A look at our defense diversification drive

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: A better-than-expected BoP last year + L’imad regroups for deployment

Good morning, friends. Today’s Big Story is a deep dive into the UAE’s defense strategy — the country is spreading its wagers across Europe, India, and South Korea without loosening its grip on Washington, but the common denominator? It’s looking for partners that can help build its local industry, not just offer arms.

Two more threads worth your time this morning: The DFSA wants to declutter DIFC’s fund rulebook — fewer boxes, more judgment calls about what a fund actually does. And the UAE was once again in the top 10 of the global FDI ranking in 2025, but assuming this will be repeated this year assumes regional stability, which is looking less likely after Trump’s latest comments. The US and Iran traded fresh strikes once again yesterday, and Trump told reporters at the Nato summit in Ankara that he now considers the ceasefire “over.”

Mubadala closer to exiting Brazilian port

More bidders line up for Mubadala’s Brazil port: BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners is teaming up with iron-ore producer Vale and steelmaker Gerdau on one bid for Mubadala Capital and Trafigura's USD 5 bn Porto Sudeste, while Stonepeak is pairing with Brisbane-based M Resources on the other, Bloomberg reports, citing people close to the process. I Squared Capital — the bidder we flagged when the sale moved to its second round — remains in the mix, with binding offers due by the end of the month.

REMEMBER- We reported on I Squared's interest last month. Mubadala Capital and Trafigura have held the Rio de Janeiro port — which shipped a record 27.8 mn tons of iron ore in 2025, still shy of its c. 50 mn-ton capacity — since buying it from Eike Batista's MMX Mineração in 2014.

L’imad regroups for deployment

A reshuffle at L’imad: Abu Dhabi’s USD 300 bn sovereign investment platform L’imad is undergoing a reshuffle as it looks to position itself as one of the emirate's central investors, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Who’s in, who’s out? The fund is enlisting Boston Consulting to help recruit senior personnel and has already made some hires from Wall Street institutions as it looks to expand its US presence. Some executives from Abu Dhabi-based investment giant ADQ (folded into L’imad earlier this year) are reportedly being encouraged to put themselves forward for roles, as L'imad looks to hold onto ADQ's close ties. L’imad, which is currently chaired by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is also on the hunt for a CEO for L’imad Capital, they said.

Why now? Abu Dhabi is streamlining its investment machinery to deploy capital faster and more efficiently, and the L'imad reshuffle is the latest sign of that push. L’imad — created to invest in priority sectors like infrastructure and financial services — has already moved to take full control of Taqa, while other consolidation moves include the merger of IHC’s subsidiaries and the creation of AED 100 bn investment powerhouse Judan Financial.

Better than expected BoP

The UAE’s current account surplus came in at 13.3% of GDP last year, or AED 300.2 bn, according to stats (pdf) from the Central Bank of the UAE. The results mark a slightly smaller margin for the Emirates compared with AED 319 bn, or 15% of GDP, in 2024. A jump in primary income — driven by higher returns on UAE residents’ investments abroad — helped offset a narrower goods surplus, as imports grew faster than exports, and a wider secondary income deficit resulted from higher outward remittances.

The result beat the more bearish forecasts out there. BMI expected the surplus to narrow to 7.7% of GDP, the IMF had penciled in a 6.6% surplus for last year, and the World Bank was making a prediction of 7.1%. Many of those forecasts were made at the height of the global panic triggered by Donald Trump's tariff agenda.

Forecasts for 2026 point to a narrower surplus ahead. S&P has predicted the current account surplus will narrow to 8%, and the agency also slashed its forecast for the UAE from growth to a contraction of 2.7%.

ALSO- Foreign investors split on the UAE: Non-resident direct investment into the UAE rose to AED 177.2 bn (from AED 167.6 bn in 2024), but foreign holdings of UAE stocks and bonds fell by a third to AED 79.2 bn (from AED 119.6 bn) — suggesting strategic capital stayed the course even as portfolio money pulled back.

