Citibank UAE $1m SME credit

Citibank is offering a credit facility of up to $1m for SME owners in the UAE. The facility, called Property Power, will be secured against freehold properties owned by customers in projects by Emaar, Nakheel and Dubai Properties. Terms are up to ten years and it carries an overdraft. (ameinfo.com)

A commendable initiative which might be very useful for young entrepreneurs. But just wondering if an SME owner young or old has the power to buy a propoerty why wouldn't he or she invest it into the business himself?

Read more!

Thani Investments Bond Sale

Thani Investments plans to sell $100 million of Islamic bonds in June for general corporate funding purposes, co-lead arranger Bahrain's Liquidity Management Centre (LMC) said.

Emirates Islamic Bank, a unit of Emirates Bank International, and the LMC have been mandated to arrange the sale of the five-year Islamic bonds, or sukuk, LMC said in a statement.

The bonds will be priced at 2.5 per cent over the six-month London interbank offered rate, LMC said. (Reuters)

end post

Read more!

ABN Amro Up For Sale

The chief executive of ABN Amro is at risk of losing his job after the Dutch bank reversed course and allowed a takeover consortium to access its books, according to a media report.

Sunday's The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that CEO Rijkman Groenink only changed his position against allowing the Royal Bank of Scotland-led group to perform due diligence on ABN ABN after coming under intense shareholder pressure to consider their bid.

ABN is weighing competing bids Britain's Barclays PLC , offering about $91 billion, and the proposal by the RBS group, which is worth about $100 billion.

ABN decided Friday to open its books to RBS, a day after Groenink defended the Barclays deal against a shareholder revolt, according to a report on The Independent's Web site.

Citing unnamed analysts, the report said the exit of Groenink could boost RBS's chance of winning the takeover battle for ABN.

The report said the move to allow due diligence by RBS is believed to have been pushed through by the Dutch bank's supervisory board. ABN's board still supports Barclay's proposal.

The report follows an announcement from an Amsterdam court on Saturday that it will decide Thursday about whether or not to freeze the sale of ABN's LaSalle Bank to Bank of America Corp. BAC. If the $21 billion sale is halted, it would give the RBS group more time to present its offer to ABN shareholders. See full story.

On Friday, the RBS group, which includes Spain's Banco Santander, said it intends to push ahead with its pursuit of ABN, despite resistance from the bank itself. via menafn.com

Read more!