Dubai home sales fall by nearly half in 3Q

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Wartime loan deferrals reach AED 15.9 bn + ADIB shareholders give thumbs up to rights issue

Good morning, everyone. The fallout from the regional war is showing up everywhere from real estate, to construction, and banking in today’s issue.

First up, Dubai residential sales fell sharply in 3Q, with value down 47% y-o-y to AED 72.6 bn and volumes down 38% to 34k transactions, as the lag between agreed sales and formal registrations clears. A similar slowdown is showing up in construction, as UAE project awards dipped 25.8% y-o-y to USD 15.6 bn during the quarter, despite the Emirates still gaining ground in a shrinking Gulf market where awards sank 37.2% y-o-y.

On the credit side of things, loan deferrals under the CBUAE’s wartime relief scheme reached AED 15.9 bn by end-August, up from AED 13.5 bn a month earlier, covering nearly 156k customers. We’ll be tracking whether borrowers coming off deferrals resume payments smoothly, or whether stress starts to show.

Plus: Indian fintech Juspay is pitching itself as the GCC’s unifying middleman and Janus Henderson’s shariah-compliant regional private credit fund is two-thirds of the way there on its USD 300 mn target.

The Gulf’s sovereign funds and largest companies are committing billions to AI infrastructure at home and to AI companies in the US and beyond. EnterpriseAM AI + Innovation reports on where that capital goes, who controls it and what it is actually buying.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we also cover the startups and established firms across MENA putting AI to work, and how it is changing jobs, education and the way business runs.

It’s sharp, analytical and skeptical journalism that ignores hype and is laser-focused on informing our readers, not pleasing our sources.

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ADIB shareholders give rights issue a thumbs up

ADIB’s AED 1.75 bn rights issue is a step closer. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) shareholders on Tuesday approved the raise, which the board signed off on in August and which will help fund expansion in its core businesses and digital and AI capabilities, according to a statement. The bank will issue c. 106.4 mn new shares at AED 16.45 each, a 28.8% discount to its closing price on 24 August. Shareholders can buy roughly one new share for every 34 they hold, which adds about 3% to the share count.

Why it matters: This would be the first major UAE follow-on since Sharjah Islamic Bank’s AED 2.6 bn rights issue in March. It’s also the kind of deal analysts told us would lead a 4Q reopening of the UAE's capital markets, while the IPO pipeline stays frozen.

What’s next: ADIB still needs regulatory sign-off, including from the Central Bank of the UAE. Once it has that, it will publish a prospectus setting the record date, the rights trading window, and the subscription period.

Another UAE school operator eyes KSA’s Ajialuna

Gulf-based school operator Alephya Education — majority-owned by US private equity firm TA Associate — is in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in Riyadh-based Ajialuna Educational from Sulaiman Alrajhi Holding, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The transaction could value Ajialuna at up to USD 500 mn. Ajialuna runs 10 private and international schools across Saudi Arabia with more than 17k students. Alephya runs 15 schools across the GCC with more than 20k students.

REMEMBER- Ajialuna has been on the block for a year. Dubai's GEMS Education was among the bidders last September, when a sale was expected to close as early as November 2025 and Alrajhi was said to be seeking a full exit.

In context: Investors spent much of the year watching for signs that tensions between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh could slow investment between the two economies, Bloomberg reports. Recent signals have been warmer: Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last month, and the UAE condemned Houthi missile and drone attacks on civilian facilities in Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif, reaffirming its solidarity with the Kingdom.

Data point

Loan deferrals under the Central Bank of the UAE’s (CBUAE) wartime relief scheme reached AED 15.9 bn by the end of August, covering nearly 156k bank customers, according to a press release (pdf). That is up from AED 13.5 bn across roughly 135k customers at end-July. Individuals made up almost all beneficiaries — 148.7k borrowers — but accounted for just AED 2.3 bn of deferred repayments. The Financial Institutions Resilience Package launched in March, shortly after the regional conflict broke out.

Individuals make up most of the borrowers, but businesses hold most of the money: Some 148.7k individuals received deferrals worth just AED 2.3 bn. Meanwhile, 849 private-sector companies received AED 10.7 bn and 6.4k SMEs another AED 2.9 bn, so businesses account for about 86% of the total.

