Good morning, wonderful people. With hope rising that the US-Iran war just might (ever-so-slowly) be drawing to a close, we expect the rivalry between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh to pick up steam. Each was out this week with a starkly different message.
As is usually the case with Abu Dhabi, the signal was subtle and, in this case, the photo really is worth 1k words: The crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the national security advisor, and the vice-president (and deputy PM) all seated at a table to hear what Abu Dhabi Inc. got up to in the first quarter of the year.
Sheikhs Khaled, Tahnoon, and Mansour sat through performance reviews earlier this week for ADIA (the world’s third-largest sovereign fund, with just about USD 1.2 tn in assets under management), Mubadala (USD 385 bn in AUM), L’Imad (which is absorbing ADQ and has USD 263 bn), and Adnoc (the oil and energy giant that is the profit engine for the whole edifice).
There are two takeaways from the meeting of what’s formally known as the Investment Affairs Council: The UAE is going to continue big investments abroad — and it is accelerating its aggressive courting of global asset managers to ADGM, which state-backed media called the “preferred destination for investors, global hedge funds, and wealth advisers.” A who’s who of other Abu Dhabi policymakers also attended the gathering.
Riyadh, meanwhile, is signaling that its inward pivot is just getting started:“Now our new strategy is to bring the world back to Saudi,” PIF boss Yassir Al-Rumayyan said in Rome after the fund’s latest high-profile FII event. PIF has for nearly a year now been shifting its focus away from global investments toward deploying more and more capital at home, cutting its earmark for international opportunities to 20% from an earlier 30%.
With a smaller population and a crisp strategy, the UAE has the flexibility to continue building influential positions in globally significant industries while simultaneously developing key sectors at home. Saudi, at an earlier phase of its drive to diversify away from oil and with much bigger housing and infrastructure needs, will continue to face pressure to allocate at home — particularly if Brent crude stays below USD 100.
It’s going to be even more interesting to see how the competition unfolds when you consider that Saudi, the UAE, and Qatar are now in the very first minutes of a long, costly race to harden logistics infrastructure, build redundant and alternative energy export routes, and shore up their defense capabilities. America’s shooting war may be coming to an end, but the cold rivalry between two of the world’s most interesting investors? That may just be getting started. –Patrick
Syria’s financial reopening is attracting a first wave of fintech firms looking to establish positions while the country’s banking sector rebuilds after years of war and sanctions. They’ree betting that demand for cross-border payments, digital wallets, and foreign currency accounts is growing faster than banks (and the reforms policymakers need to enact) can react.
Their niche is in the gaps the formal banking system hasn’t yet addressed. With most US sanctions lifted in 2025 now easing and an internationally backed government in place, fintech companies entering Syria are positioning themselves around the country’s most immediate financial constraints: Making it easier to send remittances home, reconnecting users to international payment networks, and digitizing an overwhelmingly cash-dominated economy.
The sector’s growth trajectory is being driven by necessity. Rebuilding Syria’s banking system, hollowed out by years of sanctions, war and isolation, will take years. US-based Oliver Wyman, which is running a World Bank-backed review of the financial sector has recommended a path forward for banks that will take time: Turn the nation’s six public banks into state-owned joint-stock companies that could be fully privatized or that could grow through strategic partnerships with regional or international financial institutions.
Syria’s banking plumbing is up and running again: The Central Bank of Syria is no longer under European Union, British, or American sanctions and US regulators have authorized correspondent banking with the Commercial Bank of Syria. The country’s central bank has taken steps toward reintegration with global finance, including reconnecting parts of the banking system to SWIFT, Visa, and Mastercard.
But the structural constraints are legion. The reality on the ground is that businesses and individual savers alike have limited access to functional bank branches, weak connectivity to international payment systems, and face withdrawal restrictions. “Users suffer great difficulties when going to banks. For example, let’s assume I deposit SYP 20 mn in the bank now, which is equivalent to roughly USD 2k. If I want to withdraw it after a month or two, the bank will not be able to give me the full amount,” fintech consultant Adel Sada tells EnterpriseAM.
