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Top stories

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the Future Investment Initiative. He said the fund is reducing foreign investments and increasing AI spend

PIF renews focus on domestic investment and AI 

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is planning to reduce its foreign investments to around a fifth of its total assets under management, as it focuses on domestic funding and artificial intelligence, its governor said on Tuesday.  “Initially we had less than 2 percent of investments internationally, that was with $150 billion assets under management,” Yasir […]

Dubai classroom

Dubai private schools face major shortfall of places

Dubai’s private school sector is staring at a shortfall of more than 100,000 places by the start of the 2031 academic year, as the industry struggles to keep pace with the emirate’s increasing population. Under the Dubai 2040 Master Plan, the emirate’s population is forecast to reach 7.8 million by the end of the next […]

Trending

  1. Bitcoin price passes $70,000 on US election speculation

  2. Oil prices steady as US stockpile declines

  3. Aramco predicts oil market expansion on China demand

  4. Abu Dhabi plans to buy stake in British carmaker McLaren

  5. UK is ‘actively seeking’ Gulf investors, says trade minister

OPINION & Analysis

Best of AGBI

Shoppers looking for Diwali gold purchases are opting for lower-karat pieces to counter rising prices, experts say

Diwali gold buyers change their approach as prices rise

Dhanteras, the first day of Diwali, is seen as an auspicious time to buy gold by the Gulf’s roughly three million Hindus. But as the price of gold hits record levels consumers are shopping differently, gold traders told AGBI. Gold’s price has surged by 34 percent in the past year alone. This trend is being […]

Petrochem plants under pressure to utilise capacity

Petrochemicals plants are currently operating at just over 80 percent capacity, rates which must increase for the sector’s margins and product prices to improve, analysts say. Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) is the world’s seventh largest chemicals manufacturer by sales, while both the UAE and Qatar have invested heavily in creating homegrown petrochemicals industries. Globally, […]

Qatari aluminium maker defies market challenges

Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing Company, known as Qamco, increased its profits by 21 percent in the first nine months of 2024, despite the rising cost of source materials. Qamco’s profit hit QR427.7 million ($117.3 million) at the end of September 2024, up from QR353.5 million in the same period last year. Figures issued by the company […]

Egypt’s weaker currency attracting foreign real estate investors

Egypt’s economic recovery and currency devaluation has resulted in the “rediscovery of the real estate market by foreign investors”, according to the chief of the country’s largest waterfront developer, fuelling price rises in the secondary and tertiary segments. Population growth in the Arab world’s biggest country, and wealth creation in some socioeconomic segments, have also […]

US sanctions unlikely to stop Iran’s oil smugglers

Tighter US economic sanctions are unlikely to disrupt Iran’s oil exports in the long run because Tehran has developed a sophisticated system of oil smuggling, using a dedicated fleet of tankers and middlemen in multiple countries, industry observers say. The regime in Tehran has been under US sanctions since the Islamic revolution of 1979.  But […]

lunch with frank kane richard attias puff

Lunch with Frank Kane

‘I feel more welcome here than in France’

Richard Attias, CEO, FII Institute

UAE latest

Adnoc Drilling owns 140 rigs, which should increase to 142 by the end of the year

Adnoc Drilling Q3 profit rises 30% to $335m

Adnoc Drilling’s net profit rose 30 percent year on year to $335 million in the third quarter of 2024, beating market expectations. Quarterly revenue at the company, listed on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, jumped 32 percent annually to more than $1 billion. This was driven by the expansion of onshore and offshore fleets, as […]

Mumtalakat, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, took full ownership of McLaren Group in March

Abu Dhabi plans to buy stake in British carmaker McLaren

Abu Dhabi-backed CYVN Holdings has entered a non-binding agreement with Mumtalakat Holding, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, to buy a stake in British carmaker McLaren Group, with the potential to take ownership of its automotive business. The partnership aims to bolster McLaren with additional capital, advanced engineering expertise and technology, particularly in electric vehicles (EVs), the companies […]

Church Street in Twickenham. Aldar is building homes in the affluent district of southwest London

Aldar Properties reports ‘strong pickup’ for London projects

Aldar Properties remains bullish about London’s property market despite high interest rates and fears that tax rises will be announced in the UK budget on Wednesday. The government-owned Abu Dhabi company bought British developer London Square in a deal worth AED1.07 billion ($291 million) last year – its first acquisition outside the Middle East and […]

Shoppers looking for Diwali gold purchases are opting for lower-karat pieces to counter rising prices, experts say

