Fast-growing electric scooter and e-bike hire company Lime is planning a move into the Middle East. The San Francisco-based company, which completed a Series D funding round in February - raising $310 million in a deal which valued it at $2.4 billion - posted an online job advertisement seeking a Dubai-based public affairs manager “to lead the efforts in bringing scooters/e-bikes to the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region”. The advertisement said that the public affairs manager would...

Growth in Saudi Arabia’s economy will slow slightly this year, creating a challenge in terms of generating enough jobs for its citizens, an economist has told Zawya. A new Economic Insight: Middle East Q1 2019 report published by accountancy body ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and Oxford Economics said that it expects economic growth in the Kingdom to slow marginally in 2019 to 2 percent, down from 2.2 percent in 2019 as oil revenue falls due to Organization...

Emirates REIT, the shariah-compliant real estate investment trust listed on Nasdaq Dubai, reported a 57 percent decline in profit for 2018 as it suffered a decline in net property income and faced higher financing costs. Accounts filed on the exchange show the company's profit fell to $22.3 million in 2018, compared to $52.2 million in the prior year. Net property income fell to $64.3 million - down from $84.8 million in the previous year, due to lower unrealised gains on the value of its...

Dubai-based real estate developer Union Properties has gained approval from shareholders to buy back and re-sell up to 10 percent of its shares with a view to improving its share price. The company, which is best known for its Motor City master development, announced in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market on Sunday that shareholders had approved a special resolution allowing the company to buy back up to 10 percent of its share capital with the purpose of re-selling them, and to secure...

The record levels of gold buying by central banks which bolstered the price of the yellow metal in 2018 has continued into the first couple of months of 2019, with 51 tonnes bought in February alone. Speaking at the Dubai Precious Metals Conference earlier this month, Ross Norman, CEO of London-based gold bullion broker Sharps Pixley, said that demand from central banks in January and February “amounted to 90 tonnes of fresh buying”, which is 61 percent higher than the 56 tonnes bought in the...