UAE hiring wins back its spring losses, but talk of a renewed war on Iran clouds the outlook

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: UAE pledges EUR 15 bn in investments for Greece + XRG eyes Libya

Good morning, everyone, and happy FRIDAY. There’s plenty of good news this morning, but it’s clouded by an uncertain outlook ahead for the regional conflict, with US media saying an assault on Iran is being planned for after the 3 November midterms, and Saudi Arabia continuing to absorb escalating Houthi strikes.

UAE hiring was up 4% in 3Q 2026, recovering almost all that it lost in the Spring in a September surge. But Cooper Fitch tells us several large employers in Saudi Arabia have already asked it to pause searches, and its CEO, Trefor Murphy, expects UAE hiring to be flat or only slightly up in 4Q as the escalation casts a shadow on the region. The IMF, meanwhile, now sees the GCC’s non-oil economy shrinking this year.

Plus: Arada reopened the developer bond market for the first time since the war began. Robinhood and Advent are setting up in the DIFC and ADGM, and the UAE is pledging another EUR 15 bn to Greece.

Also worth knowing this morning: One of our own is going for the UN’s top job. Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh is officially the seventh candidate for secretary-general, entering a race the Security Council has failed to settle in six rounds of voting. We dive deeper into her pitch in the news well, below.

UAE pledges EUR 15 bn more for Greece

The UAE plans to invest an additional EUR 15 bn in Greece through a joint investment initiative, announced at the UAE-Greece Strategic Forum in Athens during Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed’s official visit, state news agency Wam reports. UAE and Greek companies also signed 18 MoUs, agreements and commercial partnerships worth more than EUR 12.75 bn. Wam gave no breakdown of the EUR 15 bn or a timeline for it.

Where the money is going: The agreements cover digital infrastructure and AI, renewables and clean-energy infrastructure, logistics, transport and ports, industry, healthcare, life sciences and food security.

Robinhood picks DIFC for its first Middle East base

US trading app Robinhood will launch its retail investing platform in the Middle East from the DIFC in 2027. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) authorized the platform to offer trading and custody across all 10 DFSA-approved asset classes, including equities, ETFs, crypto, and investment tokens, the Nasdaq-listed company said in a statement. Salah Kaddoura, president of Robinhood MENA, will lead the regional operation.

How big is Robinhood? Robinhood had 28.6 mn funded customers and USD 384 bn in total platform assets as of August. Dubai follows launches in the UK and the EU and an in-principle brokerage approval in Singapore.

Why it matters: While most of the big names the DIFC has been attracting, such as Citadel and Maven, serve institutional investors, Robinhood is targeting individual investors. The company points to what it calls a fast-growing wave of retail investors across MENA, and a regional launch puts it up against homegrown platforms like Abu Dhabi-domiciled Sarwa. Robinhood hasn’t said when in 2027 it will launch or which countries outside the UAE it will serve.

Advent joins ADGM

Over in Abu Dhabi, private equity firm Advent International opened an office in ADGM to work more closely with Gulf institutional investors, the company said in a statement. The office will look for new deals and support Advent’s existing portfolio companies. It will be led by Mehdi Iraqi (LinkedIn), who joined Advent in January after covering regional investors at AMG and Carlyle. Abu Dhabi is Advent’s 18th office across 15 countries.

It already has friends in high places: Advent has previously partnered with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority on a USD 3 bn minority investment in US wealth manager Fisher Investments and an investment in ins. software firm Sapiens.

And the ADGM guest list keeps growing: Advent follows Eurazeo and Goanna Capital into the financial center this month, as more international asset managers establish offices near Abu Dhabi's sovereign and institutional investors.

XRG looks to Libya

XRG, Adnoc’s international investment arm, is in early talks to buy a stake in Eni’s Libyan oil and gas business, Reuters reports, citing two people familiar with the matter. Talks are at an early stage, one source said. Eni and XRG both declined to comment.

The possible target: Eni has operated in Libya since 1959 through Mellitah Oil & Gas, its joint venture with Libya’s National Oil Corporation. Libya produced 162k barrels of oil equivalent per day for Eni last year, about 10% of the Italian group’s total output. The oil giant recently completed the Bouri Gas Utilization Project, which is set to send around 700 mn cbm of recovered gas a year into Libya’s domestic market, with extra capacity earmarked for export to Europe.

Why now? The war has made it more urgent for XRG to invest and grow outside the Gulf, one of the sources told Reuters. Its recent activity point the same way: it has bought into Azerbaijan’s Absheron gas and condensate field, an offshore gas field in Venezuela, and the Rio Grande LNG export terminal in Texas, and it plans to put tens of bns of USD into US natural gas. XRG is targeting 20-25 mn tons a year of LNG capacity by 2035, and it already partners with Eni and Argentina’s YPF on a multibillion-dollar LNG project in Argentina.

