nd edition of Machinex Arabia, the region's premier industrial exhibition, kicks off in Jeddah later this month.
RIYADH: The Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has announced the SR43.8 million expansion of Kingdom Center Company Ltd. (Trade Center).
The total number of STC Group subscribers has surpassed 160 million customers across the world, its CEO Saud bin Majed Al-Daweesh announced.
Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) is continuing the enhancement of its loyalty program — Neqaty — by signing a strategic agreement with Etihad Airways.
Saud Al-Bawardi, chief commercial officer (CCO) at Zain Saudi Arabia, highlighted the company’s success in achieving the top position in customer services, according to results announced by an independent research entity.
Fitch Ratings said it has affirmed Saudi British Bank’s (SABB) long-term local and foreign currencies Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at "A" respectively with stable outlooks.
The Saudi heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) sector is expected to achieve between 30 and 50 percent growth to emerge as a SR4.5 billion market by 2014.
Sindbad, Oman Air's frequent flyer program, has announced its second online raffle.
Solution provider Maham Al-Khaleej Trading Company (Matco) has announced the opening in Riyadh of its SR3 million center.
LONDON: The International Energy Agency may reduce its world oil demand forecast for 2012 this week due to a weaker outlook for the world economy, even though some evidence points to stronger consumption in the latter part of the year.
PARIS: France and Germany on Monday sought to impose tighter controls on Greece's finances and warned political leaders in Athens to agree on new austerity measures soon if they didn't want to see their country go bankrupt.
JEDDAH: The year 2011 ended with mixed signals for Dubai's real estate market. Although pockets of stability and even growth were to be found these are still the exception rather than the rule. Oversupply issues remain prevalent with demand fundamentals being outpaced by the completion of new stock.
RIYADH: The “Saudi Small and Medium Enterprises Forum” will open Tuesday with a keynote speech from Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf in Riyadh.
JEDDAH: British Midland International (bmi) can boast one of the best punctuality records of any airline operating in the UK.
RIYADH: The International Energy Forum (IEF), an intergovernmental body comprising 88 member nations including the Gulf states, has called for more transparency in oil and gas markets and to further strengthen the dialogue between process oil producing countries and consuming nations to face new challenges.
RIYADH: The rapid growth of Africa's mobile telecommunications market over the past decade has had a huge impact on African consumers, on operators that do business on the continent, and on governments that have benefited from collecting license and service fees. There are now more than half a billion mobile phones in use in Africa, representing one of the biggest dramatic surges in usage in mobile telecom's three-decade history, according to a new study by Booz & Company.
Saudi Electronics and Home Appliances Institute (SEHAI) has signed a major agreement with Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME) to expand its training programs on the sidelines of the Japanese-Saudi Business Opportunities Forum in Tokyo.
Zain Saudi Arabia said the closing ceremony for its promotional campaign "Amani Zain" will be held on Thursday (Feb. 9) at Granada Mall in Riyadh.
Deutsche Bank has renewed its positive outlook for Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) shares. It recommends STC’s share price at SR48.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing up to $124 million in the Mediterranean and Gulf Insurance and Reinsurance Company (MedGulf).
Fashion Exposure has announced the debut of three global mother and child clothing brands, Noukie’s, Paris and Oliver and forms, in the Kingdom as they opened their stores at Stars Avenue Mall in Jeddah.
Astounding progress has been made on the vision to transform the Middle East into a global crossroads — a diversified economic and transportation hub, with cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha forming a nexus for the flying world.
JEDDAH: Torsten Müller-Ötvös took over as new chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars in March 2010. He seems to have a gifted touch when it comes to British motoring icons as he was instrumental in re-launching the Mini brand between 2000 and 2003 and rescuing it from nostalgic abandon and giving it new life as a brand for a whole new generation of car buyers.
