DUBAI (Reuters) – Former European number one Robert Karlsson will continue to divide his time between golf’s two main tours next season, the Swede said.

The 42-year-old made his debut as a full-time competitor on the U.S. PGA Tour this year after relocating his family from their Monte Carlo home to a property he bought in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Karlsson, though, has also made several appearances on the European circuit this season and is planning to switch back and forth again in 2012.

“I will play (in the U.S.) next year,” the former Ryder Cup player told Reuters in an interview in Dubai. “The goal is to maintain a nice playing status in Europe as well.

“The prize money is a bit bigger (in the U.S.) but if you are going to win a tournament over there or in Europe you have to play just as good golf.”

Karlsson said he was looking forward to returning to the United Arab Emirates in December for the European Tour’s season-ending Dubai World Championship, a tournament he won in 2010.

“I don’t look at it as trying to defend my title, I see it as a separate event,” said the 2008 European number one. “It will be difficult.

DUBAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Former European number one Robert Karlsson will continue to divide his time between golf’s two main tours next season, the Swede said.

The 42-year-old made his debut as a full-time competitor on the U.S. PGA Tour this year after relocating his family from their Monte Carlo home to a property he bought in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Karlsson, though, has also made several appearances on the European circuit this season and is planning to switch back and forth again in 2012.

“I will play (in the U.S.) next year,” the former Ryder Cup player told Reuters in an interview in Dubai. “The goal is to maintain a nice playing status in Europe as well.

“The prize money is a bit bigger (in the U.S.) but if you are going to win a tournament over there or in Europe you have to play just as good golf.”

Karlsson said he was looking forward to returning to the United Arab Emirates in December for the European Tour’s season-ending Dubai World Championship, a tournament he won in 2010.

“I don’t look at it as trying to defend my title, I see it as a separate event,” said the 2008 European number one. “It will be difficult.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Nasdaq Dubai will relaunch its derivatives market, targeting regional institutions wanting to hedge their share portfolios, the exchange’s chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

The bourse, owned by Dubai Financial Market DFM.DU, launched a derivatives exchange in November 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis and trading has been lackluster.

“It didn’t matter how good the derivative was, it was a derivative and we suffered under the weight of a bad product category, but they’re starting to come back in favor,” Nasdaq Dubai chief executive Jeff Singer told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit, held at Reuters’ offices in Dubai.

“The derivative (market) we will relaunch is going to be market-driven. We are going to ask what they want and then pull everything else.”

Current derivatives include the FTSE Nasdaq Dubai UAE 20 Index, based on 20 of the top companies listed on UAE bourses. The bourse also offers futures and options contracts on most of these names.

“If we need to make changes in the components (of the UAE 20 Index) we will, because to have a tradable index out there that doesn’t trade is not good,” said Singer, declining to say when the new derivatives platform would launch.

“Major banks in the region all have huge inventories, stockpiles of shares that are unhedged, and if we simply offered an index that enabled them to hedge their portfolio, they could guard against enormous market risk.”

DUBAI (Reuters) – Abraaj Capital, the Middle East’s largest private equity firm, expects to complete the sale of its stake in Turkish hospital group Acibadem (ACIBD.IS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) by the end of 2011, its chief executive said on Monday.

Abraaj, which manages assets of around $6 billion, has a 46 percent stake in a joint venture company Almond Holding, which controls 92 percent of Acibadem.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have been advising Abraaj on the sale.

Malaysian state fund Khazanah Nasional KHAZA.UL is in talks to buy a stake in Acibadem, in a deal worth at least $500 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters.

“We received a couple of strategic approaches and also considered other strategic offers for the Turkish asset,” Mustafa Abdel-Wadood, CEO of Abraaj Capital said, speaking at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

When asked if Abraaj would complete the Turkey deal by the end of the year, Abdel-Wadood said “that is the intention we’re working toward.”

The private equity firm is also looking to partially exit another investment by the end of the year and is evaluating initial public offerings for two others in 2012, the executive said without providing additional details.

Oct 23 (Reuters) – UAE telecoms operator Etisalat on Sunday said Indian affiliate Etisalat DB would contest charges filed by Indian authorities relating to the allocation of its 2G licence in January 2008.

India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue when the telecoms ministry gave out lucrative licences and radio spectrum in 2007/08 at below-market prices as many ineligible firms won licences.

Reliance Telecom, Etisalat DB and Unitech Wireless were charged in April. Indian authorities framed these charges on Saturday, Etisalat said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse, the latest step in the judicial process.

Etisalat bought a 45 percent stake in Swan Telecom for about $900 million in September 2008, renaming it Etisalat DB the following year.

The 18-country operator said it had not found any basis for these charges and warned its affiliate would “defend the charges resolutely”.

“The charges relate to events that occurred at least one year prior to Etisalat’s investment in Swan,” it said.

“Etisalat had no knowledge of any wrongdoing and in the licence application process and had no involvement in it.”

DUBAI (Reuters) – Research in Motion (RIM) has yet to decide if it will compensate telecoms carriers for a network outage that left tens of millions of BlackBerry users without mobile email and messaging, its Middle East managing director said on Thursday.

“That is a discussion that is ongoing,” said Sandeep Saihgal, when asked if the company would compensate telecoms operators. “Our prime focus has been on consumers.”

