Archive | Investment

Iraq Business News brings you the latest news of investments in Iraq, highlighting the many opportunities that exist.

Does 'Mental Accounting' Matter?

By Mark DeWeaver. ISX observers sometimes blame share price declines on people selling their recently listed bonus or rights issue shares. Such behavior would be interesting to document because it seems to imply a departure from perfect rationality. From the point of view of conventional finance theory, there just isn’t any reason to differentiate between […]

T Rowe Price takes Profits on Iraq Debt

By John Lee. T Rowe Price has reportedly been selling some of its Iraqi government debt, in anticipation of renewed political turmoil in the country. Investment Week reports that the fund manager has been overweight in Iraq for several years, and at one time was the largest Iraqi debt holder. The company's emerging market debt […]

In State Banks We Trust

By Mark DeWeaver. 2013 was another strong year for deposit growth at the ISX-listed banks. Deposits at the 19 names that have so far reported year-end financials were up 17% year-on-year as of December 31. (Only BDFD and BELF, which together accounted for 8% of 2012 listed-bank deposits, have yet to report.) While their deposit […]

Iraq Stock Market Report

Advertising Feature Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) market report (week ending: 6th March 2014). Please click here to download a table of listed companies and their associated ticker codes. The RSISX index ended the week at ID1,844 (+1.4%)/ $1,959 (+1.4%) (weekly change). The number of week traded shares was 68.3bn and the weekly trading […]

Iraq’s Missing Market

By Mark DeWeaver. In my last post I argued that Iraqi banks’ high cash/deposit ratios are due to the absence of an interbank market. If that is the case, you might think it would be easy to get the banks to put more of their deposits to work in the "real economy." Couldn’t somebody (e.g. […]

Iraq Stock Market Report

Advertising Feature Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) market report (week ending: 27th February 2014). Please click here to download a table of listed companies and their associated ticker codes. The RSISX index ended the week at ID1,819 (-3.6%)/ $1,932 (-3.6%) (weekly change). The number of week traded shares was 21.2bn and the weekly trading […]

Are Iraqi Banks Too Liquid?

By Mark DeWeaver. Fund managers visiting Iraq for the first time are often surprised by the large amounts of cash Iraqi banks typically hold. While the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) requires lenders to hold 15% of their deposits in the form of vault cash and central bank reserves, most hold well over 50%. (See […]

Iraq Stock Market Report

Advertising Feature Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) market report (week ending: 20th February 2014). Please click here to download a table of listed companies and their associated ticker codes. The RSISX index ended the week at ID1,888 (-2.5%)/ $2,005 (-2.5%) (weekly change). The number of week traded shares was 11.2bn and the weekly trading […]

New Report on Erbil Property

Erbil's IKG Property has issued its Q4 2013 Report which covers Erbil’s Industrial, Retail and Residential markets. The report gives an overview of each sector, explores the supply and demand dynamics and give a brief snapshot of the serviced apartment sector. Click here to download the report from our Reports section.

Standard Chartered makes New Appointment for Iraq

By John Lee. Standard Chartered has announced the appointment of Ahmed Muallah as Managing Director and Head of its Wholesale Banking business in Iraq. Commenting on the appointment, Gavin Wishart, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Iraq said: “This appointment comes as another testament to our long term commitment to Iraq. Standard Chartered is bringing its best international financial business […]

French Delegation Arrive in Baghdad

By John Lee. The French Ambassador in Baghdad Dennis Gauer (pictured) has accompanied a delegation from the French Foreign Ministry including Jean Francois Giraud,  Head of the North Africa and Middle East Department at the ministry. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and his ministry's head of the Europe Department greeted the delegation, and issues such […]

Arab Partnership Participation Fund 2014/15

The British Embassy has the pleasure to invite you to bid for funds from the Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF) for the financial year 2014/2015. The Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF), led by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) focuses on three priority areas: · political participation · freedom of expression and public voice · […]