Early movers get the worm
“Syria has the potential to become a strong hub for neobanks and digital financial services,” neobank and web3 advisor Mohamad Soud tells us. “Traditional banks will likely act as the infrastructure layer, providing liquidity, compliance, and settlement, while fintech companies build the customer-facing products and experiences.” Soud advises international fintech firms on entering Syria.
Who’s already in the door: UK-based fintech Nsave, founded by Syrian entrepreneur Amer Baroudi and backed by Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator, expanded into Syria last month. The platform offers Syrians access to financial products largely inaccessible through the domestic banking system, including in some cases USD accounts and international transfers. Crypto exchange Binance has also been offering full services to users in Syria for over a year, following the easing of sanctions and growing demand for crypto-based remittance channels.
More are knocking: Soud says he has received inquiries from seven neobanks mulling entry into Syria and is working with New York-based Hawala, a cross-border remittance platform, on its market entry strategy.
The government is also building consumer rails: A little over a year ago, the Finance Ministry instructed all government entities to pay salaries through ShamCash, the electronic wallet first launched in Idlib during the war under opposition control. It was later adopted nationwide by the new Syrian government in a bid to digitize public-sector payments.
For many Syrians, it marked their first sustained exposure to digital wallets. “ShamCash paved the way for some fintech services because it introduced people to the culture of e-payments and digital wallets,” Sada tells EnterpriseAM. The Syrian Sovereign Fund has also since introduced Paymera, a national electronic payments platform connecting banks, payment providers, and merchants.
The rollout hasn’t been without problems: ShamCash has faced regular outages during the usual salary disbursal window, and some have raised concerns about its digital security, data protection, and transparency. Some reports suggested that the app operates through channels with little to no regulatory oversight, and that both its ownership and the identities of the developers behind the app remain ambiguous.
The crypto edge
Crypto is filling the gap for users constrained by limited international bank access. Syrian-founded fintech Bitknz, founded by Shady Zitoun, runs a cross-border payments platform using BTC and stablecoins, allowing users to receive funds from abroad, hold balances digitally, and cash out through local partners, primarily money exchange shops. Separately, Zitoun also launched BitLira, a SYP-based digital wallet developed in partnership with local platform E-Lira, which allows merchants to accept payments via QR codes and domestic digital settlement on blockchain. The two products target different segments of Syria’s emerging payments ecosystem — cross-border remittances on one end, and domestic transactions on the other.
Zitoun is operating in a regulatory vacuum: Syria has no specific legislative frameworks that either authorize or ban crypto, and the central bank has yet to issue any guidance on stablecoins, leaving the rails on which Bitknz and similar services operate in a gray area even as usage grows. That’s in addition to heightened AML scrutiny on cross-border crypto flows into a jurisdiction only recently removed from terrorism-related designation.
The easing of sanctions has made it possible to register products in the US, Zitoun says, ensuring his offerings are transparent to regulators. He registered Bitknz in the US a year ago, he says. “We are compliant with sanctions screening, AML checks, KYC. We work with providers offering KYC services using AI to facilitate the onboarding process for our users and ensure that security is at a high level within the Bitknz platform,” Zitoun tells us. Since launch, Bitknz has amassed more than 18k active users, largely Syrians sending remittances home.
The adoption ceiling: Converting Syria’s cash-reliant economy into a digital payments ecosystem requires more than product availability, industry insiders tell us. “People still need a lot of education on electronic payments, to promote adoption inside Syria, to educate the user on how to use and benefit from the product. That requires a team on the ground,” Zitoun says. Soud agrees: For a while, he says, demand for digital payment platforms will stay concentrated among Syrians abroad and young, tech-savvy Syrians inside the country. “Inside Syria, adoption is growing gradually, but cash remains the preferred method for most consumers and merchants.”