On Monday, RIM promised to give $100 (63.49 pounds) of free apps to every BlackBerry smartphone user to compensate for four days of disruption last week, while some Gulf operators gave customers free BlackBerry access for a limited period.

RIM has steadily lost global market share to Apple’s iPhone and its shares are down about 60 percent in 2011, but Saihgal was bullish about his firm’s Middle East prospects.

“We have grown 140 percent year-on-year in this region .. I think this pace will not slow down,” he said.

According to what RIM said was independent research, BlackBerry sales in Saudi Arabia rose 225 percent in the 12 months to August, 63 percent in the United Arab Emirates and 56 percent in Kuwait.

This growth comes despite stagnating mobile subscriber growth in the Gulf, which has some of the highest penetration rates globally, as consumers upgrade to smart phones.

DUBAI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Telecom Co (STC) on Wednesday said its third-quarter net profit slumped by more than half, falling well short of forecasts as it made unexpected foreign exchange losses and took provisions following an adverse government ruling.

The former monopoly made a net profit of 1.56 billion Saudi riyals ($415.96 million), compared with a profit of 3.3 billion riyals in the same period a year ago, it said in a statement on Saudi Arabia’s bourse website.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected the firm to post a quarterly profit of 2.47 billion riyals.

STC said it made foreign exchange losses of 780 million riyals in the quarter and also took 134 million riyals in provisions following a state decree saying it should pay additional costs.

STC, which owns 35 percent of Turkey’s Oger Telecom, licences in Bahrain and Kuwait and a controlling stake in Indonesian firm Axis, said revenues for services were 14 billion riyals in the quarter, up from 13.2 billion riyals a year earlier.

Subsidiary and affiliate companies provided 34 percent of group revenues, STC said, without specifying whether this was for the third quarter or the nine months to the end of September.

STC said in a separate statement it will pay a dividend of 0.5 riyals per share for the third quarter.

DUBAI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Almarai , a founding shareholder in Zain Saudi , will likely take a $36 million impairment on its stake in the telecoms carrier at the end of 2011 if the shares remain stuck near current levels, the company’s chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Diary firm Almarai was one of nine founding shareholders in Zain Saudi and owns a 2.5 percent stake initially valued at 350 million riyals ($93 million). The operator launched services in 2008, competing against rivals Saudi Telecom Co and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily).

“If the share price of Zain Saudi will stay at the level it’s at currently or lower by year-end, we will then propose an impairment of the assets,” Paul-Louis Gay, Almarai chief financial officer.

Based on Zain Saudi’s share price on Sept. 30, Gay said the impairment would likely be 136 million riyals ($36.3 million), but since then the shares have fallen further, from 6.25 to 5.7 riyals, a seven-month low.

With the firm’s proposed capital restructuring, analysts see little scope for a rebound. The restructuring was announced in August 2010 but was delayed following ultimately unsuccessful bids for stakes in Zain Saudi and its Kuwaiti parent Zain .

Zain Saudi wants to cut its capital by 55 percent to 6.27 billion riyals and then issue 4.4 billion riyals of new shares.

The operator has yet to make a quarterly profit and has about 9.2 billion riyals in accumulated losses, or 66 percent of its paid-up capital. Bourse rules say listed firms must cut their capital if losses exceed 75 percent to cancel some of these losses.

DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) posted a 7.6 percent increase in third-quarter profit, missing estimates as the telecoms operator sold fewer smart phone handsets and competition in data and international calling rose.

The company, an affiliate of UAE’s Etisalat , made a net profit of 1.22 billion riyals, compared with a profit of 1.14 billion riyals in the same period a year ago.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected the firm to post a quarterly profit of 1.35 billion riyals.

Mobily, which unveiled its long-term evolution (LTE) high-speed network in September, said revenues were 4.6 billion riyals in the quarter, up from 3.99 billion a year earlier, but down from 5.1 billion in the second quarter of 2011.

“The company reduced its sales of low-margin smart phones in the third quarter,” Mobily said in a statement to the Saudi bourse.

Mobily’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin rose to 39 percent in the third-quarter, up from 34 percent in the preceding three months, but competition in data services and international calling is increasing, it said.

“In addition, the company’s sales of iPhone 4 , in particular, declined with customers’ anticipation of the new version of the device,” it added.

DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) – UAE’s Etisalat said on Tuesday that third-quarter profit fell 1 percent, a sixth decline in seven quarters for the telecoms operator, as operating costs rose faster than income.

Analysts said it must address falling home revenue.

Etisalat’s shares are at a 13-month low and investors seem unconvinced it will soon return to profit growth. Rival du has a 44 percent share of the UAE’s mobile subscribers, having ended Etisalat’s monopoly in 2007.

Now operating in 18 countries, its home revenue in the nine months to September 30 fell 1.3 percent to 18.04 billion dirhams ($4.91 billion), providing three-quarters of the group total.

“Etisalat is losing focus on its core market — it’s a contest between some Gulf operators to say who has the highest number of subscribers,” said Shrouk Diab, a telecoms analyst at investment bank Rasmala in Cairo.

“Etisalat is focusing on its international operations. It may have stretched itself too far in terms of management and resources,” she added.

The Gulf’s largest operator by market value unveiled its domestic long-term evolution (LTE) high-speed network in September.