THIS MORNING: L’imad moves ahead with AD Ports squeeze-out + Adic backs Nscale’s USD 3.3 bn financing round

Good morning, everyone. Manchester City’s financial rules case has reached a decision, and it’s not good news for the football club. However, findings that City is in breach of financial rules come at a positive time for bilateral relations between the UK and the UAE, with GBP 30 bn in investment commitments and wartime support giving weight to the argument that ties won’t be derailed.

On the energy front, XRG, TotalEnergies, and Socar have taken FID on the full-field development of Azerbaijan's offshore Absheron gas field, giving XRG capital committed at both ends of the country's gas chain just weeks after closing its Southern Gas Corridor stake.

Other UAE heavyweights are equally busy: L’imad is moving full steam ahead on the AD Ports squeeze-out, issuing the mandatory notice to acquire the remaining 1.07% stake it doesn’t own in the firm. Meanwhile, Adic has backed AI infrastructure firm Nscale’s USD 3.3 bn pre-IPO financing round.

Watch this space

We’re happy to welcome Ahmed Mohsen as a guest speaker at the 2026 EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum — the AI edition.

Ahmed Mohsen is the co-founder and CTO of MNT-Halan, one of the fastest-growing fintech platforms in the Middle East and Africa, serving over 8 mn customers across Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and the UAE. He leads the company’s technology strategy and architected Neuron, MNT-Halan’s proprietary core banking system, overseeing a team of more than 90 engineers building the company’s digital infrastructure. A serial entrepreneur with deep roots in cybersecurity, Mohsen also co-founded SecureMisr, one of Egypt’s pioneering cybersecurity firms, acquired by Cysiv in 2020.

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Attendance is by invitation only, and we’ve reached full capacity.

Request your invitation here to join the waitlist.

L’imad moves full steam ahead on AD Ports squeeze-out

L’imad is pushing ahead with its squeeze-out of AD Ports, issuing a mandatory acquisition notice to take over the remaining 1.07% stake in the firm via ADQ after it recently lifted its holding to 98.93%, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf). The buyout settled two weeks ahead of schedule, having moved a 9 October deadline forward to 25 September. L’imad has wasted no time with the squeeze-out either, moving ahead with the notice significantly faster than the 60-day deadline.

ADQ is officially tidying up its cap table: ADQ, acting through L’imad Holding, is now above the 90%-plus-one-share threshold required to trigger the squeeze-out under Abu Dhabi’s M&A rules. The compulsory acquisition covers all shares not already held by the acquirer and will be followed by a challenge period, after which a delisting is likely to take place.

ICYMI- This comes after the 15 September close of a voluntary tender offer in which ADQ secured 23.08% of AD Ports, or about 94% of the shares that it didn’t already own. L’imad had played the same cards with Taqa, moving to take full control through Abu Dhabi Power, before delisting it from the ADX.

Adic backs AI infrastructure player Nscale

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council (Adic) was among those lining up to back Nscale’s USD 3.3 bn financing round via convertible loans, as part of the London-headquartered AI infrastructure firm’s pre-IPO raise, Nscale said in a press release. Investing in AI infrastructure has been a key pillar of the wider Abu Dhabi investment strategy recently.

The funding is structured through an initial USD 2.36 bn tranche, which will be followed by a USD 1 bn commitment from Nvidia, set to arrive in mid-November. The loan notes will automatically convert into equity once Nscale completes an IPO, with Nvidia receiving non-voting shares.

Where the money goes: The funding will support Nscale’s buildout across the AI stack, including behind-the-meter power plants, liquid-cooled data centers, and GPU clusters. The company says it has more than USD 103 bn in total contracted value, pointing to demand beyond the data-center land grab.

Also involved: Third Point led the funding round, with Apollo-managed funds, Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital, and Davidson Kempner Capital also among those taking part.

ADVISORS- Goldman Sachs acted as placement agent for the capital raise.

Investors go after AIX for failing to deliver

A Dubai investment group with offices in Burj Khalifa is in hot water over missed payments: Clients of AIX Investment Group accuse the firm of halting or delaying payouts on products that promised double-digit annual returns, the Financial Times reports, citing court documents, investors, and lawyers. Two investors have filed claims for USD 2 mn and USD 8 mn at the DIFC Courts, and thousands of clients could be affected. One claim describes AIX’s payment performance as “delayed, irregular and opaque.” Local authorities have also visited AIX’s premises to investigate, the salmon-colored paper says.