Seer eyes FAB facility

Will FAB be tapped for an SRT loan? First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) could be tapped by New York-based hedge fund Seer Capital Management for an ins.-backed lending facility worth as much as USD 300 mn for use in significant risk transfers (SRT), Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter.

The details: Cantor Fitzgerald and Lockton are also working on the potential transaction, which may be finalized this year and could be used to make up over 50% of the final investments’ total value.

IN CONTEXT- Any transaction would land right as SRTs are falling under a closer microscope from regulators, wary of their links to non-banking financial institutions subject to less regulatory scrutiny, just when lenders are increasingly opting for them as a capital management tool with transferred risk.

Data point

2.4% — that’s how much Dubai’s GDP rose y-o-y in 1Q to AED 232 bn, according to Dubai Media Office, which cited the emirate’s resilience and robust economic system as being behind the results.

The sector breakdown: The wholesale and retail trade sector accounted for the largest share of GDP at 22%, with 2.6% yearly growth pushing its value to AED 50.9 bn. Next up was financial and ins. activities with a 14% share for AED 32.4 bn, marking 6.5% y-o-y growth. Real estate brought in AED 26 bn, or 11.2% of the total, and 8.2% y-o-y growth led the construction sector to record AED 18.7 bn at 8.1% of GDP.

How the results compare: At the end of last year, and more importantly, before the outbreak of the regional conflict, Emirates NBD had penciled in (pdf) growth of 4.5% for the emirate for the full year, on the basis of strong economic momentum and a predicted uptick in tourism numbers. Now, overall forecasts are markedly more somber. Goldman Sachs is warning of a 5% contraction for the UAE, while the IMF revised down its own growth projection for the Emirates to 3.1%.

Still, Dubai has been quick to make moves to prop up its economy amid the conflict, with a financial stimulus package in March that analysts said could boost both economic momentum and market confidence, followed by another in May.

PSA

WEATHER- It’s going to be a mostly hazy and cloudy day today, with a high of 41°C and a low of 32°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The big story abroad

The revived flare-up between the US and Iran has escalated. The US armed forces said its strikes on Iran continued for a second straight day, following a declaration by US President Donald Trump that the interim US-Iran peace accord was “over.” Washington has maintained that their attacks are in retaliation for Tehran’s “recent unjustified aggression” on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

In response to threats by Trump, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said the Islamic Republic will deliver an “immediate response.” Washington’s strikes on Tuesday provoked retaliatory strikes on military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly said.

In other geopolitical news from the region, Israel blocked Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy from visiting Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where he was slated to meet with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. This would have been Fahmy’s first foreign trip since being appointed late last month.

Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned about inflation, weighing the inflationary impact of surging investments in artificial intelligence, according to the minutes from their June meeting. Some members saw a case for raising rates, but a majority saw a scenario in which inflation fell within the bank’s targets.

Paramount’s Gulf-backed USD 110 bn acquisition of Warner Bros may face yet another challenge, as US states could sue to block the move as soon as next week on the grounds that it will hurt competition. If a judge rules to pause the acquisition during litigation, the merger — backed by three Gulf sovereign wealth funds — could be delayed by months.

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UAE’s defense diversification drive: Multiple suppliers, local manufacturing, and strategic autonomy

The UAE’s defense diversification drive is no longer just about buying weapons from more places. Abu Dhabi is widening ties with Europe, India, and South Korea as it seeks to reduce supplier concentration, secure access to hard-to-get technologies, and build more of its defense industry at home, even as it stays anchored to US systems, analysts tell EnterpriseAM UAE.

The UAE is embracing a strategic hedging and industrial policy at the same time. It wants more room to maneuver in a multipolar world but also wants foreign partners to help drive local manufacturing, technology transfer, workforce development, IP ownership, and export capacity. It also has the financial clout to push traditional suppliers to move beyond one-way buyer-seller relationships. That extends from defense hardware (drones, missiles, and air-defense systems) to dual-use technologies, like the homomorphic and other encryption technology that Abu Dhabi-based TII recently sold to US-based Opaque.