PSA

WEATHER- Things are cooling down a bit over the weekend, with Dubai seeing a high of 35°C and an overnight low of 28°C, while Abu Dhabi is slightly warmer, with a high of 37°C before cooling to 27°C overnight, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

The Gulf is bracing for another round of war. Iran says it will strike oil facilities, undersea cables, data centers and AI facilities in up to seven Gulf countries if the US and Israel attack again, the Guardian reports. US media say a joint assault is being planned for after the 3 November midterms. Brent hit USD 113.4 a barrel, a recent high.

The US State Department ordered non-emergency staff to leave Saudi Arabia over Houthi attacks, and Aramco evacuated its Dhahran headquarters after an alarm, Bloomberg reports.
With its own output throttled, QatarEnergy signed its first US offtake deal, buying 4 mn tons a year of LNG from Cheniere through 2054 (Bloomberg).

Plus: Investor appetite for AI is cooling. OpenAI has cut its valuation target to USD 1.25 tn after investors resisted the USD 1.4 tn it pitched earlier this month, as tech stocks sell off on concerns about the debt-fuelled AI build-out, the FT reports. UAE funds are in talks to co-lead the USD 30 bn round, which would give OpenAI first refusal on new computing capacity from its UAE partners.

Washington is also tightening the rules on where US money can go. The Treasury proposed tougher curbs on US investment in sensitive Chinese technology, from AI and advanced chips to biotech, a month after Trump and Xi extended their trade truce to January.

In Europe, France is banning protests after its worst riots in years. Its 10-year yield hit 5.14%, the highest since 2002, and its spread over German bonds is the widest in 15 years (Reuters).

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UAE hiring pares back its 2Q losses on a September surge, but trouble in Saudi Arabia clouds 4Q

UAE hiring has recovered everything it lost in the spring, and nearly all of the recovery came in September. Cooper Fitch’s 3Q 2026 Gulf Employment Index, seen by EnterpriseAM, puts UAE hiring activity up 4% q-o-q, reversing the 4% contraction we reported in 2Q. GCC hiring rose 2% after falling 3% in the previous quarter.

“The reason it dropped was the regional conflict. So the reason it’s returned is because of the regional conflict,” Cooper Fitch CEO Trefor Murphy tells EnterpriseAM, referring to the calmer months of the third quarter. “If we didn't have the conflict, we’d probably have seen job growth of around 4-5% this year across the Gulf — now we’re looking at either flat growth or contraction,” he explains.

The first six weeks of the quarter brought none of the usual 3Q pickup, he says, though there was a gradual recovery over the summer months. The strong growth came in the last five weeks, especially September, he adds.

The recovery came alongside a rebound in demand and confidence, Murphy says. UAE firms’ new export orders were growing at their fastest pace in almost two years in September, according to S&P Global’s PMI.

Crucially: The index measures how willing firms are to hire, not how many jobs were filled. Murphy says part of the 3Q rebound was 2Q searches that had stalled at the final stage coming back, and part was new searches. The index doesn’t separate the two.

Hospitality is recovering more slowly: Murphy calls March to May “tragic” for hotels and June to August “bad.” This time, he says, the big hotel groups kept their staff, moving up annual leave or using unpaid leave instead of laying people off — a lesson they learned from Covid, when they cut too deep and took too long to rebuild. They will be cautious about hiring again, though, he says.

The rest of the Gulf

Hiring outside the UAE was split — up in Saudi Arabia (1.5%) and Oman (0.5%) and down in Kuwait (2%), Bahrain (2%) and Qatar (1%). Murphy says Kuwait and Bahrain were still directly affected by the conflict in 3Q, unlike the UAE, and puts 60-80% of their weakness down to it. Across sectors, energy hiring rose 7% on Saudi and UAE gas contracts, while banking hiring fell 4% and investment management hires fell 5%, down sharply from 6% growth the previous quarter.

That’s because 1Q and 2Q were two “very busy quarters” for investment management, who had “gotten ahead of their hiring plans,” Murphy says. The lack of IPOs also removed a large part of this sector’s work. As they did after Covid, the sovereigns kept buying abroad through the uncertainty, so hiring continued “just in different areas.”

Strategy hiring rose 6%, the first increase in roughly 10 or 11 quarters, Murphy says. The base is low, and the roles are mostly concentrated in in-house strategy teams, not consultancies. He expects consulting hiring to start recovering in 1Q 2027, back to roughly 2018-2019 levels but not the 2021-2023 peak.

The outlook ahead is cloudy, though

Murphy expects Saudi hiring to contract in 4Q “for sure” as the escalation of Houthi attacks continues — and for it to cast a “shadow” on the rest of the region, including the UAE. “It causes an overhang in confidence for the rest of the GCC,” he explains.

