Apollo buys into Mubadala

1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: DP World sets its sights on Canada’s export gateway plan + Pearl Petroleum lines up USD 500 mn bond

Good morning, friends. Gulf markets bounced back yesterday as diplomacy picked up. Saudi, Pakistani, and Turkish security chiefs were in Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders, and the ADX and DFM edged up 0.6% and 0.3%.

Meanwhile, in AI land: Anthropic made its IPO filing public yesterday, setting up a Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT that could come as soon as mid-November. Why we care: Abu Dhabi’s MGX is a backer of the Claude maker, after having co-led its USD 30 bn Series G in February and participating in its USD 65 bn round in May. The listing will put the first public price on one of the UAE’s biggest AI plays.

Our big story this morning: Apollo is buying into Mubadala Capital, the latest outside investor to take a stake in the sovereign’s in-house asset manager — and it’s bringing USD 5 bn in fund commitments with it. Also: Alpha Dhabi is recycling its AI windfall into a USD 1 bn commitment to Alpha Wave’s next fund, and Novo Nordisk’s Gulf chief tells us why the UAE is its launchpad for a 70-country GLP-1 push.

What we’re watching: The US Federal Reserve meets today and tomorrow, its first meeting since raising rates last month for the first time in three years. It’s widely expected to hold this time, as it balances sticky inflation against the politics of next month’s midterms. With the AED pegged to the USD, the CBUAE usually moves in step. The decision lands Wednesday evening our time.

Egypt positions itself as the Eastern Mediterranean’s energy hub, amid claims from Turkey, Israel, and Cyprus.

Issue III of Power Trip asks what that takes: Saudi and Libyan power links, the Greece-Europe green-energy highway, grid readiness, ports and supply chains shifting from efficiency to resilience.

Subscribe to the Egypt edition for Power Trip, out tomorrow, Wednesday, 28 October.

A northern corridor

DP World is set to sign on to Canada’s plan to turn its remote Arctic Port of Churchill into an export gateway to Europe and the Middle East, Bloomberg reports, citing two people it says are familiar with the matter. The port operator negotiated an MoU with two Canadian entities, including Arctic Gateway Group, which owns and operates the Hudson Bay port and its railway. The agreement covers port operations and a possible corridor linking Churchill to DP World’s global network and to inland port facilities run by CentrePort Canada. No investment figure or terms have been disclosed.

A prospectus from Canada’s government puts a full buildout of Churchill at USD 57 bn. Shared at the Canada Investment Summit in September, it lists “preliminary investment requests” of USD 3.9 bn for an LNG export corridor, rail upgrades, port modernization, and all-weather road access. Churchill could eventually serve Canadian LNG, grain, potash, and critical minerals bound for Europe and the Middle East, Bloomberg notes.

Ice limits the shipping season: Hudson Bay is frozen for most of the year, though Canadian Energy Minister Tim Hodgson has said icebreakers could extend it, and Canada signed for new ones in August, the business news service reports. Arctic Gateway is studying year-round shipping with Fednav, and Churchill loaded 30k tons of durum wheat for Europe in late August, its first grain export since 2020.

REMEMBER- The UAE committed about USD 50 bn to Canada last year, and Ottawa aims to double non-US exports within a decade. For DP World, Churchill would provide a northern gateway to complement its existing Canadian footprint, which includes the Prince Rupert container port and Vancouver facilities it already operates and a 40-year concession it secured last month to run the planned Contrecoeur terminal near Montreal. Quebec’s CDPQ owns 45% of DP World Canada.

The news lands as Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan visits Ottawa this week. We’re keeping an eye out for more agreements from the visit.

UN hopeful Nusseibeh sets out her stance on Iran, Sudan

Lana Nusseibeh has set out her positions on Iran and Sudan, two of the region’s biggest crises. In her first major interview since entering the race, the UAE’s candidate for UN secretary-general pledged to be fully independent and said she would govern “with only a commitment to the UN and its charter,” Bloomberg reports.

