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Qatar Is Becoming The New Frontier Of Modern Art

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Relics, the biggest ever show of work by Damien Hirst was recently unveiled in the tiny, energy-rich state of Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. As well as the provocative artist’s spot and spin paintings and his signature medicine cabinets, the show boasted the biggest pickled shark he has ever made, weighing in at a gargantuan 76 tons, and his diamond-encrusted skull, a piece that he once boasted was the most expensive artwork ever made by a living artist. The exhibition was staged in Qatar’s capital Doha, in the Al Riwaq exhibition space, a building which had been covered with coloured dots for the occasion. But that is not all: outside an as-yet-unfinished medical centre, Hirst had placed The Miraculous Journey, a series of 14 massive bronze sculptures charting a foetus from conception to birth. The project cost a reported $20m. The sculptures were seen as highly controversial in Qatar, where shop mannequins still sometimes don’t have heads, because of the Muslim unease with anything fi...
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10 Things To Know About The Saudi Equities Market

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If you are – or want to be – an investor, we’re guessing you’re probably seriously eyeing the Kingdom’s bourse right about now. Since we can’t let you fly blind, here’s a quick ten-point Saudi equities primer from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) for you to make an informed decision: 1. The highly diversified market has 169 listed companies across 15 different sectors. It is the largest stock market in the Mena region. 2. It has an average daily liquidity of more than $2.3bn, making it the seventh largest and the fourth most liquid market among the GEMs (global emerging markets). 3. The opening of the market paves the way for Saudi Arabia to be included in the MSCI emerging markets index by 2017. This should help it attract $13.7bn in flows. Currently, it is considered a frontier market (i.e., too small to be in the emerging category). 4. Approximately 90 per cent of the market is dominated by Saudi retail investors right now. Only three per cent of daily trading v...
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Lebanese Investor Charles Corm Built 21% Annual Return Over Two Decades With Bold Bets on Tech, Biotech, and Real Estate

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Lebanese entrepreneur and investor Charles Corm has quietly built one of the most enviable track records in global finance through his private investment firm, CORMCO, which he founded in 1998.  Over a 26-year span, CORMCO has posted a 21% annualized return, trouncing the S&P 500’s 10% and the Nasdaq Composite’s 14% over the same period. The outperformance is largely credited to a string of early, high-conviction bets on tech, biotech, and real estate companies around the world. Among Corm’s most notable investments: Broadcom’s IPO in 1998, Nvidia’s 1999 public debut, and a stake in Dubai-based Emaar Properties when it went public in 2000. “We look for inflection points where capital, innovation, and macro trends collide,” Corm has said in past remarks to investors.  Corm, 50, serves as Managing Partner of CORMCO, which remains fully privately held. While low-profile compared to other names in global finance, his influence stretches behind the scenes into elite investor c...
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How To Buy Property In Dubai

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Dev Mitra, CEO of Indigo Properties, shares 7 tips to help you make sure you’re dealing with the right developer. 1. Visit the company’s website. Gain insights into the company you are about to sign with. It is important that you know what its history is, who the owners, partners and associates are, how long the company has been around, its ongoing projects and so on. 2. Visit completed projects. Make a visit to the developer’s completed projects to see the styles, finishings and layouts. Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. 3. Talk to existing owners. There is nothing better than a recommendation or unbiased insights from someone who has already been in your situation. A small chat with an existing property owner can reveal a host of pros and cons. 4. Visit social media platforms/other online research. The internet is a great source of information: be sure to have a look at what feedback others have had when working with the developer. Take a look at the develo...
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Saudi Arabia's 10 Biggest Contractors

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10. Al Harbi Trading & Contracting: The Riyadh-based company was awarded a deal for developing an area of 500 hectares in Mardooma Quarter last November, which was one of two contracts worth $80 million handed out by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu. The scope of the works includes roads, water drainage and waste water, drinking water and wastewater treatment, as well as the construction of a communications building. The company has carried out a large number of government projects since its establishment in 1965. Apart from being involved in massive infrastructure jobs such as King Abdullah Economic City, Al Harbi Trading and Contracting has worked on major civils projects, including a $19.1 million job to upgrade runways at Kuwait’s airport, a $53 million sewage tunnels project in North Jeddah and a $104 million contract to build nine 50-bed and 100-bed hospitals across the Kingdom. It is part of Al Harbi Group, which also has an mechanical, electrical and plumbing (M...
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Silatech Crowdfunding Young Entrepreneurs

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A new online ‘micro-giving’ platform for financing young Arab entrepreneurs has launched in Qatar to fund micro enterprises of the Arab world’s unemployed youth. Narwi.com was founded by two Doha-based organisations, Qatar Charity and Silatech, which aim to leverage the power of crowdfunding to help provide financing to young Arabs wishing to start their own very small enterprises. Silatech is a social initiative headquartered in Qatar, designed to promote entrepreneurship in the region, while Qatar Charity is an NGO, established in 1992 to support Qatari society and communities in need abroad. Dr Tarik M Yousef, CEO of Silatetch, said of Narwi: “It will allow visitors to the site to directly and securely contribute toward financing the young Arab entrepreneur of their choice in countries including Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. “Funds on Narwi are given as revolving donations, so that when the entrepreneur repays the original loan, the donation moves on to sup...
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Joe Tabet Reaps The Rewards From Pragma Group

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Picture the perfect weekend: you leave work early on a Thursday as you have secured tickets for the Madinat Jumeirah theater performance of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, with a new cast list consisting of Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier. On Friday you take in an intimate jazz session with Bob Dylan in a bar along Sheikh Zayed Road and you round off the night with a retro concert with a jam-packed line-up of names including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, James Brown and Kurt Cobain. It all sounds like fantasy but it can all be (almost) possible with the latest advances in hologram 3D technology. No longer the domain of Star Trek fiction, the sophisticated projection devices currently available mean deceased superstars can be brought back to life for one more performance beyond the grave, or existing artists could play exclusive concerts without being physically present and appear simultaneously on stage in London, Abu Dhabi or Las Vegas. Joe Tabet...
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