Diwali gold buyers change their approach as prices rise

Dhanteras, the first day of Diwali, is seen as an auspicious time to buy gold by the Gulf’s roughly three million Hindus. But as the price of gold hits record levels consumers are shopping differently, gold traders told AGBI. Gold’s price has surged by 34 percent in the past year alone. This trend is being […]

Saudi Arabia latest

Acwa Power has signed a $690m deal with the National Bank of Kuwait to support its future project pipeline in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Acwa Power signs $1.8bn deals to promote renewables

Saudi renewable energy major Acwa Power has signed agreements worth $1.8 billion to develop renewable energy and battery storage projects, as well as research and development, across the GCC, China, Central Asia and North Africa. The agreements were signed during the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. The first pact includes a $690 million agreement […]

Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser speaks at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh

Aramco predicts oil market expansion on China demand

Saudi Aramco is forecasting oil market growth in 2025 of 1.5 percent, driven by fundamental growth in China and the role of fossil fuels in underpinning the green energy transition.  A recent stimulus package failed to alleviate market concerns about China. Although it accounted for 70 percent of oil demand growth in 2023, Chinese demand […]

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the Future Investment Initiative. He said the fund is reducing foreign investments and increasing AI spend

PIF renews focus on domestic investment and AI 

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is planning to reduce its foreign investments to around a fifth of its total assets under management, as it focuses on domestic funding and artificial intelligence, its governor said on Tuesday.  “Initially we had less than 2 percent of investments internationally, that was with $150 billion assets under management,” Yasir […]

Around the Middle East

OQEP is the exploration and production arm of Oman's state oil company OQ

Shares in Oman’s OQEP recover after poor debut

Shares in Oman’s OQ Exploration and Production rebounded on Tuesday, recovering some of their losses following a shock slump on the Muscat bourse a day earlier as dividend-seeking institutional investors took advantage of the sell-off to acquire at lower prices. OQEP, the upstream subsidiary of state oil company OQ, raised OMR748.8 million ($1.94 billion) in […]

The solar power plant in Iraq will be developed in phases and will come online between 2025 and 2027

QatarEnergy to develop solar project in Iraq with Total  

State-backed QatarEnergy and France’s TotalEnergies have signed an agreement to develop a solar power plant as part of the gas growth integrated project (GGIP) in Iraq. The two companies will equally own the project, but the agreement is subject to regulatory approvals. The project, “one of the largest in the world”, will consist of two […]

The oil tanker Cordelia Moon is hit by a missile in the Red Sea, off Yemen's Red Sea Port of Hodeida, in this screengrab from a video released on October 1, 2024

Houthis target three ships in Red and Arabian Seas

Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday that they targeted three ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, attacks they called part of their efforts to enforce a naval blockade on Israel. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised address the vessels were targeted with missiles and drones for attempting to approach ports bound […]

Al Mudhaibi Industrial City Oman

Tender for first phase of Oman industrial city issued

A tender for the first phase of the Al Mudhaibi Industrial City project in North Al Sharqiyah governorate has been issued by Oman’s Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn). The tender, aimed at specialised companies in Oman and Saudi Arabia, covers the development of around 2.5 square kilometres of basic services. This includes road networks, […]

Emirates Global Aluminium engineers at the company's Al Taweelah refinery. EGA sells its green aluminium to European car makers

EU carbon tariff opens door to green GCC manufacturers

Europe’s decision to place a tariff on a selected group of carbon-intensive imports may offer a competitive advantage to Gulf manufacturers who are investing in carbon-reducing technologies, industry observers believe. By decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors, GCC countries can become the European Union’s privileged trade partners, because producers with lower carbon emissions will get better access to […]

Gulf IPO Lulu supermarket

Late-year flurry of flotations forecast for Gulf

Headline figures may suggest the number and combined value of Gulf initial public offerings (IPOs) is ebbing. But a flurry of late-year flotations should enable the 2024 totals to equal or eclipse those of 2023. Demand from investors, especially foreign institutions, for new Gulf listings and for greater exposure to the Gulf’s economies, indicates a […]

Adult, Male, Man

Lebanon placed on financial task force ‘grey list’

Lebanon has been added to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “grey list” of countries under increased scrutiny, the global financial crime watchdog announced on Friday.  Algeria, Angola and Côte D’Ivoire join Lebanon as the latest jurisdictions subject to heightened monitoring. The FATF places countries on this list when they exhibit serious deficiencies in addressing […]

