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.