That complicates the unwind we were watching: We reported last month that the earliest six-month deferrals were beginning to expire, setting up a cleaner test of borrower health as support rolls off. But the relief pool was still expanding through August. So far, banks are holding up: the non-performing loan ratio fell to 2.6% at end-August. The next thing to watch is whether borrowers coming off deferrals resume payments smoothly, or whether stress starts showing up once the cushion disappears.

PSA

Food makers and importers have nine months to cut the salt, sugar, and fat in bread, flavored dairy, and salty snacks. The Health Ministry has started enforcing caps on those ingredients in selected packaged foods, state news agency Wam reports. The rules cover locally made and imported products, apply to companies in freezones, and reach every link of the supply chain from manufacturing to retail. Leavened and flat bread, sweetened milk drinks and milk alternatives, flavored yogurt, and salty snacks such as crackers, chips, nuts, and pretzels must meet the first-phase limits within nine months. Processed cheese gets two years and three months. All products then need to keep cutting until they hit tighter final limits by the end of 2030.

The fine print: Products that don’t comply can stay on shelves for up to a year, or until they expire if that comes first. Firms that would need to cut an ingredient by more than 20% to meet the first-phase cap have 30 days to apply for an exception. Penalties range from a warning to fines of AED 5k-500k, and repeat offenders face closure of up to six months or loss of their license.

WEATHER- The mercury is rising back up again today, with a high of 42°C in Abu Dhabi and 41°C in Dubai, before cooling to 30°C in both emirates overnight, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

There’s no single biggest story in the international business press this morning, but there is a common theme running throughout most of the top stories: The AI buildout, and who’s paying for it.

Oracle, Broadcom, and SpaceX are going to private credit to pay for AI chips. The three companies are each arranging multi-bn debt packages with Wall Street investment firms to fund chip purchases, shifting the cost of the AI buildout off their own books, the Wall Street Journal reports. Broadcom is working to arrange more than USD 50 bn to finance the custom AI chip it’s developing with OpenAI, with Apollo and Blackstone among the lenders approached. Oracle is in talks with Apollo and Goldman Sachs to fund a large chip purchase, and SpaceX has approached lenders about a USD 40 bn package for Nvidia hardware, the Financial Times reports.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has closed Anthropic’s lead in business AI spending. Spending on the two companies’ models was split roughly evenly in September among some 120k firms tracked by OpenRouter, against Anthropic’s three-quarter share at the start of the year, the WSJ reports. OpenAI cut the price of GPT-5.6 Luna by 80% and Terra by 20% shortly after launching the line in June, and says 2.5 mn businesses now use its products. Retool’s CEO David Hsu said the GPT-5.6 release was the main reason his company moved most of its work to OpenAI, and that he now spends around 20% less than he would on Anthropic models.

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Dubai home sales drop 47% in 3Q, even as prices level off

Dubai residential sales fell sharply in 3Q as the post-conflict slowdown began filtering more clearly into registered transactions, according to Cavendish Maxwell data (pdf). Sales value dropped 47% y-o-y to AED 72.6 bn, while volumes fell 38% to 34k transactions. The consultancy says the declines reflect weaker purchasing activity as the lag between agreed sales and formal registrations starts to clear.

The slowdown is now showing up in the official numbers: Registrations can reflect deals agreed months earlier, so the impact of the war has taken time to show up in the data, as we flagged in July. Cavendish Maxwell says that lag is now clearing, and that 3Q’s declines reflect buyers becoming more cautious after the conflict began.

Off-plan is taking the biggest hit: Off-plan still dominates, accounting for 72% of 3Q purchases and 65% of sales value. But off-plan registrations fell 51.3% y-o-y and 14.1% m-o-m in September, according to ValuStrat (pdf), compared with drops of 23.5% y-o-y and 4.3% m-o-m for ready-home sales.

The twist: Prices look closer to a floor than transactions do. ValuStrat’s citywide residential value index slipped just 0.1% m-o-m in September. Values are still down 10.3% since February and 4.5% y-o-y, but the monthly decline is close to zero. Villa and apartment values each fell 0.1% on the month, and around 80% of villa communities and 77% of apartment communities saw no change at all. Apartments remain the weaker segment, down 6.4% y-o-y compared with 3.4% for villas.