Kuwait roads

Billion-dollar deals signed for upkeep of Kuwait’s roads

Kuwait has signed road maintenance contracts worth KWD400 million ($1.3 billion) with 18 local and foreign companies. The three-year contracts aim to improve Kuwait’s 8,400km of roads, which are a persistent source of frustration for residents of the Gulf state. Khaled Al-Osaimi, head of the Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport, said: “This is […]

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Turkey Latest

Turkey's finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said the ban on short selling domestic stocks is under review

Turkey considers easing ban on short selling

Turkey may partly lift a ban on short selling domestic stocks, a policy initiated almost two years ago, in an attempt to woo foreign investors back to the nation’s share market and reverse a capital exodus.  Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC on October 25, Turkish treasury and finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said […]

A solar power plant in eastern Turkey. The country aims to quadruple renewable generation to hit a capacity of 120,000MW by 2035

Saudi lender ICD provides $16m for Turkish solar plant

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) in Saudi Arabia has signed a €15 million ($16.2 million) financing agreement with Turkish company Sampa to support the development and construction of a solar power plant in Turkey. The planned captive solar plant will provide 21 megawatts of energy, reducing Sampa’s energy costs […]

Store in Istanbul City: Turkish businesses braced for challenging times as insolvency rates climb, evidenced by a 28% increase in liquidations compared with the same period last year

Turkish businesses face rising insolvency rates

The Turkish economy is set to be hit by a rising tide of business insolvencies, with near-record numbers of companies going to the wall, which in turn could result in a domino effect along the business supply chain. While many countries will experience a rise in insolvencies, Turkey will be among the hardest hit this […]

Turkey renewable energy

Turkey plans a fourfold rise in renewable energy

Turkey is planning to quadruple its renewable energy capacity over the coming decade, with investments of $80 billion to boost output and another $30 billion to improve transmission and infrastructure. A new streamlined tendering and approval process was also part of the updated renewables policy announced by Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, […]

Antalya, Turkey - This photograph captures the contrast between the traditional Ottoman-style house and the modern apartment building in Kaleici, the Old Town of Antalya.

Housing market in Turkey bounces back to 2022 levels

Cooling prices and increased potential for strong returns on investment have fuelled a rebound in the Turkish housing market, with sales hitting heights not seen in almost two years.  Just under 141,000 residential properties were sold in September, a 37 percent year-on-year improvement, and the best result since December 2022, data from the state statistics […]

Egypt Latest

Dubai's Emaar Properties owns 79 percent of Emaar Development and also has hospitality and retail divisions

Dubai’s bellwether Emaar to report Q3 profit rise

Dubai’s Emaar Properties, bellwether of the emirate’s bourse, and its real estate development subsidiary, are likely to report sizeable increases in third-quarter profits versus the preceding three months as margins expand and under-construction projects reach revenue recognition thresholds. Emaar Properties owns 79 percent of Emaar Development and also has hospitality and retail divisions. It is […]

Egypt real estate investors. Luxury bungalows in the Red Sea lagoon in el Gouna. Developers are optimistic about foreign investors buying in waterfront communities at least for the next five to 10 years. Video length: 03:31

Egypt’s weaker currency attracting foreign real estate investors

Egypt’s economic recovery and currency devaluation has resulted in the “rediscovery of the real estate market by foreign investors”, according to the chief of the country’s largest waterfront developer, fuelling price rises in the secondary and tertiary segments. Population growth in the Arab world’s biggest country, and wealth creation in some socioeconomic segments, have also […]

Body Part, Finger, Hand Karim Badawi, Egypt's minister for petroleum, has been meeting with international companies to restore trust

Egypt slashes renewables target to focus on natural gas

Egypt has cut its renewable energy goal for 2040 from 58 percent down to 40 percent and will focus on natural gas in order to meet increasing energy demand, according to Karim Badawi, the minister for petroleum. Before hosting the Cop27 climate conference in 2022, the North African state announced a target of achieving a […]

A petrol station in Cairo. Egypt has raised fuel prices three times this year as it aims to comply with IMF requirements

Egypt plans bonds drive and may review IMF measures

Egypt plans to issue new sukuks and green bonds worth between EGP5 billion ($102.9 million) and EGP10 billion ($205.8 million) before June 2025, the end of its current financial year. The country’s finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk told reporters on Saturday of the ministry’s intentions to issue the new bonds. Earlier in the year Kouchouk spoke […]

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks at a news conference following a Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg, on Thursday, June 20, 2024

IMF changes debt charges to save Egypt $190m a year

Egypt looks set to save up to $190 million a year following changes the International Monetary Fund has made to the charges paid by debtors, an expert has told AGBI. The benefits of this extra cash are likely to be tempered, though, as Egypt faces a significant debt burden and persistent inflation. The IMF announced […]

