Good afternoon, wonderful people. A new workweek gets underway as Qatar takes its mediation efforts between the US and Iran to the White House while the US’ blockade on Iran tightened over the weekend.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulraman Al Thani is set to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House tonight, with a new ceasefire and the restart of nuclear talks on the agenda, Axios reports. A fresh attack on Iran is “highly unlikely” if negotiations progress, Trump told CNN, adding that “it depends on whether or not they sign a very strong agreement.” Marco Rubio has said the talks aren’t productive because Iran’s demands are unacceptable, and Qatar has denied reports that the process has collapsed, saying both sides are still working towards an agreement.
Tehran sounds further away from that agreement than Doha seems. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said no mediators have traveled since the US midterms, while Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the elections change nothing and that any concessions would be a “grave miscalculation."
Meanwhile, CENTCOM has stood up Task Force Iron Gate to cut Iran’s land routes and its access through the Caspian, with the White House calling the blockade “in full force and effect.” A US aircraft disabled the St Kitts-flagged M/V Huda with precision munitions to the stern on Saturday after it allegedly tried to run the blockade, with the crew told to clear the area first. UKMTO reported a tanker alight about eight nautical miles north-west of Khasab, Oman, on Saturday, and the UAE National Guard rescued 22 crew, all in stable condition, from a cargo ship fire in the Gulf of Oman. A drone strike on Iraq’s Khor Mor gas field knocked out around 2.8 GW of power capacity with no claim of responsibility.
AND- Isaac Herzog has given Gadi Eisenkot the chance to form a government, Reuters reports, in a setback for Benjamin Netanyahu after his coalition lost its majority in last month’s election. –Salma
The sourcing for the GCC’s AI talent needs are splitting along whether the work has to sit next to the physical infrastructure. The roles tied to the AI build across the GCC — cloud architecture, cybersecurity, compliance — have to stay close to the infrastructure for security, regulation, and data-sovereignty reasons, TASC Outsourcing Chief Business Officer Anil Singh tells EnterpriseAM. The rest — software development, data operations, model fine-tuning — is increasingly being sourced from Egypt and Jordan. The result, Singh says, is a regional workforce model with infrastructure teams in the GCC and specialist technical talent distributed across MENA.
Inside Saudi’s talent market
Budgeting is now the main driver of Saudi businesses’ hiring strategy as they enter AI execution mode. Headcount is still growing, but hiring managers have to justify every role, Unicorn Talent CEO Zeina Karrit tells EnterpriseAM. “The market has moved into execution mode, so hiring managers now have to explain why a role exists, what it will deliver in its first year, and whether someone already in the team could step into it,” she says.
The test for approving new roles is narrow: “If a role clearly helps the business sell, build something or stay compliant, it has a much better chance of being approved.” Data engineers, cloud architects, and cybersecurity specialists are the most sought-after hires, Karrit says — the same roles Singh flags as the ones that can’t be outsourced overseas due to regulatory requirements. Meanwhile, on-site hiring is seeing the sharpest slowdown in sectors like construction and engineering-led projects.
Compliance is where there remains a bottleneck. The hardest roles to fill aren’t purely technical, Singh says — they’re the ones that bridge the technology and the regulatory regime it runs in. Professionals who can translate data residency, privacy, and AI governance rules into decisions about how data is stored, processed, and used to train models are as scarce as the pure technical hires, and a single hire rarely has both capabilities.
This is where the Saudization premium is hardening into a structural cost. The pool of experienced Saudi nationals and Arabic-speaking specialists for these on-site roles is small, Karrit says, so companies compete for the same people and pay a premium.
But pay alone isn’t the only lever: “A clear next step, real responsibility, and a feeling of being invested” are what keep them, she says. The firms that treat Saudization as part of a multi-year talent plan — graduate programs, knowledge transfer from expat specialists, succession planning — do better than those treating it as a compliance box.
The portable work is routing across MENA
Egypt and Jordan are picking up the work the GCC doesn’t need on-site. The two countries are emerging as “complementary talent markets rather than direct competitors” to the GCC, Singh says, with strength in engineering, software development, data operations, and model fine-tuning. For employers, the immediate question is which roles genuinely need to be on-site and which can be sourced regionally without compromising security, speed, or operational control.
REMEMBER- Egypt and Jordan arereplicating a version of India’s 1995 outsourcing play: Egypt’s IT-enabled services sector is targeting USD 12 bn and 630k jobs by 2029, and Jordan is building the same play under the Jordan Source brand.
Our take
For GCC businesses, the mix of talent localization and on-site hiring mandates means upskilling is a critical business priority. The real bet is on upskilling existing teams because industry knowledge takes years to build and technical skills can be taught faster, Singh says. Karrit favors the same approach for the KSA talent gap. “There aren’t enough experienced AI specialists for every company to hire its way out, so upskill the people who already know the business and bring in a few senior specialists to lead,” she says.
