VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Last Monday, Majid Al Futtaim announced its plans of building two shopping malls worth $3.7 billion in the oil kingdom. In the face prolonged state of oil price slump, these plans are expected to not only generate employment but boost the sluggish economy as well. The two projects will enter their first phase of construction this year with completion dates ranging between 2017 and 2018.

It has been nine months since OPEC made a choice to abandon its production target unalterable and pursue market share rather than trying to prop up prices, the group is now faced with a set of complicated issues and decisions going forward.

Saudi Arabia's subtle change of energy policymaker line-up since the accession of new King Salman in late January appears to give the monarch's inner circle a firmer hand on the kingdom's oil strategy than previous rulers have enjoyed.

A lavish payout to public employees ordered by Saudi Arabia's new King Salman will help to sustain the kingdom's consumer boom and reassure financial markets that the government is not slashing expenditure in the face of low oil prices.

Still haunted by its failed attempt to prevent a steep drop in oil prices by slashing production by almost three quarters in the 1980s, the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined not to make the same mistake again.

Winterthur, Switzerland-based industrial engineering and manufacturing firm Sulzer Ltd inked a deal to purchase a 75% interest in Saudi Pump Factory together with the latter's owner Nabil Al Hashim, in a deal valued at CHF33 million.