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U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Ukrainian Head of Presidential Office Andriy Yermak hold a meeting in the presence of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 11, 2025. Saul Loeb | Via ReutersU.S. and Ukrainian officials are holding talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, marking the first time the two parties have met since the spectacular Oval Office spat between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in late February.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio…

Wam Alpha Data was Abu Dhabi’s second-most traded stock as 75 million shares changed hands Abu Dhabi bourse debut IT provider outshines main index Share price ends 7% higher Shares in Abu Dhabi’s Alpha Data surged on the company’s bourse debut, outperforming a subdued main market index. The first-day performance of the IT services provider contrasts with the struggles of several companies to list on UAE stock exchanges following initial public offerings in the past 12 months. Alpha Data ended 7 percent higher at AED1.60 and was the second-most traded stock as 75 million shares changed hands. The company raised…

Alamy via Reuters Connect If a Ramadan ad doesn’t feature ‘gentle oud music and dusk-blue lighting and a child excited by her first fast’ is it a Ramadan ad at all? At Ramadan, maybe the only thing more cliched than the crescent moons, lanterns and dates in corporate email and television commercials are the articles written about them.  The marketing trade media is riddled with columns penned by middle-aged white men [author’s note: don’t look at me like that] explaining that consumers don’t want the same thing year after year. Rather, they want authenticity, nuance, people, family, personalisation… and storytelling.…

Alamy via Reuters Egypt’s core inflation plunged more than expected to 10 percent in February, from 22.6 percent in January Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation plunged to 12.8 percent in February from 24 percent in January, decelerating even faster than analysts had expected, official data showed on Monday. The drop was amplified by a statistical base effect, as exceptionally fast price increases of the past two years were no longer reflected in the statistics, analysts said. Fifteen analysts polled by Reuters last week had expected inflation to cool to a median 14.5 percent. Month on month, prices were 1.4 percent…

Dubai Media Office UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum chaired the cabinet meeting at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi on Monday The UAE is seeking to double annual flows of foreign direct investment in six years and to triple its total FDI stock, vice president and prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said, according to the Dubai Media Office. The Dubai ruler and prime minister of the seven-member UAE said that the cabinet wanted to see annual flows rise to AED240 billion ($65 billion) by 2031, compared to AED112 billion…

The standout quote from day one of CERAWeek in Houston came from Amin Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco. “There is more chance of Elvis speaking next than the current plan working,” he told delegates at a packed plenary session, to general amusement all round. “The current plan” was a reference to the trillions of dollars that have already been spent on the transition away from hydrocarbons, and the many more trillions that environmentalists say have to be spent to save us from man-made global warming. Given that the King of Rock and Roll has been dead since 1977,…

Mena crypto trade worth $338bn Stablecoin makes up 52% Highest adoption in Turkey Cryptocurrency traders in the Middle East and North Africa prefer stablecoins over single crypto currencies like Bitcoin, data show. Stablecoins made up 52 percent of all cryptocurrency transactions carried out in the Mena region in the year to June 2024, according to New York-based blockchain analysis company Chainalysis.  That is more than the 17 percent traded in Bitcoin, and higher than any other region. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies, the value of which is linked to other assets, such as traditional fiat currencies or commodities such as gold. A…

Alamy The joint venture, based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, is 80 percent owned by Mubadala, with Alpha Dhabi owning the rest A joint venture between Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, and the holding company Alpha Dhabi Holding has raised its target for deploying funds into private credit by 150 percent. The joint venture said it wanted to invest up to $2.5 billion in credit by 2028, after reaching $1 billion since inception in 2023. The joint venture, which is based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, a financial free zone in the UAE…

$14trn business in US No Saudi regulation yet UAE growth expected Asset securitisation, a $14 trillion business in the United States, seems to be finally gaining ground in the Gulf. Last week the UAE lender Deem Finance sealed a $400 million asset securitisation deal with JP Morgan. Emirates NBD of Dubai and Rasmal Ventures in Qatar have also co-invested $7.6 million in the Turkish startup TeamSec, whose technology makes it potentially less costly and quicker for companies to securitise their assets. Securitising assets frees up capital for so-called originators, usually banks and other financial services companies, enabling them to expand…

Unsplash+/Getty Images Derayah Financial CEO Mohammed AlShammas believes its listing will encourage other local and regional players to do the same Brokerage’s stock rises 30% Maximum for new listings Could encourage other brokerages Shares in the online brokerage Derayah Financial rose by 30 percent on their first day of trading, the maximum allowed for newly listed companies, the Saudi stock exchange said. Derayah, the third-largest broker in Saudi Arabia, floated 20 percent of its shares on the Tadawul, the main market of the Saudi Stock Exchange, in a SAR 1.5 billion ($400 million) initial public offering.  The shares started the…