trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/YBNJ7HJ3C7tl3pIsY9TxZg2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Fawry eyes new markets; Shuaa to sell units; Access Bank H1 income up YOY

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 50: InfoSec spending up, again…

Blog

Broadcast deal market recap 2021

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Price wars in India: Disney+ Hotstar vs. Amazon Prime Video vs. Netflix


Fawry eyes new markets; Shuaa to sell units; Access Bank H1 income up YOY

* JPMorgan Chase & Co. is close to being named lead adviser on the IPO of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, which is expected to make a decision on the matter this week, insiders told CNBC. Morgan Stanley's work on Uber Technologies Inc.'s IPO reportedly hurt its chances to lead Saudi Aramco's, saying officials in the country were unhappy after Uber's stock fell in the first two trading days and remains below the IPO price.

* Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payments SAE intends to enter the United Arab Emirates by 2019-end through a deal with one big UAE lender, Mohamed Okasha, the company's managing director, told Reuters. The Egypt-based company also plans to expand in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 2020.

* Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will meet with the heads of seven UAE banks amid the U.S. government's efforts to further tighten sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, Bloomberg News reported.

GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL

* UAE-based SHUAA Capital PSC agreed to sell its securities brokerage and market-making businesses in the United Arab Emirates to investment holding company IHC RSC Ltd., a unit of International Holdings Co. PJSC, as part of its exit from non-core operations to focus on investment banking and asset management following its merger with Abu Dhabi Financial Group.

* Emirates NBD Bank PJSC is close to hiring Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley as managers for its proposed rights offering of up to $2 billion, with plans to also tap its own Emirates NBD Capital Ltd. unit for the transaction, insiders told Bloomberg. Meanwhile, the Dubai-based lender's plan to increase its foreign ownership cap to 40% could lead to foreign fund inflows of over $800 million since the move would result in the bank's inclusion on the MSCI and FTSE Russell's emerging market indices, analysts told Gulf News.

* The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates called on banks in the country to hire more Emiratis to meet their UAE nationals recruitment target before the end of the year, The National reported.

* A.M. Best affirmed the A- financial strength rating and "a-" long-term issuer credit rating of Abu Dhabi National Takaful Co. PSC and revised the outlooks on the ratings to positive from stable.

* A.M. Best affirmed the B+ financial strength rating and "bbb-" long-term issuer credit rating of Bahrain-based SNIC Insurance BSC with the outlooks on the ratings remaining negative.

* Kuwait Finance House KSCP said due diligence conducted on its proposed acquisition of Bahrain's Ahli United Bank BSC has been completed and will be reviewed by its board. KFH noted that final decisions on the potential deal are subject to approvals of both banks' shareholders, central banks and relevant regulators in Kuwait and Bahrain.

* Kuwait's central bank has directed local banks to offer higher interest to saving accounts in the local currency compared to accounts in U.S. dollars, in a move aimed to encourage saving, according to Al Rai.

REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

* Bank Leumi le-Israel BM is ramping up its early retirement scheme for employees as it now aims to have 400 employees leave by 2019-end instead of 250, Globes reported. The bank had initially aimed to let go of 700 staff by 2020-end, but the request for the program was higher than expected that it moved to let a maximum of 800 staff take early retirements by that time. Outgoing CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach had also reportedly agreed to relocate the bank's headquarters to the city of Lod from Tel Aviv.

* Anath Levin, former deputy CEO of Bank Hapoalim BM, has been appointed head of the Israeli arm of U.S. private equity firm BlackRock Inc., CTech reported. Levin, who also served as chief investment officer of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd., will replace Alex Pollak.

* Union National Bank - Egypt SAE aims to increase its local market share to 3% by 2023-end from 1.1% at present, as well as to increase its 2019 profit by 60% year over year, Ihab el-Sewerky, the bank's managing director, told Amwal Al Ghad.

* Capital Intelligence Ratings affirmed the B+/B long- and short-term foreign- and local-currency ratings of Egypt, with stable outlooks on the long-term ratings.

* CI Ratings affirmed the long- and short-term foreign currency ratings of Bank Audi SAL and Byblos Bank SAL at B/B, and assigned the Lebanese lenders bank standalone ratings of "b" and core financial strength ratings of "bb-". The outlook on the long-term foreign currency ratings and bank standalone ratings is negative.

EAST AND WEST AFRICA

* Access Bank PLC's total comprehensive group income attributable to owners of the bank rose to 63.38 billion Nigerian naira in the first half from 34.83 billion naira a year ago. The bank had merged with peer Diamond Bank PLC earlier this year.

* Zenith Bank PLC has launched a tender offer to redeem a $500 million eurobond it had issued in 2017, according to Nigeria's Business Post. Bondholders have until Wednesday to tender the notes, with an announcement on the buyback's results slated for the next day.

* Ethiopian central bank governor Yinager Dessie said the country should gradually liberalize its exchange rate regime but noted that a fully floating rate for the local birr currency is unlikely to happen within the next three years, Reuters reported.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

* Peter Moyo, whom Old Mutual Ltd. fired in June due to conflict of interest, intends to return to his office this week following a court dismissal of the South African insurer's bid to prevent his temporary reinstatement, Reuters reported, citing Moyo's lawyer. The company had sought to have Moyo's reinstatement blocked, claiming that allowing him to temporarily return would effectively be permanent since court proceedings would be prolonged.

* A working group of the Association of African Central Banks is looking at ways to link the technology behind the Southern African Development Community Real Time Gross Settlement System with other payments systems in east and west Africa as part of efforts to form the world's largest free-trade zone, Lesetja Kganyago, governor of the South African Reserve Bank, told Bloomberg.

* The International Finance Corp., a member of the World Bank Group, has increased the $50 million credit line it set up in 2014 with Angola's Banco de Negócios Internacional SA under its global financing program, Macauhub wrote. BNI said the credit line will help enhance support to the country's business sector.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: Japan's negative rates may continue; HKEx, Ping An to explore fintech

Deza Mones, Henni Abdelghani, Pádraig Belton and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

The Daily Dose Middle East and Africa has an editorial deadline of 5 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.