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RIYADH: Saudi companies led the pack in the annual list of Forbes Top 100 Arab Family Businesses with 37 entries, followed by the UAE and Kuwait with 25 and eight entries, respectively.
According to the Forbes press release, these three countries constituted 75 percent of the top 20 in the list. In addition, all family businesses in the top 10 were diversified companies with operations in multiple sectors.
The Olayan family, which runs one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest conglomerates, was ranked the No. 1 Arab family business for the second year in a row.
Founded in 1947, the Olayan Group comprises more than 50 companies and affiliated businesses. Egypt’s Mansour Group and UAE’s Al-Futtaim Group were the other two groups that clinched the podium finish.
Olayan Financial Co.’s investments in the public sector make the largest portion of the group’s portfolio, as it owned 20.3 percent of the Saudi British Bank in July 2022.
• The release stated that of the top 100 family-run companies in 2022, eight were owned by Arab billionaires.
• Algeria-based Cevital Group’s founder Issad Rebrab had a net worth of $5.1 billion as of August 2022, making him the second richest Arab in the world.
Mansour Group has also been in the spotlight for its humungous reach spanning 100 countries with over 60,000 employees and total revenues exceeding $7.5 billion.
Through its investment arm, ManCapital, Mansour Group has shares in global companies like Spotify, Uber, Airbnb, Meta, Twitter and others.
Other Saudi companies also made it to the top 10, with Al Muhaidib Group ranking fourth, Abdul Laitf Jameel in seventh and Rashed Abdul Rahman Al Rashed and Sons Group ranking 10th.
From a geographical standpoint, Qatar-based companies had seven entries, Egypt had six, Oman six, Bahrain had four, Jordan had two, Morocco had two and Algeria, Lebanon, and Yemen all had one entry each.
At the ninth position, Al Faisal Holding is the only newcomer to this year’s top 10 businesses, up from 11th place in 2021, the press note said. In May 2022, it launched a new subsidiary offering production services, Metaserra, a joint venture with Turkey’s Doludizgin.
Diversified business corporations dominated the ranking with 89 entries. For instance, Al Futtaim Group has built a legacy out of its operations in the automotive, finance, real estate, retail and healthcare sectors.
The group operates in over 20 countries with 35,000 employees and has significant shareholdings in Emirates Investment Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai and the Dubai Insurance Co.
Abdullah Al Futtaim and his family also had a net worth of $2.5 billion in August 2022.
The release further stated that of the top 100 family-run companies in 2022, eight were owned by Arab billionaires. For instance, Algeria-based Cevital Group’s founder Issad Rebrab had a net worth of $5.1 billion as of August 2022, making him the second richest Arab in the world.
To construct this list, Forbes Middle East only considered private businesses or holding companies jointly owned or operated by Arab families. The conglomerates were ranked on their holding size and performance, business activity, age, legacy, and how diversified the business is in terms of geography and sector.
PARIS: Ukraine’s grain maize (corn) harvest is expected to fall 24 percent below last year and 5 percent below the five-year average to 32 million tons, the EU’s crop monitoring unit MARS said on Monday in updated estimates for the war-torn country.
For sunflower, of which Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters, the harvest is expected to drop 15 percent from a year ago to 13.9 million tons, 2 percent below the five-year average.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine has seen a decrease in the area under grain maize and sunflowers. Consequently, our production forecasts for both crops is below the 5-year average, despite fair yield outlooks,” it said in a report.
Some 4 percent of the grain maize, 10 percent of the sunflowers, and 7 percent of soybean production is in areas currently subject to hostilities, MARS said.
For winter crops, for which the harvest is over, the share is at 22 percent of total soft wheat production, 20 percent for barley and 13 percent for rapeseed.
Analysts have been wrestling with how much grain Ukraine, usually one of the world’s biggest suppliers, will be able to harvest and export this year as war with Russia continues.
MARS’ estimates are based its own yield estimates and on area data from the Ukrainian Farm Ministry, apart from those in the war zones of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, which are based on remote sensing, it said.
