THIS MORNING: CMA eyes a safety net for investors + Emaar Properties eyes 100% of Emaar Development

Good morning, everyone. October was a month to forget for equity markets — the ADX and DFM bore the brunt of the month’s GCC sell-off, with the ADX having its worst month since March. We look back at their performance and speak with analysts to make sense of the decline.

That’s not all on the capital markets front today: the CMA has a plan to set up an investor protection fund after a rough year for investor confidence. It’s also drafting safeguards for exceptional market conditions and rules letting private joint-stock companies and freezone businesses raise capital through private placements.

Speaking of safeguards: Binance evidently didn’t have enough, its co-CEO said, after the exchange was rocked by a USD 6.3 bn hack last week that’s since seen customers pull USD 4.72 bn from the platform.

PLUS- Adipec is still well underway. XRG is adding Australian LNG to its portfolio as regional disruption continues to push firms to find assets elsewhere to keep supply moving, while Adnoc Gas signed a five-year supply agreement with TotalEnergies.

ALSO- Could G42 become a US company? That’s the question the AI + Innovation desk explores this week. We have the rundown in the news well below.

CMA eyes a safety net for investors

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) is planning to set up an investor protection fund, CMA CEO Waleed Saeed Al Awadhi told Khaleej Times, without clarifying the size of the fund, the timeline for its launch, or who it will be drawing its funds from. The regulator is also drawing up safeguards for exceptional market conditions and introducing improvements to its complaints, appeals, and settlement procedures.

SOUND SMART- An investor protection fund compensates clients of a licensed broker or asset manager that collapses and can’t return their funds or securities.

The timing is hard to miss: The CMA said last month it is reviewing AIX Financial Consultations, the CMA-regulated arm of AIX Investment Group, which has been accused of failing to pay coupons to thousands of investors and is now asking them to wait until 2031 for their principal. Al Awadhi didn’t mention AIX. It’s also unclear whether a fund like this would cover products like AIX’s, which were managed through a Cayman entity.

It also comes after a rough year for investor confidence: Foreign investors sold a net USD 641.5 mn of Dubai-listed shares in 2Q, on top of USD 654 mn in 1Q, as the Iran war weighed on the market.

The CMA is also drafting new regulations that would let private joint-stock companies and freezone businesses raise capital through private placements to give family businesses and SMEs a route to capital before they’re ready to list, with draft regulations set to be completed by year-end, Al Awadhi said.

Also in the pipeline: The CMA is considering a framework for retail and fractional sukuk, which would let individuals buy into fixed income with smaller amounts. It’s also planning to review the rules governing securities offerings and issuers, including foreign issuers, next year.

Speaking of regulatory pressure…

UAE regulators have the largest cryptocurrency hack in history on their hands. Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) is essentially the home regulator for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, which got hit with a USD 6.3 bn hack last week. MGX also has a USD 2 bn stake in the exchange.

It’s not clear what actions the regulator might take. The FSRA is “aware of the matter,” it said in a statement, and is “engaging closely with Binance.” Efforts to claw back the hacked funds will likely fall to US law enforcement, including the FBI, which attributed the hack to North Korea. Binance employs about 1k people in the UAE, accounting for about 20% of its workforce, according to Semafor.

The stakes: The Binance hack is more than four times larger than the previous record holder for the largest-ever crypto hack, a 2025 North Korea-linked theft targeting the Bybit exchange — and a stark indication of how AI-powered cybertheft is leading to skyrocketing costs for victims. Binance co-CEO Yi He, who was at home in Abu Dhabi when the attack hit, admitted in a video posted on X that the exchange “should have invested more in security earlier.” That’s from Bloomberg’s look inside the first hours of the heist. Co-CEO Richard Teng says Binance will publish a detailed report on what happened.

Customers have pulled a net USD 4.72 bn from Binance since the hack, Gulf News reports. That’s about 3% of the assets on the platform — but the exchange has also taken in USD 2.7 bn in fresh deposits since reopening withdrawals on Sunday. Binance says it has replaced 95% of the affected crypto from its emergency protection fund and other reserves and is sourcing the remaining, less liquid tokens through over-the-counter providers. Teng said at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Tuesday that flows have largely normalized.

Brookfield, Lunate eye luxury Gulf housing

Brookfield, Lunate launch luxury development platform: Abu Dhabi-based asset manager Lunate and Brookfield Asset Management launched Alya, a Dubai-based residential development platform targeting premium housing projects across the Gulf, according to a press release. Alya will be based in the DIFC and regulated by the DFSA.