Clear and sound workforce policies are also another critical priority, and they are not changing as fast as jobs change. As platform-based and technology-enabled roles grow, employers and regulators need clearer standards around contracts, pay, working conditions, and employee protections, Singh says. Reskilling and workforce protections need to progress at the same pace as technology adoption, or businesses risk building a workforce technically prepared for new roles but inadequately supported by the structures governing them, he adds.
What’s next: The firms best positioned for 2027, Karrit says, are those with a clear long-term direction and a solid commercial business behind them — AI and data infrastructure companies, telecom operators, fintechs, and manufacturers investing in digital operations. Watch for the Saudization premium on on-site infrastructure roles to stay elevated through the next budget cycle, and for Egypt and Jordan to pick up more of the portable work as GCC employers rationalize headcount.
The GCC advanced three parallel infrastructure integration plays in four days. On Sunday, GCC transport ministers in Bahrain signed the General Agreement for the GCC Railway Project, providing a legal framework for a 2.1k-km network connecting Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman. Three days earlier, the bloc’s Electricity and Water Cooperation Committee reviewed proposals and ongoing technical studies for a regional water interconnection network, alongside proposed expansion of the existing power grid interconnections.
What we know: Both the water project and the new power grid expansion remain in the study phase, with no timelines or cost estimates publicly disclosed. Rail, meanwhile, is already under construction after members pushed domestic construction tenders and regulatory frameworks for the buildout over the last two years — the rail agreement simply defines the responsibilities of member states and deepens cooperation on the GCC Railways Authority.
Water security is what moved the agenda. Last April, the GCC Consultative Meeting in Jeddah — which ordered the water and grid connectivity feasibility studies now under review — convened amid heightened fears that Iran could sever the bloc’s main source of freshwater: Desalination infrastructure. The six Gulf states together produce roughly 40% of the world’s desalinated water, and Kuwait draws around 90% of its drinking water from desalination. Oman relies on desalination for 86% and Qatar for 61% for total water use. And severe disruption to Gulf desalination could deprive as many as 73 mn people of water access, according to estimates.
From concept to continuous operation: The GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA), established in 2001, links the six Gulf states. Phase I linking Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar became operational in December 2009. Oman’s integration via the UAE completed the six-state loop in November 2014. GCCIA puts cumulative savings at about USD 3.6 bn since 2009, averaging USD 256 mn per year — a figure CEO Ahmed Al Ebrahim has said exceeds the project’s capital and operating costs to date. The grid has prevented more than 2.8k electrical outages and GCCIA projects potential savings of up to USD 24 bn by 2038 once a regional spot market for electricity trading is operational.
The water interconnection concept, meanwhile, has taken far longer to find traction. A USD 3.9 bn plan from the mid-2000s for three supranational desalination plants at Sohar, Sila, and Al-Khafji was pared back on cost. A USD 1 bn link study revived in 2013 targeted a 2020 launch — a deadline that passed without execution. French consultancy Artelia now leads the feasibility work, examining bilateral connections between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. The initial design includes two-way pipelines and a UAE connection also under assessment.
Financing is the recurring constraint, with oil price volatility stalling rail and water projects over the past decade and no unified GCC fund to underwrite them. The Iraq-Kuwait link shows conflict can keep near-complete infrastructure from switching on, and a shared water network would spread that risk across all six members. Delivery on the rail agreement depends on members building their national segments on schedule, integrating border and operational systems, and agreeing a common regulatory regime.
Bahrain has granted golden licenses to two aircraft maintenance centers and two property developments worth a combinedUSD 3.9 bn. These were the two firm commitments inside the USD 22.3 bn in announced MoUs at the Gateway Gulf forum in Bahrain last week. Bahrain launched the Golden License program in 2023, offering incentives and streamlined processes for projects that create jobs and attract investment.
DHL and AirAsia took the Golden Licenses for the maintenance, repair, and overhaul centers, with AirAsia also planning a regional hub in Bahrain. The property projects are a waterfront development by a Meliá-Infracorp joint venture and a mixed-use development from Digital City Bahrain.
Also coming from the forum:India’s hotel company IHCL partnered with Kingdom Projects to invest USD 100 mn in Bahrain and introduce three flagship brands — Taj Hotels, Bombay Brasserie, and Reliance Retail’s Hamleys — to the kingdom. On the Islamic finance front, Bahrain EDB-backed regtech startup SITR Compliance Technology formally launched its operations, aiming to streamline and automate Shariah-compliant regulatory processes and transaction monitoring for regional financial institutions.