The UAE is spending its way to strategic autonomy in defense — and nudging its suppliers to build at home rather than just buy off the shelf on the international market. Abu Dhabi is moving fast to broaden its arsenal regardless of when the US-Iran war ends, opening parallel conversations with India, South Korea, and France even as it stays anchored to US systems.
The common denominator in all of the talks: The UAE wants to own core technologies and build a local manufacturing base — and it has the financial clout to push traditional suppliers to move beyond one-way buyer-seller relationships. That extends from defense hardware (drones, missiles, and air-defense systems) to dual-use technologies, like the homomorphic and other encryption technology that Abu Dhabi-based TII recently sold to US-based Opaque.
India is the clearest test of how hard Abu Dhabi can bargain. New Delhi and Abu Dhabi signed a Strategic Framework for Defense Industrial Collaboration earlier this year, saying they would work together on everything from defense manufacturing to special operations and counterterrorism. They are also said to be in early-stage talks that could see the UAE buy India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and the Akashteer air-defense system. Akashteer would be deployed alongside the UAE’s US-made Thaad and Patriot batteries, while the BrahMos would add a strike option next to Lockheed Martin’s existing ATACMS surface-to-surface missile system.
But the data shows India has a long way to go before the framework becomes tangible. India’s defense exports to the UAE fell by half in FY 2025 to USD 1.3 bn, while imports from the UAE rose more than 71% to a record USD 3.1 bn, according to data from India’s Commerce Ministry. A small handful of big-ticket items made up the bulk of sales: Aircraft and ships accounted for more than 99.8% of two-way defense trade between FY 2022 and FY 2025. Arms and ammunition were just 0.16% of these flows and never topped USD 10.2 mn in annual exports.
“The data does suggest that India-UAE defense trade remains episodic rather than structural,” Lt. Gen. Deependra Hooda, a retired Indian Army commander, tells EnterpriseAM. He wants the partnership judged on outputs, not signing ceremonies: “We have to see how many contracts have been signed, how many joint production facilities have been set up, and how technology sharing is progressing. If these indicators are not visible in the next two years, the agreement would need a serious high-level review.”
The structural fit with India is there on paper: The UAE has capital, India has manpower and the Atmanirbhar Bharat self-reliance push. “There is a natural case for joint R&D,” says Kabir Taneja, executive director at Dubai-based Observer Research Foundation Middle East. Whether that converts depends on New Delhi loosening state control over its defense industry: “Private firms need greater freedom to develop and market technologies,” Taneja argues. (The ORF Middle East is the regional outpost of India’s premier policy think tank.)
Abu Dhabi’s problem with India isn’t options, but delivery. India still lacks the track record to convince Gulf buyers its systems will hold up in modern combat, and its procurement system is slow and opaque, experts tell us. “The frustration is real, well-documented, and shared by virtually every country that has attempted to do defense business with India,” Hooda says, citing R&D gaps, industrial capacity, and delivery timelines. Taneja puts the buyer’s logic plainly: “The UAE is diversifying its defense partnerships and wants systems that are battle-tested and deployable immediately.”
That’s why South Korea may beat India to it. Seoul pairs access to Western technology with fast production cycles and proven operational credibility — the exact mix that the UAE is after, Taneja says. Korean defense firms have made substantial inroads in Egypt and, more recently, Saudi Arabia — and its Hanwha Ocean is aggressively courting a multi-bn USD contract to provide submarines to the Royal Canadian Navy.
This pull is showing up in capital flows. Mubadala is weighing a commitment to a Korea Investment & Securities private-equity fund chasing a 73.78% controlling stake in South Korean defense supplier MNC Solution, Korean finance and business news outlet ChosunBiz reports. It follows a USD 35 bn UAE-Korea defense pact and a USD 65 bn pipeline of joint projects.
