Nadia Saleem News

DP World may launch operations in Iran, the company's chairman said on Thursday, as the global ports operator reported a jump in half-year earnings after buying assets from its parent company. Customer demand will dictate what it will spend on developing port facilities on the Caspian Sea, which it is currently exploring with Iranian authorities. "Iran has a good land bridge of rail that will connect the Silk Route from China to Europe," Chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said on an earnings call with reporters. "With our ports in the Gulf, we need to go into Iran," he said, without giving a timeframe for the investment. He said DP World officials visited Iran ahead of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in July that could see trade sanctions lifted.

Qatar Navigation (Milaha) said on Thursday its unit Qatar Shipping Company had acquired the remaining 60 percent interest in two firms which own Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers from France's Societe Generale. The two entities, Milaha Ras Laffan and Milaha Qatar, are chartered to RasGas under a 25-year time charter contract, with 14 years and 16 years remaining under the time charter agreement respectively, according to a bourse filing. Qatar Shipping Company owned the other 40 percent in each of the two companies prior to the transaction, for which the deal value was not disclosed. Reporting by Nadia Saleem

Dubai's DP World, one of the world's largest port operators, posted an 11.8 percent rise in 2014 net profit as profit margins grew in all its regions, the company said on Thursday. The firm made a profit attributable to shareholders of $675 million compared with $604 million in the prior year, it said in a statement to the NASDAQ Dubai bourse. Revenue in the 12 months was $3.41 billion, up 11 percent from 2013. DP World invested $807 million across its portfolio during the year, adding 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Mohammed Sharaf, group chief executive, said 2015 was expected to see the addition of about 8 million TEU. This would include new facilities in Turkey, India and the Netherlands, and added capacity at Dubai's Jebel Ali Terminal 3.

EZW purchase funded from existing cash and loan facilities; DP World will also take about $859 million of EZW's debt. DP World said on Thursday it would pay $2.6 billion to major shareholder Dubai World for its EZW logistics infrastructure firm, easing the burden on the state conglomerate ahead of a $4.4 billion debt repayment next year. The deal is the latest example of Dubai's 'asset shuffle', where profitable state-owned firms have bought assets from those still struggling after the emirate's debt crisis at the turn of the decade. Dubai World is due to repay $4.4 billion in May, but is in negotiations with creditors to bring this payment forward in exchange for more time to meet a much larger payment scheduled for 2018, as well as other inducements.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), one of the world's largest petrochemicals groups and the Gulf's largest listed company, reported a 7 percent rise in second-quarter net income on Sunday, matching analysts' forecasts. It earned 6.46 billion riyals ($1.72 billion) in the quarter, compared to 6.04 billion riyals in the year-earlier period, SABIC said in a bourse statement. SABIC, which is 70 percent state-owned, attributed the rise in profits to higher production and sales volumes as well as higher sales prices. This was in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters, who had predicted a quarterly profit of 6.42 billion riyals. (Reporting by Nadia Saleem; Editing by Andrew Torchia) ($1 = 3.7502 Saudi Riyals)

United Arab Emirates shipper Gulf Navigation said on Wednesday it had cut its capital by two-thirds and written off accumulated losses worth 1.1 billion dirhams ($300 million), key parts of a turnaround plan designed to solve its debt problems. The company's capital has been reduced to 551 million dirhams from 1.66 billion dirhams, it said in a statement on the Dubai bourse, with the reverse stock split effectively creating one share for every three existing shares. The accounting technique allows the firm to use its own capital base to expunge its debts. Dubai's only listed crude oil shipper has been in talks with creditors for months after an ambitious expansion plan at the end of the last decade crippled the company…