THIS MORNING: Adia could team up with Warburg Pincus again, this time for a US specialty pharma firm

Good morning, friends. Plenty of hedging is on display in the UAE this morning — both against volatility and supply chain disruptions.

DP World is in talks to build a new multipurpose port and container terminal in Fujairah, as the UAE looks to build the infrastructure it would need to achieve “zero reliance” on the Strait of Hormuz — definitely a good idea now that Hormuz is under another US blockade.

Meanwhile, Mashreq’s CFO Norman Tambach walked us through how the bank is making sure nothing comes at the cost of its growth, by hedging through a mix of capital buffers, risk-weighted asset optimization, and not one, but two AT1 issuances.

AND- Masdar just locked in USD 5.1 bn from 13 banks to build its round-the-clock solar-plus-battery plant, while decarbonization platform Positive Zero raised a USD 375 mn facility, bundling clean mobility and efficiency assets into one loan.

BEFORE WE DIVE IN- Two national oil tankers were targeted by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz last night, resulting in one death and eight injuries, the Defense Ministry said. The Mombasa and Al Bahiyah were attacked in Omani territorial waters and sustained material damage after fires broke out on board.

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?"

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The rare-disease trade

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) is teaming up with US private equity firm Warburg Pincus on a potential USD 7 bn+ acquisition of PANTHERx Rare, a US specialty pharmacy that handles meds and patient support for rare and orphan diseases, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The transaction could be announced soon, though talks aren't final and timing could still slip.

IN CONTEXT- Adia and Warburg have done this before — the two teamed up on an investment in India's IDFC FIRST Bank last year, and this looks like the same playbook: a buyout firm bringing sovereign capital to the table to get a big check signed. For Adia, it's also a wager on one of healthcare's more defensive corners — specialty pharmacy, where demand tracks complex, high-cost therapies rather than consumer spending cycles.

The acquisition would land as Abu Dhabi also pushes deeper into rare-disease infrastructure at home. The emirate last month signed agreements spanning gene-editing therapy development, clinical research, specialist care, and future biomanufacturing, drawing on the Emirate Genome Program to turn population-scale genomic data into treatments for rare and inherited diseases.

Avoiding Hormuz now has a price tag for oil buyers

Adnoc just extended its Hormuz bypass to a new set of customers: Adnoc will now sell three offshore crude grades — Upper Zakum, Das, and Umm Lulu — to long-term contract buyers for collection outside the Strait of Hormuz, via ship-to-ship transfer at Fujairah, according to a price sheet seen by Bloomberg. Adnoc has been selling these same grades on a spot basis from Fujairah for a while, but this is the first time the bypass option has been opened up to customers locked into long-term contracts.

The price is indexed to Dubai, not Murban — and it costs more. Upper Zakum and Das carry an 80-cent-a-barrel premium to the Dubai benchmark; while Umm Lulu carries a USD 1 premium. Buyers who’d rather collect the same grades the traditional way — at Adnoc’s Gulf terminals, arranging their own shipping through Hormuz — pay parity with flagship Murban instead, priced at USD 80.01 a barrel for August loading.

REMEMBER- Adnoc was consulting refiners and traders earlier this month on a broader proposal to price the official selling prices for Upper Zakum, Das, and Um Lulu as differentials to Dubai, replacing the Murban-linked methodology.

What’s next: Adnoc described the move only as a response to “current market conditions,” without elaborating — so watch whether uptake from long-term buyers gives them the data to push the Dubai-linked formula into their full official selling prices, not just this Fujairah carve-out.

PSA

WEATHER- It’s peak summer: Temperatures are rising by the day, and with them, the humidity. The mercury hits 43°C today in Dubai, with a low of just 35°C, and 41°C in Abu Dhabi, with a low of 32°C.

Destination Sahel is back for a second edition — and this year, it's not just about the beach.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds are pouring billions into the North Coast, Gulf buyers keep showing up despite regional headwinds, and a new 400km master plan could reshape the whole coastline before summer’s out.

Over this season’s series, stay tuned to see who's really buying Sahel, where the money's coming from, and what could still go wrong.

Plus, the hotels, restaurants, and openings worth checking out this summer.

Tap or click here to subscribe to the Egypt edition, delivered to your inbox tomorrow, Wednesday, July 15.

The big story abroad

The US-Iran war continues to escalate: The US is reinstating a naval blockade on Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump said, adding that the US will become the waterway’s guardian in exchange for a 20% cargo fee. Full supertankers carrying oil would pay around USD 30 mn by that math.

Strikes are not stopping, either: As the US military carried out its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran yesterday, Trump also threatened to target Pickaxe Mountain — a heavily fortified site near a damaged uranium enrichment facility. Iranian media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas and Kish Island.

ALSO- The UK is set to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, placing sanctions on the organization. Washington did the same seven years ago.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street: Five of the US’ largest banks are set to earn the highest investment banking fees — USD 11.1 bn — in four-and-a-half years, fueled by massive mergers and SpaceX’s blockbuster listing this year. Thanks to SpaceX’s listing alone, 23 investment banks saw USD 500 mn in fees — the highest ever paid by an IPO. The five banks’ M&A fees are forecast to jump 30% y-o-y to over USD 4 bn in 2Q.

And in the AI world: DoorDash, Siemens, and Airbnb are among a slew of companies resorting to China-made AI models, which are cheaper, increasingly capable, and sometimes easier to run. Models like DeepSeek and Z.ai are leapfrogging US rivals in token consumption in 2026, according to data from LLM tracker OpenRouter.

Paramount’s Gulf-backed USD 110 bn acquisition of Warner Bros has hit another roadblock, after 12 US states filed an antitrust lawsuit claiming that the proposed merger will hamper competition and harm cinemas and television distributors. Paramount responded by saying the tie-up will help it compete with companies like Netflix.

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