Latest news with #JustinAlexander
Zawya
7 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Kuwait could issue debut debt tranche before Eid
With plans to borrow up to $20 billion during the current fiscal year, Kuwait could issue its first tranche of debt very soon possibly even before the Eid al-Adha holidays— after the OPEC oil producer last week authorised its multi-billion sovereign wealth fund, and the central bank to borrow funds. The Ministry of Finance has approved the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) to borrow in major foreign currencies on global markets, while the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has been authorised to raise debt in domestic markets. 'All the signs are that the first issuance will come soon, maybe even before Eid al-Adha,' Justin Alexander, Director, Khalij Economics, told Zawya. He noted that the issuance could proceed despite less-than-ideal market conditions, including rising US Treasury yields driven by tariffs, a Moody's downgrade, and fiscal concerns surrounding US President Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' 'However, it's not clear that things will get better as the year progresses, so I expect there will be a sizable debut issuance, maybe around the $5 billion range, but it could easily be double that--Saudi Arabia and Qatar have made $10 billion-plus issuances in the past,' Alexander added. The green light for the KIA and CBK follows Finance Ministry Undersecretary Faisal Al-Muzaini's announcement last week that Kuwait plans to borrow between 3 and 6 billion dinars (approximately $10–20 billion) from international and local markets during the 2025/2026 fiscal year. Public debt In March, Kuwait issued a public debt decree, allowing the government to issue financial instruments with maturities of up to 50 years and setting a debt ceiling of KWD 30 billion ($98 billion) in major convertible foreign currencies. According to Fitch Ratings, this represents around 62% of the country's GDP. S&P Ratings projects that gross general government debt will rise to about 17% of GDP by 2028, up from 3% in 2024. Kuwait, which holds around 7% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves, relies on oil revenues for up to 87% of its income. OPEC+ production cuts have reduced Kuwait's oil exports and, consequently, its revenue. A think tank has suggested that Kuwait may need an average oil price of $100 per barrel to finance its growing budget deficit in the coming years. Junaid Ansari, Director of Investment Strategy and Research at Kuwait-based Kamco Invest, believes the borrowing plan is not a direct response to falling oil prices but part of a broader long-term strategy. 'The strategy is aimed at having a presence in the debt market, develop a sovereign yield curve and provide a basis for firms in the country to raise funds. We believe that all governments in the GCC are aiming to delink debt issuances with the changes in oil prices to have a much more stable, sustainable and long-term fiscal strategy. It would also be positive for the sovereign rating as it removes ambiguity with respect to government's funding plans,' he said. Alexander noted that Kuwait could have continued using fiscal maneuvers to tap the Reserve Fund for Future Generations managed by the KIA by selling assets to it. 'But it's much cleaner to use debt financing, especially since borrowing costs are likely lower than the KIA's internal rate of return,' he said. Kuwait's last debt issuance was in 2017, just before the previous debt law expired. Efforts to pass a new law allowing a return to debt markets had been stalled for years due to political gridlock between parliament and the cabinet. Despite Kuwait's strong sovereign ratings (AA- by Fitch and A+ by S&P, both with stable outlooks) and low public debt levels, challenges remain. These include a lack of predictability and transparency, and weak implementation of fiscal reforms. Investor interest is high Still, Alexander said investor interest in Kuwait remains high. 'Although there are plenty of concerns about Kuwait, its very low debt stock and huge pool of foreign assets mean that investors are likely to be very comfortable holding Kuwaiti debt. The spreads will be tight, closer to Abu Dhabi than Saudi Arabia (which has the same average rating as Kuwait but a far weaker net asset position), but demand should be solid as a diversification play for those investing in regional debt.' According to S&P Global, Kuwait's debt stood at about 3% of GDP at the end of 2024, primarily comprising a $4.5 billion Eurobond maturing in 2027. Domestic debt is minimal, at around 0.1% of GDP. (Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rising NFL Star Travis Hunter Marries Leanna Lenee at Luxury Tennessee Venue — and Surprises Her with a 6-Figure Gift
Travis Hunter and Leanna Lenee tied the knot at a luxury wedding venue in Tennessee on May 24 The Jacksonville Jaguars rookie gifted his longtime partner a six-figure Mercedes-Benz during their nuptials Hunter and Lenee, who met as teenagers and have been together since he was in high school in Georgia, got engaged in February 2024Travis Hunter and Leanna Lenee are married! On Saturday, May 24, the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie, 22, and Lenee, 23, exchanged vows at The Barn at Faith Farms, a luxury wedding venue in Tennessee, according to The Daily Mail. Returning to social media after a hiatus, Lenee, whose full name is Leanna De La Fuente, shared photographs of her white wedding gown as she posed alongside her husband, Sports Illustrated reported. A video shared on X showed that Hunter bought Lenee a Mercedes-Benz AMG G63 Brabus 800 as a wedding gift. Guests could be heard cheering as the bride unwrapped the six-figure vehicle. