Middle East Investors - Articles & White Papers

The third quarter of 2019 was nothing short of eventful. We saw the conclusion of Saudi Arabia’s inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Market (EM) Index and official confirmation of the upcoming much anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of Aramco only to be eclipsed by an escalation of regional risk following the unprecedented…

PGIM Fixed Income's Giancarlo Perasso discusses recent trips to the middle east, as well as the economic outlook within Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.

The Gulf producers are the world’s largest crude oil exporters,with most of their crude – sold via long-term contracts – flowing eastward. But oil market dynamics are shifting, reinforcing certain existing trends and creating new ones: East of Suez crude balances over the next decade highlight Asia’s growing crude import…

This scorecard by S&P Dow Jones Indices looks back at the performance of Shariah indices in Q3 2019.

Shariah-compliant investing has grown considerably in recent decades, as the Islamic investment community has demanded increasingly sophisticated investment solutions that adhere to the tenets of Islamic law. As a result, the need for high-quality, transparent, Shariah-compliant benchmarks has developed. Today, Islamic…

This report by Charterhouse provides insights into salary expectations across the asset management & investment sector in the United Arab Emirates.

This report by Law Business Research examines the world of Islamic finance and markets around the world. Over 12 chapters, it covers select jurisdictions including Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Oman, the UAE, and more.

A massive gap in how much capital Gulf countries need and what they have available for investment threatens to stifle the region’s economic and social development. This report by Oliver Wyman examines the trends driving the region’s growth and the increased need for more and better infrastructure. It outlines the extent of…

Climate Accountability Institute has released a new dataset quantifying how much each of the largest oil, natural gas, and coal companies has contributed to the climate crisis since 1965. They find that the top 20 companies have collectively contributed 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, chiefly from the…

It’s now been three weeks since a drone attacked and knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production and, if one hadn’t read the news and just casually glanced at the futures and options markets, one would never know that anything had been amiss. Oil prices (Figure 1) are smack in the middle of their recent range. The 14…

An escalation of military tensions in the Middle East would likely grab the market’s attention. We assess how geopolitical risks could impact portfolios.

Attack on Saudi oil facilities is unlikely to thwart growing risk appetite. We close our commodities underweight and reduce our overweight in US Treasuries. In equities, ongoing shift towards value style may have further to run.

The attack on two Saudi oil facilities has led to a spike in oil prices and delivered another shock to a world economy already suffering from a plethora of downside risks. Is this the tipping point towards recession?

The risk that similar attacks to the ones seen this weekend in Saudi Arabia could disrupt oil supplies, but it does not fundamentally change our medium-term scenario. We still forecast USD50 per barrel for Brent in 2020.

A drone attack took out half of Saudi oil supply. Much of this looks set to be restored swiftly. The attack nevertheless highlights geopolitical threats to the world economy.

Over a year has passed since the collapse of Abraaj Group, which at its peak was among the world’s largest merging markets-focused private equity firms with USD 13.6 billion under management. As of May 2019, entities and individuals had asserted losses of over USD 1 billion against the company, and a US government indictment…

In this podcast, three experts from Union Bancaire Privée discuss Lebanon's economic outlook amid current social unrest.

When smaller frontier markets put their financial houses in order and mature into benchmark names, early investors can earn attractive returns in these relatively niche, often overlooked places. Here we look at one example, Egypt.

The weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure has taken 5.7 million barrels per day of crude production - roughly 5 per cent of global supply - and 2 billion cubic feet of associated gas offline, the largest outage since the first Gulf War.

Since 2017 Qatar has been subject to a boycott by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt (the Arab Quartet), creating a deep rift in a region already beset by civil wars and insurgencies. This paper examines the causes and dynamics of this dispute in detail and identifies elements required to reach a solution.