The announcements come as the war threw a wrench at the country’s economy. Bahrain entered the war with depleted fiscal buffers and record-high levels of debt. The country’s economy is expected to contract 11.3% this year, with reserves that fell to a record low of BHD 886.60 mn (USD 2.35 bn) and government debt now reaching 160% of GDP — the fourth highest globally. The country received a financing package from the UAE in the early weeks of the war, and reports now are speculating that another rescue package from its Gulf neighbors may be in the works.
PIF and Silver Lake are in talks to takeUnity Softwareprivate, having floated a valuation of around USD 25 bn. Silver Lake already holds about 8% of the game software maker, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter, and the two are fresh from taking Electronic Arts private together this year. The USD 25 bn was floated before Unity’s results lifted its market value to about USD 21.5 bn, putting the mooted price roughly 16% above where the shares trade now, by our math. Unity has brought in an investment bank since the approach, nothing is locked in, and terms could shift.
Unity’s engine is what developers use to build and run interactive 3D content on any device, and it powers games at Scopely, which makes Monopoly Go, and Niantic, behind Pokémon Go — both held by a group that already includes PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. Silver Lake put up to USD 400 mn into Unity in 2017, and gaming and esports are named sectors in PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy.
Background: The two took Electronic Arts private earlier this year for USD 55 bn, with PIF holding 93.4% and Silver Lake 5.5% alongside Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners at 1.1%. Unity beat estimates in 3Q, revenue up 32% to USD 622.1 mn and its first quarterly net income on a GAAP basis since it listed in September 2020.
BC Partners is preparing a preliminary bid for the USD 50 mn loan PIF holds over LIV Golf, days after walking away from its plan to relaunch the league. The debtor-in-possession financing carries control of LIV’s Chapter 11 case, the Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The bid is early enough that it is not known whether PIF or LIV are receptive, or aware of the details.
A sale would take PIF out of the case. The fund, which owned 98% of LIV and stopped funding it in September, would put in more money to settle trade vendor claims the FT has put at USD 100 mn or more, against the USD 2 mn set aside for unsecured creditors. LIV’s lawyers told a federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey on Thursday that the group would wind down, with liquidation paperwork due today and room left to revisit.
For BC the loan buys a 2027 relaunch and USD 5 bn of tax losses. The league would be thinner than the 17-tournament, USD 300 mn version it proposed, and it would keep the losses LIV has built up in the US and UK since 2021, which BC could set against profits at companies it buys later. The earlier talks collapsed over player demands, with some of the 15-40 golfers who had shown interest asking BC to honor guarantees cancelled in Chapter 11 while keeping the right to walk after signing.
Orascom Construction’s board has approved the capital increase that delivers its merger with OCI Global, issuing 97.2 mn new shares to OCI and lifting issued capital to USD 207.4 mn from USD 110.2 mn, according to a bourse disclosure (pdf). Thursday’s written resolution was the last scheduled approval on Orascom’s side, after its own shareholders approved the swap in January and OCI’s signed off on 30 October. The two Nassef Sawiris-backed firms become a single Abu Dhabi-based infrastructure and investment platform.
The dates: The new shares list on the EGX and ADX on 24 November. NNS Holding’s EUR 4.10-a-share offer to OCI holders who would rather exit than take Orascom stock closes on 17 November unless extended, with the distribution ex-date on 27 November. OCI trades for the last time on Euronext Amsterdam on 26 November and delists the next day, its shareholders receive Orascom stock on or around 8 December, and OCI is liquidated. Completion is expected next month, before a 30 December long-stop.
Still outstanding: Value8’s petition asking the Dutch Enterprise Chamber to investigate OCI is still before the court, which has yet to rule, and it did not stop the 30 October vote it sought to block. Under the approved resolution the combination goes ahead only once NNS makes its offer, declares it unconditional, and settles it, which is why the 17 November close matters.
Modon Holding has raised AED 13.7 bn (USD 3.7 bn), its largest financing to date, more than doubling the average time it has to repay its debt. The ADX-listed Abu Dhabi developer will refinance existing borrowings and fund its development pipeline, and the package came in more than 1.5x oversubscribed, according to a company statement (pdf).
Two-thirds of it is a revolver. The money splits into a AED 4.7 bn five-year term loan and a AED 9 bn revolving credit facility running three years initially and extendable to five, with an option to add up to AED 4 bn if lenders commit, across conventional and Islamic financing in AED and USD. Our friends at Mashreq lent alongside ADCB, ADIB, Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD, FAB, HSBC, Citi, JPMorgan, National Bank of Kuwait, and Standard Chartered. Rothschild & Co advised Modon.
An Adia subsidiary is seeking a USD 7.5 bn loan to fund its private-market investments, covering infrastructure, private equity, and real estate, Zawya reports, citing LPC. The facility runs one year initially with two one-year extension options, banks have until 27 November to commit, and signing is set for 11 December. First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, Société Générale, and Standard Chartered are among the arrangers, with Standard Chartered as sole coordinator, and the borrower is Platinum PAD FinCo1 A 2026 RSC. Borrowing costs and final commitments have not been disclosed.
