Word: kuwait
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Only a few months ago, the British government turned to Kuwait as a savior. Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's grand privatization plan, the government had been ready last October to sell its 32% stake in British Petroleum to the public. Then stock markets around the world crashed. Since the BP shares had been priced far above their postcollapse market value, it seemed certain that few investors would buy them. Enter the Kuwait Investment Office, the London-based agency of Kuwait's Finance Ministry that handles the bulk of the Arab country's overseas holdings. Beginning in early November...
These days, though, 10 Downing Street must be wondering if the Kuwait Investment Office is friend or foe. Reason: the Kuwaitis are still buying BP shares -- with an enthusiasm that has raised suspicions in Britain. Kuwait has spent some $1.9 billion, bringing its stake in British Petroleum up to 22%, to become BP's largest shareholder. The Kuwaitis insist that they will not seek a seat on BP's board. They initially promised not to raise their stake above 22.5%, but Fauad Jaffar, deputy chairman of KIO, seemed to waffle on that pledge during a recent television interview. Said...
...that a veiled takeover threat? Probably not, since the Kuwaitis know that the British government could thwart any foreign bid for control of BP by simply ruling that such a sale would be against the public interest. BP executives are nonetheless distressed at the size of Kuwait's stake in the company: not only could the Kuwaitis easily change their minds about seeking a role in management but they could also sell their stock to any corporate raider interested...
...course of her research, Mylroie interviewed all types of policymakers including ministers, advisers, and members of the Royal Court of Jordan to learn how they perceive their own interests in Middle Eastern crises. Egyptian leaders, for example, feared this past summer that their political ally Kuwait would be drawn into the Iran-Iraq war. Mylroie also spoke with many friends she had met at Harvard or on previous visits to the Middle East about what the people think of the latest foreign policy developments. "I catch up with them as to what the gossip of the country is and what...
...Combo belts out tunes in English, German and even Japanese aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise liner Sun Viking. The Polish five-woman ensemble Sabat was performing aboard the Achille Lauro when the Italian cruise ship was hijacked by terrorists in 1985. Nightclubs from West Berlin to Los Angeles to Kuwait are staffed with Polish and Rumanian chorus girls, strippers and "hostesses...