REFRESHER- Last year, Brookfield and Lunate announced plans for a USD 1 bn JV focusing on developing high-quality residential assets. It was targeting buy-to-sell properties across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern markets. While Alya hasn’t given any specific investment targets in this latest announcement, Lunate was previously reported to be contributing “a significant cornerstone investment to the JV.”

Already building together: In 2024, Lunate acquired a 24.5% stake in ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai’s prominent office tower. Brookfield is also pursuing residential expansion, including via Merex Investment’s planned redevelopment of La Mer North into an ultra-luxury community featuring 225 homes. Alya now equips both heavyweights with a dedicated vehicle to grab high-end Gulf residential market share, which fared relatively well compared to its peers in recent months.

Emaar Properties eyes 100% of Emaar Development

Emaar Properties is weighing a buyout of its listed construction arm Emaar Development in a transaction that could cost as much as USD 3.2 bn, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Emaar Properties already owns just over 79% of the unit, which is worth more than USD 15 bn at current share prices.

Market reax: Emaar Development shares rose as much as 11.5% on Tuesday before ending the day up 10.7%, their biggest jump since early April. The stock is still down roughly a third since the war began.

What’s next: An announcement could come within days. Emaar’s board meets this week to review proposals to create shareholder value, which the developer said just over a month ago it was evaluating. Nothing is final, and Emaar declined to comment.

Why it matters: Owning all of Emaar Development — Emaar’s main cashflow generator — would give Emaar more freedom to steer the funds it generates toward recurring-income assets, international expansion, and dividends, CI Capital analysts wrote, though the cost of funding the transaction and its timing will weigh on the decision. And Emaar has plenty to fund: last year, it pledged to invest AED 65 bn in its operations and assets over five years. Since then, it has unveiled plans for a AED 200 bn mixed-use project in Dubai on top of projects in Egypt.

A vote away from done

ADX- and EGX-listed Orascom Construction’s board is due to approve the capital increase behind its merger with OCI tomorrow, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The hike would lift its issued capital to USD 207.4 mn from USD 110.2 mn through 97.2 mn new shares allotted to the Dutch-listed company. Those shares are due to list on the EGX and ADX on 24 November, per Orascom’s timetable.

OCI will trade for the final time on Euronext Amsterdam on 26 November and delists the next day, with its shareholders receiving their Orascom stock on or around 8 December. Orascom expects the whole transaction to wrap up next month. On OCI’s side, NNS’s voluntary offer closes on 17 November, and the distribution ex-date is 27 November, per OCI’s updated timetable.

REFRESHER- Orascom shareholders approved the swap in January, days after a Dutch court barred OCI from voting on its own side over Nassef Sawiris’ role on both. Sawiris moved to break the deadlock with a take-private bid in June; OCI’s shareholders signed off on 30 October.

PSA

WEATHER- Abu Dhabi will see highs of 35°C today and it’ll be cooler in Dubai with top temperatures of 34°C, both emirates will see lows of 26°C, with our favorite weather app even warning of a thunderstorm in Dubai.

Happening next week

The UAE is hosting peace talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US in Abu Dhabi on 10-11 November, Reuters reports, citing confirmation from the Kremlin. US envoy Steve Witkoff said in an X post that post-war security agreements, humanitarian efforts, and de-escalation would be discussed. The UAE has already played host to several rounds of talks since the conflict began, with the most recent round taking place in February, and has also facilitated several prisoner exchanges between the two sides.

The big story abroad

Americans are voting to decide who controls Congress in the 2026 midterms. To take both chambers from Republicans, Democrats need to flip four Senate seats and three House seats. Polls have closed in more than half the country, including most states with competitive Senate races. The newswire expects results to come in between 6pm and 1am Eastern Standard Time.

Nvidia tightens the screws on Chinese cloud customers: Nvidia has told its data center partners they must sell at least 51% of their cloud services to non-Chinese companies, the Financial Times reports, citing five unnamed sources. The move further limits China’s access to advanced US chips as the AI race between the two countries heats up. There were no such limits before. Nvidia’s sales and regional teams passed on the rules verbally instead of putting them in writing, and the rules apply to clients worldwide, not just in Asia, though only to new contracts.

Hackers hit European supermarket fridges again: Supermarkets in eight European countries are rushing to upgrade their systems after hackers cranked up fridge and freezer temperatures on Monday, forcing stores to throw out large amounts of food. The attack mirrored one that hit dozens of French supermarkets three weeks ago. The EU’s cybersecurity agency called for closer cooperation and faster information-sharing across the bloc.

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