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RIYADH: Danish shipping giant Maersk has stopped taking new bookings of goods and cargo for Sudan in light of the ongoing conflict in the country, according to a company statement.
The firm will monitor the situation and search for solutions to stabilize its supply chain services in the country, it added.
Due to the escalating violence and political unrest in Sudan, global supply chains strained by the Russia-Ukraine crisis are now experiencing additional disruptions, reported specialist news agency The Loadstar.
It added that other significant container carriers, including German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, have halted cargo bookings for the African country until further notice out of concern for operational risks.
Hapag-Lloyd stated: “Any bookings placed up to this date will be honored and shipped to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”
French container transportation company CMA CGM announced it would add a $500 “extra risk coverage surcharge” for dry and reefer shipments from Europe, the Middle East, and India starting May 1.
Currently, all roads and bridges of Port Sudan are open for the transportation of goods, and load and discharge operations are proceeding normally inside the port, reported leading maritime insurer West of England P&I Club on Tuesday.
Port Sudan is crucial for oil exports from the landlocked neighboring country of South Sudan.
“Furthermore, the oil terminal at Bashayer, an essential facility that handles Sudan’s oil exports located near Port Sudan, is operating normally,” added West of England P&I Club.
In December, a consortium led by AD Ports Group and Invictus Investment signed a preliminary agreement with Sudan to build and operate the Abu Amama port and economic zone on the Red Sea with a $6 billion investment.
As the Sudanese conflict unravels, it is unclear how the deal will develop further.
Moreover, most Gulf airlines stopped operating in Sudan following a recent incident involving a Saudia passenger flight being shot at earlier this month.
According to an industry advisory, Emirates has announced a prolonged suspension of flight connections to Khartoum, the busiest airport in Sudan, through to May 31.
“The air space has been closed, disrupting air cargo shipments to Khartoum. Supply chain managers are dealing with difficult times to fulfill their customers’ requirements.” Joy John, director of sea and air freight at Mumbai-based Jet Freight Logistics, told The Loadstar.
RIYADH: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank announced a 54 percent increase in net profit to 1.1 billion dirhams ($300 million) in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 715 million dirhams in the same period of last year, driven by solid business growth and greater margins.
The bank’s revenues booked a 45 percent rise in the first three months of 2023 to 2 billion dirhams compared to 1.4 billion dirhams in the year-ago period.
“The UAE economy saw a good start in 2023 supported by higher oil prices and continuation of the diversification strategy. The record return on equity of 23.4 percent reflects the benefit of higher income and significant structural gains from our strategic initiatives,” said Jawaan Awaidah Al-Khaili, chairman of ADIB.
“We continued to attract new customers to the bank, welcoming 46,000 new customers in Q1 2023 and growing our market share,” he added.
He also stated that incorporating sustainability and the environmental, social and governance norms into their strategy has also begun paying off.
“In wholesale banking, we were able to grow financing by 15 percent due to strong momentum in deal execution,” said Al-Khaili, adding that it was driven by demand from existing large corporates and new bank customers.
“Our capital adequacy ratio of 17.54 percent is well above the minimum regulatory thresholds, allowing us to sustain our growth,” he added.
Emirate NBD profits more than doubles in Q1
Dubai’s Emirates NBD registered a whopping 119 percent increase in net profit to 6 billion dirhams in the first quarter of 2023 from 2.74 billion dirhams in the same period last year.
The record earnings were fueled by the performance of the group’s diversified business model and a thriving regional economy.
The bank’s revenues reached 10 billion dirhams for the first time. In addition, it claimed to have issued 144,000 new credit cards and disbursed 8 billion dirhams in retail loans, booking its strongest-ever quarter.
Profits increased by 119 percent year-on-year and 54 percent quarter-on-quarter.
FAB net profits falls 23.2% in Q1
First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest lender, reported a 23 percent decline in net profit to 3.93 billion dirhams in the first quarter of 2023 from 5.12 billion dirhams in the same period last year.
However, the lender reported a 70 percent year-on-year increase in the first quarter’s earnings when excluding gains from the sale of a stake in its payments subsidiary Magnati, which were recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
Total income was 6.7 billion dirhams in the first quarter, down 7 percent year-on-year, but operating income increased 51 percent.
In the first quarter, the bank took 798 million dirhams in impairment costs, up 74 percent from 457.4 million dirhams last year.
Total assets at the bank, which is majority controlled by the Abu Dhabi government, rose 21 percent to 1.2 trillion dirhams, it said.
This gain was “led by sizable deposit inflows deployed across loans and high-quality liquid assets,” Reuters reported.
