Clear insight

Blogs 3 January, 2017

COMPANIES IN THE NEWS: SPA Sovac Algerie

Volkswagen and Sovac have announced a joint venture in Algeria....

Blogs 19 December, 2016

Iran – sealing the deal

On Saturday the first concrete steps were taken to rehabilitate Iran in the global economy, when it was announced that many of the international sanctions gradually imposed on the country over the last 15 years or more had been...

Blogs 26 November, 2016

Tangier, Morocco and Diligencia – a growth story

Last week I made one of my regular trips back to Tangier, the town where I was born and a city where Diligencia now has a team of over 20 researchers helping us provide reliable and accurate company information for the MENA...

Blogs 16 November, 2016

Charitable foundations or conglomerates? – Iran’s bonyad system

Bonyads (charitable foundations) are at the centre of Iran’s informal social welfare system. They are significant to Iranians, particularly the retired and war-wounded, as providers of social support. However, they are of further...

Blogs 25 October, 2016

The new UAE bankruptcy law – surprise announcement?

It was announced today that new UAE legislation on bankruptcy had been decreed into law, a first draft of which was only approved by the country’s federal cabinet last month. In a move which may take many of the legal and...

Blogs 4 October, 2016

What are Saham-e Edalat? A glimpse into the process of Iranian ‘cooperativisation’

The Justice Shares (saham-e edalat) scheme is one of the more mystifying examples of Iranian government bureaucracy. Designed in the early 2000s by the populist Ahmadinejad government, the scheme was designed to allow the...

Blogs 5 September, 2016

Feast and famine: current investor sentiment towards Saudi Arabia

Institutional investors are salivating over Saudi Arabia’s first international debt sale, likely to be held next month, as reports1over the weekend suggest a “clamour” of interest – reportedly prompting Riyadh to consider a...

Blogs 1 June, 2016

The 2015 UAE Commercial Companies Law – Clarified by Diligencia

It is only a month to go until companies need to have taken all necessary action to comply with the new UAE Commercial Companies Law1as enacted last year, otherwise they will as per the (rather dramatic) ruling be “automatically...

Blogs 6 November, 2015

Gulf investments in West Africa

Despite being historically Africa’s earliest trading partner, news of the Middle East region’s more recent investments into the continent have sometimes been pushed into the margins by headline-grabbing initiatives by China and...