Saudi PIF eyes EA-Savvy gaming merger as LIV Golf files for bankruptcy

The first full work week of September is going out with a bang in the Markets + Deals world, as Saudi Arabia’s PIF works both ends of its own portfolio and Abu Dhabi continues to churn out cheques. IHC alone turns up in three transactions below — a space holding at home, a handful of project MoUs in Odisha, and a slice of Adani’s USD 1 bn airport raise. Plus: FAB and DP World both priced bonds into a market friendlier than it has been since March.

Riyadh is weighing a gaming supergroup. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) is considering folding Electronic Arts into Savvy Games Group to create a single gaming conglomerate, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Talks are early and no decision has been made. PIF’s USD 55 bn take-private of EA — alongside Silver Lake and Affinity Partners — has closed, and any combination would wait on Savvy’s pending USD 6 bn acquisition of Moonton, developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

The combined group would be the largest operating business PIF controls in any sector. Savvy already owns Monopoly Go-maker Scopely (which Savvy Games acquired for USD 4.9 bn in 2023), Pokémon Go maker Niantic’s games division, and ESL FACEIT Group, plus c. USD 12 bn in listed gaming stakes. EA brings EA FC, Madden, The Sims and Apex Legends — along with a well-documented weakness in mobile, which is precisely where Scopely and Niantic are strong.

Meanwhile, on the other end of its portfolio, PIF’s most expensive experiment is officially in bankruptcy court. LIV Golf’s New Jersey subsidiary has filed for Chapter 11 protection, listing (pdf) USD 500 mn to USD 1 bn in liabilities against assets of USD 100-500 mn, including USD mns in unpaid debts to top players. Spaniard Jon Rahm is at the top of the list, with some USD 7.5 mn in debt owed by LIV. PIF extended under USD 100 mn in debtor-in-possession financing earlier this month — its final contribution — after pulling the plug in May on four years of funding.

There may be a buyer. BC Partners is evaluating a purchase of LIV’s assets at c. USD 300 mn, inside the league’s USD 250-350 mn asking price and well short of what PIF put in. This is the clearest instance yet of the fund cutting a flagship soft-power asset loose rather than recapitalizing it.

Abu Dhabi is buying a space supply chain. International Holding Company’s (IHC) International Tech Group is acquiring 80% of Marlan Holding, whose portfolio spans Marlan Space, satellite manufacturer Orbitworks, a position in Loft Orbital and a planned 50-satellite Altair Next-Gen constellation, The National reports. This follows the UAE being named to build the first satellites for France’s AI-in-space program.

India’s Odisha state has pulled a winner out of its UAE investment drive. IHC signed agreements worth INR 2.1 tn (USD 22 bn) with Adani Group to explore 14 projects that the chief minister’s office says could employ as many as 868k people. The pitch spans metals downstream, slurry pipelines, critical minerals and rare earths, chemicals and petchems, renewables equipment, healthcare, industrial infrastructure, tourism, and skills and sports infrastructure.

AND- IHC has also just joined the consortium backing a USD 1 bn equity raise for Adani Airport Holdings through Alpha Wave Global, in which IHC holds a position. The consortium also includes Premji Invest, Temasek and BlackRock-managed funds, the company said in a press release.

UAE capital is leading a USD 3 bn wager on Elon Musk’s tunnels. The Boring Company (TBC) raised a series D led by the UAE and affiliated investment entities at a USD 23 bn valuation, according to a company statement. The money comes attached to an expanded UAE partnership covering more than 150 km of tunnel, on top of the existing Dubai Loop. Dubai’s Shamal Holding is in the round alongside Sequoia Capital, a16z and Temasek, and has been careful to say its stake is a private commercial investment separate from the government-level Dubai Loop agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority, Khaleej Times reports.

Mubadala is buying into China’s biggest coffee chain, making a “significant minority investment” in Luckin Coffee alongside Centurium Capital, the chain’s controlling shareholder, in a deal worth about USD 1 bn, according to a statement. Centurium sold 241 mn preferred shares to a Mubadala-backed fund, according to the SEC filing — the stock moved between existing holders, not out of Luckin’s treasury. No new shares were issued and none of the money reaches the company. Centurium and Mubadala’s combined holding stays at 22.08%.

DP World tightened pricing on a dual-tranche bond. Dubai ports and logistics major DP World priced EUR 750 mn of six-year green notes at a 4.750% coupon — 150 bps over mid-swaps, yielding 4.883% — alongside USD 750 mn of 10-year conventional notes at 6.250%, also 150 bps, this time over US Treasuries, yielding 6.347%, Zawya reports. The firm mandated the roadshow earlier this week.

Investors showed up. Both tranches tightened 25 bps from IPTs of c. 175 bps, with books closing above EUR 1.5 bn and USD 1.3 bn — excluding joint lead manager interest, so real demand was likely higher. The notes carry DP World’s Baa2 (Moody’s) / BBB+ (Fitch) ratings, both with a stable outlook, and list on the London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market and Nasdaq Dubai.

And the UAE’s biggest lender got paid to wait. First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) priced a USD 500 mn five-year senior unsecured bond at US Treasuries plus 90 bps with a 5.456% coupon, Zawya reports. Orders topped USD 1 bn excluding joint lead manager interest, leaving the book more than 2x covered, and pricing tightened 25 bps from Tuesday’s T+115 bps initial price thoughts.

Why it matters: Those IPTs came in wider than the war’s March peak of 108 bps. The final print at 90 bps sits well inside it and roughly two-thirds of the way back to January’s 79 bps, the tightest UAE corporate spreads have been all year. One issuance doesn’t reprice the curve, but 25 bps of compression on 2x-plus demand suggests the bid is recovering ahead of where the posted curve sits.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Abu Dhabi’s BlueFive Capital is the largest investor in the consortium that has closed its EUR 1 bn purchase of Porsche’s 30% stake in Bugatti Rimac, leaving BlueFive the second-biggest shareholder behind Rimac Group, it said in a press release (pdf). HOF Capital, which led the consortium, put the transaction size at EUR 1 bn in its own statement, against earlier estimates of c. USD 1.2 bn.

Jefferies is launching an index tracking the 30 most liquid listed companies across the GCC, aimed at institutional clients, it said in a press release. The bank’s pitch is risk-adjusted: it argues the region screens more favourably than other emerging markets, helped by the dollar pegs.

QNB Group and the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD) will build green financing products around GORD’s Global Sustainability Assessment System, pairing certification data with QNB’s corporate lending to price green loans for eligible projects, Qatar News Agency reports. QNB’s sustainable finance book has passed USD 11.4 bn, up 18% from 2024, backed by a EUR 750 mn green bond, since Qatar Central Bank issued its first Sustainable Finance Framework last year.

Qatar Development Bank (QDB) invested in Kuwait-based edtech Dawraty as part of a USD 2 mn seed round valuing the startup at USD 10 mn. Dawraty runs a bilingual, AI-powered platform for healthcare education and professional certification.

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