Recent moves show both sides of the strategy. The UAE is in early-stage talks to buy India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and Akashteer automated air-defense system, while a UAE-India framework agreed in May aims to deepen defense industrial collaboration and technology sharing. With South Korea, Mubadala is reportedly considering an investment in a fund seeking control of South Korean defense supplier MNC Solution, after the UAE and South Korea inked a USD 35 bn defense pact with a USD 65 bn pipeline of joint projects earlier this year. Officials have also reportedly explored a dedicated defense-focused investment platform to take stakes in international manufacturers while ramping up local production capacity.

Why now: The shift has been underway for years, but the recent threat environment has made the logic harder to ignore. EY Middle East Defense and National Security Consulting Director Malcolm Lyne says legacy procurement relationships “can’t adapt quick enough” when conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine and US-Iran wars are absorbing ammunition, systems, and supply-chain capacity.

REMEMBER- The war also exposed the economics problem: Iranian drones costing as little as USD 20k-100k were being intercepted with systems costing USD 3-12 mn a shot, analysts previously told EnterpriseAM — a model they described as “unsustainable at scale.”

The UAE is applying its foreign-policy playbook to procurement. It has long been good at maintaining multiple diplomatic relationships, Lyne says, adding that the goal now is doing “the same with their procurement pipelines” so it does not become “over aligned on one particular country.” But the US remains strategically important: “This diversification strategy can’t replace the US because no combination of European, Indian, and South Korean partnerships can replicate the defense support that the US provides,” Control Risks Analyst Dina Arakji tells us.

The UAE’s military infrastructure still relies heavily on US equipment, logistics, operational integration, and training — and recent procurement shows the US channel remains active, with Abu Dhabi buying USD 147.6 mn worth of defense systems from Washington as part of a wider USD 8.6 bn regional military sales package in May.

So what is Abu Dhabi really doing? It is both reducing overdependence on traditional suppliers while trying to access technologies and capabilities it cannot easily get from them, Arakji says. The stalled F-35 saga remains the obvious example of how export controls, technology-security concerns, and geopolitics can complicate access even from the UAE’s most important defense partner.

The new procurement map

Europe is the closest fit: Arakji describes Europe as the most mature defense market after the US, with established land, air, and naval capabilities alongside advanced cyber and electronic warfare sectors. France and the UK also operate to Nato standards, which makes them more compatible with the UAE’s US-oriented systems. The UAE can diversify suppliers, but new systems still need to plug into a military architecture built around US platforms.

India offers scale, testing, and supply-chain redundancy: UAE-India military cooperation has expanded under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, covering exchanges, training, exercises, and maritime security, Arakji says. But she notes that the relationship remains less institutionalized and less industrial than the UAE’s ties with the US and major European countries.

That gap has already shown up in the numbers: Indian defense exports to the UAE halved in FY 2025 to USD 1.3 bn, while imports from the UAE rose 71% to USD 3.1 bn. Retired Indian Army commander Lt. Gen. Deependra Hooda previously told EnterpriseAM that India-UAE defense trade “remains episodic rather than structural.”

Lyne sees India’s value in R&D, test ranges, components, and subcomponents. The point is not just to buy from India but to create “two or three different routes” to access the same component — the kind of redundancy that matters when global supply chains tighten.

South Korea is the non-Western exporter to watch. Seoul has had the Akh Unit stationed in the UAE since 2011 and has already backed UAE air defense through the Cheongung II missile system, Arakji says — and as a close US ally, it raises fewer compatibility concerns than other non-Western suppliers. Its edge is industrial scale: South Korea brings “a huge amount of mechanical capability and manufacturing experience,” Lyne says, pointing to shipbuilding as a model the UAE can learn from — which is why the Korea track is as much about capital and industrial exposure as it is about procurement.

