Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that the UAE Ministry of Economy is to support EGA Ramp-Up, the company’s programme to foster the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the UAE and help grow the national economy in line with the Entrepreneurial Nation strategy.

Abdulla Al Saleh, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Economy said, “The Ministry of Economy is committed to supporting the UAE’s entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity ecosystem by strengthening collaboration with like-minded private and public sector partners.

“In line with the ‘Projects of the 50’ to drive the country’s economic agenda and diversification programme, We are delighted to be partnering with EGA and look forward to supporting the EGA Ramp-Up programme to champion innovators and creative thinkers.”

Khalid Essa Buhumaid, Senior Vice President, Government Relations at EGA said, “Through EGA Ramp-Up, we aim to support entrepreneurs whose businesses will contribute to economic diversification and growth. We are honoured to partner with the Ministry of Economy on this programme, and together will work to support and boost even more entrepreneurs whose success will benefit both themselves and our nation.”

The EGA Ramp-Up programme is attracting aspiring and recently-established entrepreneurs to a series of informative online courses on effective entrepreneurship. The programme will work even more closely with the most promising start-ups, providing mentoring support from a global network of experts. Start-ups aligned with EGA’s strategic objectives will be assessed for their eligibility to receive cash rewards and opportunities for collaboration with EGA.

The Ministry’s Entrepreneurial Nation platform will provide EGA Ramp-Up with greater access to budding entrepreneurs and support the programme’s outreach campaign. A member of the Entrepreneurial Nation team will join the EGA Ramp-Up evaluation panel which assesses entrepreneurs’ eligibility for support.

Applications for the EGA Ramp-Up programme are now open and more than 300 entrepreneurs have already registered for the first round. Applications will close on 27th January. To learn more about the programme and submit your application, please visit: www.ega.ae/en/ramp-up.

Entrepreneurship is one of the top priorities of the UAE and an important pillar of the 2071 Centennial plan. The National Agenda for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises aims to make the country a destination of choice for global entrepreneurship by 2031. EGA has partnered with C3 to deliver the programme. C3 is a UAE-based social enterprise that supports entrepreneurs across the region to unlock their growth potential and maximise their positive impact on the community and the environment.

Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region, announced that its profits rose 40% to AED 13 billion in 2022, driven by strong regional economic growth and the success of its diversified business model. The bank’s Q4 profit was particularly strong, at AED 3.9 billion, up 94% year-on-year, reflecting improving margins and a lower cost of risk.

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman, Emirates NBD, said, that Emirates NBD played a lead role in delivering over AED 31 billion of IPOs in 2022, which contributed to the growth of the Dubai economy and the development of the equity capital markets.

The bank also proposed a 20% increase in the cash dividend to 60 fils per share. Additionally, the bank reported growth in new corporate lending and deposit mix, as well as healthy credit quality and an expansion of its international footprint and digital capabilities.

“We have opened new branches in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India, accelerating investment in our international footprint and digital capabilities to support further growth,” he added.

For his part, Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Emirates NBD, said, “Emirates NBD delivered record income and operating profit in 2022 as total income grew 36 percent to AED 32.5 billion on increased transaction volumes and improved margins from an efficient funding base and higher interest rates. International operations provide diversification and growth opportunities, contributing 39 percent of total income. New lending increased substantially with record growth in retail financing and AED 50 billion of new corporate lending, helped by a buoyant regional economy and our digital transformation. Additionally, earlier this month we became the first bank to issue a public Dirham-bond following the UAE Federal Government’s establishment of a dirham yield curve, which further reinforces our national identity.”

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.9% annual pace from October through December, ending 2022 with momentum despite the pressure of high interest rates and widespread fears of a looming recession, AP reported.

Thursday’s estimate from the US Commerce Department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic output — decelerated last quarter from the 3.2% annual growth rate it had posted from July through September.

Most economists think the economy will slow further in the current quarter and slide into at least a mild recession by midyear.

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, has successfully issued a 5.25-year US$ 600 million bond at US Treasury +105 Basis Points (bps) which resulted in an all-in yield of 4.514 percent, on 19th January 2023.

This marks FAB’s second USD issuance in a space of ten days following the successful US$ 500 million RegS 5-year Sukuk issued on 9th January 2023. FAB has now become the only regional bank to have successfully accessed the debt capital markets twice this year.

The US$ 600 million bond issue was also the first USD conventional bond issuance from a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) FI issuer which also achieved the lowest spread (UST +105bps) by any bank globally for a fixed USD 5-year conventional bond in 2023.

The bond received orders of US$ 1.75 billion representing a nearly 3x oversubscription with 76 percent of the issue placed with high-quality investors outside the MENA region. Pricing represented a deeply negative new issue premium which is a phenomenal achievement when compared to global banks (including G-SIBs) paying an average 10bps new issue premium on their issuances.

Rula Al Qadi, Group Treasurer at FAB, commented, “We are delighted with the success of our second capital markets offering in January 2023. Having achieved a deeply negative new issue premium, especially when taking into account the intra-day movement in USTs, is a great result. This success reinforces FAB’s position as a ‘flight-to-quality’ for global investors. We have now updated our Senior curve in both Sukuk and Bond format this year, which will enable us to deploy a more efficient pricing strategy across our balance sheet.”