November 28, 2007
A rapid return to Abu Dhabi
OK, so it did not take me long to break my promise about not writing any more about my Gulf visit. But I have an excuse: Abu Dhabi’s convenient decision to invest $7.5bn in Citigroup a week after I visited the emirate.
That is the subject of my newspaper column this week. I conclude that Americans should be thankful that Gulf countries want to recycle their energy revenues back into risk capital. You can read the rest of it here and post any comments below.
I agree with the statement. US and Citigroup should be thankful that despite a lapse in the market and strain on the economy, UAE’s AIDA group has shown confidence in the company and its growth. This has really generate a positive vibe about the company in the market. It would supplement investor confidence in the sector, and would also enhance market standing of Citigroup.
Posted by: Afsheen Bashir Ali | November 29th, 2007 at 7:16 am | Report this commentGulf states are not alone. According to Steve Levine over at oilandglory.com, Russia and Kazakhstan also intend to invest their oil wealth in Western assets.
What is interesting is that the West, so long lecturing the former Soviets et al about opening their markets to foreign investment, now face the same mantra.
Posted by: Agnie | November 29th, 2007 at 7:33 pm | Report this commentPlease do not sell US assets at bargain basement prices!
The sale of 4.9 percent of Citigroup to an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, it somehow led me to think about the “Memoirs of a Geisha” that describes the creation of a vicious competitive bidding process in order to maximize the value of a young girl’s virginity.
I just wonder whether if someone had previously set a maximum limit to how much of a Citigroup could be sold to middle east countries before being blocked similar to how the takeover of some US ports were one would not have been able to generate that scarcity value that could have led the investor to gladly fork out at least twice what they paid for those shares.
Sincerely, in these days when we read of billions of run away losses in a world that has no idea where to invest, one could believe that the shares of the bank that never sleeps in the US and that is one of those that has seemingly become too large to fail should be worth a bit more.
There are other strengths in the US of course but the assets of America are the main line of defence when it comes to hold up the value of those dollars we are all holding and so if these assets start going at bargain basement prices, then we are all really in a jam.
Posted by: Per Kurowski | December 1st, 2007 at 4:10 pm | Report this comment