The ask has changed

The UAE no longer wants to be just a customer: “The UAE’s defense goals have increasingly focused on industrial development alongside military acquisition,” Arakji says. That means partnerships are now expected to support local manufacturing, technology transfer, workforce development, and indigenous capability-building through entities including Edge and Tawazun.

That is also why India’s pitch cannot rely on political alignment alone — it has to meet the UAE’s new buyer standard. Kabir Taneja, executive director at Observer Research Foundation Middle East, previously told EnterpriseAM that the UAE wants “systems that are battle-tested and deployable immediately,” alongside local production and technology sharing.

Lyne puts it more bluntly: The UAE has moved from being a customer to being a manufacturing partner, in his view. Its operational experience also gives it more leverage, he says, because UAE-made systems have now been used in the field, producing data and lessons that foreign partners value.

IP is the next frontier: The UAE now wants to “own IP,” Lyne says. It is also getting better at deciding which sovereign capabilities it must keep, which technologies can be negotiated, and which systems can be sourced elsewhere.

Diversified procurement is also opening diversified export markets — UAE manufacturers have already sold into Brazil, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Lyne says.

The hard parts

Export controls are also still a wall: Foreign partners may be willing to assemble or co-produce systems locally, but they are often less willing to transfer core intellectual property, Arakji says. Local production can also remain costly and dependent on foreign expertise, which complicates the UAE’s autonomy goal.

Yes, but: The UAE is getting better at the trade-offs. Lyne says Abu Dhabi is “very good at holding that central ground,” understanding where the limits of each relationship sit while staying trusted by multiple sides. That balancing position is “incredibly valuable,” but it also requires constant negotiation.

Scaling is the real test. The challenge is that the UAE needs skilled workers, raw materials, secure supply chains, academic institutions, and R&D capacity to keep localizing at pace, Lyne says.

Edge Group’s overseas footprint is one signal: Lyne points to Edge’s France base as proof that UAE defense firms are building global platforms, not just attracting partners at home. Edge has opened its Paris headquarters, signed a cooperation framework with France’s armaments directorate, DGA, and is planning an engineering and manufacturing facility in Bordeaux. It has also lined up European partnerships with 4iG, Leonardo, EM&E, and Safran.

What to watch: Lyne expects more two-way movement, with foreign companies also using the UAE as a regional base for manufacturing, MRO, and market access. Arakji, meanwhile, says the real proof of a long-term industrial shift will be signed joint ventures, sustained R&D programs, and UAE-made components being integrated into foreign platforms.

DFSA proposes scrapping rigid fund classifications in DIFC's biggest funds overhaul since 2010

DFSA wants DIFC’s funds regime to be less box-ticky: The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has launched a consultation (pdf) on the biggest overhaul of DIFC’s Collective Investment Fund framework since 2010 — scrapping rigid fund classifications, killing off the External Fund Manager regime, and loosening rules on everything from credit funds to employee co-investment, according to a statement. The paper is open for consultation until 7 September.

The short version: Fewer labels, more guardrails. DFSA wants to remove specialist-class requirements for Exempt Funds structured as money market funds, or private equity funds, as well as credit funds (though it will retain requirements for credit strategies). In their place would be requirements tied to what a fund actually does and the risk it actually carries.

Why it matters: DFSA benchmarked its specialist-fund rules against comparable jurisdictions and concluded its own regime is more prescriptive than it needs to be for funds sold only to professional investors. That's a competitiveness signal as much as a housekeeping one — DIFC is trying to remove friction from the domicile decision for hybrid and multi-strategy managers who might otherwise set up in ADGM, the Cayman Islands, or Luxembourg.

What would go: DFSA is proposing to remove specialist-class requirements for Exempt Funds structured as money market funds or private equity funds, and for Exempt Funds and QIFs structured as credit funds. Industry feedback showed fixed classifications don't accommodate funds that blend traditional and alternative strategies, Charlotte Robins, managing director for policy and legal at the DFSA, tells EnterpriseAM. The goal, Robins said, is to shift the regime toward “the activities undertaken and the associated risks” rather than the classification itself.

