Today's big news - Abu Dhabi investing 7.5 Billion USD in beleagured Citigroup. the deal looks exactly as the one Talal Bin Waleed got through in 1990. A D govt is floating in cash and funnily, a lot of it is oil money which they have received from the US. Funnily enough, the CEO Bischoff says he welcomes this investment by one of world's sophisticated equity investor!! Duh -- since when did the AD govt become a 'sophisticated' investor?? The irony of it all is inescapable! Last year, at a conference gathering in Dubai, the CEO of a major Arab Bank said that Goldman Sachs wasn't doing justice to the GCC with its BRIC report - BRIC is actually GRIC!! the combined wealth and real GDP growth of the GCC countries far exceeds that of Russia and Brazil.
So, folks, while the hype around Chindia flows across the world, the GCC cash mountains will sweep across the world and prove that 'oily places' and 'holy places' are the most important places in our world.
If Qatar and Kuwait also join the fray and invest in poor Citi- it may be renamed as 'Abu Dhabi -Saudi- National Citi Bank of GCC' - very soon.!
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