Good morning, lovely people. Today’s issue is heavy on the debt news — both corporate and sovereign, as Mubadala taps debt markets for the second time in as many weeks, Sharjah takes a Panda bond to market, and Majid Al Futtaim and Adnoc Drilling both raise capital to fuel their expansion plans.

PLUS- ADGM issued new rules for tax, legal and corporate service providers. Let’s dive in.

WEATHER- Dubai will see a high of 37°C and a low of 28°C, while Abu Dhabi will see a peak of 37°C and a low of 27°C, according to our favorite weather app.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Mubadala to tap debt markets again this month: Mubadala’s debt-issuing arm, Mamoura Diversified Global Holding (MDGH), is offering an AED-denominated benchmark-sized five-year bond with initial price guidance of 4.45%, according to Zawya. This comes a week after the company priced a USD 750 mn, 10-year senior unsecured bond, with pricing tightened to 55 basis points over US Treasuries, from initial guidance of 90 basis points, after attracting over USD 5.6 bn in orders.

The Regulation S senior unsecured bond will be issued by Mamoura’s Global Medium Term Note Program and guaranteed by Mamoura, with settlement scheduled for 23 October. The bond will be listed on the London Stock Exchange and is expected to carry an AA rating from Fitch.

ADVISORS- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of China, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, National Bank of Kuwait and Standard Chartered are acting as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

#2- A group of economists polled by Reuters see the UAE’s economy growing 4.6% during 2025 and 2026, making it the fastest growing in the Gulf region this year, down from an earlier forecast of 4.8% by a Reuters poll earlier this year.

“The UAE’s economy looks set to record another bumper year of GDP growth in 2025. But support from both oil and non-oil sectors will start to fade in 2026, causing growth to slow,” the newswire quoted Capital Economics James Swanston as saying. “This rise in output will provide a sizeable boost to GDP growth this year but that will start to ease from early next year,” he added.

Reuters’ projection follows recent upgrades to the UAE’s 2025 GDP forecast from the World Bank and the IMF to 4.8%, broadly in line with the Central Bank of the UAE’s (CBUAE) revised forecast of 4.9% in 2025. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered sees the economy expanding by 5% in 2025, while Fitch Solutions’ BMI forecasts 4.3% growth.

Regionally, most GCC economies are projected to expand this year and next, supported by higher oil production, according to Reuters. ”So far, revenues have held up… If OPEC+ is successful in recovering market share this will give them greater pricing power and control over global supply-demand dynamics, which will allow them to [maximize] revenues in the longer term,” Reuters quoted Goldman Sachs’ MENA economist Farouk Soussa as saying.

#3- G42 has secured long-term equipment and begun construction of the 1 GW Stargate UAE AI complex in Abu Dhabi, state news agency Wam reports. The group also said it has secured 20% of its mechanical systems.

REMEMBER- The project is part of the 5 GW UAE-US AI Complex announced in May with OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank. G42 is still finalizing the remaining 4 GW with US hyperscalers, under the broader USD 500 bn UAE-US AI infrastructure partnership and USD 200 bn US-UAE investment pact.

The caveat: While G42 is in line for Nvidia chips for the Stargate UAE cluster, the US has been limiting exports and has so far only approved chips directly meant for US-linked data center infrastructure in the UAE, as opposed to G42 itself. It’s still unclear how the partnership will move forward, though G42 was initially reported to be receiving one-fifth of the 500k chips Nvidia will be sending to the UAE annually.

#4- Presight expands into four international markets: UAE-based data analytics firm Presight is expanding its global footprint after inking agreements to mark its entry into Uganda, Angola, Tanzania, and Kazakhstan, Chief Operating Officer Adel Al Sharji told state news agency Wam. The firm currently operates in 20 countries and opened its first international office in Kazakhstan in May.

More expansion in the pipeline: The firm is looking to expand into Malaysia next and is also opening a new regional headquarters in Jordan next week, with more regional office openings set to follow, he added.

Strong int’l revenues an incentive: Presight saw its topline income from international markets surge in 1H of this year, accounting for 24.6% of its total AED 1.1 bn revenue — up from 6.7% in 1H 2024 — as it looks to increase international operations’ share of revenues to 40%.

#5- Dubai’s self-driving trackless tram study to wrap by mid-2026: Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will complete its study for the city’s first self-driving trackless tram system by early to mid-2026, a senior official told Khaleej Times. Announced in November 2024, the battery-powered trams will run directly on the street via virtual tracks guided by GPS, light detection and ranging, and optical sensors, operating in dedicated lanes and carrying up to 300 passengers at speeds of 70 km/h.

