UAE-India corridor deepens as Emirates NBD + Adia are on the hunt, while PIF reins in football budgets

The UAE-India corridor is doing a lot of work today, as Abu Dhabi Inc. follows on from Emirates NBD’s recent acquisition of a controlling stake in India’s RBL. The rest of the day rounds out the outbound theme: Adia lining up a US pharma buyout with Warburg, ePointZero planting its first flag in US gas — even as PIF turns inward, trimming football budgets and leaning on foreign co-investors at home.

IDBI, take two: Emirates NBD may be back in the frame for IDBI Bank — or may already have lost it. Reuters says the Dubai lender is again in the running for the 60.7% stake held by the government and state-run LIC, while Bloomberg reports India is close to accepting a sweetened bid from Canada's Fairfax Financial despite Emirates NBD improving its own offer. Reuters expects the process to wrap within a month.

A foothold in IDBI would hand Emirates NBD still more scale in India’s tightly guarded banking market, weeks after it closed its USD 2.8 bn purchase of a 60% controlling stake in RBL Bank — India’s largest-ever banking-sector FDI. India shelved the sale in March after both bids fell short of price expectations, then restarted it this month.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) grabbed a slice of India’s biggest asset manager. SBI Funds Management set aside 46.4 mn shares worth INR 26.63 bn (c.USD 279 mn) for anchor investors ahead of its USD 1 bn IPO, a filing (pdf) shows. Adia, Norway’s sovereign fund Norges, and BlackRock funds each took 1.6 mn shares — about 3.4% of the anchor book — at INR 574, the top of the price band. Singapore’s GIC was allocated 2.7 mn shares.

This is Adia’s latest and most liquid bet on India’s household-savings boom — mutual funds now hold around 10% of Indian household financial savings, double their share a decade ago, with SBI Funds running USD 131 bn at a 15% market share, according to Global SWF.

The Abu Dhabi fund is separately teaming up with US PE firm Warburg Pincus on a potential USD 7 bn-plus buyout of PANTHERx Rare, a US specialty pharmacy handling meds and patient support for rare and orphan diseases, the Wall Street Journal reports. The pair have worked together previously with a 2025 play for India’s IDFC FIRST Bank — sovereign money backing a buyout firm to get a big check signed.

ePointZero made its biggest push yet into US energy, closing a USD 2.25 bn allcash buy of Traverse Midstream Partners — its first play on American gas infrastructure, according to a press release (pdf). The transaction hands ePointZero a 35% stake in the Rover Pipeline and 25% of the Ohio River System. Both are run by Energy Transfer and are anchored in the Appalachian Basin, North America’s largest gas-producing region, feeding LNG export terminals, power plants and industrial users.

Masdar locked in USD 5.1 bn from a 13-bank consortium for what could become the world’s largest solar-plus-battery plant — a USD 6.1 bn Abu Dhabi facility built to deliver a full gigawatt around the clock, sun or no sun, according to a press release. Masdar funds the remaining USD 1 bn in equity.

PIF’s football budget cuts could be headed to court. Boards across PIF-owned Saudi Pro League clubs are assembling legal teams ahead of 2026-27, bracing for contract disputes from players whose salaries can no longer be met in full after PIF-mandated cuts, Intelligence Online reports, citing unnamed sources. London and New York firms are already prepping for what comes next.

The Big Four — Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli — face a combined USD 200-400 mn in cuts. Marquee names like Cristiano Ronaldo are prioritized for full payment, while lower-profile and injured players are more exposed. When PIF acquired the four clubs in 2023, budgets were fat enough to lure stars from Europe's top leagues. That’s now unwinding as part of a wider PIF recalibration that already pulled LIV Golf’s funding, and PIF has been trying to exit football altogether.

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PIF signed an MoU with Miami-based I Squared Capital to target up to USD 2 bn in digital infrastructure and district cooling — up to USD 1 bn per sector, with room to scale, AGBI reports (Arab News). It fits PIF's 2026-30 pivot from sole financier to co-investment partner as it reins in spending amid softer oil revenue — a template neighboring funds are watching.

NourNet, a Saudi digital-services firm, has tapped Goldman Sachs and HSBC for a possible Riyadh IPO as soon as this year, Bloomberg reports — one of a slate of Gulf deals fueling hopes of a post-summer rebound. Gulf first-time share sales have pulled just over USD 1 bn in 2026, the weakest since 2021, so whether names like NourNet can reopen the window will set the tone across the GCC into 2027.

Egytrans Nosco isn’t ready to rule on Africa Global Logistics’ (AGL) buyout offer, tasking management with studying the French group’s bid for up to 100% of the EGX-listed logistics firm before a final call, according to a statement (pdf). AGL’s non-binding offer values it at an 18.4% premium, with a mandatory tender offer conditional on 75% and voluntary delisting the eventual aim. The firm was formed last September in the EGX’s first reverse merger, combining Egytrans (70.2%) and Nosco (29.8%).

Morocco’s Cap Holding, controlled by tycoon Chakib Alj, revived its acquisition of a 68% stake in flour-and-semolina miller Forafric Maroc after resolving a Crédit Agricole du Maroc debt dispute (over MAD 190 mn) that had stalled it since May.

Riyad Bank set up a SAR 10 bn AT1 sukuk program, a standing facility to issue perpetual shariah-compliant capital instruments as needed to support its capital base and liquidity, Zawya reports.

The African Development Bank approved up to USD 66 mn to finance a 500-MW first phase of the Dandara solar project — the opening stage of Scatec’s 1.1-GW plan — plus a 100-MWh battery system in Naga Hammadi, it said. The package is USD 46 mn from the bank plus USD 20 mn in concessional Clean Technology Fund money; the rest of the USD 290 mn-plus cost comes from a DFI consortium.

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