Credit funds get the biggest breather. DFSA wants to scrap the rule requiring 90% of a credit fund's property to go toward providing credit. It would also cut the base capital requirement for managers running credit strategies to USD 40k from USD 140k — bringing them in line with every other fund manager — and remove the separate USD 10k application fee and USD 10k annual fee credit funds currently pay. Robins said the changes are designed to give managers “greater flexibility” while keeping “proportionate safeguards,” and to make it easier for a hybrid fund to run a credit strategy alongside others.

Another big thing: One regime is on the way out. DFSA is proposing to eliminate the External Fund Manager regime, which lets non-DIFC managers run domestic DIFC funds without setting up a place of business in the center. The regime dates to 2010, when DIFC was, in Robins’ words, “an emerging financial center.” Sixteen years on, she said, “DIFC is in a different place” — pointing to growth in the DFSA-licensed manager population and continued applicant interest.

The consultation paper’s reasoning goes further than demand: DFSA says its supervisory reach over managers based outside the DIFC is inherently limited since those firms sit outside the oversight it has over DIFC-based managers. DFSA did not disclose how many active EFMs would be affected, and the paper commits only to discussing whether existing EFMs can keep managing funds that already existed when the consultation launched.

What replaces the old buckets? Broader, horizontal controls. Risk-management requirements would apply to all fund managers, including public fund managers, not just specialist classes. Exempt Funds and QIFs would also need to calculate borrowing limits in a “reasonable and prudent" way — the CP sets no hard cap, but funds would need to disclose their expected maximum borrowing level and explain how they got there. Credit-risk policies stay mandatory, and risk warnings would move from marketing materials into prospectus disclosure rules.

How will DFSA police the judgment calls? Robins said the regulator would continue supervising fund managers and their internal controls in a “risk-based and proportionate manner,” adding that it would “request further data as needed” to monitor compliance and risk.

Prime brokers are also in the net: Existing specialist rules on prime brokers would apply more broadly to Exempt Funds and QIFs that allow prime brokers to pool, rehypothecate, or use fund assets as collateral for financing or securities lending. In plain English: If a fund lets a prime broker to reuse its assets, the manager would face clearer safeguards around that risk.

Other noteworthy changes:

Delegated investment managers would no longer need separate agent/dealing permissions;
Public feeder funds would lose the three-market-maker test and the 20% ownership cap on master fund units;
Master funds would take subscriptions directly from institutional or professional investors, not just from feeder funds;
Employees involved in managing a fund could invest in it directly or through a dedicated vehicle without the fund losing its QIF or Exempt status — with mandatory disclosure of the investment and how any conflicts will be managed;
Extend the DFSA's lighter compliance track for venture capital fund managers — which currently only covers funds that invest directly in startups — to funds that invest in other VC funds instead;
And for DFSA to have the power to waive or modify the underlying Collective Investment Law itself, not just its rulebook — a discretion it doesn't currently have.

Watch this space

Coming later, maybe: Tokenized funds and retail access to illiquid assets. The CP asks for early feedback on tokenized fund units, tokenized money market funds, fully digital registers, and a possible long-term investment fund regime that could give retail investors access to real assets, unlisted companies, and private credit-style exposure.

DFSA is not proposing rules on those areas yet. Robins said the feedback is meant to help the regulator see whether changes are needed to avoid unnecessary barriers, maintain risk-management and investor-protection standards, and ensure regulatory clarity as tokenization technology evolves. Formal proposals on tokenization and retail access to long-term illiquid assets may follow the consultation and further stakeholder engagement, she added.

UAE pulled in record USD 48.24 bn in FDI last year — but Unctad says regional war could make 2026 a different story

The UAE pulled in a record USD 48.24 bn in FDI in 2025, the ninth-highest total in the world and the highest in the Middle East — ahead of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, India, and Australia, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said in its annual World Investment Report (pdf).