Europe is a third option: Edge Group, the UAE’s relatively new state-owned defense champion, has opened a Paris headquarters and signed a cooperation framework with DGA, the weapons-buying arm of France’s armed forces, giving it a government-level route into French procurement. CEO Hamad Al Marar says DGA’s role gives the move “real industrial substance from the outset.” Edge is also planning an engineering and manufacturing facility in Bordeaux and has recently lined up partnerships with Hungary’s 4iG, Italy’s Leonardo, Spain’s EM&E, and France’s Safran.
The common thread: Building domestic manufacturing capacity. Abu Dhabi is building its own defense base through Edge and increasingly demands co-development rather than just supply purchases. Future cooperation will likely require co-development and industrial partnerships — like its pact with Adani Defense & Aerospace — rather than a simple buyer-seller relationship.
Why it matters: A wider supplier base buys the UAE strategic autonomy without antagonizing Washington — it can add Korean, Indian, and European systems around a US core rather than replace it. For UAE’s defense partners, the message is that access to one of the Gulf’s deepest defense buyers (Saudi Arabia still spends substantially more than the UAE) now runs through joint ventures and tech transfer, not export licenses.
Watch this space: Even as it publicly backed away from Chinese tech and AI infrastructure to unlock access to advanced US chips (key to its 1 GW data center partnership OpenAI), the UAE has kept deepening defense ties with Beijing on a parallel track. It has ordered Chinese L-15 trainer jets, long flown China’s Wing Loong II armed drones, and in December hosted PLA J-10 fighters for the third Falcon Shield joint air exercise — a month after the chip approval. Open-source imagery also points to Chinese counter-drone systems turning up at UAE airports.
Lebanon’s cabinethas puta golden visa proposal before the parliament’s finance and budget committee in a bid to unlock fresh foreign capital amid a lingering financial crisis. The draft would, if it becomes law, grant residency to foreigners who invest at least USD 500k in the country; applicants would also have to commit to paying USD 50k for every family member seeking the same residency. Lebanese citizens living abroad could also seek tax residency in Lebanon through the same mechanism, it seems.
It’s still work in progress: Our reading of the report suggests that physical residency is tied to the investment for foreigners and their families, while those seeking tax residency would need to pay the additional USD 50k per person, per year levy. Ibrahim Kanaan who chairs the parliament committee looking at the bill, said the draft will identify qualifying sectors for the investment. There are three industries on the table right now, but the government hasn’t yet said what they are.
The pitch is capital recovery: The mechanism will “create jobs, bring money into state coffers, and encourage investment once the conditions and terms are met,” Kanaan said, casting the proposal as preparation for a “next phase” in Lebanon’s recovery.
A golden visa is unlikely to attract many new foreign investors. The proposal is asking foreigners and non-resident Lebanese nationals to deposit USD 500k in a banking system that still hasn’t returned ordinary Lebanese their deposits six years into the financial crisis. What foreign capital needs is deposit safety and a stable currency, which won’t be solved by tax residency perks.
And the tax-residency angle is itself a red flag: Selling physical residency for investment may have gone out of fashion in many European countries of late, but it’s an established “thing.” Selling tax residency is the type of dodge that sets teeth on edge among the organizations in developed economies that track money laundry and tax dodgers. The FATF and the OECD warned in a 2023 report that residency-by-investment schemes can be soft spots for actors looking to launder money, avoid taxes, and side-step sanctions.
IN CONTEXT- Lebanon only legislated its bank-restructuring framework in December. The country’s first formal attempt (the financial gap law) for repaying depositors after the USD 70-80 bn in losses from the 2019 collapse cleared cabinet only at the end of April and still hasn't passed parliament — and economists told us then that it rests on a mechanism with no reliable revenues to back.
