MENA's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) dropped by 40% y/y to reach USD 13bn in the last year, which is also 67.5% decrease from 2007, a report by Reuters said. Middle Eastern equity capital markets slid from USD 36bn in 2008 to USD 6.9bn last year, with the overall fees for investment bankers and advisers almost halving during the same period to USD 599mn, the report added. Equity issues dropped by 81% y/y to USD 6.9bn, while loans fell by 81.5% to USD 17.1bn. Debt instrument issues rose by 151% to USD 38.3bn. Reuters showed that HSBC holds the top spot in local debt and equity capital markets' fee rankings with USD 13.4mn and USD 8.1mn respectively. |
Bahrain Middle East Bank made a USD 13mn full repayment of a loan obligation including a USD 1.4mn interest payment taking total repayments by the troubled lender to USD 43mn, the bank said in ... more
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the UAE's largest lender by market value, initiated a USD 17mn fifteen-year Uridashi bond, MENA's first ever, allowing the bank to directly access Japanese ... more
The GCC economies remain insulated from economic and political turbulence in the MENA region and globally but structural challenges continue to constrain sovereign ratings, ratings agency ... more