Several large employers have already asked Cooper Fitch to slow down or pause searches, and he says that will show up in the October to December numbers. He expects Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain to shrink for a third straight quarter and Oman to stay flat. For the UAE, he expects 4Q to be flat or slightly up.

Lana Nusseibeh is in the running for UN secretary-general

State Minister Lana Nusseibeh is officially running to be the next UN secretary-general after the UAE formally nominated her, the campaign announced, confirming the Financial Times report we picked up yesterday. She has taken leave from her government post to campaign. If she gets the seat, she would be the second secretary-general from the Arab world, after Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who held the post from 1992 to 1996.

BACKGROUND- Nusseibeh was the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN from September 2013 to April 2024, the first woman in the role. She has also been a vice-president of the General Assembly and president of the Executive Board of UN Women. She joined the Foreign Ministry in 2009, serving as director of policy planning and special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. She has also been one of the UAE’s most prominent voices abroad throughout the war this year, along with presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash.

She joins a race that has failed to produce a frontrunner. Six rounds of Security Council voting have failed to produce a candidate acceptable to all five permanent members, the latest a straw poll on 16 October. She is a late entrant and the seventh candidate, up against Rebeca Grynspan, the UN trade and development chief who has led in straw polls, and IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi.

Her pitch is independence and getting results. In her vision statement, she promises “no exemptions for friends and no grudges against critics.” She would put quiet diplomacy and achievable “first agreements” — such as local truces, prisoner exchanges, and humanitarian corridors — at the center of the UN’s peace work and require every major Secretariat program to report what it achieved against what it cost.

She also wants the UN to work more closely with investors. She says she would work with development banks and private-sector partners to give investors better data, so they can assess risk more accurately and bring down the cost of capital where risk is overstated. She also promises to push for fairer debt solutions and blended finance with philanthropies and businesses, measured in capital mobilized and jobs delivered.

IN CONTEXT- She would take over a UN under severe financial pressure. The General Assembly approved a USD 3.45 bn operating budget for 2026, down from USD 3.72 bn the year before, and the UN80 reform initiative launched to cope with the shortfall involved relocating staff and thousands of job cuts. Most of the gap is down to its biggest funder: the US stopped paying its UN contributions altogether in 2025 and ended most of its voluntary funding to UN agencies.

What’s next: The 15-member Security Council must recommend a candidate, and the General Assembly then appoints them. Guterres’ second term ends on 31 December.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund is helping take another listed company private, alongside EQT

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) is co-investing in Swedish private equity firm EQT’s takeover of Qiagen, which values the molecular testing company at c. EUR 10.8 bn. Adia’s wholly owned subsidiary Luxinva and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) will hold indirect stakes in the EQT XI-controlled vehicle making the allcash offer of EUR 46.50 per share, the companies said in a joint statement. Qiagen’s supervisory and managing boards back the transaction unanimously and will recommend that shareholders accept. The size of Adia’s stake wasn’t disclosed.

The price is a 40.3% premium on where Qiagen traded before word of the acquisition leaked on 8 July. The EUR 10.8 bn (c. USD 12.1 bn) enterprise value includes about USD 1.1 bn of net debt. Rival buyout firm KKR had also bid, Bloomberg reports.

What does Qiagen do? The Netherlands-based company makes the kits, instruments, and software that labs use to extract and analyze DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood and tissue samples. It sells to more than 500k customers in pharma research, clinical diagnostics, and forensics and employs about 5.4k people.

Why it matters: Qiagen is the latest public company Adia is helping take private. Our September coverage noted that its private equity arm leaned into take-privates, including Dayforce and Hologic — Hologic, like Qiagen, makes diagnostics equipment. The takeover also fits a bigger shift: Adia raised its long-term private equity allocation range to 15-20% from 12-17% in its 2025 review. And it’s Adia’s second megadeal with EQT this year. Earlier this year, it joined Mubadala in committing a combined GBP 1.5 bn to EQT’s GBP 9.3 bn takeover of UK testing group Intertek, taking an 18% stake to Mubadala’s 8%. EQT is also building its presence in the Gulf: it opened its first Middle East office in ADGM last month.

Qiagen has been here before: Thermo Fisher Scientific’s takeover attempt collapsed in 2020 following shareholder opposition. This time, the minimum acceptance threshold is 50% of shares plus one. If the delisting and post-closing steps secure less than 80% of votes at the extraordinary general meeting, Qiagen’s board can still proceed with “substantial majority” support. In judging that support, they can give less weight to investors who bought in after the announcement to block the transaction or to trade on it. PSquared Asset Management, one of Qiagen’s largest shareholders, had pushed for a sale at more than USD 50 per share.