The proposal drew immediate criticism, even ridicule, in Lebanon on exactly that point: Wadih Akl, a senior member of the Free Patriotic Movement Party (FPM), one of Lebanon’s more influential parties, criticized the bill, writing, “In which bankrupt bank will [the deposit] be placed? And what contract will be signed with banks that don't return depositors’ money?”
The drafters seem to know they’re on shaky ground here: Kanaan went out of his way to stress that funds must be wired from abroad and screened for money laundering, adding that compliance language was built into the proposal.
What’s next: The draft has yet to clear the committee and would then need to go before the full parliament for a vote.
Iraq hastappedanti-money laundering expert Nizar Hussein as the new governor of its central bank. A career bureaucrat who held posts in the Trade Ministry and the National Investment Commission, Hussein was leading the anti-money laundering unit in the Central Bank. He replaces Ali Al Alaq, who had led the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) from 2014 to 2020 and then again from 2023 before being tapped now as the prime minister advisor for economic affairs.
Hussein’s anti-money laundering expertise matters. He takes over CBI just a few days after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which the G7 body that tracks and makes policy to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, added Iraq to its grey list, which makes foreign banks and investors leery of doing business with Iraq. His time with the AML unit means he has an already-established working relationship with FATF, which could help as Iraq races to get off the list once again ahead of the next update in October.
Getting off the FATF grey list is just one of many difficult issues that the new governor will face. Iraq’s crude exports came to a halt when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz — and hydrocarbon sales account for 90% of Iraq’s foreign sales. Flatlining crude sales meant Iraq’s foreign reserves have come under pressure, pushing the country toward a fiscal cliff. Experts told us last month that the new government had just weeks of breathing room before it would be forced to start curbing spending on investment and seek IMF financing to meet its public salary obligations.
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.
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 itsfull buyoutof Greek hospitality-analytics startupNorma 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.
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.
Adiajoined 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 Rentifyraised a USD 2 mn seed to launch Earn AI, an Arabic-native rent-management platform.
Egypt launches security campaign against artisanal mining
Egypt cracks down on illegal gold mining near southern borders: Egyptian authorities detained more than 200 people near the southern border with Sudan for illegal gold mining and smuggling. The Armed Forces said it arrested 87 Egyptians and 136 foreigners and confiscated a spate of artisanal mining equipment and weapons, with foreigners who entered irregularly being deported.
You can read the crackdown as a security signal for foreign mining investors, whom Egypt hopes to court as it pushes for expanding investments in the mining sector. Egypt’s southern region neighboring Sudan is known to have proven, high-quality gold reserves, with vast potential still untapped. The area is home to the Sukari mine, one of the world’s largest 20 gold mines in terms of production that churned out some 500k ounces last year.
The foreign-ownership map is here
Saudi Arabia puts a map behind its foreign property ownership law: The Saudi Cabinet approved the executive regulations of the Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis and published the zones where non-Saudis can now buy. The law went live in January, but had been operating as a framework without a defined geography.
What’s on the menu: Riyadh’s list includes Qiddiya, New Murabba, Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, KAFD, Sedra, the Sports Boulevard and arts district, and King Salman International Airport. Jeddah opens its central district plus 55 development areas across the governorate, while Makkah and Madinah each get a named list of their own, led by Jabal Omar, Masar, Knowledge Economic City, and Rua Al Madinah. Ownership in the two holy cities stays confined to Muslim buyers.
The Saudi Properties platform is nowopen for applications through three routes. Residents apply directly with their Iqama and are screened automatically, and non-residents must first obtain a digital ID through a Saudi embassy or consulate. Foreign companies without a local presence have to register with the Investment Ministry via Invest Saudi before filing online.
Another one for Hassan Allam
Hassan Allam keeps stacking Diriyah work. A joint venture of Hassan Allam Construction Saudi and UCC Saudi, the local unit of Qatar’s UCC Holding, was awarded the main construction contract for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, residences, and a mixed-use super block on Diriyah’s Boulevard. The 241k sqm block will house a 200-key Waldorf Astoria, 47 branded residences, offices, retail units, and a shared super-basement. Neither Diriyah Company nor Hassan Allam have disclosed a value, but Meed puts it at SAR 2.7 bn (USD 727 mn).