RIYADH: The Public Investment Fund-owned ACWA Power on Monday signed an industrial development agreement with Water Global Access, a research and technology development firm, to integrate hydraulic injection desalination, HID, technology at scale.
The deal was signed on the sidelines of the Future of Desalination International Conference in Riyadh.
The agreement comes six months after both companies signed a collaboration agreement to develop a roadmap for HID across ACWA Power’s projects, said a press release.
The agreement will involve the implementation of a pilot project that includes HID in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, following research that has demonstrated that the technology has the potential to break the 2 kWhr barrier of energy consumption to produce 1 cubic meter of water from seawater.
“With continued industrialization and demographic growth, water consumption across the world continues to rise at a rapid rate requiring urgent solutions. The potential emanating from water production utilizing cost effective, low carbon-intensive technologies is truly exponential and we are proud to pilot the ground-breaking HID technology, which is going to be a giant step forward in revolutionizing the desalination industry,” said Paddy Padmanathan, vice chairman and CEO of ACWA Power.
Energy consumption in desalination plants is also referred to as the total specific energy consumption.
“With its low energy footprint, HID technology has the potential to lower operational costs for our desalination business, which we hope will lead to lower tariffs in the long term. For governments, this means that it is more affordable to produce water. For investors, this could mean higher profits per facility. And for communities, it means that they are getting usable water with the least impact on the environment.” he added
“Technical readiness tests confirm that the capacity of HID to break the 2kWh/m3 seawater desalination threshold, opening a new paradigm in the industry’s efficiency levels,” WGA CEO Eusebi Nomen.
“We also welcome ACWA Power’s commitment in this technology, which further cements their position as a global leader in high impact water innovation,” he added.
RIYADH: The King Salman Energy Park, popularly known as SPARK, has signed a deal with UAE’s SeAH Steel and the Saudi Arabian Industrial Investment Co., to form a joint venture aimed at establishing a stainless seamless pipe factory with an investment of SR1 billion ($270 million).
The joint venture, named Gulf Special Steel, is touted to be the first of its kind in the Middle East and North African region. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the second Saudi International Iron and Steel Conference in Riyadh on Monday.
“This investment will result in the localization of a strategic industrial segment that supports the energy sector and the transfer of knowledge in the Kingdom,” said SPARK in a Twitter post.
These developments are part of the Kingdom’s attempts to diversify its economy, which has been dependent on oil for several decades.
This venture is in line with the Saudi government’s National Steel Strategy, which aims to expand Saudi Arabia’s steel production as a part of Vision 2030.
DUBAI: Dubai Municipality announced on Monday that 85 percent of the construction of the Dubai Waste Management Center, the world’s largest waste-to-energy project, has been completed.
The DWMC’s construction began in 2021, in line with UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum’s vision of elevating Dubai’s global position as a model for sustainable development as well as the best city to live and work in.
Dubai’s commitment to achieving sustainable development goals and reducing the emirate’s carbon footprint is reflected in the megaproject. It will also help the city meet its goal of reducing and completely diverting waste from landfills by 2030. Once completed, the center, in Dubai’s Al-Warsan area, will convert 45 percent of the city’s waste into renewable energy.
The first phase of the project will begin in 2023 and will be completed in 2024. With Dubai’s population growing at a rapid rate, the project would significantly reduce the potential volume of municipal waste in landfills while also developing alternative energy sources.
The center, according to Dubai Municipality Director-General Dawoud Al-Hajri, is a key pillar of Dubai’s ambition to become one of the world’s most sustainable cities, providing an innovative solution to transforming massive amounts of waste into a sustainable source of clean energy.
The director-general said that the DWMC will improve the emirate’s sustainability credentials in accordance with national energy goals and the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which was launched by Sheikh Mohammed to make Dubai a global center of clean energy with a green economy.
“Dubai has always sought to be a pioneer in the field of waste-to-energy. By reducing the amount of solid waste and providing alternative sources for generating clean energy, the project will contribute to achieving a sustainable and eco-friendly model of waste management,” Al-Hajri said.