Mayar Holding’s irrigation unit Ziorak has put its Nomu IPO on hold, citing geopolitical and economic challenges. The board postponed completing its application to the CMA for a capital increase that would have offered new shares equal to 30% of post-increase capital, according to a Tadawul filing. There is no revised timetable.
Mayar had the IPO down as a funding source. Its 1H 2026 financials (pdf) named the offering as one of its working-capital plans, and its auditor flagged a material uncertainty over the group’s going-concern status, though management said it expects adequate resources for at least 12 months. Those financials also say Ziorak submitted the application in June, while the latest filing says submission is incomplete, and the company has not explained the difference.
Background: Ziorak set out its plans in May with Mefic Capital as financial advisor, framing the offering as part of Mayar’s expansion across plastics manufacturing and irrigation systems.
Bahrain could resume LNG imports next year at levels close to the eight cargoes it took in 2025, as industry recovers from war-related disruption, Bapco Upstream executive VP Bader Albuqaishi told Argus. The kingdom has received just one LNG cargo in 2026, with no more expected before year-end, after the March attacks and trade restrictions disrupted industrial operations and cut gas demand. A return to last year’s levels depends on the pace of the industrial recovery.
Factory demand will decide it: Bahrain entered 2026 expecting to import more LNG to meet growing industrial and electricity demand. Instead, factory disruptions and shortages of imported raw materials cut consumption. It imported around 635k tons of LNG between May and October 2025, with deliveries peaking at 217k tons in August as summer power demand rose, according to Kpler data cited by Argus.
The terminal is ready for the cargoes: Bahrain’s LNG terminal near Khalifa Bin Salman Port has 173k cbm of storage and regasification capacity of up to 800 mn scf / d. AD Ports Group subsidiary Noatum Maritime secured a five-year contract to provide marine service at the terminal in November 2025, including LNG carrier berthing, towage, and emergency response.
Bahrain’s own gas output is back, and its refinery is nearly there: Domestic gas production recovered to almost 2.3 bn cf / d in August from 1.9 bn cf / d in April. Meanwhile, the country’s 405k bbl / d Sitra refinery, damaged by missile strikes in March, is operating above 80% of capacity and could return to full throughput by the end of November, industry sources told Argus in a separate report.
Local currency pilot
Egypt and India have carried out the first successful pilot transfer settling trade in their own currencies, Indian Ambassador to Egypt Suresh K. Reddy told Al Arabiya. The pilot is designed to test technical payment rails and lower FX conversion friction ahead of scaling corporate trade settlements in EGP and INR.
The pilot is backed by an ambitious India-Egypt trade cooperation. The two countries had set a target of increasing annual bilateral trade from USD 6.5 bn in FY 2025-26 to USD 12 bn within five years. Egypt’s Ambassador to India Kamel Galal had pointed out key avenues for the planned target, such as joint manufacturing of fashion goods in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, rising solar panel imports from India, and targeting the Indian IT sector to contribute to Egypt’s digital transformation.
This is part of a wider push from Egypt, which has been leveraging different pathways to increase trade with local currencies with multiple trading partners, sidestepping the USD. The country previously settled grain imports from Russia in RUB. It holds currency swap lines with the UAE and China, and is also an active issuer of Panda bonds, which helps inject CNY and AED liquidity into its FX markets to settle trade transactions in those currencies. Egypt is also planning to link its online payment platform InstaPay to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, which would let Egyptian traders settle with African counterparts in local currencies rather than rely on USD.
Digging into Gabon
An Abu Dhabi-based miner is behind a proposed USD 2 bn plan to revive one of Gabon’s long-stalled rare-earth projects, according to a statement from Gabon’s presidency. Abu Dhabi-based minerals developer and investor New Energy Metals (NEM) and its subsidiary Dusk Gabon presented a technical study for the Mabounié niobium and rare-earth deposit to Gabonese President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema during his visit to Beijing. The study was prepared with Chinese engineering partner ENFI and puts the investment at USD 2 bn, with more than 2.5k direct jobs. Construction could start in 2027, Bloomberg reports.
Gabon wants the processing done at home: The president’s condition is that the niobium be processed in Gabon, in line with a broader push to make foreign industrial partners create jobs and value locally. Mabounié, c. 200 km southeast of Libreville, has been prospected for years without reaching commercial production. Neither the presidency nor Bloomberg said how the project would be financed.
IN CONTEXT- The UAE has been building closer economic ties with Gabon this year: the two countries signed a trade agreement in January, and mining development featured in several bilateral MoUs signed in February.
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