North Africa/Middle East

Some holders of $1.2 billion in bonds linked to Etihad Airways are seeking to appoint legal advisers to evaluate their options with respect to a potential default of the notes, sources familiar with the matter said. Etihad issued the bonds in 2015 and 2016 through an Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle, called Equity Alliance Partners (EAP).

Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank has sold its 513.6 million riyals ($137 million) claim against Ahmad Hamad Al-Gosaibi and Brothers, which has been locked in a near decade-long dispute with creditors, sources told Reuters. And now Standard Chartered, Dubai-based Emirates NBD and Bahrain’s Arab Banking Corporation are also seeking to sell AHAB debt totalling around 2.24 billion riyals, the financial sector sources said. AHAB and Saad Group both defaulted in Saudi Arabia’s biggest financial meltdown in 2009, with international and regional banks and other creditors owed about $22 billion.

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet has approved a bankruptcy law, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday, giving a boost to efforts to make the kingdom more enticing to investors, Reuters reported. Modern bankruptcy legislation does not currently exist in Saudi Arabia, creating difficulties for struggling companies seeking to restructure debt with creditors since the 2009 global financial crisis and, more recently, the dip in oil prices.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the hardest places in the world to collect unpaid debts, according to new research from Euler Hermes, the Financial Times reported. The trade credit insurer analysed debt collection processes around the world and ranked the results. China, Russia, Malaysia and South Africa also scored badly, appearing in the “severe” category in terms of the complexity of debt collection. Countries in western Europe came out better though, with Sweden at the top of the pile followed by Germany, Ireland, Finland and the Netherlands.

Saudi Arabia has accelerated steps to resolve a $22-billion debt dispute that is seen by investors as a litmus test of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's commitment to reforms, three sources familiar with the matter say. Legal battles over the debts left by Saad Group and Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi & Bros Co (AHAB) have dragged on for almost a decade since the two family conglomerates collapsed in 2009, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. From Switzerland to the Cayman Islands, the two groups have squabbled over which of them is to blame for the meltdown.

Protests over losses at loosely regulated credit institutions, which have hit millions of Iranians, smoldered through 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported. The resentment exploded…and provided the spark that set off the most sustained unrest in Iran in almost a decade. The complaints over financial fraud quickly morphed into a wider protest over an economy that hasn’t performed to expectations, especially following a landmark nuclear deal in 2015 that eased Western sanctions but didn’t do much to improve living standards.

Inflation has fallen, the economy is finally growing after years of recession and, thanks to the easing of some international sanctions, Iran’s crude oil is once again being sold overseas, the Irish Times reported. But many in the Islamic Republic believe that, if anything, the economic situation has worsened. Despite high hopes that the nuclear deal agreed with western powers in 2015 would deliver an economic bonanza, daily life remains hard and there are not enough jobs for an army of unemployed youth.

Management missteps and tectonic shifts in the pharmaceutical business have battered Teva, which faces declining prices for generic drugs and the loss of a patent on a major branded drug, the New York Times reported. More than $20 billion has been shorn from the company’s market capitalization since 2017 began, cutting Teva’s value roughly in half. Everyone in Israel knew that layoffs and plant closings were coming, but what was expected was something akin to painful trims. Instead, on Dec. 14, Teva announced what amounted to an amputation.

Israel’s markets regulator will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Reuters reported. Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the stock exchange bylaws would need to be amended. “If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it.

Dubai International Capital LLC reached an agreement with banks to roll over a loan of about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The private-equity firm owned by the emirate’s ruler plans to extend the loan for three years and sign the agreement in the next few weeks. It’s the second time the firm is restructuring the loan. Banks are also asking DIC’s parent Dubai Holding LLC to pay $150 million under a payment guarantee as part of the first restructuring in 2012.