The slowdown had already been showing up in the data: Average residential prices had fallen 1.7% y-o-y in August — their first annual decline since February 2021 — while transaction value across the first eight months was already down 24%. September now suggests the price correction is losing monthly momentum even as sales remain weak.

That’s been building for a while: We’ve been tracking the correction since spring, when monthly price declines were already starting to ease. ValuStrat had values down a cumulative 10% since late February as of June, meaning prices have barely moved over the summer, even as sales kept falling.

UAE project awards fall 26% in 3Q as construction contracts plunge

The UAE projects market took another hit in 3Q — but it held up better than the rest of the Gulf: Contract awards fell 25.8% y-o-y to USD 15.6 bn, from USD 21.1 bn a year earlier, according to Kamco Invest’s latest GCC Projects Market Update (pdf), citing MEED Projects data. Awards were also down 13.5% q-o-q, but the UAE remained the GCC's second-largest projects market, behind Saudi Arabia.

A bigger slice of a smaller pie: The UAE accounted for 33% of GCC awards during the quarter, up from 27.9% a year earlier. That's because other markets fell faster: every Gulf country recorded double-digit y-o-y declines. Saudi Arabia led with USD 24.4 bn, followed by the UAE's USD 15.6 bn and Qatar's USD 5.2 bn. The UAE briefly overtook Saudi Arabia as the region’s largest projects market in 1Q, before KSA took back the lead in 2Q.

The weakness was pretty broad: Five of the UAE’s eight sectors recorded lower awards y-o-y — but there was one sizable exception.

Gas stole construction’s crown: Gas accounted for nearly 40% of UAE awards at USD 6.2 bn, making it the country's largest projects segment. That included Adnoc's USD 1 bn package for phase one of the Umm Shaif Gas Cap development, part of USD 6.2 bn in contracts awarded by Adnoc and its foreign partners.

Quite the turnaround from 2Q: Gas awards had collapsed to just USD 30 mn from USD 5.3 bn a year earlier, as we reported in July. Adnoc has since reached FID on the full USD 6.2 bn Umm Shaif development, which is expected to begin production by 2030.

Construction went the other way: Awards plunged 67% y-o-y to just under USD 5 bn from USD 15.1 bn, making it the biggest drag on the quarter. We recently covered that UAE contracts are increasingly unwilling to lock in prices for long-term projects, pushing more cost risk from geopolitical instability onto developers and clients. After construction, transport followed at USD 2.1 bn and oil at USD 850 mn.

Zoom out

The UAE held up better than the Gulf as a whole: GCC awards sank 37.2% y-o-y and 19.2% q-o-q to USD 47.4 bn, with Kamco attributing the slowdown mainly to the continuing regional conflict and disruptions to energy exports and trade routes. Despite the ugly quarter, awards for the first nine months remained 2.5% higher y-o-y at USD 204.1 bn thanks to stronger activity earlier in the year.

There's still plenty waiting in the wings: According to MEED Projects, the GCC has a nearly USD 2.1 tn pipeline of upcoming projects. The UAE accounts for 26.4% — roughly USD 543 bn and second only to Saudi Arabia's 49.7%. Construction represents 38.3% of that regional pipeline, followed by transport at 16.8% and power at 15.9%.

One pipeline to watch — data centers: More than 174 major active and planned projects worth over USD 93 bn are being tracked across the GCC. That includes Khazna’s AI data-center development in Ajman, which Kamco puts at around USD 272 mn for construction and deployment.

Janus Henderson reaches second close on shariah-compliant MENA private credit fund

Janus Henderson’s shariah-compliant MENA Private Credit Fund IV has reached USD 191 mn in commitments at its second close, meeting nearly two-thirds of its USD 300 mn target, the asset manager said in a statement (pdf). It is running behind schedule, though: When the fund held its first close at USD 125.5 mn in September 2025, Janus Henderson said it expected a second close by end-2025 and a final close by mid-2026. The firm did not give a new date for the final close.

