Sovereign money dominates as L’imad eyes AD Ports and QIA backs first homegrown fund manager

Sovereign money is doing the talking this morning: Four of the Gulf’s biggest state investors have made moves in the past 48 hours, with ADQ lining up to take AD Ports private, Mubadala’s Adic writing a USD 1 bn hedge fund check, the PIF mapping its return to debt markets, and QIA backing a homegrown fund manager for the first time. Add a Moroccan logistics buyout and another leg of BinDawood’s food-manufacturing land grab, and the throughline is that the region’s biggest checkbooks are open.

L’imad wants AD Ports all to itself: Abu Dhabi sovereign investor L’imad’s wholly owned subsidiary ADQ has notified AD Ports Group’s board that it plans to make a voluntary cash offer for the 24.58% of the ports and logistics giant it doesn't already own, according to ADX disclosures here (pdf) and here (pdf). The buyout offer values AD Ports at around AED 31.8 bn and would cost ADQ roughly AED 7.8 bn to buy out the remaining stake, according to our math.

The offer: L’imad is offering AED 6.25 per share — a 23% premium to AD Ports’ 14 August close. The price is also 95% above AD Ports’ AED 3.20 listing price from February 2022.

Debt, not equity, will keep funding the PIF: International debt markets are expected to remain the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) primary source of financing going forward, according to the fund’s CFO and acting head of its Global Capital Finance Division Yasir bin Abdullah Al Salman (watch, runtime: 13:50). The fund sees no new borrowing this year and a likely return to debt markets in early 2026, leaning in the meantime on four channels: Divestments from select investments, capital markets financing, bank financing, and reinvested returns.

The PIF also intends to list more portfolio companies on equity markets, with the geopolitical conflict not expected to affect investor appetite for Tadawul, Al Salman said. “[For] any company that is ready for listing, we work with the Capital Market Authority and prepare the IPO file. […] We expect to list more companies in the coming years.”

The Qatar Investment Authority is putting money behind a domestic fund manager for the first time under its Active Asset Management Initiative, investing in Lesha Bank’s shariah-compliant Lesha Qatar Equity Fund, it said in a statement. Lesha becomes the fourth partner in the program, launched in 2024. QIA had previously seeded funds only with Franklin Templeton, Ashmore, and Fiera Capital, each around USD 200 mn.

Adic keeps feeding the hedge funds: Mubadala’s investment arm Abu Dhabi Investment Council (Adic) is pledging some USD 1 bn to Singapore-based hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital, backing its expansion across London, Hong Kong, and other markets, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are in the know. The allocation will be made in tranches.

BinDawood is buying its way into food manufacturing, with the company closing its acquisition of a 51% stake in Wonder Bakery at USD 31.3 mn, up from the USD 26 mn agreed when the deal was signed last December, according to a Tadawul disclosure. It’s the fourth food-and-retail agreement the group has closed or advanced this year, and BinDawood’s financials indicate the acquisitions are adding sales faster than earnings.

The pattern is hard to miss: Toy Triangle and Vaza Foods (closed 1 June) are already consolidated, Wonder Bakery just closed, and BinDawood is building a meat-processing facility for imported beef — all reportedly folding into a new food processing division. Days earlier, it also won the bid for two Estonian dairy plants for SAR 585.9 mn.

A.P. Moller Capital is buying control of Globex Investissement, one of Morocco’s most diversified logistics operators. The firm’s Emerging Markets Infrastructure Fund II (EMIF II) and APM Capital Morocco Fund will take a majority stake, according to a statement (pdf), with founder and CEO Omar El Kadiri staying on to run the business. Globex gives APM exposure well beyond its FedEx-branded courier business

Background: APM closed its Morocco-focused transport and logistics fund earlier this year with MAD 1.6 bn of commitments, while EMIF II added another MAD 600 mn — giving the two vehicles MAD 2.2 bn to deploy. Meanwhile, Amethis acquired a minority stake in Globex in 2022 to support expansion in Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa. Globex already operates in Senegal and Cameroon and uses the FedEx Express network to serve more than 220 countries.

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Four in, four out: The Egyptian Exchange’s newly overhauled index methodology saw four names join the EGX30 and another four drop out of the index. Misr Fertilizer Production (Mopco), Alexandria Containers and Goods (ACLN), Cleopatra Hospital, and Sidi Kreir Petrochemicals (Sidpec) will join the benchmark index, from Tuesday, 1 September, according to the exchange’s semi-annual index review (pdf). They replace Arabian Cement, Egyptian Chemical Industries (Kima), Oriental Weavers, and Orascom Investment Holding.

ALSO- CIRA Education lost its spot in the EGX33 Shariah index — the index of the exchange’s most shariah-compliant, highly liquid names — alongside Obour Land for Food Industries, with Gourmet and Cleopatra Hospital taking their places. Palm Hills, Telecom Egypt, and Eastern Company all dropped out of the EGX35-LV — the index tracking the 35 least volatile stocks among the most liquid names.

Pinnacle Capital launched a venture capital fund targeting growth-stage companies and secondary prospects in the Kingdom, investing through both primary rounds and secondaries, according to a statement. The fund’s size and participating investors haven’t been announced yet. The focus spans fintech, housing, mobility, real estate, urban services, e-commerce, health, and lifestyle, Wamda reports.

Diriyah secured a SAR 2 bn financing agreement with Arab National Bank (ANB) to fund international branded residences across its Diriyah and Wadi Safae masterplans, according to a statement.

Market Snapshot

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