All Countries and All Sectors

Long-regarded as an affordable getaway for European tourists seeking the sun in the coastal resorts of Antalya, Bodrum or Marmaris, Turkey is starting to draw rising numbers of visitors from the Middle East region.

Saudi Arabia is accelerating efforts to take its industrialisation process to the next level, moving from the processing of feedstocks – particularly hydrocarbons – towards utilising the resulting petrochemical materials for the manufacture of finished products. Rising demand on both the national power grid and on raw materials, however, could have an impact on the rate at which new developments are realised.

After a period of relative inactivity, Oman’s stock exchange, the Muscat Stock Market (MSM), could be about to see heightened activity with the listing of a number of important companies keenly anticipated.

A slew of recent initiatives are targeting insurance reform in the corporate and retail segments in Nigeria, to help unshackle the latent potential of a sector that has traditionally struggled with spotty enforcement, limited capacity, and low penetration.

With investor demand for Islamic bonds growing, Abu Dhabi-based businesses are increasingly turning to the sukuk market to finance their activities, with four companies since November 2011 having issued sharia-compliant debt instruments. Meanwhile, the first three months of 2012 saw two major conventional bond issuances from Dolphin Energy and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).

Limited scope for further increasing mobile penetration amongst Egypt’s massive 80m-person population has intensified competition in terms of both tariffs and products between Egypt’s three GSM operators – Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat – who may soon be joined by the country’s first virtual network operator.