Political Events

 

• The Egyptian Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail died last week. Zewail was granted the Nobel-Prize for his pioneering work in femtochemistry in 1999. Throughout his life, he wrote around 600 academic articles and 16 books. Zewail was also appointed in 2009 as a science and technology advisor to President Barack Obama.
• A shell fired from Yemen killed four and wounded three in Samtah, a town close to the border and is located on the south-western Saudi border region of Jizan, followed by a fight on the borders which killed dozens of Houthi fighters.
• Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi banned six lawmakers accused of corruption in the defence sector from traveling abroad, as defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi accused Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and five other MPs of selling overpriced planes, vehicles and other goods to the armed forces.
• According to a U.N.-appointed commission of independent war crimes investigators Thousands of Yazidis, a religious community of 400,000 people in northern Iraq, are being held by the Islamic State in Syria where many are forced to fight for the Islamic State and many were facing genocide. 

 

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• Lebanon's Blom Bank reported a 19.08% increase in H1-2016 net profit due to higher profit at its foreign subsidiaries, as net profit for H1-2016 reached 226.678 MM USD compared to 190.35 MM USD in H1-2015.
• National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Egypt's biggest public lender which portfolio of SME direct and indirect finances reached 28 BN EGP in June 2016 and plans to increase its small and medium sized financing facilities to 37 BN EGP by the end of the financial year 2016-2017.
• Global Telecom, previously known as Orascom Telecom, generated a net profit 26.5 MM USD in Q2-2016, compared to 27.4 MM USD in Q2-2015. The firm's total revenues also decreased to reach 693 MM USD compared to 736 MM USD in the same period last year.
• Construction conglomerate Saudi Oger, owned by the family of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, has been recently hit by the slowdown in the Saudi construction sector due to the drop in oil prices and the state spending cuts. The owners of the company are currently in talks with the Saudi government to sell the company to the government or businessmen from the ruling family. It is worth noting that 31,000 employees filed complaints against the company for not receiving salaries for seven months.
• In efforts to expand Pfizer's activities for the Saudization of the pharmaceutical industry, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) granted the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. 100% ownership of its business in the Kingdom to allow a supply of essential medicines directly to the Saudi market
• United Arab Emirates' second telecom operator, Du reported an 11.3% fall in its Q2-2016 net profit, a continuous drop in earnings for the preceding six quarters. Du made a net profit of 445.4 MM AED in Q2-2016, down from 502.0 MM AED in Q2-2015.
• Dubai Investments, the conglomerate, in which sovereign fund Investment Corp. of Dubai owns an 11.5% stake, reported 2.3 % drop in Q2-2016 net profit, making a net profit of 218.4 MM AED, compared to 223.4 MM AED in Q2-2015.
• Alfa, the first Lebanese mobile operator managed by Orascom Telecom, in cooperation with Nokia have launched the country's first 4G LTE-Advanced network, which will enable Alfa to offer its subscribers faster download speeds of up to 262.5 Mbits/sec for accessing high-definition video and other data-intensive applications.
• HSBC Bank Oman's net profit in H1-2016 significantly increased to reach 7.9 MM OMR compared to 5.2 MM OMR in H1-2015, representing a 51.9% increase. In addition, net interest income increased by 10% to reach 26.5 MM OMR in H1-2016 compared to 24.1 MM OMR in H1-2015.
• Zain, Kuwait's number one telecom operator reported net profits of 45 MM KWD, which is a 14% increase in profits in Q2-2016 after seven quarters of falling profits due to tougher domestic competition, service interruptions and higher costs in war-torn Iraq, and foreign exchange volatility.
• In efforts to deleverage, Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank GFH Financial Group has repaid 45 MM USD worth of debt, reducing its total syndicated liabilities to 105 MM USD. GFH had held liabilities of over 1 BN USD in 2008. The bank now holds 700 MM USD in total equity.

 

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