Finance

Egypt's Beltone Financial sets up Libya subsidiary

Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial has begun operations in Libya, hoping to take advantage of a potential boom in new share offerings, a company official said. As many as 25 initial public offerings (IPOs) by both private and state owners could be made on the bourse within eight months, said Khalid Hilal, managing director of Beltone Securities International, a Beltone subsidiary opening in Tripoli. The Libyan Stock Market now has only 10 listed companies. "Libya is at a preparatory stage. The securities market is at an early stage, infrastructure is at an early stage," Hilal told reporters at a ceremony to mark the subsidiary opening. "Any investment bank that comes to the country from the start will build a kind of investment culture," Hilal said. The oil-rich North African country remains largely unaffected by the global financial crisis due its centralized banking system, high oil and gas reserves and low overseas investments, he added.

Investcorp gets US$310m hedge fund mandates

Bahrain- and London-listed alternative investment house Investcorp said it has been appointed to manage two hedge fund accounts in the United States worth US$310 million. It said the deals bring the total new hedge fund mandates received this year in the United States to a total of more than US$1 billion. Investcorp said a large US insurer had mandated it with a US$250 million hedge fund portfolio, while a US$60 million mandate came from a pension fund, without providing further details.

DFM gets new trading platform from NASDAQ

The NASDAQ OMX Group said that the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) has successfully completed migration to its new trading platform from NASDAQ OMX. DFM's system launch, which took place on 29 October "received immediate positive acknowledgement from participating members and the investing public," a press release said. The trading platform from NASDAQ OMX replaces DFM's previous system, also from NASDAQ OMX, and is designed to create a more efficient marketplace and trading experience for DFM members. The system enables trading of cash equities with potential for derivatives products. NASDAQ OMX has eleven customers in the Middle East region and earlier this year opened a regional office in Dubai driving new business endeavors and supporting existing customers in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region.

Qatar plans US$5bn sovereign bond sale

Qatar plans to raise as much as US$5 billion from a sovereign bond sale, depending on demand. Bankers said the initial interest was "very positive". The Gulf Arab state's finance ministry has appointed five banks -- Qatar National Bank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan -- to run the issue. Qatar, the world's top natural gas exporter, raised US$3 billion in a bond sale this spring. Its benchmark bond included a US$2 billion 5-year note yielding 340 basis points over comparable US treasuries and a US$1 billion 10-year note yielding 380 basis points more than the US benchmark.

Egypt's Citadel to list shares on exchange

Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital, which manages US$8.3 billion in investments, will soon list its shares on the Egyptian Exchange. The listing will allow some of Citadel's shareholders to liquidate part of their positions and help the company raise new capital easily as it grows, Egypt's HC Securities wrote in a pre-listing report on Citadel. "Citadel plans to undertake a US$200 million rights issue after its listing," HC wrote in the report. Citadel Capital had no comment on the reports. The company has said in recent press statements that it was monitoring financial markets for an IPO of its own shares or those of companies it has set up.

QNB begins Swiss private banking unit

Qatar National Bank (QNB) announced the launch of QNB Banque Privee (Suisse), a full private banking subsidiary of the QNB Group in Switzerland. QNB Banque Privee (Suisse) is incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland, and received its license from the Swiss regulator recently. This establishment in Switzerland makes the QNB Group one of only a handful of GCC financial institutions to establish operations in Switzerland. It is also an extension of QNB Group existing private banking services in Europe which are currently offered through QNB branches in London and Paris, said the bank in a statement. Alongside London and Paris, where QNB already has branches, Geneva is one of the world's most important financial hubs and is generally recognized as the center of excellence in private banking.

Egypt seeks tighter stock market rules

Egypt's financial markets regulator is seeking to strengthen regulations after imposing "hefty fines" in recent months on companies and individuals for violations that included insider trading, Chairman Ziad Bahaa El-Din said. "Most of those cases get settled by people paying very hefty fines and that's quite a severe punishment," Bahaa El-Din said in an interview in Cairo in November. "In the longer term what I would like to do is to improve the structure of the market and of regulation." The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, which regulates mortgage, insurance and capital markets, wants to improve disclosure rules by making companies report information in a timely manner that may affect share prices, he said. The Egyptian Exchange suspended trading in 26 stocks last month to determine why shares as much as tripled without any apparent justification.

Success of SAR-denominated bonds good sign for Saudi financial market

Despite the prevailing global and regional market conditions, GIB's final bond issue size had been increased from SAR 1.5 billion to SAR 2 billion due to the substantial demand from investors. The order book was closed with orders totaling around SAR 5 billion, representing an oversubscription of more than three times. Market analysts say this bond issue reflects the increasing appetite for debt issues and the rapidly growing financial market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has so far managed to curtail the negative impact of the global financial crisis. "Saudi Arabia enjoys very strong credits in the region, given its sizable oil and gas reserves, attractive demographics and prudent economic policies. Those factors, coupled with large foreign reserves built over the years and very low external debt-to-GDP ratio, will enable it to withstand further possible shocks in the near term," said Yahya A. Alyahya, GIB's Chief Executive Officer.

KFH-Bahrain plays key role in US$100m sukuk

Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) has acted as a joint lead manager and a bookrunner for the US$100 million sukuk issue for the International Finance Corporation (IFC). IFC is the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. The five-year sukuk was oversubscribed and rated Aaa by Moody's, in line with IFC's issuer ratings. The deal marks another step forward for KFH-Bahrain and enhances its contribution in the capital markets throughout the GCC. The US$100 million sukuk issue will be used to support IFC's plans to increase funding for development activities in emerging markets, including the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Egypt's Pioneers, Beltone to have US$5.3bn under management

The merger of Egypt's Pioneers Holding and investment bank Beltone Financial will create a firm with 29.2 billion Egyptian pounds (US$5.34 billion) under management, the two firms said in November. Beltone plans to use Pioneers' wide retail distribution network to help it sell its investment banking products such as initial public offerings (IPOs) and funds, Beltone Chief Executive Aladdin Saba told reporters. Financial services firm Pioneers said it would buy Beltone Financial by issuing 100 million new shares, valuing the target at 777 million pounds. The combined companies will have more than 1,500 employees working in 36 offices in the Middle East and one in New York, and will be the second-biggest brokerage in Egypt, they said in an information booklet issued at a news conference.

Qatar sets price guidance on three-tranche sovereign bonds

The state of Qatar, which is planning to sell benchmark dollar-denominated bonds in three tranches, has set price guidance for the issue, a banker familiar with the deal said this month. Guidance for the 5-year bond is at 190 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries, for the 10-year at 195 bps over U.S. Treasuries, and for the 30-year at 215 bps over U.S. Treasuries. According to the term sheet, Qatar will use the funds raised to provide support for "entities that are owned or controlled by the state." Each tranche was described as "benchmark"-sized, which is typically at least US$500 million, making the deal possibly worth at least US$1.5 billion.

Gulf Finance House place second US$100m convertible murabaha facility with Deutsche Bank

Gulf Finance House (GFH), the leading Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank announced it has signed an agreement with Deutsche Bank for the placement of its second US$ 100 million convertible murabaha facility. The announcement is the latest success in the broader GFH liquidity and capital management plan that includes rights issue subscriptions of over US$300 million, the partial sale of Qinvest to Qatar Islamic Bank for approximately US$51 million and the planned placement of the first US$100 million convertible murabaha with Macquarie Group.