What’s next: Germany’s financial regulator BaFin must approve the offer document before the acceptance period opens. Closing is expected in mid-2027, subject to merger-control and foreign-investment clearances. Qiagen will delist from Frankfurt and the NYSE once the transaction completes.

MEANWHILE- Adia is selling its stake in Chicago’s parking meters after nearly two decades. Stonepeak completed its acquisition of Chicago Parking Meters (CPM), which runs the city’s 38k+ on-street metered spaces, from a consortium of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, Allianz, and an Adia subsidiary, the US infrastructure investor said in a statement. The transaction is worth USD 2.53 bn, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Adia’s share of the proceeds wasn’t disclosed.

A long-running investment with some baggage: Adia was part of the consortium behind Chicago's controversial 75-year parking concession, agreed in 2008 for USD 1.15 bn. The arrangement has since drawn criticism for handing decades of parking revenues to private investors. The latest ownership transfer gave Chicago an opening to negotiate a USD 75 mn payment, a 5% share of future net income, and 2% of proceeds from any subsequent sale before the concession expires in 2084.

Selling assets is part of the strategy too. Adia says its private equity department actively sold down positions in 2025, and Stonepeak has been a buyer before: Adia agreed to sell its roughly 50% stake in reusable packaging firm IFCO to Stonepeak last year.

Arada raises USD 400 mn sukuk in first real estate debt issuance since war began

Sharjah developer Arada raised USD 400 mn through a five-year sukuk, the first public debt sale by a UAE developer since the US-Iran war began in February, Zawya reports. The certificates priced at a 9% yield with an 8.875% coupon, 407.4 bps over US Treasuries. Orders topped USD 650 mn, about 1.6x the size of the issuance. That demand let Arada cut the yield by c. 37.5 bps from initial guidance of around 9.375%.

Half the money refinances existing debt. Arada is buying back up to USD 200 mn of its USD 411.7 mn sukuk due 2027. The tender is capped at the new issue’s size minus USD 200 mn, leaving Arada at least USD 200 mn in fresh capital. Holders approved a new call right in September, so Arada can redeem any 2027 certificates that aren’t tendered.

Why it matters: The issuance is the first from a developer since the conflict hit, sending six USD-denominated property bonds from Binghatti Holding and Omniyat into distressed territory in March, with spreads above the 1k bps threshold that typically signals deep concern about repayment, as we’ve reported. The spread on a 2030 Arada bond more than doubled to 707 bps. Arada has now borrowed at around 407 bps, 300 bps tighter than its 2030 paper, even though it is rated B1/B+ with a negative outlook from Moody’s and Fitch.

The funds go to a developer expanding fast: Arada announced its Saudi debut with a USD 3.8 bn Riyadh project this week, and its development pipeline stands at AED 185 bn across five markets.

ADVISORS- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Standard Chartered, and our friends at Mashreq were joint global coordinators. They were also joint lead managers and bookrunners alongside Arab Bank, Arqaam Capital, Bank ABC, Goldman Sachs International, JPMorgan, Sharjah Islamic Bank, and Warba Bank. In addition, Emirates NBD Capital, Mashreq, and Standard Chartered are dealer managers on the tender offer.

What the “S” in ESG delivers when it moves beyond commitments on paper

Social sustainability is where ESG shows up in people’s lives. It comes down to access to opportunity, the dignity of work, financial inclusion, health, education, safety, and stronger communities. For financial institutions, commitments are not enough; the real test is whether big decisions on capital, technology, and workforce change improve those outcomes.

AI raises the stakes. It can lift productivity and open up new ways to grow, but it also changes which jobs exist and what skills they require. A plan that only counts efficiency savings misses the more important question: whether people end up better off.

The European Commission’s concept of Industry 5.0 helps here. It builds on Industry 4.0 around three priorities: human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience. It places workers’ wellbeing, skills, and empowerment at the center, within environmental limits. Technology should serve people, not the other way round.

So responsible AI is also a workforce issue. Where technology changes roles or removes tasks, leaders need to invest in upskilling, reskilling, career mobility and responsible workforce planning, so employees share in the value the technology creates. Planned early, alongside AI adoption and enterprise strategy, the transition is easier to afford. Left until roles are under pressure, both its human and financial costs can rise.

Handled well, that transition can also feed growth. As organizations evolve, reskilling and internal mobility can carry existing knowledge into new roles. Hiring still matters, but not every new need calls for a new hire.

The same applies to the businesses we finance, which face their own technology transitions. Our client engagement and sustainable-finance strategies can weigh skills, livelihoods, and inclusion alongside productivity and environmental performance.