DP World posts gross volume growth of 3.7% in Q1
Emirati port operator DP World handled 19.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first quarter of 2023. That helped the operator register a 1.4 percent year-on-year increase in its gross container volumes on a reported basis and 3.7 percent rise on a like-for-like basis.
The robust performance in Asia Pacific and India drove the rise, slightly mitigated by a weaker performance in Europe and the Americas.
In the first quarter of 2023, Jebel Ali handled 3.5 million TEU, a 2.3 percent increase year-on-year.
“Given the geopolitical backdrop, high inflation and currency fluctuations, the near-term outlook remains somewhat uncertain,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World.
“However, we expect our portfolio to deliver a stable performance in 2023 as we remain focused on driving revenue synergies from our recent acquisitions while managing costs and growth capex,” he continued.
DP World terminals handled 11.4 million TEU during the first quarter of 2023, up 0.7 percent year-on-year on a reported basis.
RIYADH: Sales from businesses run by Saudi families which received funding from the government-backed Social Development Bank exceeded SR13 billion ($3.46 million) in 2022, according to the National Transformation Program’s annual report.
The document also showed the number of workers in the so-called productive families sector reached 104,000, with firms receiving more than SR2 billion in government assistance.
In a move to boost the productive families industry, SDB has started an initiative to promote products from the sector in in various regions of Saudi Arabia.
The bank has also financed over 30,000 small enterprises, startups, and self-employed business owners to the tune of over SR2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2023 in its bid to reinforce the Kingdom’s non-oil private sector in line with Vision 2030 goals.
According to the bank’s board report, 2,000 small businesses and startups received SR1 billion in financing during the first quarter, while over 9,000 individuals received SR538 million in social financing.
During an exclusive interview with Arab News last month, Sultan Al-Hamidi, SDB’s chief business officer, stated that the bank intends to invest SR24 billion in small and medium-sized enterprises over the next three years.
He said the bank gave SR5 billion in loans to 9,000 SMEs in 2022 alone
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the Kingdom’s economy is ahead of many of its targets as it picks up momentum, according to a new report.
According to an annual report which monitors the progress of the plan, the Kingdom’s achievements throughout 2022 across various sectors show it is outpacing the goals outlined in Vision 2030
This cements Saudi Arabia’s diversification efforts as it seeks to wean its economy off oil production and exports.
Economic transformation
Despite the complex economic conditions and challenges experienced across the world, the Saudi economy is growing at an unprecedented pace.
In 2022, the Kingdom’s economy consistently exceeded the expectations of the International Monetary Fund and was ranked as the fastest growing economy in the world.
During the same year, the Kingdom recorded an 8.7 percent growth rate in real gross domestic product compared to 2021, reflecting the highest growth rate among the G20 countries and the highest national growth rate since 2011.
In addition to this, the value of GDP at current prices hit SR4.1 billion ($1.09 billion), reflecting a growth of 27.6 percent when compared to a year earlier.
Saudi Arabia also achieved 59.5 percent of local content — the percentage of goods, services, and skills sourced from local suppliers — in the oil and gas sector as opposed to the targeted baseline of 37 percent in 2022.
The aim of promoting local content is to increase the participation of local businesses and citizens in the industry’s supply chain, which can lead to economic growth, job creation and technology transfer.
According to the report, the Kingdom also surpassed its targets for the share of non-oil exports in non-oil GDP by 6.3 percentage points, coming in at 25 percent in 2022.
Small and medium enterprises loans as a percentage of bank loans also outscored the baseline target of 2 percent last year by attaining 8 percent.
Employment conditions
Job opportunities in the country helped the unemployment rate for all Saudis drop significantly, reaching 8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 11 percent in 2021.
This confirms the high rate of participation in the labor force for locals, the attractiveness of the labor market, and its role in hiring, as well as absorbing, national cadres.
The report further revealed that the percentage of university graduates joining the labor market within six months of graduation reached 32 percent against the target of 13.3 percent.
With regards to the percentage of workers with special needs in the market, this was registered at 12.4 percent against the targeted 7.7 percent.
Zooming into the percentage of women’s participation in the labor market, the Kingdom was eyeing a target of 22.8 percent and managed to exceed that to reach 34.5 percent in 2022, making it double the 2016 figure.
The reforms to empower Saudi women contributed to raising their percentage in administrative positions to 41.1 percent by the end of 2022.
The Kingdom was among the top three improving countries in the world in terms of bridging the gender gap and it was also recognized as the best reformer in the field of women’s empowerment by the World Bank.
Tourism overview
The Kingdom is witnessing a remarkable boom in tourism, and saw the sector grow 121 percent in 2022, making it the fastest growing destination in the G20, compared to the global average before COVID-19.
Saudi Arabia saw 94 million tourists in its borders during 2022 — 16.5 million of which were from abroad while 77.6 million were residents..