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! Lenee wore two custom-made dresses by New York designer Justin Alexander for her wedding to Hunter, which appeared to have a black and white theme. Her sister Alina served as her maid of honor, while her bridesmaids included her other sister Elisha, her brother Jalen's wife Gabby, Hunter's sister Ashley and four of her friends. Hunter's friend Fella was his best man, while his brother Trayvis, cousin TJ and Lenee's relatives were among the groomsmen. Before ending their special day with fireworks, the pair had their first dance to Alicia Keys' 'If I Ain't Got You," The Daily Mail reported. The rising NFL star and Lenee have been together since he was in high school in Georgia, according to Sports Illustrated. The now-married pair maintained their relationship as he went to Jackson State and then Colorado, the outlet reported. Hunter and Lenee announced their engagement in February 2024. 'A million times, yes 💍,' Lenee captioned engagement pictures shared on Instagram at the time. Lenee was proposed to with a $100,000 ring, Sports Illustrated said. The couple then revealed they had set a wedding date while on the 2Legendary podcast. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Hunter and Lenee's wedding day took place a month after they walked the red carpet together at the 2025 NFL Draft. Before the event, Lenee gifted Hunter a Rolex and a bracelet to celebrate the new chapter in his football career. She had been silent on social media in the months prior to the outing after being criticized for staying seated when Hunter won the Heisman Trophy. A video circulating on X at the time appeared to show Buffalo's head coach Deion Sanders telling her to stand up and clap for Hunter. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! Lenee later defended herself on TikTok, and Hunter also responded to critics on Twitch. "I know what I got. I know my girl. My girl's been with me for five years," he said at the time. "Y'all are just now starting to talk about me and just now starting to be with me. Come on, man." "Y'all hate on me and then y'all go hate on my girl," Hunter added. "I feel the same pain that she feel. We're unseperable [sic], we're with each other. If she hurting, of course I'm going to be hurting." Read the original article on People
Zawya
16-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Beyond the headlines: explaining Trump's Gulf 'trillions'
U.S. President Donald Trump was wrapping up his Gulf tour on Friday having secured what the White House says is over $2 trillion for the U.S. economy in combined deals. How that number was calculated is unclear. Based on a Reuters tally of all the specific deals announced, the total value is over $700 billion. But deal inflation is not unusual on any major visit, let alone one by a U.S. president who has long prided himself as an expert dealmaker. The trip included big orders of Boeing planes, deals to buy U.S. defence equipment, data and technology agreements and other contracts. But financial experts and diplomats say the headline figures have been padded out in both sides' desire to showcase the extent of their cooperation. Of the corporate agreements worth up to $549 billion during the Trump's Gulf tour, many were non-binding memorandums of understanding, according to a Reuters analysis. The defence sales agreed with Saudi Arabia and Qatar took the overall tally close to $730 billion, by Reuters' calculations. Reuters could not independently verify whether additional agreements were signed without public disclosure. "The amounts are inflated, possible spending is counted as actual - and most of the solid deals ... would have happened irrespective of who was in the White House," said Justin Alexander, Director of Khalij Economics. During his first term, Trump said Saudi Arabia had agreed to $450 billion in deals with the U.S., but actual trade and investment flows amounted to less than $300 billion between 2017 to 2020, according to data compiled by the Arab Gulf States Institute. "DEALMAKER IN CHIEF" In response to a question about the figures, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters: 'President Trump is the Dealmaker in Chief, and these trillions of dollars in economic agreements are great news for American companies and workers. The President is quickly delivering on his promises to Make America Strong and Wealthy Again." A Qatari official reached by Reuters did not provide comprehensive details about Doha's commitment to Washington, and Saudi and UAE officials did not immediately respond to requests for details. Memorandums of understanding are less formal than contracts and do not always turn into cash transactions. Saudi Aramco, for example, announced it had signed 34 deals with U.S. companies worth up to $90 billion on AI infrastructure and other areas. But most of the tie-ups were non-binding MoUs without a value attached. Aramco's agreement to buy 1.2 million tonnes of LNG per year for a 20-year term from NextDecade had already been announced months earlier, but was still included in Wednesday's tally. The White House said agreements signed with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani would "generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion", and included a $96 billion sale to Qatar Airways. But it did not offer a comprehensive breakdown A Qatari official said Qatar's sovereign wealth fund had made an "economic pledge" to invest $500 billion in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years, but that this did not yet include anything concrete. "If the past is precedent, promised deals that have no real return on investment will eventually be shelved after having served their political purpose," said Firas Maksad, managing director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. On the defence side, Washington signed a $142 billion arms package with Saudi Arabia covering