What was on offer: AIX marketed bond-like products paying 12% and 16% a year and property-linked investments with fixed annual returns of 14.4%, some structured across five jurisdictions, including the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. Clients, among them longtime Dubai residents, airline pilots, entrepreneurs, and a Saudi prince, invested anywhere from USD 10k to mns of USD. The total amount invested isn’t known. Investors say the delays began about nine months ago after digital asset prices fell, adding that income transfers stopped entirely by mid-2026. The firm built its profile through a sponsorship of F1 driver Pierre Gasly and a long-running commercial on Emirates.

In response, the group cited “exceptional geopolitical uncertainty and significant volatility across global financial markets” as “affect[ing] valuations and investment realization cycles” in a statement. According to AIX, only “a limited part” of its offering was affected.

Why it matters: Several of AIX’s products were issued through offshore vehicles that aren’t regulated in the UAE, the publication says. The one AIX entity regulated by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) was licensed only to provide advice and make introductions. The firm paid a fine to Qatar’s regulator in 2024 after an investigation found false and misleading claims on its website, and the Cayman Islands regulator warned this month that AIX had never been licensed or regulated there. The CMA declined to comment on AIX specifically.

What’s next? AIX has brought in counsel and advisers to support the restructuring of the affected investments, with one source saying the investment firm is also raising funds at the moment. The next update is set to come by 12 October.

Al Zeyoudi turns UNGA into a trade roadshow

Foreign Trade Minister Thani Al Zeyoudi used the UN General Assembly (UNGA) week in New York to push the UAE’s trade and investment agenda across Asia, Latin America, and the US, according to Wam. His schedule included investor roundtables, development-finance discussions, and meetings with counterparts from Thailand, Peru, and Argentina. He also joined events with the UAE-US Business Council and other investor groups, turning the UAE’s UNGA presence into a broader capital and trade outreach push.

The trade angle is the one to watch: We reported in July that the UAE was aiming to finalize another five to seven Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs) by year-end, with talks underway with around 20 countries — including Peru, where negotiations were progressing. More recently, the UAE launched fast-tracked CEPA talks with Argentina on the sidelines of the UNGA.

Data point

12.8 mn bbl / d — that’s how much crude oil key Middle East producers exported in September, largely the result of increased shipments from countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports, citing data by Kpler. This marks the highest output since the start of the Iran conflict, and is roughly 6 mn bbl / d below February’s 18.8 mn bbl / d.

The Egyptian government locked in enough LNG and crude to carry the country through peak demand this summer, and the real question now is who pays for it and for the rebuild ahead.

PowerTrip, our new four-part signature series, follows the money behind an energy sector that went from exporting gas to importing it in just five years.

Over the four issues this autumn, we'll look at how the lights stayed on and what that cost, who will own the next generation of power, how fast renewables can really scale, and whether Egypt's claim to be the region's energy hub still holds.

Issue I lands Wednesday, 30 September, and looks at how Egypt avoided rationing this summer, how the country went from gas exporter to importer in a decade, and what keeping the lights on actually cost us.

Coming straight to your inbox — Wednesday, 30 September.

PSA

Businesses whose tax period ended on 31 December 2025 have until Wednesday, 30 September to file their corporate tax returns and pay any tax due, the Federal Tax Authority said in a statement.

Small businesses, you’re not off the hook: Taxable persons generally have nine months from the end of their tax period to file and pay, and records must support reported revenue, taxable income, and any Small Business Relief claims. The deadline also applies to businesses eligible for Small Business Relief. The government extended the relief through end-2029 for resident taxable entities with annual revenue of AED 3 mn or less, but qualifying businesses still need to file their returns by the applicable deadline.

WEATHER- Temperatures today will hit highs of 41°C in Abu Dhabi with overnight lows of 29°C, and 40°C in Dubai before cooling somewhat to 30°C overnight, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

A security development has cropped up on an unexpected front. UK authorities arrested five men suspected of planning a “major incident” near RAF Fairford, a Gloucestershire base used by the US Air Force in its strikes against Iran. US President Donald Trump said Washington collaborated with the UK to avert this attack on the base, which Iran’s Revolutionary Guard declared a legitimate target last July.

AI in the hot seat: Australian senators have called the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic to answer questions at an upcoming AI inquiry, triggered by the recent hack of the country’s health database by an autonomous OpenAI agent. Meanwhile, OpenAI admitted its AI models accessed public data from US government websites such as those of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Census Bureau.

Safety is one thing — cost, another: Surging IT costs are driving US corporates toward “open” AI models they can customize and run in-house, instead of paying for premium versions of ChatGPT and Claude. Executives mentioned “open weight” or “open source” AI models six times as often in earnings calls and investor conferences in August and September compared with the same period last year, according to research platform AlphaSense.

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