On the balance sheet, the “S” takes concrete form. Financial inclusion can bring more people into the formal economy. Financing for healthcare, education, and affordable housing can strengthen essential services, while support for small businesses can protect livelihoods and local resilience. Where social outcomes are built into financing structures, the measures need to be transparent, relevant, and verifiable.

Banks already have the tools: capital allocation, risk assessment, long-term financing, and partnerships. What matters is how well we use them. Credibility comes from what those decisions produce on the ground, not from how much ESG language surrounds them.

One question cuts through all of it: who is better able to prosper because of this decision? If that is hard to answer, the gap between reporting and impact is probably still too wide. The “S” is working when people can see the difference in their work, skills, finances, and communities.

Faisal AlShimmari, head of ESG, Mashreq

3Q earnings roundup: ADCB, DIB, Rakbank, Bank of Sharjah and du

Du’s 3Q growth is no longer a one-network show

Stronger demand across mobile, fixed, ICT, and wholesale services lifted du’s 3Q net income 7.3% y-o-y to AED 785.7 mn, while its revenue rose 7.1% to AED 4.1 bn, according to the telecom operator’s earnings release (pdf). Mobile revenues accounted for the largest portion of its final top line with AED 1.8 bn, followed by fixed revenues at AED 1.2 bn, according to the company’s financial statements (pdf).

On a nine-month basis, net income rose 10.8% y-o-y to AED 2.4 bn, while revenue increased 6.2% to AED 12.3 bn, outpacing the 4.1% growth in total direct costs. Like in 3Q, all segments within revenue posted solid growth.

Du is putting more money behind its next growth phase, with 3Q capex jumping 31.5% y-o-y to AED 647 mn — heavily directed toward data center infrastructure and network upgrades. Du is also getting mileage from its fixed and enterprise businesses rather than relying solely on mobile growth — service revenue grew 6.8% to AED 9.1 bn, with mobile subscribers rising 3.3% and fixed subscribers up 5.2%.

More non-interest income helps Rakbank’s 3Q

A sharp improvement in non-interest income helped drive Rakbank’s 3Q bottom line up 14.7% y-o-y to AED 810.7 mn, even as net interest and Islamic financing income slipped 0.3% to AED 945.6 mn, according to the lender’s financial statements (pdf). The bottom line got a boost from a AED 10.8 mn impairment release, compared with a AED 97.7 mn impairment charge a year earlier. FX and derivatives saw the biggest growth (+45.5 % y-o-y) within non-interest income, which rose 5.5% overall to AED 395.3 mn, helping its operating income edge up 1.3% to AED 1.3 bn.

The lender closed out 9M with AED 2.5 bn in net income, up 21.3% y-o-y. Total operating income rose 14.7% to AED 4.5 bn on the back of a diversified revenue base, the bank said in its earnings release (pdf). Earning asset growth pushed net interest income up 3.2% to AED 2.8 bn, and non-interest income made a stronger contribution to overall earnings with 37%, up from 30% for the same period last year.

Fees and lower credit costs held ADCB’s 3Q income

Higher non-interest income and lower credit costs propped up ADCB’s 3Q bottom line 15.2% y-o-y to AED 3.6 bn, while operating income rose 7.7% to AED 6.3 bn, according to the bank’s financial statements (pdf). Total net interest and Islamic financing income climbed 2% to AED 3.9 bn, while non-interest income jumped 19% to AED 2.5 bn, the lender said in its earnings release (pdf).

Fees and trading do the heavy lifting: Net fees and commissions rose 28% to AED 1.2 bn on the back of loan processing and trade finance fees, while trading income climbed 48% to AED 957 mn on higher gains from derivatives.

On a nine-month basis, ADCB’s bottom line jumped 27.1% to AED 10.3 bn as operating income climbed 10.2% to AED 18.3 bn. Once again, double-digit growth from fee and trading income helped push non-interest income up 21% y-o-y to account for 38% of total operating income.

DIB’s revenue grows, but higher impairments weigh on net income

Dubai Islamic Bank’s net income fell 4.1% y-o-y to AED 1.9 bn in 3Q 2026, even as total income rose 2.1% to AED 6.1 bn, according to the lender’s financial statements (pdf) and management discussion and analysis report (pdf). Impairment charges more than tripled to AED 120.8 mn from AED 35.6 mn a year earlier, offsetting a 15.6% drop in operating expenses.

On a 9M basis, net income slipped 1.3% y-o-y to AED 5.6 bn, while total income climbed 7.0% to AED 18.6 bn. Impairment charges more than doubled to AED 610.0 mn from AED 291.8 mn, though it eased from earlier in the year, with cost of risk falling to 25 bps for 9M, down from 28 bps in 1H and 45 bps in 1Q.

