Weekly Roundup of Top World and GCC Finance and Business News
Saudi Arabia Loosens Controversial Curbs on Foreign Workers,
A $3 Trillion Investor Craze Implodes After Ant’s IPO Bust
URL - Bloomberg
In Hong Kong, where nearly a fifth of the population, by one estimate, had signed up to buy Ant shares, shell-shocked retail investors are starting to count their losses after Chinese regulators suspended the $34.5 billion deal days before trading was due to start in the financial hub and Shanghai.
Silk Road Bitcoins Worth Over $1 Billion Are Target of U.S.
URL - Bloomberg
U.S. authorities seized the Bitcoins from an alleged hacker who had gained access to them, identified in the statement as Individual X.
Operated by Ross William Ulbricht from 2011 to 2013, Silk Road used Bitcoins to generate the equivalent of $1.2 billion in illicit sales and reap $80 million in commissions in less than three years.
Saudi Arabia Loosens Controversial Curbs on Foreign Workers
URL - Bloomberg
Non-Saudis will no longer need their employer’s permission to change jobs, travel abroad or leave the country permanently. The new rules will come into effect on March 14 and apply to all foreign workers in the private sector, regardless of salary said Sattam Alharbi, a deputy minister at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.
Capital inflow to MENA region remains high amid pandemic; IIF
URL - GCC Business News
So far this year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman have sold $91 billion in hard currency bonds, compared to $99 billion for the whole year of 2019.
Samuel LaRussa, Senior Research Analyst said, “Strong demand for high-quality assets from the region will remain at least for the next few years given the large financial buffers in the form of official reserves and SWFs (particularly in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia) and the resumption of fiscal adjustment”
Oman widens its real estate market to foreign investors
URL - GCC Business News
Oman is further opening up its real estate market to foreign investors by giving them access to a wider range of residential properties as part of reform initiatives aimed at improving the country’s fiscal position.
Aditi Gouri, Head of strategic advisory and research at Cavendish Maxwell states that the new regulations grant rights “to own limited lands and properties within multi-story buildings”.
“There are still certain restrictions, whereby the percentage of the sale to expats should not exceed 40 percent of the units in a commercial and residential building or 20 percent of a single nationality,” she added