Who’s in: The new commitments came from institutional investors and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, though the firm did not disclose their names. The first close was anchored by SIDF Investment Company, Saudi Venture Capital Company, and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, a joint venture between Mubadala Capital and Alpha Wave Global.

What the money is for: The fund plans to write 10-12 tickets of USD 15-50 mn each. They will mostly go to profitable mid-market companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to finance growth, acquisitions, refinancings, and shareholder exits.

Juspay eyes the GCC’s payment fragmentation to orchestrate growth

Juspay plugs Al-Futtaim into its payment orchestration system as it scales GCC presence: Al-Futtaim began rolling out Indian fintech Juspay's payment orchestration system across its brands in September, connecting them to multiple acquirers, local payment methods and payment partners through a single layer, according to a press release.

Who is Juspay? The Bengaluru-based fintech processes around 350 mn daily transactions, globally and holds more than USD 1 tn in annualized Total Payment Volume, making its regional debut in the Dubai International Financial Center in February. It currently maintains a portfolio of roughly 600 enterprise merchants in the UAE, the firm’s head of APAC and the Middle East Nakul Kothari tells EnterpriseAM.

“GCC is becoming a very key market for us. We are seeing very strong demand for payment orchestration in the market,” Kothari tells us.

The pitch is the Gulf’s patchwork of payment rails: Where India consolidated around a single dominant rail in UPI, every GCC market has built its own: Kuwait has KNet, Bahrain has Benefit, Qatar has NAPS and Saudi Arabia has mada. The UAE now has a national card scheme, Jaywan, and an instant payments platform, Aani, both run by Central Bank subsidiary Al Etihad Payments. Each new rail brings its own rules, reconciliation and routing decisions for merchants operating across borders. “Every country has their own local rails. So you have to build that infrastructure that can be customizable at every country level,” Kothari says.

How it works: Juspay sits between Al-Futtaim’s brands on one side and acquirers and local rails on the other, so the conglomerate can add or drop a payment provider in a given market without rebuilding its checkout. “They can enable or disable — it's just kind of a toggle — any acquirer via a local payment method and they can just go live,” Kothari says.

It’s pitching banks too: Much of the Gulf’s banking system still runs on legacy mainframes and fragmented payment stacks. Juspay argues an orchestration layer lets banks support more payment methods, raise transaction success rates and launch embedded finance services without overhauling their core systems.

New hires at Deutsche Bank, Deliveroo, DCT

Deliveroo has named Vasilis Hadjiaslanis (LinkedIn) as general manager for the Middle East, where it operates in the UAE and Kuwait, according to a statement. He joins from Bolt, where he was UAE general manager and led its ride-hailing joint venture with Dubai Taxi. Before that, he spent more than seven years at Uber across the Middle East and Africa, including a stint as interim general manager for the UAE, Jordan, and Lebanon. The hire comes a year into DoorDash’s ownership, following its 2025 takeover of Deliveroo.

Deutsche Bank has moved three senior bankers into Dubai, covering debt capital markets, distressed credit, and institutional clients, Zawya reports. The new hires:

Ilya Korobov (LinkedIn) relocated from London to run Middle East and Africa coverage as director of debt capital markets for CEEMEA, and has been at Deutsche since November 2025 after working on sovereign, bank, and corporate bond deals at Barclays;
Adel Taleb (LinkedIn) also made the move from London to build out the bank's Distressed Products Group (DPG) in the region. Deutsche has been buying into Middle East distressed debt for years and sees more room to grow as Gulf debt markets mature, DPG Europe's Robbie Harris said. Its biggest regional bet came last year, when it bought USD 800 mn in bad loans from First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Nitin Sawhney (LinkedIn) took over as head of the Institutional Client Group for MENA in September, joining from UBS, where he headed MENA financing. He reports to Dimos Arhodidis, Deutsche's CEEMEA co-head of investment banking and ICG.

Miral’s Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi (LinkedIn) is now also undersecretary of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement. He keeps his job as managing director of Miral, the Yas Island developer, according to his LinkedIn. Al Zaabi joined Miral in 2015 and was previously its group CEO, running its leisure, entertainment, and cultural projects.

