Saudi Aramco may be looking to raise USD 35 bn from asset sales — and we have M&A news from the UAE, Saudi, and Egypt

Saudi Arabia wants to shore up its dry powder as it girds for an escalating competition with the UAE. Aramco is lining up the biggest privatization drive in its history, with asset sales that could raise as much as USD 35 bn, Bloomberg reports. The pipeline runs from a sale-and-leaseback of real estate that could include its Dhahran headquarters to stake sales in oil export and storage terminals and deals for gas-fired power and water infrastructure. If the plan goes through, it would keep full ownership of its upstream production assets while selling minority stakes in just about anything midstream on down. The catalyst was the BlackRock-led USD 11 bn Jafurah lease last August, which drew enough fund appetite to convince Aramco there’s a market for the rest.

Our take: A year ago we’d have read this as Aramco trimming non-core assets. Now it looks like the Kingdom is looking to max-out liquidity while the war continues and FDI is still well short of the USD 100 bn-a-year target.

Emirates NBD has cleared the last regulatory hurdle on its roughly USD 3 bn acquisition of India’s RBL Bank, securing final sign-off from the Indian government. That will make it the first foreign lender to take majority control of a profitable listed Indian bank. The deal is structured as a preferential equity issue that leaves ENBD with 51-74% of RBL’s share capital (with voting rights capped at 26%).

Why it matters: Western lenders are pulling back from India and MENA+ — and GCC banks including Emirates NBD and private-sector champion Mashreq are pushing in.

BlueFive Capital has locked in a binding 42% of Tadawul-listed Gulf General Insurance (GGI) — a rescue wrapped in a restructuring. GGI will cut its capital to SAR 124 mn from SAR 300 mn to wipe out most of its accumulated losses, then issue new shares that hand the Abu Dhabi firm its stake (press release pdf). It needed the lifeline: 2025 losses widened to SAR 120.5 mn, raising going-concern doubt.

Watch for a rollup play to follow: BlueFive launched BlueFive Insurance in November to roll up a fragmented GCC insurance market, and a distressed listed shell makes a useful vehicle for the buy-and-build to come. SNB Capital and A&O Shearman advised BlueFive; the deal still needs final regulatory and shareholder sign-off.

BP is weighing a sale of select Egyptian natural gas assets as part of a global restructuring to trim debt, Reuters reports. The targets are East and West Nile Delta plays. BP has put more than USD 35 bn into Egypt over six decades and once supplied 60% of its gas, so even a partial divestment reshapes the country’s LNG-export-hub ambitions — even as BP keeps chasing higher-yield plays, including new offshore concessions and a 50% stake in Temsah’s Denise W 1 well, which holds c. 2 tcf of gas.

Saudi Contractor Mutlaq Al Ghowairi (MGC) is taking 30% to Tadawul in a pure secondary sale that will see founder Mutlaq Al Otaibi trims his stake to 32% from 52.5% and Terad Al Ghowairi to 15.7% from 22.5%. Both will be locked up for six months (press release pdf, prospectus pdf).

Why it matters:MGC is one of several Saudi firms trying to beat the buzzer before their CMA approvals lapse in June. Ninja is lining up banks for a potential USD 1 bn IPO by late 2026 or early 2027, Dar Al Balad is targeting USD 55 mn, and Arabian Dyar is eyeing a listing. Saudi issuers are crowding the window while UAE and Egyptian companies play it more cautiously.

What to watch: MGC is the test of whether Tadawul still has the appetite for thin-margin contractor plays amid the Kingdom’s project reshuffling.

Cairo-headquartered Korra Energi opened books on the EGX’s second private-sector IPOof the year, looking to raise up to EGP 735 mn for 11% of the company. The institutional tranche (60%) closes 24 May and retail the next day. It’s only the second private-sector float since Gourmet in February.

EGX bellwether Commercial International Bank (CIB) will launch its digital-banking subsidiary, Yomo, in 4Q 2026, CEO Hisham Ezz Al Arab told the Arabic press (watch, 28:48). Egypt’s largest private-sector lender already has regulatory approval to set up the digital bank’s holding company in Abu Dhabi — a regulatory and tax-optimization play — and is in the final stretch of getting the Central Bank of Egypt’s nod for the Cairo operating company.

IN CONTEXT- Yomo joins a wave of digital-native banks arriving just as rates start to fall. State-owned Banque Misr is finally standing up long-planned its digital arm, Onebank, targeting EGP 40 bn in deposits in year one. CIB is putting EGP 300 mn into Yomo over three years, and Ezz Al Arab told us last month it’s a market-expansion play, not just a defensive move against the fintechs.

Sab Invest has become Saudi Arabia’s first ETF market maker under the Saudi Exchange’s new framework (pdf).

Why it matters:Tadawul’s still-embryonic ETF segment won’t ever become liquid enough to matter without market makers.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING THIS MORNING-

Mubadala Energy has joined a USD 9.75 bn financing package behind the USD 13 bnCommonwealth LNG project in Louisiana, a move some pundits think suggests the UAE’s post-Opec hedge runs through American gas.

IHC’s Alpha Wave Global is weighing a USD 1.3 bn investment in Adani Airport Holdings alongside Singapore sovereign fund Temasek, the airport unit’s first external equity raise, at a USD 18-20 bn valuation. Alpha Wave is a unit of IHC’s Judan Financial, chaired by UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, a long-standing Adani backer.

Stitch, a Saudi financial-infrastructure firm, raised USD 25 mn in a Series A led by AndreessenHorowitz — a16z’s first investment in the GCC. The 2022-founded firm builds cloud-native lending, cards, payments, and ledger software across the GCC, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Raya Holding has finally closed the loop on a six-year exit from Ostool, with its board approving the sale of its 90% stake to a Qalaa/Ascom Mining subsidiary for EGP 641 mn.

Market Snapshot

Tadawul -0.3% • ADX -0.3% • DFM -0.5% • EGX30 -1.5%

Brent USD 110.33 / bbl • Gold USD 4,549 / oz • USD / SAR 3.75 • USD / EGP 53.36