purchases from more than a dozen U.S. companies, and what Trump said was a $42 billion defence deal with Qatar. During his first term, Trump celebrated an announcement of approximately $110 billion of arms sales during his visit to Saudi Arabia. But such deals extend over many years and are hard to track closely. As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. BEYOND THE NUMBERS Despite the vagueness of the commitments and timelines, the news has boosted some market stocks. Deutsche Bank attributed a 4.16% rise in Nvidia on Wednesday to the MoU announced by Saudi state oil giant Aramco. And there were concrete new deals for U.S. companies. Qatar Airways' order for 160 Boeing jetliners with GE Aerospace engines is worth $96 billion. And Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways will spend $14.5 billion to buy 28 Boeing aircraft with GE engines. Boeing shares closed up 0.64% on Wednesday after the Doha reveal. But some of the real gains of Trump's tour lie beyond the raw numbers. Most importantly, the three Gulf countries have secured U.S. support for files they see as key. Saudi Arabia is moving closer to its long-held aspiration to develop a civil nuclear energy industry, which Trump has delinked from normalising relations with Israel, a major win for the kingdom. The UAE has signed a framework that puts it on a pathway to acquiring the advanced semiconductors it wants in order to fulfil its long-held ambition of AI leadership. And Qatar received Trump's assurance that the U.S. would protect it if it ever came under attack. "I think there is a wider symbolic dividend here," said Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "While many of the U.S.'s traditional partners and allies have had a particularly tense few months of relations with the U.S., trying to navigate Trump's economic policies and his controversial approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, here are the Gulf States concluding unprecedented business deals and arms sales and taking their bilateral relationship to the next level." (Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Pesha Magid in Riyadh and Manya Saini in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Federico Maccioni in Dubai; Gram Slattery in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Maha El Dahan and Kevin Liffey)
Reuters
16-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
What are the Gulf 'trillions' that Trump says will boost the US economy?
RIYADH/DOHA, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump was wrapping up his Gulf tour on Friday having secured what the White House says is over $2 trillion for the U.S. economy in combined deals. How that number was calculated is unclear. Based on a Reuters tally of all the specific deals announced, the total value is over $700 billion. But deal inflation is not unusual on any major visit, let alone one by a U.S. president who has long prided himself as an expert dealmaker. The trip included big orders of Boeing planes, deals to buy U.S. defence equipment, data and technology agreements and other contracts. But financial experts and diplomats say the headline figures have been padded out in both sides' desire to showcase the extent of their cooperation. Of the corporate agreements worth up to $549 billion during the Trump's Gulf tour, many were non-binding memorandums of understanding, according to a Reuters analysis. The defence sales agreed with Saudi Arabia and Qatar took the overall tally close to $730 billion, by Reuters' calculations. Reuters could not independently verify whether additional agreements were signed without public disclosure. "The amounts are inflated, possible spending is counted as actual - and most of the solid deals ... would have happened irrespective of who was in the White House," said Justin Alexander, Director of Khalij Economics. During his first term, Trump said Saudi Arabia had agreed to $450 billion in deals with the U.S., but actual trade and investment flows amounted to less than $300 billion between 2017 to 2020, according to data compiled by the Arab Gulf States Institute. In response to a question about the figures, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters: 'President Trump is the Dealmaker in Chief, and these trillions of dollars in economic agreements are great news for American companies and workers. The President is quickly delivering on his promises to Make America Strong and Wealthy Again." A Qatari official reached by Reuters did not provide comprehensive details about Doha's commitment to Washington, and Saudi and UAE officials did not immediately respond to requests for details. Memorandums of understanding are less formal than contracts and do not always turn into cash transactions. Saudi Aramco ( opens new tab, for example, announced it had signed 34 deals with U.S. companies worth up to $90 billion on AI infrastructure and other areas. But most of the tie-ups were non-binding MoUs without a value attached. Aramco's agreement to buy 1.2 million tonnes of LNG per year for a 20-year term from NextDecade had already been announced months earlier, but was still included in Wednesday's tally. The White House said agreements signed with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani would "generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion", and included a $96 billion sale to Qatar Airways. But it did not offer a comprehensive breakdown A Qatari official said Qatar's sovereign wealth fund had made an "economic pledge" to invest $500 billion in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years, but that this did not yet include anything concrete. "If the past is precedent, promised deals that have no real return on investment will eventually be shelved after having served their political purpose," said Firas Maksad, managing