Monthly Archives: April 2014
Financial Warfare: The Threat May Be Enough to Keep the Peace, but There’s No Room for Complacency
How do investors navigate a climate in which currencies are potentially unstable and the Fed and central banks stand accused of becoming printing presses? Read More
SMEs Are Crucial to Economic Development in the Middle East
Small- and medium-sized enterprises arguably hold the key to the economic development of the Middle East, but poor access to financing presents a challenge for entrepreneurs. Read More
GIC’s Russell Read, CFA, on the Alpha and Beta of Commodities Investing
Commodity strategies have a major and multidimensional role to play in a diversified portfolio — especially for investors in the MENA region. Read More
Islamic Finance Should Contribute More to Sustainable Economic Development: Volker Nienhaus
There is much potential for Islamic finance to promote sustainable economic development through such approaches as widening access to finance (including microfinance), financing infrastructure projects, and expanding the reach of takaful (Islamic insurance). Read More
An Important Report on Middle Eastern High-Net-Worth Individuals
At the Middle East Investment Conference, Khaled Sifri, CEO, Emirates Investment Bank provided unique transparency into Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) high-net-worth individuals. Read More
A President’s View of the Art of Negotiation
It isn’t often that you get a chance to listen to a former sitting president discuss the art of negotiation; and it is rarer still that you learn negotiating secrets from a leader whose peace treaty helped to end an intractable conflict and garnered him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Read More
Modern Finance Is Seeing Historic Levels of Speculation
Not surprisingly, the 2008–2009 global financial crisis sent many financial professionals looking to history for a sense of appropriate context and perspective to understand the magnitude of such a catastrophic financial shock. This, in turn, sparked a general interest in financial history, but with few professional sources to turn to. At the 2014 Middle East Investment Conference, professor Adrian Bell, head of the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School considered the question of whether or not modern finance existed in the Middle Ages. Read More
Investment Professionals in MENA Expect Growth in 2014
Investment professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) expect the local economies to grow and think that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar present the best growth potential and investment opportunities in 2014. Read More
Khaled Sifri’s Insights into Regional Private Wealth and Investment Banking
According to Khaled Sifri of Emirates Investment Bank, MENA’s new private wealth client is an entrepreneur versed in company growth and attuned to investment banking deals. Read More
