Gulf sovereigns chase AI, Indian IPOs, and Korean defense as private credit overtakes VC

It’s another big week for bankers and lawyers, with MGX taking the lid off a USD 50 bn AI war chest, Mubadala chasing French resorts and a Korean weapons-parts maker at the same time, and both Abu Dhabi and Saudi sovereigns in on India’s biggest-ever IPO. We’re also keeping an eye on Oman, where the last IPO still in the market after the outbreak of the US-Iran war sees the sultanate pushing ahead with its largest industrial listing in years. Meanwhile, private credit has for the first time overtaken venture capital as the region’s startup-funding tool of choice.

Here’s the rundown:

MGX raises close to USD 50 bn for AI. Abu Dhabi’s MGX has pulled in close to USD 50 bn from regional sovereigns, global pension funds, and other institutions to build one of the largest dedicated AI investment pools assembled to date, Bloomberg reports. It’s an unusually large third-party raise for an emirate whose state investors have traditionally deployed government money. MGX is targeting more than USD 100 bn in assets, with plans to deploy some USD 10 bn each year. It’s already debating the multi-bn-USD acquisition of Singapore data-center operator DayOne.

SOUND SMART– MGX already backs OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI — it’s assembling positions across the whole AI stack, from frontier models to the chips and data centers underneath them.

The order book is open on the last regional IPO still standing: Oman India Fertiliser Company (Omifco) is taking orders through tomorrow (25 June), offering a 25% stake as selling shareholders look to raise c. OMR 260.9 mn (USD 678 mn). Trading on the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX) is set for 8 July.

GO DEEPER- We flagged early that an Omifco hit would give the MSX a shot in the arm.

WATCH THIS SPACE- For the first time, private debt has overtaken venture capital as the Gulf’s dominant startup-financing tool. GCC private-debt deployment hit USD 4.1 bn in 2025, up 8.2x from USD 500 mn a year earlier, against USD 3.3 bn of VC, Stride Ventures reports. Fintech swallowed 95.5% of it and Saudi Arabia absorbed c. 95% of regional private-debt deployment.

Key Gulf sovereigns have positions in India’s biggest-ever IPO after Reliance’s Jio Platforms filed for a Mumbai listing that could raise up to INR 360 bn (USD 3.81 bn). PIF (2.3%), Mubadala (1.9%), and Adia (1.2%) all have seats at the table.

Are GCC corporates tiptoeing back into the debt market? ADX-listed healthcare group Burjeel Holdings is reviving the debut sukuk it shelved in April, marketing a benchmark-sized five-year issuance under a USD 1.5 bn trust-certificate program, it said in a statement (pdf). Gulf banks have issued straight through the war, with pricing tightening as the conflict dragged on, signalling investors had appetite.

IDH’s founding family is looking to take the company private, closing the book on what could have been a pioneering London listing. Hena Holdings, the family vehicle of IDH CEO Hend El Sherbini and her mother, launched a mandatory cash offer for Integrated Diagnostics Holdings that values the Cairo-born diagnostics group at USD 290.7 mn, it said in a filing to the London Stock Exchange. Hena bought a 21.67% block from activist Elliott at USD 0.50 a share — a c. 11% discount to the last close — lifting it to 49.6% and tripping a mandatory offer under LSE rules.

Hena is aiming to delist IDH if enough shareholders take up the offer. IDH was the first Egyptian company to try a direct London listing rather than a GDR, and it never quite worked — investors struggled to make sense of the structure, and the ones who did were mostly global EM funds already comfortable buying on the EGX. A later EGX-London dual listing didn’t fix it, and only driller Ades (now listed only in Saudi) followed in its footsteps.

How it’s structured: The take-private is being financed with USD 43-150 mn of family equity and a loan of up to USD 60 mn from Ahmed Badreldin’s PE firm, RMBV, fresh from its EGP 2.5 bn Spinneys Egypt buy and a move to establish an EGX SPAC.

Saudi restaurant-management and POS provider Foodics completed its full buyout of Greek hospitality-analytics startup Norma AI, a seven-figure deal funded from a USD 100 mn AI war chest it had already earmarked, CRO Belal Zahran tells EnterpriseAM. Norma’s team folds into Foodics’ AI division. It follows Foodics’ buyout of UK ordering platform SoloVenture and stakes in accounting system Add and supply-chain platform Arzaq Plus — acquisitions the company has said are part of its expansion plan.

Germany’s Knauf is tendering for the rest of United Mining Industries (UMI) at SAR 57 a share — the price it paid for its opening stake — valuing the buyout at SAR 293.5 mn and clearing the way to delist UMI from Tadawul, according to a statement (pdf). A EUR 15.6 bn building-materials group taking a Saudi miner private is a bet on the Kingdom’s construction pipeline.

PIF-backed aircraft lessor AviLease is marketing a five-year USD-denominated Reg S bond, with investor calls underway, Zawya reports. It fits the PIF’s push to turn portfolio companies like AviLease into self-financing businesses that fund off their own balance sheets rather than the fund directly — it already priced a USD 850 mn note due 2030.

Two Saudi asset managers launched hotel-development funds: Yaqeen Capital’s SAR 600 mn fund for a Madinah project and Osool & Bakheet’s SAR 713 mn fund for a luxury hotel in Al Khobar. Property funds look increasingly like a “thing” this year after Arabian Dyar and Al Rajhi Capital launched an SAR 4.5 bn vehicle for Makkah and Madinah earlier in 2026.

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Government control of Saudi Arabia’s largest contractor, Binladin International Holding Group, now tops 92% — up from the 86% reported in December — after a debt-for-equity swap left the Finance Ministry holding 86.4% directly and the founding family under 8%. The question now is whether Riyadh lists BIHG on Tadawul to set a valuation and an exit for the family’s residual stake.

The UAE opened subscriptions for its first sovereign retail T-sukuk, a shariah-compliant government instrument citizens and residents can buy with commitments as low as AED 1k, Wam reports. The issue is tiny at AED 50 mn, but the fact that it’s being offered to retail investors makes this something to watch.

Adia joined a consortium taking a 7.3% stake in Indian drugmaker Corona Remedies for INR 7.77 bn (USD 82.4 mn), alongside Aberdeen.

Magellan Capital launched what it bills as the Gulf’s first institutional open-ended asset-backed credit fund, seeding the DIFC-based vehicle with USD 50 mn and targeting north of USD 250 mn in AUM to lend to GCC and European SMEs, according to a statement (pdf). Asset-backed lending has anchored credit markets in Europe and North America for decades but barely exists in institutional form in the Gulf — the same vanilla plumbing we’ve called critical to the region’s consumer and small-business finance.

Robo.ai, the Nasdaq-listed Dubai AI and robotics firm, is buying AI-holding platform Quantum Core Capital in a USD 60 mn all-share deal, while Dubai proptech Rentify raised a USD 2 mn seed to launch Earn AI, an Arabic-native rent-management platform.

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