Financing is still growing much faster than deposits: Net financing assets rose 9.6% YTD to AED 287.1 bn, led by an 18% jump in the consumer portfolio to more than AED 93 bn, while customer deposits edged up just 1.0% to AED 323.5 bn. DIB has been leaning more on wholesale funding, raising USD 1 bn through an AT1 sukuk in June and later closing its first USD 750 mn syndicated Islamic financing facility.

Bank of Sharjah’s lending book powers 3Q earnings

Bank of Sharjah’s 3Q net income rose 18.1% y-o-y to AED 196.5 mn as operating income grew 12.6% to AED 292.2 mn, according to the bank’s financials (pdf). Net interest income jumped 29.7% to AED 252.5 mn, while income on properties jumped to AED 11.5 mn from AED 569k. On a 9M basis, net income rose 28.2% y-o-y to AED 558.6 mn, while operating income climbed 17.4% to AED 836.8 mn.

Loans hold the books together: The lending book expanded 24% from year-end to AED 37.7 bn in 9M, supporting interest income, according to its earnings release. The bank said growth reflected market-share gains and landmark wholesale banking transactions.

Abu Dhabi opens its health data to Isomorphic Labs, Whoop and AstraZeneca, and Lulu plans a INR 25 bn push into Delhi

Abu Dhabi puts its health data to work with Isomorphic Labs, Whoop, and AstraZeneca

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health (DoH) signed three research agreements covering AI drug discovery, wearables, and clinical trials, according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement. The common thread? Putting the emirate’s clinical and genomic data to use in researching new medicines, identifying health risks earlier, and attracting more clinical studies.

AI drug discovery: DoH and DeepMind spinout Isomorphic Labs will develop a 24-month roadmap for AI-enabled preclinical research, conducted inside Abu Dhabi’s Trusted Research Environment;
Wearables: DoH and Whoop will run a 24-month research program on heart and metabolic health. The first study will track how WHOOP’s continuous data and coaching affect weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and sleep over six months in adults with obesity and high blood pressure;
Clinical trials: DoH, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and AstraZeneca will explore running up to 30 trials in the emirate by 2030, focused on cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic disease, which could bring an estimated AED 180 mn (USD 50 mn) of research investment. The first six are expected to start by the end of 2026. The trials also aim to address the underrepresentation of Middle Eastern populations in drug research.

REMEMBER- As we covered in yesterday’s issue, smart-ring maker Oura is also launching an Abu Dhabi pilot examining whether wearable data could help identify premature birth risks.

Abu Dhabi money is already behind two of these partners. MGX joined Isomorphic’s USD 2.1 bn funding round, and Mubadala and IHC backed Whoop earlier this year.

LuLu to invest INR 25 bn in Delhi’s NCR

LuLu Group plans to invest INR 25 bn (c. USD 264 mn) to open around 25 stores across Delhi’s National Capital Region (NCR) by 2030, Jayakumar Gangadharan, LuLu’s director for Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, and Telangana, told Hindustan Times. He put the target at “at least 25 to 30 outlets” in comments to PTI. The plan mixes large hypermarkets with smaller LuLu Daily stores, typically 30k-70k sq ft, aimed at densely populated areas and new residential neighborhoods.

Why it matters: The NCR, which spans Delhi and parts of three neighboring states, is one of India’s largest consumer markets. The plan would take LuLu, which already runs malls in Kerala, Bengaluru, and Lucknow, into the capital region in force.

IMF sees GCC’s non-oil economy shrinking 0.8% this year as war spreads beyond oil

The GCC’s non-oil economy is set to contract 0.8% this year before growing 4.5% in 2027, according to the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook report for the Middle East and Central Asia (pdf). The bloc as a whole is forecast to shrink 4.8% this year before rebounding 9.1% in 2027, a 6.8 percentage point cut from the 2% growth the IMF expected in April.

The rebound next year won’t make up for lost ground. Jihad Azour, director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, said last week that Gulf output would still be below its pre-war trajectory in 2030, citing lasting damage to some sectors, disrupted infrastructure, and the extra spending needed to build resilience.

The Gulf’s financial cushions are getting thinner. The GCC’s combined fiscal deficit is set to widen to 2.3% of GDP this year from 0.8% in 2025, and its current account surplus to narrow to 1.3% of GDP from 5%. Subsidies, price controls, and currency pegs have limited how much of the jump in commodity prices reaches consumers, but at a fiscal cost. Meanwhile, GCC inflation is projected to rise to 2.7%.

