THIS MORNING: Delays at the Saudi-UAE border? + four new rules changes for ADGM incorporated players

Good morning, friends. Earnings season is finally upon us — and it’s going to be a telling one. Companies will be reporting financials for the period that saw the peak of the US-Iran conflict here in the Gulf.

Taaleem's 2Q financials remained solid, growing y-o-y, with enrolment numbers at premium schools offsetting a hit at its nursery segment. We’ll be keeping a close eye on banks, real estate firms, which analysts say were the most exposed to the conflict. Logistics, hospitality, and aviation are also on our radar.

Our Big Story Today dives into a new digital money alternative being offered in the UAE — tokenized deposits, the banking sector’s more direct answer to stablecoins. Treasury teams in this market finally have both options on the table at once, and we take a look at the benefits offered by each.

Also: An Abu Dhabi engineering firm with Adnoc-prequalified status just got a suitor from Mumbai. SEPC is set to acquire up to a 90% stake in Abu Dhabi-based firm Avenir International Engineers and Consultants through a share-swap transaction, though it still needs shareholder and regulatory sign-offs. Plus: Commercial Bank of Dubai is the latest to show that appetite for Gulf debt is as solid as ever, with its AT1 sukuk upsized to USD 550 mn.

The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum is back — and this year, we're giving the full day to the one question on every business leader's mind: What does AI actually mean for your company, your people, and your own job?

Leaders in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore are asking the same things, and nobody has built a playbook that works yet. We're all figuring it out in real time — and for Egypt, the stakes are unusually high.

Egypt could leapfrog a generation on the back of this technology — or watch AI hollow out the industries and jobs we can't afford to lose. The leaders who get literate early will be the ones who get to decide which road we take.

Every session on stage answers one question: "So, what do I actually do about it?"

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Seats are limited and attendance is by invitation only.

Request your invitation here.

Delays at the border?

Earlier this week, we heard of delays in payments from banks in Saudi Arabia to accounts in the UAE — now Semafor is reporting those same delays at the border for the movement of goods from the UAE into Saudi, with delays lasting from hours to several days — and in some cases more than a week — as bottlenecks worsen at the Al Batha crossing. Goods caught in the delays include building equipment, furniture, spare parts, and fresh flowers. So far, Saudi customs authorities deny any disruption, saying trade remains within normal customs operations and that no complaints or signs of delays have been recorded.

Why it matters: The delays are adding friction to one of the Arab world’s biggest trade corridors. Bilateral trade between the two hit USD 25.7 bn last year, up from USD 21.7 bn in 2024, and the delays come as land crossings grew over the past few months due to the Strait of Hormuz blockade and increased reliance on overland routes.

From power to water in Egypt

Amea Power is reportedly in advanced talks with the Egyptian government to develop three seawater desalination plants with a combined capacity of up to 300k cbm per day, Chairman Hussain Al Nowais was quoted as saying. Two plants would be built on the Mediterranean coast and one on the Red Sea, with Amea expected to fund, design, build, and operate the projects.

Why Egypt: The country needs 114 bn cbm of freshwater annually but gets only around half from natural resources, forcing it to lean on wastewater reuse, groundwater, and food imports. The government is already scaling its desalination infrastructure, with 129 operating plants totaling 1.41 mn cbm per day and another 19 under construction.

Amea’s Egypt footprint is already growing on the power side: The company expected to connect roughly 1 GW to Egypt’s grid by June of this year, making desalination the next leg of a broader infrastructure buildout in the country. The push also comes as Amea lines up a bigger funding cycle, with Al Nowais saying earlier this year it was in talks with local and international institutions for a 2026 capital increase that would double its capital, ahead of a potential ADX IPO within two years.

Data point

20% — that’s the decline seen in new lease volumes in Dubai’s rental market in 1H, according to Dubai Land Department data picked up by AGBI. Average new tenancy prices were down 6% y-o-y to AED 60k, but renewals held flat y-o-y at an average of AED 65k. This tracks with a wider slowdown hitting the emirate’s housing market, which continued in May as prices fell for the third straight month, albeit at a slower rate.

Further north, Ras Al Khaimah is still running hot, with rents rising 10% over the past year to AED 57 per sq ft, according to data from Bayut, as owners and landlords are hoping for a surge in demand driven by incoming tourism projects like Wynn’s USD 5.1 bn casino resort. Similarly, rents were up 8.8% in Ajman, and 3.4% in Umm Al Quwain.

PSA

If you’re incorporated in ADGM, four rule changes just landed — and they took effect on publication, ADGM said yesterday. The ADGM Registration Authority updated its commercial legislation to tighten its AML/CFT standards, and it affects you if you’re running a nominee structure, a trust, or a branch of a foreign parent through ADGM:

• The public register will now flag whether a shareholder or director is acting as a nominee — a real change for anyone using nominee arrangements for privacy or structuring reasons;
• The Registrar can now formally demand beneficial ownership information on trusts connected to ADGM;
• Cash payments are now capped at USD 3k — lawyers, accountants, company service providers, and real estate businesses can no longer accept or hand out cash above that threshold per transaction;
• Foreign company branches now owe beneficial ownership on their parent.

WEATHER- It’s still hot and humid, with highs of 41-42° in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and a low of 31° today, before temperatures cool slightly in Dubai over the weekend, with a high of 40° and a low of 30° tomorrow and after. Abu Dhabi hovers at a 42° high throughout.

The big story abroad

The US-Iran tit-for-tat continues, but at least technical talks are still on, according to a US official who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. Talks had stalled this week while Iran held funeral rites for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and tensions had escalated as the US hit roughly 90 targets on Wednesday night, framing the strikes as degrading Iran's capacity to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran retaliated against US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Iran says the US also hit its rail network — overnight strikes damaged a bridge on the Gorgan-Incheh Borun line in Golestan province, a corridor linking Iran to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, disrupting passenger service to Mashhad just as Khamenei's coffin arrived for burial there. Strikes were also reported on power transmission infrastructure in Chabahar and Konarak in the southeast.

The conflict is squeezing diesel markets: Russia's new export ban — a response to Ukrainian drone strikes that have knocked out close to half its refining capacity — has combined with renewed Hormuz risk to push US diesel prices up 13%, and diesel futures in London up 14%.

Meanwhile, Fed chair Kevin Warsh named five external task forces stacked with names like Mervyn King and Marc Andreessen to reshape Fed communications, the balance sheet, data collection, AI-era productivity, and inflation targeting — a sign that he’s moving ahead with an overhaul of the Fed’s communications framework with recommendations due to the FOMC by year-end.

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