Cybercriminals shift focus to crypto industry

Updated 16 April 2023

Arab News

April 16, 2023 16:29

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index crossed the 11,000-mark on Sunday after nearly five months, as it gained 67.90 points or 0.62 percent to 11,032.57, driven by promising market conditions. 

TASI slipped below the 11,000 level on Nov. 22, 2022, and stayed below the psychological mark until last Friday.  

The parallel market Nomu rose 0.76 percent to 20,730.20, and the MSCI Tadawul 30 Index increased 0.59 percent to 1,495.92. 

The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR4.76 billion ($1.27 billion). 

The top performer of the day was Emaar The Economic City, as its share prices surged 9.98 percent to SR9.48. 

Other top performers of the day were Al Kathiri Holding Co. and Arabian Pipes Co., whose share prices climbed 9.97 percent and 7.30 percent, respectively. 

The worst performer on Sunday was Tihama Advertising and Public Relations Co., whose share prices dropped 4.05 percent to SR24.42. 

On the announcements front, Almunajem Foods Co. reported a drop in its profit in the first quarter of 2023 to SR81.9 million from SR97.6 million in the same quarter of 2022. 

In a Tadawul statement, the company attributed the fall in net profit to the decrease in profit margins of red and white meat, frozen fruits and vegetables and dairy categories compared to the same quarter of last year. 

Meanwhile, Saudi Cement Co.’s shareholders approved the board’s recommendation to distribute cash dividends at SR1.75 a share, or 17.5 percent of the capital, for the second half of 2022. 

Earlier in March, Saudi Cement Co. posted a net profit of SR398.8 million in 2022, a 20 percent increase from SR331.9 million a year earlier. 

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange owner Saudi Tadawul Group reported a 35 percent decline in first quarter profit after trading values halved and costs rose. 

According to a stock market filing, Tadawul Group’s net profit in the three months to March 31 fell to SR90.8 million from SR140.6 million a year earlier. 

Updated 16 April 2023

Arab News

April 16, 2023 15:45

RIYADH: Qatar’s inflation surged by 4.01 percent year-on-year in March, as a result of a rise of prices across eight categories, according to data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority.  

The Consumer Price Index of March 2023, which is a broad measure of inflation, reached 105.55 points, up by 0.20 percent compared to February’s CPI.  

According to the data released by PSA, recreation and culture recorded the highest surge in price with 13.63 percent increase.  

Housing, water, electricity, and other fuel increased by 8.65 percent, clothing and footwear by 4.9 percent, education by 2.61 percent, transport by 2.5 percent, and restaurants and hotels by 2.25 percent.  

The two other groups – health and food and beverages – both witnessed a CPI increase of 1.62 percent and 1.06 percent year-on-year in March 2023.  

According to Kamco Invest, a regional non-banking financial company, Qatari banks recorded the highest loan increase among Gulf lenders during the fourth quarter of 2022 despite a stiff interest rate environment.  

Qatari banks recorded the highest loan growth at 3.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to a drop in lending during the quarter before, Kamco’s report said citing GCC central banks. 

The Kamco Invest GCC banking sector report also added that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, aggregate credit facilities in Qatar reached 1.3 trillion Qatari riyals ($357 billion), mostly due to a 9 percent increase in lending to real estate, followed by 5.5 percent and 5.4 percent growth in loans to services and public sector, respectively.   

Lending to consumption fell by 2.5 percent while lending to industry fell by 4.4 percent overall in the domestic loan market.  

Deposits at Qatari-listed banks increased significantly by 3.1 percent to $405 billion.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, kept leading the GCC in customer deposits with $691 billion after seeing a quarter-on-quarter gain of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.  

Additionally, the total return on equity for the GCC banking industry increased during the fourth quarter of 2022, reaching one of the highest levels in recent years at 12.3 percent, up from 11.8 percent at the end of the third quarter.  

The highest return on equity in the region at the end of the fourth quarter was recorded by UAE-listed banks, at 13.9 percent, closely followed by Saudi Arabian and Qatari banks, with RoEs of 12.5 percent and 12.4 percent.  