The squeeze varies by country. The World Economic Outlook last week projected that the UAE’s current account surplus will shrink to 4.8% of GDP this year from 13.3% in 2025, while Qatar’s surplus is expected to narrow to 7.1% from 16.4%. Meanwhile, Kuwait’s surplus is expected to narrow to 18.3% from 22.7%, and Bahrain’s surplus is forecast to shrink to 3.6% from 5.0%. Saudi Arabia’s deficit is projected to widen to 3.5% from 2.6%. Oman is the exception, with the report expecting it to swing from a 1.1% deficit to a 5.0% surplus, in line with it being the only GCC economy still growing.

REMEMBER- Last week’s World Economic Outlook put the Gulf’s biggest economies on track to shrink this year, assuming the Strait of Hormuz begins reopening in March. Saudi Arabia is forecast to contract 3.3% this year before growing 7.9% in 2027, while the UAE is expected to shrink 3.9% before expanding 7.7%. Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain face double-digit contractions of 15.6%, 16.7% and 11.3%, followed by rebounds of 18.8%, 17.1% and 13.9%. Oman is the GCC exception, growing 4.1% this year. Outside the Gulf, Egypt is forecast to grow 5.1% this year and 4.7% in 2027.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are in the red in early trading as the tech sell-off spreads from Wall Street. Japan’s Topix is down 2.2%, South Korea’s chip-heavy Kospi 1.5%, and the Shanghai Composite 1.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is little changed. US futures are slightly lower.

ADX	9,702	-0.7% (YTD: -2.9%)
DFM	5,818	-0.7% (YTD: -3.8%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,774	-1.3% (YTD: -2.3%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	4.1% o/n	4.8% 1 yr
TASI	9,696	-2.3% (YTD: -7.6%)
EGX30	51,052	-3.4% (YTD: +22.1%)
S&P 500	7,663	-1.2% (YTD: +12%)
FTSE 100	10,725	-0.3% (YTD: +7.8%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,087	-1.9% (YTD: +5.1%)
Brent crude	USD 113.73	+0.5%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.76	-1.4%
Gold	4,028.7	-0.8%
BTC	USD 81,178	-2.8% (YTD: -8.5%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.5	0.0% (YTD: -2.4%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	147.79	-0.1% (YTD: -2.7%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	19.03	+14.1% (YTD: +27.3%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX fell 0.7% yesterday on turnover of AED 1.1 bn. The index is down 2.9% YTD.

In the green: Gulf Cement Co. (+15.0%), Aram Group (+12.0%), and Eshraq Investments (+3.6%).

In the red: Fujairah Cement Industries (-5.0%), United Arab Bank (-4.7%), and GFH Bank (-4.6%).

Over on the DFM, the index fell 0.7% on turnover of AED 688.9 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 1.3%.

A family fixer and proptech CEO: How Rashed Hareb manages a family of 9 siblings and an early-stage startup

The day Dubai Land Department (DLD) launched its Flexi Rent initiative, 14 people forwarded the news to Rashed Hareb (LinkedIn) — most of them asking whether it was the end of his proptech business. Hareb, co-founder and CEO of Rentify, had spent two years working with the DLD to get the scheme off the ground, and had already been steering the company away from the product it launched on. Monthly rent plans, once 100% of the business, now make up just 10-15%.

What Rentify has done instead is pitch itself as the back office for renting in the UAE. Tenants can split rent into monthly payments financed by partner banks or swap their checks for digital payments. Landlords get Earn AI, an agent-based platform launched alongside a USD 2 mn seed round in June, which drafts payment reminders, handles renewals, and most recently, dispatches maintenance vendors over WhatsApp. Rentify has 180k units signed and wants 50k of them live on the platform by year-end. It’s raising again to get there.

Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. This week, we spoke with Hareb about why Flexi Rent hasn’t hurt Rentify, the case for keeping a human in the loop, and the calls from home he can never quite ignore. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM: How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn’t know you?

Rashed Hareb (RH): As a sibling — I’m the seventh of nine brothers and sisters. Since I was 16, I’ve been taking care of everything that comes with the house. I’ve handled a lot of the family’s business, and with 15 nieces and nephews, the responsibilities only get bigger.

I’d also say I’m a guy who’s passionate about business. We spent summers in the UK, where my dad gave us a weekly allowance of GBP 10. My brother recently reminded me that I’d end the week with GBP 25 or so, because I was lending money to my siblings and making a return on it.

E: Where did the idea for Rentify come from?

RH: It’s been with me since 2012, when I was doing my MBA in London. Renting there was far easier, especially when it came to payments and deposits. But the UAE market wasn’t ready — it wasn’t digitized. One of the banks tried something similar in 2018 or 2019, but there wasn’t the need or the push for it yet. In the meantime, I franchised an ice cream business out of Dubai. We signed franchise agreements for 180 units across 10 countries, and about 40 were open, from Portugal and Sweden to India and Nigeria, before Covid forced us to close. I’ve also managed the family’s real estate portfolio since 2015. I’m a landlord myself, so I see the problems firsthand.