The JV is familiar with Diriyah: The company took a SAR 1.84 bn contract to build the Saudi Museum of Contemporary Art with AlBawani in April, on top of four luxury hotels and an equestrian club already delivered in Wadi Safar.
The Hormuz blues are still here despite peace progress
Port closures and rising construction materials costs are pushing back Emaar Properties’ Dubai Creek Tower project, with the tendering process for the landmark delayed by three to four months, Emarat Al Youm reports, citing comments by Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar. The real estate developer was expected to spend over AED 14 bn on its Creek Tower and Creek Mall developments, with the tender process for the tower originally set to be issued around this time, Zawya previously reported.
REMEMBER- The war triggered a major slowdownin project awards in the UAE, which dropped to 16 in March, down from 52 in February. Contract values saw a similar dip, falling 26% m-o-m to USD 9.7 bn. In tandem, the UAE saw a surge in construction costs, with building materials prices rising by as much as 14% amid shipping construction and strained contractor capacity.
Bahrain could be the latest casualty in Standard Chartered’s multi-year global retreat from retail banking. The bank will explore a sale of its Wealth & Retail Banking (WRB) business in Bahrain, while keeping its Corporate and Investment Banking franchise in the country, according to a statement seen by EnterpriseAM. The move comes after a multi-year scale-back that has already taken Standard Chartered out of Jordan and Lebanon and several African markets (including Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia) — a withdrawal the bank said in October 2024 it had substantially completed.
The bank framed the Bahrain exit as sharpening focus on client segments that can help the bank scale — affluent wealth and corporate banking, rather than retail. Any sale would still need regulatory sign-off and would be phased over 18-24 months, Standard Chartered said.
The move stands in contrast with the bank’s GCC push. If the sale is finalized, Bahrain would be the first proper exit in the Gulf, and it comes even as the bank builds out affluent banking next door, hiring relationship managers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi under a USD 1.5 bn investment plan targeting affluent client base. HSBC and JP Morgan are also chasing the same affluent flows in the region.
Qatari LNG exports are proceeding unaffected despite a deadly explosion at Ras Laffan complex earlier this week that killed at least 13 and left 66 injured, Energy Minister Saad Al Kaabi said. The explosion took place at the Barzan gas processing facility, which mainly feeds domestic networks in Qatar. While authorities have labeled the incident a “technical accident,” it stands as one of the deadliest gas industry disasters in more than two decades.
State-owned QatarEnergy is working to restart LNG operations after months of halted operations and declarations of force majeure on contracts due to Iranian military attacks. Repairs after March’s strikes were estimated to take up to five years, but Qatar announced it was targeting resuming 80% of LNG production from Ras Laffan in two months once the Strait of Hormuz is open for passage.
The Gulf’s USD 124 bn remittance machine is wobbling. The Iran conflict is stress-testing the money sent home by roughly 30 mn foreign workers across the GCC, with early 2026 data showing real strain for the first time since the pandemic, Bloomberg reports. Around 40% of senders are already drawing from emergency reserves, says Daré Okoudjou, CEO of cross-border payments platform Onafriq, who warns of a serious volume collapse by 3Q 2026 if the war drags on.
The pattern: A panic-spurred spike in outbound remittances from the Middle East to Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (among other countries) in the opening weeks of the war was followed by a hangover as the panic eased. Kenyan transfers from the Gulf fell 18% in April, while Philippine remittances grew at their slowest pace in almost four years — a warning sign for a country where inflows are c.10% of GDP.
The savings buffer is the number to watch. Okoudjou says transaction volumes have risen, but the average transfer values have dropped about 12%, with wage delays — and in some cases cuts — pushing workers to draw from reserves.
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