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Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, says aircraftleasing companies will benefit from delays at Boeing and Airbus

IATA chief: Boeing and Airbus woes are a win for jet leasing

Aircraft leasing companies in the Arabian Gulf are profiting from prolonged delivery delays at aircraft makers Boeing and Airbus, with order backlogs at the manufacturers unlikely to clear before the end of the decade. “These [aircraft leasing] guys are in a fantastic position because they have a fantastic fleet of aircraft,” Willie Walsh, director general […]

Gulf Islamic Investments CEO Mohammed Alhassan says the company wants to double its US assets to $1.5bn within four years

Gulf Islamic Investments makes US expansion a priority

Gulf Islamic Investments, Dubai’s financial services company which has more than $3.5 billion of assets under management, is aiming to more than double the value of its business in the United States.  GII’s US assets total $750 million and include an 80 percent share in ZSpace, a virtual reality education technology company with a market […]

Adnoc Distribution said fuel volumes rose 8.7 percent year-on-year to 15 billion litres in 2024

Adnoc Distribution to spend billions on M&A deals

Adnoc Distribution, the UAE’s largest fuel and convenience retailer, is looking to deploy $2 billion in potential mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East and beyond, a senior executive has told AGBI. Athmane Benzerroug, Adnoc Distribution’s chief strategy, transformation & sustainability officer, said on Tuesday that with a free cash flow of more than $700 […]

The Green Data Centre at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. More help is needed to fund sustainable energy projects, says Mashreq Bank

Mashreq calls for state help to push green financing

The UAE needs to introduce new incentives, subsidies and tax rebates to increase financing for sustainability projects in the country, a senior executive at Mashreq Bank has told AGBI. “We need the government to introduce incentives and subsidies to create the momentum, the tsunami of sustainable finance,” said Faisal Al Shimmari, Mashreq Bank’s head of […]

Nayla Tueni told Frank Kane over lunch that the financial crisis in Lebanon 'taught us that, if we are going to survive, we need to expand'

Nayla Tueni: ‘I am a journalist, a journalist, a journalist’

Nayla Tueni is as close as you get in the Middle East to media aristocracy. She is the fourth generation of a family that, for the best part of a century – through wars, assassinations, man-made disasters and economic crises – has kept publishing Annahar, a Lebanese broadsheet described by Time magazine as “the newspaper […]

SMC Healthcare will continue to focus on hospital expansion in Riyadh, driven by the capital's rapid population growth

SMC Healthcare expects swift profitability from new hospitals

SMC Healthcare is building three new hospitals in Riyadh that should break even within three to four years, the Saudi company’s chief executive, Bassam Chahine, has told AGBI. The three hospitals will more than double SMC’s bed count to about 1,200 as it seeks to address healthcare supply shortfalls in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia requires […]

Wizz Air is focusing on making its current fleet more efficient until it receives new aircraft

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi predicts slower growth

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi expects slower growth in 2025 as delays of new aircraft deliveries, engine issues in some of its existing fleet and regulatory problems in some new markets affect its ambitious expansion plans. The airline, a joint venture between Hungary’s Wizz Air Holding and Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment holding ADQ, is navigating global […]

Vero Video length: 04:08

Vero Labs taps into the fan-based asset economy

Vero Labs, the social networking company owned by the Lebanese billionaire Ayman Hariri, has partnered with the blockchain platform Avalanche to tap into the multi-trillion-dollar fan-based asset economy sector of the sports and entertainment industry.  Last year Vero Labs acquired Tokenise Stock Exchange, a regulated global marketplace where users can buy, sell and trade fan-based […]

Emirates Sports Group CEO Vladimir Burdun. The company's initial expansion phase will focus on the UAE

UAE sports hotel brand plans regional expansion

A sports hotel brand developed in the UAE intends to expand in the Gulf region, its CEO has said.  Emirates Sports Hotel and Apartments is a 192-bed facility in Dubai that is specifically designed to cater to the needs of athletes and sportspeople.  Large rooms, health and fitness-conscious meals, and the availability of yoga mats […]

Masdar City's Central Park; the project was completed in 2022

Masdar City struggles to find contractors for cutting-edge projects

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable eco-city project, is facing a shortage of contractors skilled enough to meet the demands of its ambitious projects, a senior executive has warned. Masdar, the UAE’s clean energy company, is the anchor tenant at Masdar City, with the Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, ashareholder […]

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are key growth markets where there is rising demand for premium cinematic experiences Imax

