RABAT: An audit court has found evidence of graft, corruption and insider trading in Morocco's state-owned firms and entities, putting to the test a government promise to end such practices.
The Supreme Court of Audit's latest probe revealed that (...)
RABAT: Morocco has excluded a group led by Egypt-based Orascom Construction Industries from the bidding for the first phase of a major solar energy project, l'Economiste newspaper reported on Friday.
The newspaper gave no reason for the exclusion (...)
RABAT: The Moroccan government on Friday cancelled for the second time in less than a year a tender for the sale of part of its 30-percent stake in Maroc Telecom, bankers familiar with the matter said.
The revival of the stake sale has prompted (...)
RABAT: Morocco's King Mohammed is pushing for early polls to hasten reforms he has initiated but this alone is unlikely to satisfy critics without serious steps to curb corruption and to give the next assembly teeth.
Some businesses hope quick (...)
RABAT: Thousands of supporters and opponents of constitutional changes offered by Morocco's king protested on Sunday, indicating debate over the country's future sparked by the "Arab Spring" uprisings has not ended.
Protests took place in three (...)
RABAT: Moroccans voted on Friday in a referendum on a revised constitution offered by King Mohammed to placate "Arab Spring" street protesters, with the "yes" camp tipped to win despite boycott calls by opponents.
The new charter explicitly grants (...)
RIYADH: Saudi-based conglomerate Savola Group posted a near-2 percent rise in third-quarter net profit on Monday, sharply below forecasts, after a rise in global sugar prices ate into its margins.
Savola, which owns the Middle East's biggest (...)
RIYADH: The Saudi insurance market is ripe for mergers and acquisitions but these await a nod from the central bank, the chief executive of the kingdom's biggest insurance firm Tawuniya said.
Ali Al-Subaihin also told the Reuters Middle East (...)
RIYADH: Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) on Sunday posted a 54-percent rise in third-quarter net profit, partly on higher sales volumes and prices.
Sipchem's results, which came mainly on the back of higher butanediol petrochemical (...)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Co (Safco) posted a 30 percent rise in its third-quarter net profit after a rise in global prices.
Safco, which produces urea and ammonia, made 604 million riyals ($161.1 million) in the three months to the end (...)
RIYADH: A drop in food prices during September pushed inflation in Saudi Arabia slightly off an 18-month peak but home rents continue to rise amid a dearth of housing.
September consumer inflation was 5.9 percent above its level of a year (...)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia needs to tame growth in its domestic oil and gas consumption, which are too big for both its population growth and the size of its economy, the central bank governor said on Saturday.
"Data show that the kingdom's domestic (...)
RIYADH: Zain Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's third mobile operator, offered shareholders to cut its capital by almost half to cover accumulated losses, and later launch a rights issue to raise it by nearly 60 percent.
Zain Saudi's board offered on (...)
RIYADH: Petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) said sales growth slowed in the second quarter as prices for its products fell.
SABIC, the world's biggest chemicals maker by market value, said its inventories surged by around a (...)
RIYADH: Saudi chemicals company SABIC said excess stocks should be less of a problem and prices were stabilizing in the second half as its shares fell on quarterly results that showed weak prices hurting profits.
At news conference on Monday (...)
RIYADH: HSBC's Saudi affiliate SABB bank missed forecasts and two other banks in the kingdom reported sharp falls due to high provisions to counter exposure to troubled Saudi firms and a slowdown in lending.
The second quarter results for SABB, (...)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's telecoms watchdog said it expects spending on IT products and software to slow down in the next few years, with analysts citing a saturated telecoms market and fewer new broadband users.
Spending on information technology (...)
RIYADH: Atheeb Telecom, Saudi Arabia's first private fixed-line phone operator, said on Sunday its top executive has resigned after it accumulated losses close to 40 percent of its capital one year after starting business.
Ahmad Abbas Sindi was (...)
RIYADH: Saudi banks raised their investment in securities to support a cash-hungry private sector in April, according to a fresh set of official data that also showed a continued decline in money supply.
M3 growth, one factor potentially (...)
RIYADH: Saudi banks will resume "normal business" this year after difficult conditions following the global downturn forced local lenders to increase provisions in 2009, the central bank governor said on Tuesday.
Muhammad Al-Jasser of the Saudi (...)