director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. On the defence side, Washington signed a $142 billion arms package with Saudi Arabia covering purchases from more than a dozen U.S. companies, and what Trump said was a $42 billion defence deal with Qatar. During his first term, Trump celebrated an announcement of approximately $110 billion of arms sales during his visit to Saudi Arabia. But such deals extend over many years and are hard to track closely. As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Despite the vagueness of the commitments and timelines, the news has boosted some market stocks. Deutsche Bank attributed a 4.16% rise in Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab on Wednesday to the MoU announced by Saudi state oil giant Aramco. And there were concrete new deals for U.S. companies. Qatar Airways' order for 160 Boeing jetliners with GE Aerospace engines is worth $96 billion. And Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways will spend $14.5 billion to buy 28 Boeing aircraft with GE engines. Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab shares closed up 0.64% on Wednesday after the Doha reveal. But some of the real gains of Trump's tour lie beyond the raw numbers. Most importantly, the three Gulf countries have secured U.S. support for files they see as key. Saudi Arabia is moving closer to its long-held aspiration to develop a civil nuclear energy industry, which Trump has delinked from normalising relations with Israel, a major win for the kingdom. The UAE has signed a framework that puts it on a pathway to acquiring the advanced semiconductors it wants in order to fulfil its long-held ambition of AI leadership. And Qatar received Trump's assurance that the U.S. would protect it if it ever came under attack. "I think there is a wider symbolic dividend here," said Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "While many of the U.S.'s traditional partners and allies have had a particularly tense few months of relations with the U.S., trying to navigate Trump's economic policies and his controversial approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, here are the Gulf States concluding unprecedented business deals and arms sales and taking their bilateral relationship to the next level."
Muscat Daily
06-04-2025
- Business
- Muscat Daily
Trump tariffs present both challenges and opportunities for Oman
Justin Alexander , Director of Khalij Economics and Author of The Gulf Weekly The sweeping global tariffs announced by the US President Donald Trump have shaken bilateral relationships, stunned financial markets, and worried US consumers. They have also bewildered economists because, despite being framed as punishment for countries that apply high tariffs to US goods, they are based instead on the size of the US's trade deficit with each country. This is the result of spurious reasoning that the existence of a trade imbalance is evidence of unfair trade barriers. In the case of Oman, the US actually runs a trade surplus, as it does with other GCC states, and therefore faces only the universal 10% tariff rate on most goods. By contrast, other countries have been burdened with much higher rates merely because their exports to the US are larger than their imports (at least in terms of goods – Trump's calculation ignores trade in services, where the US has a large surplus). Pakistan, for example, is now subject to a 29% tariff rate and Iraq to 39%. Nonetheless, Omanis may be rightfully annoyed because the two countries have a bilateral Free Trade Agreement under which Oman has placed zero tariffs on US goods since 2009. It did not even retaliate when, in his first term, Trump imposed universal tariffs on aluminum and steel, two of Oman's largest non-oil exports. Unfortunately, the 'Liberation Day' tariffs have ignored free trade agreements. Jordan has a similar agreement, which has led to the development of a garment industry that is a major source of employment and generates a fifth of its exports. However, this is now threatened after it was slapped with 20% tariffs. For Oman, the new tariffs should not be a major problem for exporters. Only about 2% of Oman's exports went to the US in 2023, including 7% of its non-oil exports, as shown in the graph. Its steel and aluminum exports have remained strong even after Trump applied tariffs to them in 2018. For most other items, it actually has a competitive advantage now against many other exporters. For example, in the fertilisers sector, a major competitor to Oman, the Netherlands, is now subject to tariffs that are double the rate Oman is being charged. The real threat to Oman is indirect. Firstly, if the trade war continues, then it is likely to reduce global oil demand. Already, Brent oil has fallen by $10 since Trump's announcement to a four-year low of $65. Fiscal discipline efforts in recent years mean that this is close to Oman's budget breakeven; therefore, even if it persists, it would not be a disaster for government finances. However, it would still be painful and would limit the government's space to invest. Secondly, the tariffs are expected to significantly increase US inflation. This means that the US Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates high in an effort to tame inflation. Oman's currency peg means that its domestic rates are constrained by those in the US, leading to higher borrowing costs for businesses and individuals. More positively, in a world of rising protectionism, Oman's commitment to free trade should enhance its attractiveness to investors. Companies building factories in Oman can be confident that they will not incur significant customs duties on their imports. Additionally, their exports, whether to the US or elsewhere, will be subject to generally low tariffs. Amidst the general gloom of a global trade war, this is an important silver lining.