E: How does the model work?

RH: We started with a simple problem: tenants want to pay monthly, but landlords want their money upfront. My co-founder Rajneel Kumar and I could have gone the classic route — take the money on our books and lend it to tenants, but thank God we didn’t. The cost of money was too high, tenants would have paid a lot, and the only gainer would have been the landlord. Instead, we built an embedded finance solution with banks in the UAE. A tenant applies on the platform, gets approved or rejected instantly, and pays monthly, while the landlord gets paid in advance. The lending doesn’t sit with us.

Then we added Flex, for people who simply want to pay their checks digitally, and Belong, an experience-based rewards program. We stayed away from vouchers and freebies. You pay your rent, then take your kids to a painting class or get a complimentary cryotherapy session.

E: When the DLD launched flexible rent payments, plenty of people assumed it would hurt you. Did it?

RH: We’d been working with them on it for two years. When we started, the business was 100% monthly payments; today it’s about 10-15%. That was a strategic shift — we knew this was coming, and we pushed for it. Everything in Dubai had been digitized except paying rent. It helped bring more people to our platform.

Every time an initiative like this comes out, more people apply to register on our platform. It also closes a gap for us. When a tenant whose landlord isn’t on the platform wants to pay monthly, we need the landlord’s bank details. In one case, a tenant paid a big amount and the landlord refused it — he wanted his check. The DLD pushing landlords to register their bank accounts means we can actually pay them. We’re trying to get embedded with the DLD directly.

E: Where does AI fit in?

RH: We built Earn AI for landlords. You upload whatever data you have — Excel, PDF, even WhatsApp — and within 60 seconds you have a dashboard of your portfolio. What existed before stopped there; you couldn’t act on it. We’ve embedded the financial side, so a landlord can send a payment link, and the tenant can pay monthly while the landlord receives the money upfront or quarterly.

We’ve built six agents: three are live, and the rest will be ready before year-end. A property manager comes in and sees five units are due today; the agent has drafted the email with the payment link and asks, “Can I go ahead?” There’s always a human in the loop. Our maintenance agent works over WhatsApp, because that’s what tenants use: they message the issue, and the agent finds the right vendor and schedules the job. The legal agent, still in development, grew out of landlords asking us to streamline what happens when a tenant doesn’t pay.

E: What’s the new round for?

RH: We’ve done two rounds, and we’re in another now. We have 180k units signed, and we’re targeting at least 50k active by the end of this year, so the first priority is activation. The second is products like the legal agent. The third is expansion: we’re already testing with clients in the GCC, and we’re in talks with a partner to white-label the platform beyond the region.

E: A family of 9 and 15 nieces and a startup — how do you manage your day? Is a routine even possible?

RH: I wake up around 7-7:30. I’m not waking up at 4am — I tried it, and it doesn’t make sense if you’re running a startup. I recently realized I can’t work out in the morning because I always wake up in a hurry, even if my first commitment isn’t until 9. So I work out at the end of the day, and I’ve picked up golf, with classes at least once a week. Beyond that, my schedule is all over the place between investors, the team, product, and partners. I don’t think I’ve had three consistent days in the last two years.

On managing — it’s a challenge. Yesterday, I was in a meeting when my sister called, then my mom. I stepped out thinking something had happened. My mom just wanted to change the tint on her car. But you can’t just block it out. We have family lunch every Friday, and if I make it, I get to see everyone.

E: What did running a big team in your twenties teach you?

RH: At 26, I had about 150 people working for the ice cream business. One of our franchisees in Kuwait, my friend Hamad, runs brands like Caribou Coffee, Cinnabon, and Five Guys. He told me, “We’re not in the food business. We’re in the people management business.” That stuck. We once hired a 19-year-old as an office boy, sent him to help at an event, and he did three times the sales of anyone else. Within a year and a half, he was managing our biggest unit, in Dubai Mall, and he went on to train every new team we set up in India, our biggest market.

Rashed’s favorites

What he’s reading: Our Moment by Michael Clark, which explains technology and data as if speaking to a 10-year-old.

What he listens to: Football podcasts — I’m an Arsenal fan.

His hobbies: I taught myself piano on YouTube during Covid. Within six months, I was playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and now I can learn most songs in a couple of hours.

CALENDAR

OCTOBER

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

21-22 (Wednesday-Thursday): World Green Economy Summit, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

26-27 October (Monday-Tuesday): Dubai AI Festival, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

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.

4-16 November (Wednesday-Monday): ADIB rights trading period.

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.

10-24 November (Tuesday-Tuesday): ADIB rights issue subscription period.

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;
11-13 May (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East Energy, Expo City, 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;
November: HR Tech, Abu Dhabi.
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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