REMEMBER- Dubai aims to make 25% of transport autonomous by 2030. The RTA last month approved rules for autonomous heavy vehicles, and the city also granted permits to Apollo Go, WeRide, and Pony.ai to pilot driverless trials on its roads.

#6- Uzbek unicorn to come to ADX? Uzbekistan’s fintech and e-commerce startup Uzum, valued at USD 1.5 bn, is eyeing up a listing in Abu Dhabi amid interest from Middle East investors in its latest funding round, as well as New York, London, and Hong Kong, for its 2027 IPO, co-founder Nikolay Seleznev told Reuters. The firm is Uzbekistan’s highest valued start-up and raised USD 70 mn in equity from the US’ VR Capital and China’s Tencent this year. It is considering listing outside Uzbekistan to access deeper liquidity and investor bases.

PSAs-

#1- The Zayed National Museum will open its doors on Wednesday, 3 December, state news agency Wam reports. The museum, located in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District and built in honor of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, will walk visitors through the UAE’s history from ancient civilization until modern day. The museum is launching a program of tours, activities, workshops, and performances to mark the opening.

Ticket prices: Tickets will cost AED 70 for adults, while students and teachers will benefit from a markdown of AED 35.

#2- Couples can now get married using the Tamm app, Abu Dhabi’s one-stop government services platform, in a new service overseen by Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, The National reports. Emirati citizens, residents, and tourists in the UAE can pay AED 800 to carry out a marriage ceremony via the platform, but will need to have two witnesses and a licensed officiant present. The app is integrated with the UAE Pass for verification purposes, and couples can receive an instant marriage certificate for AED 300.

HAPPENING TODAY-

#1- GITEX Global is on its final day at the Dubai World Trade Center. The tech expo gathers major industry players including from G42 and Cerebras, as well as government officials, and innovators under one roof to showcase developments in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, and digital infrastructure.

#2- It’s day five of the World Bank and IMF annual meetup in Washington. Dominating the conversation around the meetings is the fund’s warning that global sovereign debt will hit 100% of GDP by 2029 — the highest since 1948 — according to its latest Fiscal Monitor report (pdf). On the bright side, the UAE is expected to see its debt-to-GDP ratio fall to 26.6% by 2030, down from 31.9% in 2025.

#3- The Evolve Future Mobility Show is running until Saturday at the Expo Center in Sharjah. The event will host 200 international exhibitors as well as industry leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs, to explore the use of EV technology in key sectors of sustainable mobility.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

It’s a quiet morning in the international business press, though one story is getting plenty of play: Concerns are rising over bad loans on Wall Street, after one bank flagged an instance of borrower fraud and another saying it had to pay a sizable charge due to some of its borrowers. Shares in investment bank Jeffries and others tanked on the news, shedding some USD 100 bn in value. (CNBC | Bloomberg)

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is still — as usual — topping headlines, this time with plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest next week to discuss ending the war with Ukraine, fresh off of his brokering of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. (Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal | Reuters | New York Times)

Also out of the US, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton — and one of his biggest critics — was charged with sharing classified government information with who he described as his book’s editors, marking the latest in a series of indictments against Trump’s critics. (Reuters | Wall Street Journal | Financial Times | New York Times)

AND- The US could be easing tariffs on the auto industry following lobbying from US carmakers, with the extension of an arrangement allowing carmakers to pay a reduced tariff for five years, instead of two. (Bloomberg)

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OIL WATCH-

India’s state-run refiners are planning to shift away from Middle Eastern liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and boost US imports, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. State refiners have notified traditional suppliers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other gulf countries about the expected cuts, though the scale of the reduction has not been finalized, Reuters said.

By the numbers: India imports around 65% of its LPG consumption, amounting to some 31 mn tons. Last year, the UAE was the biggest exporter of LPG to India, with some 8.1 mn tons imported from the UAE, 5 mn tons from Qatar, 3.4 mn tons from Kuwait, and 3.3 mn tons from Saudi Arabia. The country seeks to purchase around 2 mn metric tons of American LPG in 2026 through tenders.

Sales of high-sulfur marine fuel at the Port of Fujairah surged to their highest level so far this year in September, rising 21.7% m-o-m in 229.6k cbm, Reuters reports, citing data from the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) published by S&P Global Commodity Insights. High-sulfur fuel accounted for 36% of total bunker sales during the month, up from 30% in August, while low-sulfur fuels made up the remaining 64%.

On the down side, total bunker sales fell 1.8% m-o-m to 639k cbm in September — the lowest level in three months — as lower demand for low-sulfur fuel weighed on overall volumes. Sales of low-sulfur marine fuels, including low-sulfur fuel oil and marine gas oil, dropped to 409.4k cbm during the month.

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