Nuevo boom en Emiratos?
Las noticias de hoy no son para menos:
Emaar says new Dubai launch sold out on day one: UAE developer says all 280 units in latest Downtown Dubai project quickly sold out
Dubai shows sees 40% rise in superyachts: Nineteen of world’s biggest yachts to be on display at Dubai International Boat Show
Bluechips lift Dubai bourse to 33-month high
Emaar Properties climbs 3.6 percent and top lender Emirates Bank rises 1.5 percent
New Abu Dhabi retail project to open spring 2017: Sowwah Central on Al Maryah Island will be directly linked to The Galleria project
UAE’s ENOC replaces Iran oil with Qatari supply: Dubai gov’t-owned firm turns to Qatar for condensates amid Iranian sanctions
Dutch retail giant SPAR to enter MidEast: Food retailer aims to have 30 stores across region by the end of 2015
UAE’s RAK Bank 2012 profit up 16.6%: Yearly profit hits US$381m, with 10.4 percent growth in loans and advances
UAE’s National Bank of Fujairah 2012 profit up 8.9%: Total assets increased 17.6 percent, while loans and advances rose 16.1 percent
Is the equities boom back on? Investors are confident that Dubai’s growth plans are realistic and achievable
Standard Chartered estimates US$48bn of bonds and loans will mature between 2014 and 2016, including about US$10bn of restructured debt at state-owned Dubai World and Nakheel. Some of this debt might have to be restructured a second time, the bank said in a research report.
In December, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its credit ratings of three Dubai banks, including the largest, Emirates NBD. It cited concern about problem loans and said it was prepared to cut the ratings further.
But Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, signalled a push for growth in November, announcing plans for a huge tourism and retail development including the world’s largest shopping mall, over 100 hotels, and a park 30 percent bigger than London’s Hyde Park.
Since then a string of state-owned and private firms have said they are reviving projects mothballed during the crash or launching new ones. Plans even include more man-made islands: last month state-backed Meraas Holding said it would spend US$1.6bn to build an island housing the world’s largest ferris wheel, just a few kilometres from Nakheel’s archipelago.
Hotel industry consultancy STR Global estimates, based on its contacts with companies in the industry, that Dubai hoteliers plan to add 19,000 new hotel rooms in the next few years – almost a third of the current number of about 63,000.
The government’s central projection is for the population to rise above 3m people by 2020 from just over 2m at present. Under an "aggressive" growth scenario, the population could be near 4m by the end of the decade, it estimates.
Since fewer than 20 percent of Dubai’s population are local citizens – the vast majority are expatriate workers – such growth would mean an influx of hundreds of thousands of people.
Construction work to accommodate them would require billions of dollars of fresh financing that may be hard to obtain in the wake of the global financial crisis. If growth does accelerate, it could produce the same kind of boom-and-bust cycle that plagued Dubai a few years ago.
"There are certainly legitimate questions to be asked about investment risk in Dubai, given the wild swings in the property market and the boom period’s long record of broken promises, which extend to the highest levels," said Jim Krane, author of the book "City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism".
But there are grounds to think Dubai’s ambitions are feasible – or at least a large part of them. One of the emirate’s advantages is its geographical location, which lets it serve as an air transport hub between Asia, Europe and Africa; Dubai overtook Hong Kong to become the world’s third-busiest airport for international passenger traffic last year.
Double-digit annual increases in this traffic, which hit 58 million passengers last year, are helping Dubai attract growing numbers of tourists and investors. About a fifth of passengers leave the airport and come into the city; local industries are lobbying the government to raise this ratio with changes to visa arrangements and other steps.
"The way Dubai has worked in the past few years, they’ll create enough demand generators to make sure they have customers for the new hotel rooms," said Naureen Ahmed, manager of analysis at STR Global.
Taxes in Dubai are lower than in many European and Asian cities. This helped boost foreign direct investment flows into the emirate by 17 percent last year – a rapid rate during a period of global economic weakness.
MSCI anunció su decisión de reclasificar a Catar y Emiratos Arabes Unidos en la categoría emergente.
UAE firms set to increase financial headcount
Study shows more than half of Dubai’s CFOs are looking to hire in the second half of 2013
Goldman Sachs’ renewed interest in the UAE’s equity markets and Dubai property stocks is creating a buzz.
On Monday the US investment bank restarted coverage of Dubai’s publicly-listed property firms. It believes that worries over the emirate’s property bubble have been overdone amid a series of regulatory curbs against speculation.
That Goldman Sachs has a view on this is notable and underscores how the 79 per cent surge in Dubai stocks this year and the property market’s rapid rebound have not escaped international investors’ notice.
From 2005 to 2011, the emirate’s index lost more than 80 per cent of its value. Traded value on the UAE markets also dropped from Dh537 billion in 2005 to a trough of Dh57bn.
Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade exceeds $1trn
Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan says he expects further ‘tremendous growth’ following Expo 2020 victory
Dubai, Abu Dhabi bourses hit new five-year highs
Investor sentiment continues to rise in the UAE on back of real estate recovery, Expo 2020 win
La bolsa de Dubai ha tenido un buen 2013:
Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade exceeds $359bn in 2013: Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan praises performance; says Dubai is taking ‘huge leaps’
GCC construction project awards to rise to $195bn in 2014
New report says $35bn more contracts to be awarded this year amid construction boom in the region
Dubai prime office rents up 25% as vacancy rate plummets
New CBRE report says emirate is facing a diminishing availability of good quality office accommodation