Updated 16 April 2023

Arab News

April 16, 2023 15:08

RIYADH: The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property received 5,837 patent applications at the domestic level and from abroad in 2022, it said in its annual report. 

The Saudi regulator noted that it received 40,287 trademark applications from inside and outside the Kingdom last year, along with 838 requests for voluntary registration of copyright works, indicating a 30.33 percent increase from 2021.

The authority added that 43 new names were added to the Locarno Classification for industrial designs. 

The Locarno Classification is an international classification system used to classify goods for the purposes of the registration of industrial designs, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The report added that SAIP received 1,508 applications for industrial designs from the Kingdom and abroad, up 7.71 percent compared to 2021. 

SAIP added that it recorded 27 applications for integrated circuit layout designs, up 35 percent from 2021. 

It was in December 2022 that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the National Intellectual Property Strategy to support the Kingdom’s economy based on innovation and creativity. 

“We have minds and energies that are passionate about innovation and creativity, and by enabling them, the Kingdom will be a fertile environment for the knowledge economy through an integrated intellectual property system that supports the development of innovative technologies and industries and contributes to the growth of enterprises,” said the crown prince. 

The SPA report added that the National Intellectual Property Strategy is based on four basic pillars: Generation, management, commercial investment, and protection of intellectual property. 

Later in December, Saudi Arabia allocated a budget of SR1 billion ($267 million) to support the strategy. This fund has been agreed to be distributed over a five-year period until 2028. 

This strategy will be implemented through 12 initiatives which include 54 projects, according to Sami Al-Sudais, the vice president for Intellectual Property Policies and Partnerships at the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property.

He further noted that the national strategy proposals are being executed by 37 governmental and private agencies.

SAIP provides its services through official channels, including its website (saip.gov.sa), direct number (920021421), email ([email protected]) and through its social media accounts.

The intellectual property authority defined written works as those that are expressed in words of any kind, such as books and brochures of a literary, scientific or artistic nature. SAIP added that books, poems, novels, articles, speeches, dissertations, schoolbooks and references, brochures and broadcast texts are all included in the optional registration.

Updated 16 April 2023

Arab News

April 16, 2023 14:55

RIYADH: UAE’s state-owned investment firm Mubadala Capital inked a deal to invest $2.5 billion in Brazil over the next 10 years to build a sustainable aviation fuel and kerosene plant in the northeastern state of Bahia.  

The company announced on Saturday that the investment would be made through Acelen, Mubadala’s arm in Brazil, to start production in 2026.  

Work on the new project is set to start in January 2024. It will produce 1 billion liters of hydrotreated vegetable oil per year, a diesel-like fuel made without fossil resources.  

The project aims to reinforce Brazil’s role as a strategic provider of renewable fuels by capitalizing on its natural resources as the country already has a unit that produces soy-based biodiesel which was acquired by Mubadala in 2021.  

Acelen anticipates that all of its renewable fuel production will be exported as there is still no regulation in the Brazilian market that makes domestic sales possible.  

The agreement came within a framework of signings between Brazil’s President Luiz da Silva and UAE’s President Mohammed bin Zayed during their meeting in Abu Dhabi.  

The two countries have been keen to facilitate trade, investment, and tourism exchange as growth and relations strengthen between the two governments.  

UAE’s Minister of Economy Abdullah Al-Marri said that the Emirati-Brazilian partnerships are based on solid foundations of friendship and respect with mutual interests. “The total non-oil foreign trade for the year 2022 between the UAE and Brazil crossed the $4 billion mark, a growth of 32 percent from more than $3 billion in 2021,” he stated.  

He added that despite the significant investments and cooperation between the two countries there are still vast untapped opportunities in the sustainability space.  

The UAE is due to host the COP28 UN climate talks later this year, and Brazil is a candidate to host the 2025 edition. 

The countries said they had agreed to work together to “encourage ambitious climate action” from the rest of the world.