The 6% y-o-y increase kept the UAE’s ranking unchanged from 2024, with Unctad crediting the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s growth to energy, infrastructure, and diversification strategies. West Asia as a whole saw inflows climb to almost USD 111 bn from USD 92 bn, driven largely by the two Gulf economies.

Why it matters: The UAE’s own national investment strategy targets AED 240 bn a year in FDI flows by 2031. Last year’s haul converts to roughly AED 177 bn — real progress, but still short of the goal, with three years left to close the gap.

It was still a big outbound investor, but less so than before. UAE outward investment fell to USD 63 bn in 2025 from USD 77 bn in 2024, dropping the country from sixth to ninth among the world’s top home economies. Elsewhere in the region: Kuwait entered the top 20, and Saudi Arabia dropped out, though it remained an important source of project finance.

Looking ahead…

The US-Iran war is the major downside risk to 2026 FDI — potentially pushing Gulf outward investors toward domestic priorities and prompting more caution on new cross-border commitments, a shift the agency says is already visible in delayed or cancelled M&A agreements. Capital-intensive investment in infrastructure, energy, and industrial activities are the most exposed, Unctad says.

The overview? “Overall, the conflict is likely to depress global FDI in the near term and contribute to a more selective and uneven recovery, favouring locations with greater macroeconomic stability, lower geopolitical risk and more resilient infrastructure,” the report says.

Want the biggest picture? We break down how the Gulf and the wider region stacked up in FDI inflows last year in this morning’s Planet Finance, below.

Al Nasser Holdings’ PE arm and Metamorph are launching a USD 200 mn investment JV focused on wellness

Family capital follows institutional money into UAE wellness: Al Nasser Holdings’ private equity arm, Nova Capital Enterprises, and AI-enabled investment platform Metamorph have formed a joint venture to build a wellness and longevity platform out of the UAE, the companies said on Sunday. The JV is targeting an initial USD 100 mn pipeline of assets and acquisitions in the UAE and select international markets, with an ambition to grow that to over USD 200 mn — though neither figure is committed capital yet, and no specific assets have been named.

The pitch: The companies want to build a “UAE-anchored, regionally scalable wellness and longevity platform” that sits at the convergence of lifestyle, health, experience, and technology, Metamorph Managing Partner and Co-Founder Manish Raniga tells EnterpriseAM.

The model: The companies will take controlling stakes in operating assets, branded concepts, recovery and movement formats, nutrition-led concepts, wellness communities, and diagnostic and preventive health collaborations, he explains. Nova Capital is the anchor partner, though Raniga says the JV will also bring in outside institutional LPs “depending on the [window] and capital structure.”

The UAE is the beachhead, with Raniga citing its capital base, regulatory momentum, and hospitality infrastructure, but Saudi Arabia is next in line, on the strength of its scale and demographics, he adds. Several potential transactions are already under review, including potential roll-up candidates — smaller operators bundled into a single platform — he tells us.

Expect some movement soon: The first wave of agreements is still in diligence — Raniga says to expect names “in the coming weeks.”

Why it matters

Dubai's Longevity Authority and Abu Dhabi's Healthy Longevity standards have built regulatory scaffolding around the health and well-being sector. The investment from Al Nasser Holdings, a nearly 50-year-old conglomerate spanning energy, real estate, and industry, in wellness shows where UAE family capital thinks the next consumer category sits. It’s not alone: institutional capital has also been pouring into the sector, with UAE gym operator GymNation securing a USD 100 mn private-credit facility from BlackRock's HPS Investment Partners in May to fund its GCC and Asia expansion.

The AT1 party keeps growing — and now it’s the smaller names crashing it

Two more UAE banks are elbowing into the AT1 market: Ajman Bank priced (pdf) a USD 300 mn perpetual non-call 5.5-year AT1 sukuk at 6.50% overnight, while Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) mandated banks this week to gauge investor appetite for a benchmark-sized AT1 of its own.