Emirati agri players take their investments overseas, Arada’s plans for Australia and Dana Gas’s for graphene are put to work, New Mountain lands in ADGM

Arada puts its Australian builder to work in Sharjah

Arada is bringing its Australian contractor to the UAE. Sharjah-based developer Arada has set up a UAE arm of Roberts Co, the Sydney construction firm it bought last year, and already has a head-office team in place, according to a statement. Roberts Co's first local job is the second phase of the Arada Central Business District in Aljada, the developer’s AED 35 bn Sharjah megaproject. It is also doing preconstruction work on other Arada sites in Dubai and Sharjah. Group CEO Ahmed Alkhoshaibi said Roberts Co will work alongside Arada's existing contractors, not replace them.

REMEMBER- Arada bought 100% of Roberts Co's New South Wales arm in May 2025. It paid AED 47 mn upfront to recapitalize the business and pledged up to AED 235 mn to fund its expansion abroad, including into the UAE.

Why it matters: Arada is the latest UAE developer to cut out the middleman on construction. Emaar set up its own contracting arm, Rukn Mirage, last summer. Samana now builds 80-90% of its new projects in-house, and Ellington, Azizi, and Sobha have gone the same route. Arada already runs its own cranes, MEP, and smart-tech businesses under its Arada Industries unit, against an AED 171 bn development pipeline across the UAE, UK, and Australia. Construction costs have climbed this year and raw materials are in short supply, so owning the builder gives developers more control over what they pay and when they hand over.

Things are also developing down under: The Roberts Co development comes just as Arada secured the greenlight for its first major project in Australia, the developer said elsewhere. Construction on the AED 560 mn London Place residential development in Sydney is set to begin in 2Q 2027 and aim to be ready by 4Q 2029. Arada is also planning a further four developments in the same area.

Dana Gas turns graphene plans into production

Dana Gas and UK advanced-materials firm Levidian have started producing graphene at Sharjah Graphene Park, just four months after signing the project MoU, according to a company statement (pdf). The first LOOP 20 unit is now operational with capacity of more than 1 tonne a year, while prospective customers across the UAE and GCC are already trialing the material and discussing long-term offtake agreements.

BACKGROUND- We reported in May that Dana Gas and Levidian planned to take the project industrial-scale after an earlier pilot, using microwave plasma to split methane into hydrogen and solid graphene for uses including construction, coatings, polymers, and energy storage. Today’s launch marks the first commercial production step in that buildout.

The buildout is already moving to phase two: Additional LOOP 60 and LOOP 100 units are under construction in the UK and are expected to lift Sharjah capacity above 10 tonnes a year before end-2026, taking total investment to around USD 2.5 mn. The partners say the project could eventually scale to roughly USD 50 mn, but further spending will depend on long-term customer commitments and return thresholds.

Elite Agro and ADID take Abu Dhabi's farm money overseas

Abu Dhabi agri players are making investments abroad. Elite Agro Holding (EAG) said it will put AED 660 mn into farms across the UAE, Morocco, and Mauritania, covering more than 9.3k hectares, according to a press release. Most of the money, AED 440 mn, goes to the 8.9k-hectare Aftout/Rosso project in Mauritania, which is targeting c. 244k tons of produce. Another AED 140 mn will develop the 400-hectare Sidi Yehia farm in Morocco, EAG's eighth in the country, growing blueberries, mandarins, and avocados. Only AED 80 mn stays at home, for a 25-hectare blueberry project in Al Ain with Emirates Food Industries. All three are MoUs, and the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development is a partner on the two projects abroad.

Meanwhile, ADID is investing in vanilla: QITAF Holding, a wholly owned unit of Abu Dhabi National Investment & Development (ADID), signed an MoU with Madagascar's State Procurement Agency for QITAF to source vanilla from Malagasy farmers and process it into extracts, powders, and flavourings at a planned hub in Abu Dhabi, according to a separate press release (pdf).

New Mountain comes to Abu Dhabi for the capital

New York-based alternative asset manager New Mountain Capital has opened an ADGM office after securing regulatory approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, according to a company statement. The roughly USD 60 bn manager says the office will expand its Gulf investor base and will be led by managing director Shehreyar Hameed, who previously covered the region at Blackstone, JP Morgan Asset Management, and Goldman Sachs.

