Shuaa Capital, a Dubai-based investment bank, plans to reintroduce brokerage services in the Egyptian market that were suspended in the most populous Arab country after the 2008 financial crisis took toll on trading volumes.
Shuaa has formally stared discussions with Egyptian regulators to bring its securities business back to North African country, a key step in expanding its brokerage services which are part of its broader capital markets offering, the firm said in a statement to Dubai Financial Market, where its shares are traded.
Shuaa was one of the top investment banks in the region before the global financial crisis hit almost a decade ago. At that time, the firm and several other financial services companies fell on hard times. Many were forced to either close or suspend their brokerage arms as revenues slumped and trading activity came to a grinding halt. The regional economies, which had recovered well from the crisis, are once again facing weaker economic growth on the back of persistently low oil prices.
The GCC benchmark indexes have underperformed the global equities rally this year amid subdued trading volumes. However, Shuaa said its move to Egypt reflected the firm’s confidence in the fundamentals and the depth of opportunities available in the Egyptian market.
“There still exists significant untapped potential to serve clients eyeing the Egyptian market with our securities business,” said Fawad Tariq-Khan, who was appointed the firm’s general manager in May. “We look forward to relaunching operations soon, with the guidance of the Egyptian authorities and regulators.”
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Shuaa, which was admitted to the Dubai and Abu Dhabi exchanges as market-maker earlier this year, intends to use the Egyptian platform to allow clients direct access to other markets through a single trading account.
The firm, which is 48.36 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi Financial Group, has returned to profitability this year and posted its biggest half-yearly profit since 2009. It has been looking to expand its regional presence through acquisitions and recapture market share in securities and advisory businesses.
Merger talks between Shuaa and the Bahrain-based GFH Financial Group (GFH) were suspended in June they could not reach agreement on acquisition terms. “Therefore, both parties have agreed to postpone the discussions regarding the acquisition for the time being,” GFH said in a bourse filing at the time. The Shuaa chairman Jassim Alseddiqi in April said the firm was considering taking a stake in an unnamed GCC-based financial services firm, which was separate from GFH deal, talks for which were happening at the time.
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Uefa Champions League, semi-final result:
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
Liverpool win 4-3 on aggregate
Champions Legaue final: June 1, Madrid
Dubai Bling season three
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Rating: 1/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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