Ajman Bank passed the demand test: Initial price thoughts for Ajman Bank’s offering came in around 7%, though books exceeding USD 500 mn (excluding joint lead manager interest) allowed the bank to tighten pricing to 6.50% on the mudaraba-structured issuance. That signals solid appetite for the BBB+ lender’s first-ever capital securities issuance.

ADVISORS- The issuance was arranged by our friends at Mashreq alongside ASB Capital, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, FAB, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, and Warba Bank.

CBD, by contrast, is a repeat customer. The Baa1/A- rated lender redeemed a USD 600 mn AT1 in April and is now backtesting the market for a benchmark-sized, Reg-S perpetual non-call six-year replacement, with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Barclays, Citi, CBD itself, Emirates NBD Capital, FAB, and Standard Chartered running the process. Investor calls started on Tuesday.

Why it matters: June’s AT1 wave — Dubai Islamic Bank’s USD 1 bn print at 6.25% (more than 2x covered), Mashreq's USD 500 mn at 6.625%, FAB’s second Tier 2 trade of the month — was a blue-chip story: the biggest, best-rated names taking advantage of a spread rebound to pad capital buffers. Ajman’s entry is a different signal. It’s a smaller, lower-rated lender that’s issuing its first-ever AT1 and only its second debt in more than a year — but the appetite was still there.

SOUND SMART- AT1 (Additional Tier 1) sukuk and bonds sit just above equity in a bank’s capital stack: perpetual, callable but never obligated to be redeemed and structured so they can absorb losses before senior creditors take a hit. Under Basel III and CBUAE rules, they count toward a bank’s regulatory capital buffers — which is why the current rush is as much about balance-sheet housekeeping as it is about opportunistic pricing.

AED 1.8 bn for Ajman infrastructure, DTC becomes top taxi, Adnoc deepens energy ties with South Korea

AED 1.8 bn to fast-track 30 municipal projects in Ajman

Ajman is putting AED 1.8 bn behind a five-year push to remake its roads, parks, and public spaces, with the emirate’s Crown Prince Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi launching AM30x30 — a 30-project municipal agenda running through 2030, according to a statement.

The program includes five packages covering transport infrastructure, roads, parks, cycling tracks, and community facilities. The strategy targets a 43% increase in new road construction between 2026 and 2030 compared with the last five years and a 33% expansion in cycling infrastructure by 2030.

Adnoc deepens South Korea energy partnership

Adnoc is reinforcing its role in South Korea’s energy security by expanding its long-term partnership with Seoul, which will strengthen cooperation on crude supply and strategic oil storage, according to Reuters. The two will focus on alternative export routes to move security emergency supplies during critical situations, as well as stockpiling barrels, with Adnoc’s access to refining facilities in South Korea also on the table.

ICYMI- The development builds on an agreement from March to allow Adnoc to store crude in Korean strategic reserves, giving the state oil giant storage access in Northeast Asia and giving South Korea priority access to the barrels during emergencies. Adnoc had agreed to supply up to 24 mn barrels to South Korea.

DTC becomes the top taxi player in the UAE

Dubai Taxi Company (DTC) is now the UAE’s largest taxi operator after completing its AED 1.5 bn takeover of National Taxi, it said in a press release. DTC’s combined fleet now stands at above 9.5k, after taking on National Taxi’s fleet of upwards of 2.7k vehicles. In Dubai, it’ll hold a 59% market share, and its expansion will position it to hold 12% of the market in Abu Dhabi.

ICYMI- Back in May, DTC announced the debt-funded transaction, saying that it would give it a foothold in the capital for the first time.

The Gulf was a rare winner in a global investment year that rewarded fewer and fewer places

The Gulf was one of the few places global investors actually showed up in 2025. FDI into West Asia rose 20% to almost USD 111 bn, 10 times the 2% growth the developing world managed as a whole, according to the UN Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2026 (pdf). The UAE and Saudi drove the figure on energy, infrastructure and diversification spending, while Qatar's inflows jumped from USD 460 mn to USD 3 bn on chemicals and energy deals.