This is a fundraising outpost, not a new Gulf investment mandate: New Mountain says its investment activity will remain focused on “defensive-growth” middle-market companies in North America, while Abu Dhabi serves as a base for regional clients and capital raising. That sets it apart from some of the global managers we’ve seen building broader Middle East platfroms from ADGM, including EQT, Blue Owl, and Rokos Capital. New Mountain says it has been cultivating Gulf institutional relationships for more than 20 years and now works with dozens of partners across the region.

Gulf debt issuance fell 17.5% in 3Q as higher rates bit

Gulf borrowers are in no hurry to lock in today’s rates. GCC bond and sukuk issuance fell 17.5% from the previous quarter and 19.4% from a year earlier to USD 42.5 bn in 3Q 2026, the lowest quarterly total since early 2025, Kamco Invest said in its quarterly report (pdf), citing Bloomberg data. With bond prices down and yields up, many issuers are holding out for better levels.

The slowdown tracked a global one: With inflation remaining sticky, oil hovering around or above USD 100 / bbl and the region’s wars grinding on, major central banks turned hawkish. The US Federal Reserve made its first hike since 2023, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan also raised, and the 10-year US Treasury yield jumped 53.6 bps — and that was in September alone.

Borrowers across the Gulf still drew heavy order books. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar each priced sovereign deals covered two to five times over, and Qatar tightened pricing 30 bps on its first international bond of the year. Sukuk rebounded to 44% of regional volume from 15% in 2Q. By market, Saudi Arabia raised the most at USD 15.7 bn, all in sukuk, followed by the UAE at USD 12 bn and Kuwait at USD 8.7 bn. Over nine months, GCC issuance still edged up 3.3% to USD 160 bn.

With bond prices down and yields up, borrowers are less keen to take issuances to market. “Spreads are tight, but overall yields are not attractive for issuers,” Emirates NBD Capital’s head of debt capital, Ritesh Agarwal, told AGBI. “Issuers are less keen on borrowing at current levels, with many preferring to wait until there’s greater stability.”

The cost of that money went up. Coupons rose with global rates — three-month SAIBOR jumped 70.5 bps in September — while the GCC’s USD credit spread widened only modestly, ending the quarter at 88 bps, about half the emerging-market average. Regional indices fell, the MENA Bond index down 4.5% in its worst quarter in four years. Kamco put the sell-off down to higher rates, with Gulf credit quality holding firm, a read the buy side shares. “Despite the war, fixed-income markets are showing no real concern about GCC balance sheets,” Akber Khan, acting CEO at Doha’s AlRayan Investment, told AGBI. “If it costs an additional 1% [compared with six months ago] but a government needs to plug a deficit, then so be it.”

Why it matters: Gulf issuers can still raise large sums at tight spreads, even as the price of doing so climbs. Kamco expects them to keep coming, just on different terms — favoring shorter maturities, more sukuk and carefully timed deals, with higher coupons “a necessary cost of doing business,” its Junaid Ansari told AGBI. With global borrowing on a record run (USD 10.7 tn over nine months, much of the corporate share funding AI) and rates looking higher for longer, funding costs are the number to watch across the region's debt markets into 2027.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are broadly in the red in early morning trading, with Japan’s Nikkei, South Korea’s Kospi, and the Hang Seng Index all trading down. Futures also point to a similar open on Wall Street, which just came off a losing session as Treasury yields hit fresh highs yesterday.

ADX	9,960	-0.3% (YTD: -0.3%)
DFM	5,898	-0.2% (YTD: -2.5%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,870	-0.3% (YTD: -0.4%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.7% o/n	4.9% 1 yr
TASI	10,542	-0.5% (YTD: +0.5%)
EGX30	53,265	-0.1% (YTD: +27.3%)
S&P 500	7,802	-0.2% (YTD: +14.0%)
FTSE 100	10,459	-0.8% (YTD: +5.3%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,180	-1.5% (YTD: +6.7%)
Brent crude	USD 101.75	+1.6%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.26	+1.9%
Gold	USD 4,145.50	+0.1%
BTC	USD 83,273.32	-1.4% (YTD: -4.9%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.52	-0.9% (YTD: -1.8%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	146.49	-0.2% (YTD: -3.6%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	15.08	+0.5% (YTD: -0.9%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM fell 0.2% yesterday on turnover of AED 475.2 mn. The index is down 2.5% YTD.

