Gulf businesses offer welcoming message to Trump

Gulf executives who were upset by Donald Trump’s campaign trail comments about Muslims took a conciliatory tone following his election victory and said they were open for business with the US.
In Dubai, boards displaying the President-elect’s name and his support for a DAMAC project to build a gated community, spa and Trump-branded golf course can be seen from a road on the edge of the city.
Gulf business links with Trump and other US firms are strong. The US imported $32.4 billion of goods including oil from the six Gulf countries in 2015 and the region is the most important client base for Boeing and a number of US defense firms.
The Gulf’s sovereign wealth funds also have hundreds of billions of dollars of US investments.
Nevertheless, Arab business figures were angry about Trump’s campaign calls for Muslims to be banned from entering the US, following the murder of 14 people in San Bernardino, California.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, head of investment firm Kingdom Holding which has stakes in US firms including Citigroup and Twitter, had criticized Trump earlier.
However, the billionaire was among those wishing him well on Wednesday, tweeting: “President-elect @realDonaldTrump whatever the past differences, America has spoken, congratulations and best wishes for your presidency.”
Another billionaire businessman, Khalaf Al-Habtoor, who worked with Trump on a construction project that was halted in 2008, wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper in August last year backing Trump for the presidency.
But Al-Habtoor backtracked after Trump’s Muslim comments and said Gulf money would quit the US if he won.
Speaking to Arabian Business on Wednesday, Al-Habtoor insisted Trump’s comments on Muslims “were for the election only” and he would now tone down his rhetoric, something that would open the door to re-establishing good relations with the Gulf.
Some Gulf firms reassessed their links with Trump at the end of last year: DAMAC temporarily removed references to his name from advertising, and regional retailer Landmark Group pulled a Trump-branded line of homeware from its Lifestyle chain of department stores.
But a spokeswoman for DAMAC told Reuters that Trump-linked projects still carried his name. Landmark Group declined to comment.
Mohammed Al-Ardhi, executive chairman of alternative investment firm Investcorp, which has billions of dollars in US real estate and other investments, was complementary about Trump.
“Investcorp knows that Mr. Trump is fair because we competed against him on the Tiffany acquisition and he did not mind us winning that deal,” Al-Ardhi told an investor event on Wednesday, referring to its 1984 purchase of the New York jewelry firm.
Gulf sovereign wealth funds have invested huge sums of cash into the American economy.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has the largest geographical weighting for its estimated-$792 billion portfolio in North America at between 35 and 50 percent. It owns significant amounts of real estate for example, including a number of high-end hotels in major US cities.
The Qatar Investment Authority said in September 2015 it would help the Gulf state invest $35 billion in the US over five years.
Spokesmen for the QIA and ADIA declined to comment on the election.

UNCERTAINTY FOR AIRLINES

Gulf airlines are waiting to see where Trump stands on a disagreement with US carriers.
A group including American Airlines and United Airlines say UAE-based Emirates and Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways, have unfairly benefited from state subsidies, and have called for a review of the Open Skies trade agreement with those countries.
Some Gulf airline executives had previously expressed concerns that Trump could favor US interests at the expense of the rest of the global aviation industry.
“It’s so important for our business that the liberalization that spreads through from the Clinton era of politics on global trade continues,” Emirates President Tim Clark told reporters in Dubai on Oct. 18, adding Trump “may go about the introduction of more constraints on global trade.”
A spokeswoman for Emirates and spokesman for Etihad Airways declined to comment on the election result.
However, Qatar Airways’ Group CEO Akbar Al-Baker, who voiced support for Trump even after his comments about Muslims, welcomed his victory.
“Our relationship goes way back, and I was one of the first to commend Donald on his well-deserved new leadership position,” he said in a statement to Reuters.

Source: Arab News