The Middle East Economy

Oman Cables is one of the largest makers of power cables, building wires, instrumentation cables and overhead transmission line conductors in the GCC region. The company is intrinsically tied to growing demand for electricity in Oman, which is expected to increase by 10% per annum over the next several years, thereby boosting the local demand for cables as well. Oman...

Capital markets in Oman have expanded considerably over the course of 2013 and 2014, driven by strong fundamentals, increasing economic diversification, and prudent market regulation and oversight. In the first nine months of 2014 market capitalisation of the Muscat Securities Market (MSM), Oman’s stock exchange, increased by 16% after growing 21.4% in 2013, according to...

The capital markets sector is expected to play a key role in the government’s ongoing push to encourage the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A focus of the government’s plans since the mid-2000s, SMEs are seen as integral to Oman’s future for a variety of reasons. They drive private sector growth, much of it in the non-oil economy, and create...

Al Anwar Holding Company is an investment holding company originally formed in 1994 for investments in industrial ventures such as power, oil and gas, glass, paints and certain other industrials. The company undertakes private equity investments with a primary focus on the GCC region. Al Anwar has historically targeted investments in growing small and medium-sized...

Two Omani electricity generation companies – Al Batinah and Al Suwadi – opened their initial public offerings (IPOs) in May 2014. Al Batinah offered 236m shares at a price of OR0.128 ($0.33), totalling OR30m ($77.7m), while Al Suwadi offered 250m shares at a price of OR0.13 ($0.34) per share, for a total of OR32m ($82.9m). Both offered to sell 35% stakes to the public in...