In the green: Spinneys 1961 Holding (+2.5%), Union Properties (+2.3%), and National International Holding Company (+2.3%).

In the red: National Cement Company (-4.9%), National General Ins. Company (-4.2%), and Dubai Islamic Ins. and Reinsurance Co. (-3.4%).

Over on the ADX, the index fell 0.3% on turnover of AED 883 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 0.3%.

AE-Belarus services and investment pact is in force

The UAE’s services and investment pact with Belarus came into force yesterday, more than a year after it was signed in Minsk in June 2025, state news agency Wam reports. The agreement opens Belarusian market access to UAE firms in financial services, consulting, healthcare, education, tech, and logistics, and adds protections for investors on both sides. It sits alongside the UAE's goods-focused trade pact with the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Belarus is a member, and which also came into effect this week.

The starting base is small: Non-oil trade between the two countries came to USD 316.4 mn last year, and USD 268 mn of that was re-exports. Direct UAE exports totaled just USD 3 mn. Trade in 1H 2026 stood at only USD 67.4 mn, which puts this year on track to come in well below 2025.

CALENDAR

OCTOBER

4-10 October (Sunday-Saturday): World Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

8-9 October (Thursday-Friday): Climate Forum, Conrad Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

12-14 October (Monday-Wednesday): Airport Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

14-15 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Sharjah Investment Forum, Jawaher Reception and Convention Center, Sharjah.

13-15 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Annual Meeting of Global Future Leaders, Dubai.

20-22 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Future Health Summit, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

21 October (Wednesday): Reuters NEXT Gulf, St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi.

27-28 October (Tuesday-Wednesday): Arab Competition Forum, Dubai.

27-28 October (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

30 October (Friday): Large businesses achieving annual revenues equal to or above AED 50 mn must appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation.

Signposted to happen sometime in October 2026:

Abu Dhabi Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

NOVEMBER

2-5 November (Monday-Thursday): Adipec, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

2-6 November (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

4 November (Wednesday): Digital Transformation Summit, Sofitel, Abu Dhabi.

9-10 November (Monday-Tuesday): Annual government meetings, Abu Dhabi.

9-12 November (Monday-Thursday): EMEA Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference, Dubai College of Tourism, Dubai.

9-13 November (Monday-Friday): World Congress of Military Med, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

10-12 November (Tuesday-Thursday): Dubai International Electric Vehicle Exhibition & Conference, Dubai World Trade Center.

16-18 November (Monday-Wednesday): World Police Summit, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

18-19 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Touchdown Middle East 2026, Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi.

25-26 November (Saturday-Sunday): Doers Summit, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai.

DECEMBER

2-4 December (Wednesday-Friday): UN Water Conference, UAE.

4-6 December (Friday-Sunday): Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Capital Market Summit, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

7-10 December (Monday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Water & Power Week, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association Show, DWC, Dubai Airshow Site.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
14-17 January (Thursday-Sunday): MOC27 Motor, Outdoor & Camping Festival, Dubai Sevens Stadium, Dubai.
1Q 2027: Completion of the first phase of Hassyan seawater desalination project;
1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): World Governments Summit;
31 March: Small businesses with annual revenues of less than AED 50 mn are obliged to contract with an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
31 March: Government entities are required to appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
21-22 April (Wednesday-Thursday): Token2049, Dubai;
31 May-2 June (Monday-Wednesday): RailX Dubai, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.
1 July: Deadline for small businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1 October: Deadline for governments to implement e-invoicing;
Abu Dhabi’s solar and battery energy facility, combining 5.2 GW of solar capacity and 19 GWh of battery storage, is set for commissioning.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2028:

Artificial Intelligence Summit.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2029:

Sibos 2029 organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), Dubai;
Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi;
The commissioning of the seventh phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

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