“With the world’s largest operational capacity, DWMC will process 1.9 million tonnes of waste annually and convert it into renewable energy, generating enough energy to power 135,000 homes,” he added.
When completed, the 400,000 square meter center will also contribute to the country’s strategy of increasing clean energy’s contribution to the total energy mix to 50 percent by 2050.
The plant’s renewable energy is expected to provide 215 MWh of clean energy to the local power grid.
By early 2023, the center will be up and running at 40 percent capacity on two of its five treatment lines, processing 2,000 tonnes of solid waste to generate 80 MWh of renewable energy.
The generator and steam turbine, which are critical in the production of electricity, have already been installed at the facility. For the treatment process, the center will rely on advanced Japanese and Swiss technologies to ensure that emissions are environmentally friendly and odor-free.
The center will receive approximately 1,000 truckloads of waste per day, with a capacity of 88 trucks per hour. The DWMC will be able to process 5,666 tonnes of solid municipal waste per day through five treatment lines.
Burned waste will yield approximately 1,000 tonnes of bottom ash, which will be recycled and used in infrastructure projects.
Dubai Municipality has also launched an e-platform for exchanging recyclable and reusable materials in order to reduce waste production and increase the percentage of waste diverted from landfills.
As part of its efforts to create a sustainable environment for the emirate’s residents, Dubai Municipality has developed an integrated 20-year strategic plan for solid waste management.
NEW YORK: Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as the market builds on a rally last week that broke a three-week losing streak, according to Associated Press.
The S&P 500 index was up a bit more than half a percent, as was the Nasdaq composite.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a little less than half a percent.
Investors will be keeping a careful eye on inflation reports this week, including a report Tuesday on inflation in consumer prices during August.
The Federal Reserve is expected to make another jumbo rate increase next week in hopes of getting inflation under control.
The US Labor Department will release its report on consumer prices for August on Tuesday and a report on wholesale prices on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department releases retail sales figures for August. All three reports could provide a peak into how Americans are reacting to inflation that is close to four-decade highs.
Coronavirus cases are still casting a shadow in China, where about 65 million Chinese were under lockdown as of last week despite just 1,248 new cases of domestic transmission, mostly asymptomatic, being reported on Sunday.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.2 percent to 28,542.11 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 1 percent at 6,964.50. Taiwan’s benchmark gained 1.5 percent while the Sensex in India added 0.6 percent. Markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for holidays.
Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.3 percent, as did the CAC 40 in Paris. Germany’s DAX jumped 1.6 percent.
On Friday, the S&P 500 closed 1.5 percent higher in its third straight increase, ending with a 3.7 percent gain for the week. It was the benchmark index’s best week since July.
Big gains for technology companies pushed the Nasdaq composite to a 2.1 percent gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 percent. Both indexes also notched their first weekly gain in four weeks.
Smaller company stocks also notched solid gains. The Russell 2000 index jumped 1.9 percent.
The gains punctuated a holiday-shortened week of trading on Wall Street during which the market regained some of the ground it lost after a mid-August slump that wiped away the much of the gains from a mid-summer rally.
The Federal Reserve is in the spotlight as investors they try to figure out whether the US central bank’s plan to cool the hottest inflation in four decades will work or possibly tip an already slowing economy into a recession.
Stocks spent July and part of August gaining ground on hopes that the Fed would ease up on its interest rate hikes, but slumped over the last few weeks as it became clear the central bank remained resolute in raising rates.
The central bank has already raised rates four times this year and markets expect it to deliver another jumbo-sized increase of three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting in two weeks.
Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have all reaffirmed the central bank’s determination to raise rates until inflation is under control.
In other trading Monday, US benchmark crude oil picked up 72 cents to $87.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $3.25 to $86.79 a barrel on Friday.
Brent crude oil, the pricing basis for international trading, advanced 97 cents to $93.81 a barrel.
The dollar fell back to 142.47 Japanese yen and the euro climbed to $1.0140 from $1.0093.
