Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund backs new digital bank called D360

The Saudi cabinet approved a licence for D360 bank on Tuesday

ADNOC, Borealis hiring banks for IPO of plastics joint venture

Borouge manufactures plastics used in everything from automobiles and food packaging to medicine vials and piping systems

Dragon Oil

Dubai’s Dragon Oil confirms first oil discovery in Egypt’s Gulf of Suez

The field could contain around 100 million barrels in reserves

Flydubai to resume flights to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport next month

With the resumption, the airline will increase its overall flight frequency to Istanbul to 12 per week

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Abu Dhabi updates travel green list, adds Turkey

The list now has 72 destinations in total

Saudi Arabia-based Nadec’s solar park now operational

The solar photovoltaic park, developed by Nadec and French energy company Engie, is estimated to lower carbon emissions by 53 million kg per year

Dubai Can

Dubai Can: Free drinking water to be made available across city

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, launched the initiative that aims to encourage the use of refillable water bottles

Flooss, a new digital payment platform, launched in Bahrain

Mastercard has partnered with Payment International Enterprise to launch Flooss across Bahrain and the region

Covid-19: UAE reports 930 cases, lowest in almost 8 weeks

The nationwide case count has risen to 870,358

Dubai Islamic Bank lists $750m sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai

The issuance was oversubscribed by more than 2.5 times

Israeli firm to help Dubai’s Mashreqbank detect financial crimes

It follows Israel and the UAE normalising relations in 2020

Dubai’s DP World launches new intermodal shipment tracking tool

Cargoes Flow will provide an end-to-end visibility for shipments irrespective of their shipping modes, carriers, and shipping lanes

Why the CEO of CoinMENA thinks cryptocurrencies are the future of finance

Looking to invest in crypto assets? Talal Tabbaa advises starting small, paying attention to trends and adopting a long-term outlook

Food

Gulfood 2022: UAE’s F&B trade crosses $20bn from January-September 2021

Ten markets accounted for about 66 per cent of the UAE’s total F&B exports, with Saudi Arabia ranking first with a share of 17 per cent

Dubai’s Emaar Properties posts 80% rise in net profit for 2021

Its 2021 revenue stood at $7.697bn, posting an increase of 57 per cent compared to the previous year

Brazil

UAE’s Mubadala Capital raises $322m in first investment fund in Brazil

Mubadala Capital manages over $10bn of assets in third-party managed funds across its Brazil, private equity, public equities and venture capital businesses

President of Turkey arrives in the UAE

The Turkish President was received by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces

Air Arabia

Air Arabia Egypt announces new service between Sohag and Gassim

The once-weekly flight will operate every Thursday and will be the seventh destination that the airline flies to in Saudi Arabia

UAE reports 1,191 Covid-19 cases, 2,713 recoveries

The nationwide case count has risen to 869,428

Saudi’s Trukker raises $96m in equity, debt funding

The deal follows a $23m equity raise in 2019

Dubai SME and Khalifa Fund announce collaboration to leverage Gulfood

The collaboration will enable UAE-based SMEs to gain easy access to new markets

Free door-to-door recycling service comes to Dubai

Since its launch in Abu Dhabi in November 2020, Recapp has built a community of 15,000 registered users and collected 150 tonnes of recyclables so far

Saudi pharma retail chain Al Dawaa seeks $500m from IPO

The initial public offering’s price range has been set at SAR65-SAR73

UAE’s Aldar to receive $1.4bn investment from Apollo Global Management

The deal will see Apollo take a direct minority stake in Aldar Investment Properties at its net asset value

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Saudi’s Prince Sultan University and VMware sign MoU to launch innovation centre

The innovation centre will enable students, and businesses to experience cloud, and security solutions, supporting the kingdom’s digitisation agenda

How 2021 was a promising year for global equities

Several trends emerged over last year

Abu Dhabi opens new urgent care centre for Covid-19 patients

The unit at Al Rahba Hospital is open daily from noon-10pm will provide cater to patients referred by Prime Assessment Centers in the emirate

UAE government awards Yahsat $247.5m for enhanced managed services

The five-year agreement builds on previous operations and maintenance services provided to the UAE government

UAE: Cinemas to operate at full capacity from February 15

Each emirate can modify its cinema capacity as it deems fit

Dubai

Dubai to begin trials of driverless taxis this year

The RTA plans to gradually increase the number of autonomous vehicles to 4,000 by 2030