GULF WEEKLY: KSA sells $6bn sukuk, Moody’s upgrades Oman, Zelensky addresses Arab League in Jeddah
A skimmable summary overlaid with our analysis and links. Headlines:
* The Arab League summit opened today in Jeddah with Assad and Zelensky in attendance.
* Qatar-Bahrain flights will restart next week after a six-year suspension.
* Saudi Arabia sold $6bn in sukuk, and the UAE’s Aldar and Bahrain’s nogaholding also issued sukuk.
* There were fresh rumors of a potential secondary offering of Aramco, following the dividend hike.
* Saudi Arabia’s state-owned pension fund manager Hassana revealed it has over $320bn in assets.
* There was progress on Neom projects including the port, railway and resort island.
* Mubadala’s assets declined by -3% in 2022, and its five-year rate of return dipped to 8.8%.
* Sharjah's 5.2% nominal growth brought GDP close to the 2019 level and was led by hospitality.
* Fitch sees Qatar’s debt falling by -$18bn over two years, and its rating model shows scope for an upgrade.
* QatarEnergy awarded the $10bn contract for the two North Field South LNG trains.
* Qatar’s equity markets could get a bump in index weights if QIA and GRSIA combined their holdings.
* The number of candidates registered for Kuwait’s election is down by at least a fifth from last year’s.
* Moody’s upgraded Oman to Ba2 on improved fiscal discipline and maintained a Positive outlook.
* Bank Dhofar and Ominvest are in a bidding war for Ahli Bank, Oman’s 6th largest.
* PIF is allocating $5bn to a fund to invest in Bahrain.
* Egypt sold a $121m stake in Telecom Egypt and is preparing to sell United Bank.
* France issued an arrest warrant against Lebanon’s central bank governor for a corruption trial.
* Databank updates: Inflation (Qatar, Kuwait, KSA, Dubai); Sharjah GDP; Forecasts for Oman, Qatar and GCC. (N.B. The Databank has been optimized, reducing its file size by 70% to make it much faster.)
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