Business of Sport Roma score commercial goal with Saudi signing Italian football club AS Roma will be anticipating commercial opportunities that might arise after it signed 25-year-old Saudi Arabian defender Saud Abdulhamid this week. Abdulhamid joined Roma from Al-Hilal in a deal worth $3.35 million. The transfer deal is the first involving a Saudi player and a major European league. “When I received the offer, […] August 28, 2024
Opinion Aviation Emirates’ first Asian store is a sign of its wider ambition Airlines have been veering away from bricks-and-mortar but Emirates has bucked the trend August 26, 2024
Tech Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Dubai-based Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport, Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday, and placed in custody, three sources have told Reuters. Durov, 39, who has dual French and UAE citizenship, was arrested as part of a […] August 26, 2024
Banking & Finance ADIA ‘in talks to join Sanofi bid consortium’ Abu Dhabi’s trillion-dollar investment fund is in talks to join a consortium to buy the French drugmaker Sanofi’s consumer health division, according to a report by Bloomberg. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC have both been contacted by the French buyout firm PAI Partners with a view to joining […] August 23, 2024
Tech Mubadala grows data centre portfolio with Yondr deal Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company has invested in Yondr Group, a London-headquartered data centre developer, amid rising global demand for such facilities. The investment, through US alternative asset manager Apollo, aims to support Yondr’s growth strategy, the sovereign wealth fund said in a statement. No financial details were disclosed. Yondr specialises in providing scalable data […] August 22, 2024
Opinion Economy The dollar is still king, but the alternatives are slowly gathering pace There is evidence of the creeping acceptance of alternatives to the US greenback August 16, 2024
Opinion Real Estate More stable UK should lure Gulf commercial property investors Lower interest rates and pro-housing policies will embolden backers August 16, 2024
Opinion Finance The UAE closes in on the ‘shady men in sunny places’ Far from being a safe haven for fugitives, Abu Dhabi has accelerated the pace of its extraditions August 12, 2024
Opinion Aviation The Gulf will play a major role in sustainable aviation GCC airlines are leading the charge to make flying greener August 12, 2024
Finance Abu Dhabi’s ADQ buys minority stake in Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ and Patrick Drahi, majority owner of auction house Sotheby’s, will jointly invest $1 billion in the company to support its expansion plans. As part of the agreement, ADQ will acquire a minority stake in Sotheby’s, a British-founded company that has its headquarters in New York. The value of the sovereign […] August 12, 2024
Finance ADIA consortium in $6.9bn deal for UK trading platform A consortium including Abu Dhabi’s biggest sovereign wealth fund has agreed a deal to buy UK stock trading platform Hargreaves Lansdown for £5.4 billion ($6.9 billion), the London-listed company said on Friday. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) subsidiary Platinum Ivy and private equity firms CVC and Nordic Capital will buy all Hargreaves Lansdown shares, which […] August 9, 2024
Logistics DP World’s London Gateway to become UK’s largest seaport The official launch this month of a new berth at London Gateway Port makes the facility the UK’s largest seaport, with operator DP World outlining plans for three more berths. The port, which currently handles 2.4 million containers, will expand its capacity to 3.4 million containers with the opening of berth 4, the UAE state-run […] August 6, 2024
Construction Dubai’s Sidara shelves bid to take over UK’s John Wood Group Dubai’s Sidara has abandoned its multi-billion-dollar plan to take over the British consultancy John Wood Group. The Emirati engineering and consulting group cited “geopolitical risks and market uncertainty” for its decision. Shares in Wood slumped by 37 percent on the news, hitting their lowest level since December 2022. Sidara raised its offer to 230p per […] August 5, 2024
Oil & Gas Swedish company secures $156m for Omani oil blocks The Omani unit of Stockholm-headquartered Tethys Oil has secured funding from a UAE bank for its oil exploration blocks in the sultanate. Tethys Oil Block 3&4 Limited secured a five-year OR60 ($156 million) loan facility from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to support capital expenditure for blocks 3 and 4 in Oman. The loans drawn under […] August 5, 2024
Oil & Gas European regulator approves Oman’s $1.6bn LNG project The European Commission has approved a $1.6 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Oman’s Sohar Port. The project, which is being jointly developed by Oman energy investment company OQ and France’s TotalEnergies, is unlikely to raise competition concerns due to its limited impact on the European economic area, the Oman Daily Observer reported, quoting […] August 5, 2024
Media & Advertising Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI set to sell The Spectator Redbird IMI, a US investment group backed by Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments, is understood to be selling The Spectator magazine to hedge fund boss Paul Marshall. It is understood a deal with Marshall, through his Queen Street Ventures fund, would value the magazine in the region of £90 million ($114 million) to £120 million […] August 2, 2024
Oil & Gas BP CEO signs non-binding deal to return to Iraqi oilfield BP, the London-listed oil major, has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government to return to the super-giant Kirkuk oilfield in the north of the country. The agreement includes the Baba and Avanah domes and three adjacent fields – Bai Hassan, Jambur and Khabbaz – which are operated by the government of […] August 2, 2024
Renewable Energy Masdar and TotalEnergies team up to produce SAF Masdar, the UAE’s state-backed clean energy company, has partnered with the French energy major TotalEnergies to develop the commercial production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using methanol produced from green hydrogen in Abu Dhabi. The two companies agreed to assess the project’s viability after a “successful test flight” during Cop28 last December, which demonstrated the […] August 2, 2024
Opinion Agriculture Agricultural monopoly is a dangerous game in the Gulf Food prices have risen dramatically, thanks in part to agribusiness giants August 1, 2024
Renewable Energy Tunisia signs green hydrogen deals to step up production Tunisia has signed six agreements with international companies to develop green hydrogen production as it seeks to expand its clean fuel production capacity. The North African country aims to produce 8.3 million tonnes of green hydrogen and its derivatives by 2050 under its green hydrogen strategy, which was released in October 2023. Much of the […] July 31, 2024
ANALYSIS Industry Made in Morocco – industrial giants just keep on investing Rabat's deals with manufacturers from the US, Europe and Asia provide a model of co-operation for the Arab world July 30, 2024
Opinion Oil & Gas Oil traders’ view from the beach is not entirely sunny There's a lot to think about over the summer, from luxury handbags to China's economy July 29, 2024