Middle East’s AUM industry growth to $1.2trln
Retail investors have helped fuel the growth in the Middle East’s assets under management (AUM) industry, which recorded a double-digit increase in 2021, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Retail portfolio sizes grew by 11% and came to represent 41% of global assets under management (AUM) with $42 trillion. Institutional investments grew at a similar pace to reach $61 trillion, or 59% of the global market. The region’s AUM jumped 16 percent to $1.2 trillion last year, significantly above the 10-year growth average. Global AUM reached $112 trillion.
Bill Gates says Crypto and NFTs are ‘100% based on greater fool theory’
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he thinks cryptocurrencies and NFTs are “100% based on greater fool theory.” Bill Gates is not a fan of cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens. As criticisms of digital assets thicken worldwide, billionaire Bill Gates dismissed cryptocurrency projects such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as shams “based on the greater fool theory” at a climate conference.
Speaking at a TechCrunch talk on climate change Tuesday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder described the phenomenon as something that’s “100% based on greater fool theory,” referring to the idea that overvalued assets will go up in price when enough investors are willing to pay more for them.
Sri Lanka’s debt-ridden economy has ‘completely collapsed’
Sri Lanka’s prime minister says its debt-laden economy has “collapsed” after months of shortages of food, fuel, and electricity and the South Asian island nation cannot even purchase imported oil. It follows months of shortages of food, fuel, and electricity, and the realization that evens the credit lines from neighboring India that have sustained the country so far will not be enough. The crisis has started to hurt Sri Lanka’s middle class, which is estimated to be 15% to 20% of the country’s urban population.
Saudi Arabia adopts a multi-cloud strategy to improve healthcare
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has deployed multi-cloud solutions from VMware to digitally transform the country’s public healthcare sector.
With VMware Cloud Foundation, MoH benefits from a complete set of highly secure software-defined services for compute, storage, network, security, Kubernetes, and cloud management. When the solution is fully deployed, Saudi Arabia’s public healthcare system will benefit from the resiliency, agility, and efficiency afforded by the shared cloud platform.
Mukesh Ambani resigns as chairman, son Akash Ambani takes over
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, resigned from the board of Reliance Jio, passing over the responsibility to his son Akash Ambani. Akash, a non-executive director at India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, is appointed as chairman of the board, the company announced this in an exchange filing on June 27. Mukesh will continue to be the chairman of Jio Platforms Ltd , the flagship company that owns all Jio digital services brands including Reliance Jio Infocom.
Retal, Saudi real estate developer, makes its Tadawul debut
Retal Urban Development Company (Retal) of Saudi Arabia listed its shares on Tadawul, joining a flurry of public offers across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Retal, which offered 12 million shares or 30 percent of its issued share capital, raised SAR 1,440 million ($384 million). Final share price was set at SAR 120, implying a market capitalization at the listing of SAR 4.8 billion.
Goldman Sachs to raise $2b to restructure Celsius
According to persons familiar with the situation, Celsius Network LLC has hired restructuring experts from the consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal to provide advice on a potential bankruptcy petition.
The New Jersey-based cryptocurrency lending company froze withdrawals and transfers earlier this month due to“extreme” market conditions, in the latest sign of the financial market downturn hitting the crypto sphere. Goldman Sachs was looking to raise $2 billion from investors to buy distressed assets from Celsius.
Netflix eliminates 300 more employees in the latest layoffs
Netflix cut off another 300 workers as the streaming company looks to reduce expenses amid uneven customer growth. The job losses are spread throughout the organization, with the majority of those affected headquartered in the United States. The reduction is twice as significant as the one offered by the streaming service last month. Variety was the first to report the news.
World Bank Warns of Stagflation Risk
The World Bank sharply lowered its growth forecast for the global economy for this year, warning of several years of high inflation and tepid growth reminiscent of the stagflation of the 1970s.
Citing the damage from the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic, the bank said global growth is expected to slump to 2.9% in 2022 from 5.7% in 2021, significantly lower than its January forecast for 4.1% growth. Furthermore, growth is expected to hover around the reduced pace over 2023 and 2024 as the war disrupts human activity, investment and trade while governments withdraw fiscal and monetary support.
