Saudi Arabia Press Release

Doha, 12 May 2012 - Despite a slight easing in April, the price of food in global commodity markets remains near historic highs. In the GCC, retail food prices continue to trend upwards. QNB Group notes that the global food crisis that began in 2007 may be far from over.

JEDDAH, MAY 8, 2012: Recruiting and retaining quality Saudi Arabian banking professionals is going to get a lot more difficult unless banks in the country take a long term approach to nurturing local talent.

Results of new study unveiled at Arabian Travel Market a must-have for destinations targeting Gulf travelers - Qataris are highest spenders abroad with daily average of U.S $4,100 followed by KSA $3,360 and UAE $3,280.

Abu Dhabi, UAE: May 2, 2012 - The launch of 24-hour Arabic language breaking news channel Sky News Arabia on May 6, 2012 is set to reach television households across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region following the signing of distribution deals with a number of premium television platforms, including OSN and the Abu Dhabi TV Network in High Definition and the Etisalat eLife TV and du IPTV platforms in Standard Definition.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Sidra Capital (Sidra), a CMA regulated Shariah compliant financial services company based in Saudi Arabia and Gatehouse Bank (Gatehouse), an FSA regulated UK-based Shariah compliant bank specialising in UK real estate, have announced the first closing of The Sterling United Kingdom Real Estate Fund (SURF) and their first property acquisition in Cambridge, UK at GBP23.55m.

Prince Alwaleed commented: "These transactions mark yet another step for KHC towards the realization of the value of its investments."

(BUSINESS WIRE / ME NewsWire )-- MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, announced today that it will reintroduce coverage of the Saudi Arabia equity market with the release of standalone country indices, after reaching agreement with the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the provision of market data.

Dubai, UAE, 14 April 2012 Business leaders have called for greater cooperation alongside educators and governments in order to ensure a job-ready talent pipeline for Gulf employers.

Latham & Watkins advised the Managers in relation to an Ijara sukuk issuance by Saudi Electricity Global SUKUK Company (a wholly-owned SPV of Saudi Electricity Company). The sukuk was issued in two tranches, for the amount of $500 million due 2017 and $1.25 billion due 2022 respectively.

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 7 April 2012: Amid a more assertive drive from GCC governments to implement green building codes on all construction and infrastructure projects, industry experts foresee these output methods as a short-term reality that will complement growing economic opportunities, with the UAE leading the trend in the region.