As many as 909,000 direct jobs were created in the tourism sector, exceeding the 2022 target of 617,000 by 139 percent.
Sustainability targets
With the Kingdom a leading country in oil production, Vision 2030 is working on mitigating the impact of climate change while stimulating the so-called green era.
Through the launch of the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, Saudi Vision 2030 ensured that sustainability and environmental preservation is a solid foundation in its development plans and major projects.
The Middle East Green Initiative has constituted a roadmap for achieving a more sustainable and green future, not only for the Kingdom, but also for the region and the world as a whole.
Under this plan, Saudi Arabia reported the planting of an estimated 50 billion trees in 2022, and during the same period the area covered by trees across the Kingdom surged by 12 times.
Moreover, the Kingdom managed to reclaim 200 million hectares of degraded land, a move which is expected to contribute to the reduction of 2.5 percent of global emissions.
All of this helps the Kingdom’s greater objective of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2060.
Writing in the report, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said: “The future of the Kingdom is blessed and promising. Our country deserves more than what has been achieved.
“We have capabilities; we will double their role and increase their contribution in making this future.”
King Salman added: “Our history records the greatest and most successful collection of directed purposes to building a modern state whose foundation is the citizen, its pillar is development, and its goal is prosperity.”
RIYADH: As Egypt’s asset sales have been slower than anticipated, the pressure on currency depreciation will continue due to a drawdown in foreign exchange liquidity, said Moody’s Investors Service in its latest note.
Egypt’s decline in foreign exchange liquidity carried on through January and February of 2023 after the nation reversed course at the end of last year. As a result, the country’s debt affordability and debt sustainability profile became more at risk.
Egypt’s “B3 stable” asset sale strategy, which aimed to close its funding gap mostly through selling state-owned assets, has progressed slower than expected, stated the global rating agency.
This strategy is crucial for the $3 billion 46-month International Monetary Fund extended arrangement that Egypt reached last December to enhance its foreign currency liquidity.
The IMF has called for a $6-billion increase in the Egyptian economy’s net international reserves between March and June of this year, elevating it to $23 billion from $17 billion, as per its quantitative performance criteria.
To determine the net international reserves, the central bank’s net foreign liability position, which was around $9 billion as of March, was subtracted from the economy’s liquid foreign currency reserves, which were $26.5 billion at the time, Moody’s added.
It stated: “The targeted adjustment under the IMF program is thus equivalent to a reversal in the central bank’s net foreign liability position by $6 billion over the next three months, reducing it to about $3 billion by June.”
Egypt’s external liquidity will continue to be hindered by the central bank’s failure to strengthen its net foreign debt position and liquid foreign exchange reserves, noted the agency.
According to the government’s targets, asset sales are to raise $2 billion by the end of this fiscal year in June 2023, and another $4.6 billion in fiscal 2024.
However, progress has been slow due to predictions of further devaluation of the Egyptian pound, signs of opposition from vested interests, as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council investors attaching more onerous conditions for future financial support.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index concluded the week in the red by slipping down 36.03 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 11,271.19 on Thursday.
The total trading turnover reached SR6.31 billion ($1.68 billion).
The Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu also edged down by 3.84 points to 21,322.08, and the MSCI Tadawul Index dropped by 0.33 percent to 1,519.19.
The top performer of the day was Salama Cooperative Insurance Co., as its shares shot up by 9.17 percent to SR17.38.
It was followed by Alkhaleej Training and Education Co. and Amana Cooperative Insurance Co., as shares of the companies went up by 5.75 percent and 5.43 percent respectively.
The worst performer in Thursday’s session was Anaam International Holding Group. The company’s share prices dropped by 5.18 percent to SR26.55.
On the announcements front, Al Rajhi Bank said that its net profit rose 0.3 percent to SR4.14 billion in the first quarter of 2023, compared to SR4.13 billion in the same period a year earlier. The bank’s share price dropped by 1.66 percent to SR76.80.
Bank Albilad also announced its financial results for the first quarter. It said its net profit went up 14 percent to SR559.9 million, from SR490.3 million in the same period of 2022.
According to a Tadawul statement, the bank’s total operating income rose 6 percent year-on-year, mainly due to higher net income from investing and financing assets. Despite posting a rise in net profit, the share price of Bank Albilad fell by 0.72 percent to SR41.35.
Another company that announced its financial results was Saudi Steel Pipe Co. Its net profit fell by 56 percent to SR6.4 million in the first quarter, compared to SR14.5 million in the same period of 2022.
In a bourse statement, the company attributed the decline to a drop in gross profit to SR23.86 million due to lower sales volumes. Owing to the fall in profit, the company’s share price also dipped by 1.25 percent on Thursday to SR23.70.