Features

Saudi healthcare

Health sector next target for Saudi private equity

Private equity is looking to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare and wellness sectors for the kingdom’s next growth areas as it tries to manage a burgeoning young population.  Some 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s 32 million-plus population are under 30, and analysts from research company S&P say the kingdom’s demographics are the main reason for a sustainable […]

World Islands ‘still a decade away from completion’

The multi-billion dollar World Islands off the coast of Dubai will not be complete for another decade at least as logistics and costs stymie development, the man behind its biggest project has revealed. The $14 billion development, originally consisting of 300 man-made islands, was launched by the government-backed property company Nakheel more than 20 years […]

‘Holograms won’t replace Zoom and Teams… yet’

Star Wars depicted the use of holograms for video conferencing way back in the 1970s, but the technology has yet to move from science fiction to everyday life. This is mostly down to financial and logistical limitations – and an interview with the holographic avatar of HPE president Antonio Nearly has revealed that holograms are […]

Christie’s to open new office in Saudi Arabia

British auction house Christie’s announced last month that it had received a commercial licence to conduct sales and exhibitions in Saudi Arabia. From its new base in Riyadh it is hoping to tap into a secondary market for luxury goods and state institutions’ growing appetite for art.  The company, which has its headquarters in London, […]

People & Lifestyle

A perfume shop in Sabya, Saudi Arabia. The country's fragrance sector is worth $2.3bn

Investors scent riches in Middle East perfume

The retail offering of Al Majed for Oud Company was more than nine times oversubscribed this week, as investors rushed to buy up the first tranche of 1.5 million shares in the Riyadh-based perfume and oud products manufacturer. The full listing of 7.5 million shares, or a 30 percent stake in the company, will raise […]

Saudi Arabia tourism projects Dragon Ball theme park

Arab Disneyland and Da Vinci: Saudi Arabia’s two great hopes

Saudi Arabia is spending billions on tourism projects at the heart of its grand plan to transform a once isolated kingdom into a global tourist destination. But a nagging question is haunting policymakers: will the world pay attention?   Tourism numbers are rising, hitting 27.4 million in 2023, but half of those were religious visitors.  The […]

Lionel Messi poses for a photo at Dubai Expo 2020. He and his Argentina teammates will soon be appearing on 'giant billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road' to advertise property

Project stardust: why Dubai developers still want celeb tie-ins

Lionel Messi, Rohit Sharma and Chris Hemsworth are just some of the famous faces who have promoted UAE real estate in recent years. Superstar sportsmen and Hollywood heroes do not come cheap, but are they really a good investment for developers or just an excuse for the CEO to get a selfie?  Many industry observers […]

Around 3.5 million bottles of Champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent

Champagne shipments to the Gulf slow but still flowing

The growth in champagne shipments to the Gulf has slowed in recent years but the market is still one of the strongest in the world, bucking a global trend for declining sales. Around 3.5 million bottles of champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent, according to data […]

Around the world

Swiss gold

Record gold price dents demand for Swiss bullion in Gulf

Swiss gold exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE have slumped in the past year, as its price rose by more than 30 percent driven by geopolitical challenges. Gold passed $2,700 per ounce on Friday for the first time ever. A year ago it was $1,980 per ounce, and a month ago $2,559. While global […]

Manara's stake in First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian operations could be worth between $1.5bn and $2bn

PIF’s Manara in talks to buy minority stake in Zambian mines 

Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) and the sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), is in advanced talks to acquire 15 to 20 percent in Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian copper and nickel assets. The stake could be potentially valued between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, Reuters reported, citing informed […]

Visitors tour the exhibition halls at Gitex Global. This year's expo runs until October 18

Tech startups drive rise in Ireland’s exports to UAE

Exports from Ireland to the UAE rose by 21 percent last year, driven by Irish technology and healthcare companies.  The trade agency Enterprise Ireland says exports to the GCC increased 13 percent last year, reaching €532.5 million ($580 million). Qatar had the region’s fastest growth in exports from Ireland last year, with a rise of […]

A Mitsubishi H3 rocket on the launchpad in Japan. The UAE will use the model in its asteroid belt mission

UAE and Mitsubishi sign agreement for asteroid belt mission

The UAE has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to provide services for its 2028 mission to the asteroid belt.  The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt – the first multiple-asteroid tour and landing mission to the main belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter – will launch the Mohammed Bin Rashid Explorer spacecraft […]