The region is now writing cheques as often as cashing them. The UAE ranks among the world's top 10 sources of outbound FDI (we have the details in the news well, above), alongside China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Saudi’s Dar Al Arkan committed USD 4.2 bn to real estate in Oman, while Qatar's Power International put USD 4 bn into Syria.

Egypt kept its place as Africa’s largest FDI recipient, pulling in some USD 15 bn. Strip out the one-off Ras El Hekma megaproject that inflated 2024, and underlying inflows actually rose about a quarter, helped by the USD 3.5 bn Alam El Roum gas deal.

Globally, foreign direct investment shook off a two-year slump in 2025, growing 6% to USD 1.6 tn. The headline figure masks a more uneven picture, with the top 20 host economies absorbing more than 80% of global inflows.

The structural signal underneath is worth noting. Capital is concentrating hard in a few advanced hubs and a narrow band of strategic sectors — AI infrastructure, semiconductors, data centers — that nearly tripled their share of global greenfield spending since 2020. Just 10% of that strategic money reached low- and lower-middle-income economies.

And the old pathway is closing too. Non-strategic manufacturing — the labor-heavy industry that once powered earlier stages of development — fell 17% globally in 2015-2019 and 2021-2025. The decline was sharpest where it hurts most, falling 20% in developing economies and 65% in least developed countries.

What’s next: Don’t expect the map to even out. UNCTAD reads slower growth, trade-policy uncertainty, and high financing costs as reasons for firms to delay or cancel projects through the year, while the strong balance sheets of the biggest multinationals keep high-value capital flowing into the same handful of sectors and the same handful of places. The real question for the region’s diversification bets is which side of that line they end up on.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher this morning as investors shook off President Trump’s statements about a return to conflict. South Korea’s Kospi led the regional rally, surging 3.8%, while Japan’s Nikkei followed with a solid 2.3% gain.

ADX	9,885	-0.6% (YTD: -1.1%)
DFM	6,002	-1.5% (YTD: -0.8%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,761	-0.9% (YTD: -2.6%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.5% o/n	4.2% 1 yr
TASI	10,854	0.0% (YTD: +3.5%)
EGX30	52,028	-1.8% (YTD: +24.4%)
S&P 500	7,483	-0.3% (YTD: +9.3%)
FTSE 100	10,489	-1.7% (YTD: +5.6%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,205	-1.8% (YTD: +7.1%)
Brent crude	USD 78.02	+5.2%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.22	+0.2%
Gold	USD 4,083	0.0%
BTC	USD 62,301	-2.0% (YTD: -28.9%)
Chimera JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.73	0.0% (YTD: -0.5%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	151.28	-0.4% (YTD: -0.4%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	16.90	+4.8% (YTD: +13.0%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX fell 0.6% yesterday on turnover of AED 1.3 bn. The index is down 1.1% YTD.

In the green: Fertiglobe (+3.1%), Abu Dhabi National Ins. Company (+1.0%), and Presight AI Holding (+0.9%).

In the red: Phoenix Group (-5.0%), Orascom Holding (-4.9%), and Abu Dhabi National Co. for Building Materials (-4.9%).

Over on the DFM, the index fell 1.5% on turnover of AED 1 bn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 0.9%.

CALENDAR

JULY

28-29 July (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

SEPTEMBER

1-3 September (Tuesday-Thursday: Middle East Energy, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

7-9 September (Monday-Wednesday): AIM Congress, Dubai World Trade Center.

7-9 September (Monday-Wednesday): International Property Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

12-13 September (Saturday-Sunday): Emirates International Congress on AI & Visionary Leadership in Transforming Healthcare, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

14-17 September (Monday-Thursday): Arabian Travel Market, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

15-16 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

29-30 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): AFCM Annual Conference, Abu Dhabi.

OCTOBER

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

5-7 October (Monday-Wednesday): AI Everything Global, Adnec Center, 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.

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

2-6 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.

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.

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.

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

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
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;
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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