Imax seeks investors in its vision of growth in the Gulf

Imax Corporation, the US cinema technology giant, is in discussions with Gulf investors including sovereign wealth funds as it seeks to deepen its presence in one of its fastest-growing markets. The UAE and Saudi Arabia rank among Imax’s top 20 global markets, its popularity driven by rising demand for premium cinematic experiences. “We’re meeting various […]

Since last year a new framework has supported foreign law firms’ creation of joint ventures with local counterparts, through acquisitions or Saudi subsidiaries

Rise in major US law firms setting up in Saudi Arabia

Attracted by the host of complex and potentially lucrative legal issues raised by Saudi Arabia’s development push, several of the largest law firms in the US are formally setting up shop in the kingdom, either directly or through mergers and acquisitions. Among those making the leap is Atlanta-based company King & Spalding. A spokesperson confirmed […]

Paul Gilbert of Alvarez & Marsal says that more predictable processes are positive for investors distressed investors debt distressed investment Saudi investors Video length: 03:17

Opportunities for ‘distressed investors’ as Saudi companies restructure

International and regional distressed investors looking at buying debt in Saudi businesses are becoming more active as new bankruptcy laws and reforms take shape in Saudi Arabia.  Paul Gilbert, Middle East managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, said bankruptcy processes were “being very predictable”, which was an “important factor for inward investment into the country”.  […]

Listing is seen as a way to professionalise family-run companies, but Mishal Kanoo argues that it does not fundamentally change family dynamics

The No 1 problem in a family business? ‘Not business, but family’

Public listings offer access to capital markets but they do not resolve the issues that often plague family businesses, the chairman of one of the Gulf’s largest and oldest family-owned conglomerates has told AGBI. Those challenges are governance, mindset and personal dynamics, said Mishal Kanoo, chairman of the Kanoo Group.  “Not a lot of people […]

Neom Green Hydrogen Company will use solar and wind power to produce hydrogen and says half its solar panels are already installed

Neom Green Hydrogen will hit all markets, says chief

Saudi Arabia’s Neom green hydrogen project is 60 percent complete and on track for full-time operation by the end of 2026, a senior official told AGBI. “We’re progressing well on all fronts, including the solar and wind farms, and we have received all the major equipment,” said Wesam Alghamdi, CEO of Neom Green Hydrogen Company […]

Landmark Group chairwoman Renuka Jagtiani Video length: 03:36

Landmark Group expands into Asia

Landmark Group, based in Dubai and one of the biggest retail chains in the Gulf region with annual revenue of more than $7 billion, is investing $1 billion in its Asia expansion. As the company celebrates its 50th anniversary, Renuka Jagtiani, chairwoman, and Landmark Retail CEO Kabir Lumba explain Landmark’s growth strategy and the challenges […]

Emirates took on $4.8bn in debt over the pandemic. Its deputy president and chief operations officer Adel Al Redha told AGBI that it has already paid back almost 70%

Emirates repays over 70% of $4.8bn pandemic debt

Dubai’s Emirates airline has already repaid billions of dollars of debt it raised during the pandemic, a senior official told AGBI. The emirate’s flagship carrier raised AED17.5 billion ($4.8 billion) in debt during the pandemic, when the aviation industry was brought to its knees as planes were grounded globally by strict lockdown rules. “I would […]

royal jordanian Samir Majali

Royal Jordanian losses mount due to conflict

Royal Jordanian is likely to record a loss of $11 million for the second year running, due to a sharp drop in passengers because of the Middle East conflict. The airline was expected last year to report its first profits since the Covid pandemic, and boasted a $15 million surplus in the first nine months […]

Aster saudi arabia

Aster DM Healthcare expects to close Saudi deals in months

Aster DM Healthcare is buying more clinics and hospitals in Saudi Arabia with some deals expected to close in the coming months.  The hospital operator, headquartered in Dubai, wants to increase its current roster of 250 hospital beds in Riyadh to 1,000 beds within the next three to four years to help meet the country’s […]

Trump Iran oil

IEF head sees Gulf at the top of Trump’s agenda 

The head of the International Energy Forum has told AGBI he believes the Gulf states will benefit from Donald Trump’s election victory strategically and politically, as well as in terms of investment and trade. The IEF is headquartered in Riyadh and counts the energy ministers of 72 states as members. It describes itself as a […]

Vara's CEO says cryptocurrency interest is from 'sophisticated players that take regulation seriously'

Dubai’s crypto regulator defends ‘robust’ approval process

Dubai is viewed as a crypto-friendly destination, but the head of the regulator overseeing the sector has told AGBI its processes are rigorous and only a small fraction of applicants are approved. “It’s probably fair to say at the beginning there was a perception from the market that it would be straightforward to get a […]