While she’s pledging dialogue on Iran, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said her nomination is meant to bolster Israel. Nusseibeh responded that she would engage with Iran “like all member states” to advance peace and stability. Her pledge comes as US President Donald Trump weighs fresh strikes on Iran after next month’s midterms.

She also named Sudan among her top priorities, calling it the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and noting the strain on neighboring countries hosting refugees. She said she would put the UN’s full political and practical support behind efforts to reach a ceasefire and an inclusive political process.

What’s next: Nusseibeh is the seventh candidate in a race that six Security Council straw polls have failed to settle. Latin America is widely seen as next in line under the informal regional rotation. The Council has to recommend a candidate before Guterres’ term ends on 31 December. Our backgrounder on her bid is here.

Pearl Petroleum lines up USD 500 mn bond

UAE-backed Pearl Petroleum is seeking to raise USD 400-500 mn through a new five-year senior secured bond, Zawya reports. The proposed offering will rank equally with Pearl’s existing secured debt, including facilities from the DFC, Bank of Sharjah, and Commercial Bank of Iraq. Investor meetings have begun, and the paper is set to be listed on Euronext ABM.

Where will the money go? Proceeds will refinance USD 350 mn worth of existing senior secured bonds, establish a debt service reserve account, and fund capital expenditure at the Khor Mor and Chemchemal gas fields in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

ADVISORS- DNB Carnegie and Pareto Securities are acting as joint lead managers.

IN CONTEXT- Pearl Petroleum, the JV between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, has several existing supply agreements in place, including one with Iraq’s Electricity Ministry for gas from the Khor Mor field in Kurdistan. The two had previously used a USD 350 mn senior secured bond issued by Pearl Petroleum to help fund the USD 1.1 bn expansion of the Khor Mor gas field.

Data point

The UAE is the fifth cheapest place in the world out of 62 markets surveyed to build a data center, according to Turner & Townsend’s 2026 construction cost index, released yesterday. It costs an average of USD 9.20 to build one watt of tech capacity here, against the Middle East average of USD 9.93, USD 12.06 in North America, and USD 12.76 in Europe.

It’s also the cheapest in the region: Qatar clocks in at USD 9.80 and Saudi Arabia at USD 10.80. Egypt was not included in the ranking.

Building an AI data center? You’ll pay more. Facilities specifically built for AI carry a construction premium of around 10% in the US, the report estimates, in large part due to the additional cost of cooling for more intensive loads.

The cost of building in the US is also driven up by the scale of the construction boom, which is making it difficult to lock in specialized contractors to build just about anything.

The Gulf starts from a cheaper base, but the report’s regional benchmarks cover conventional, air-cooled facilities, not the more expensive liquid-cooled systems needed in much of our part of the world. The comparisons also exclude land, utility works, and the computing equipment itself — including the chips.

It’s going to come down to availability (and cost) of power: 56% of industry respondents around the world identified power as the big obstacle to wrapping up a project. Nearly a third said it takes more than two years to get connected to utilities, Turner & Townsend says.

…and crucially, a resolution to the war: Soaring ins. premiums and the cost of hardening facilities against drones are changing the economics of building AI infrastructure in the Gulf, and some international developers say their boards have grown more cautious about new commitments here, as our colleagues at AI + Innovation reported last week.

PSA

WEATHER- The mercury is hitting 36°C today in Dubai and 35°C Abu Dhabi, before cooling to 27°C in the former and 28°C in the capital overnight, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

Microsoft is opening the exit door to more than a quarter of its staff. The software giant is offering voluntary buyouts to around 60k employees, about 27% of its total workforce of 223k, as it seeks to pay for its costly AI infrastructure push while keeping spending in check. The offer covers workers at experience level 70 or below in the US, Canada, India, and the UK.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants his country back in the European Union (EU), but not yet. Burnham said yesterday he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU in his lifetime, but ruled out reversing Brexit in the current parliament. Speaking ahead of a UK-EU summit next month, Burnham said the UK got “a harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign,” which has weakened its economy and its control of immigration. For now, he wants “practical steps” to make the current arrangement work better.

The EU is reportedly preparing to slow the flow of Chinese goods without sparking a trade war. The move is part of a wider push to shrink the EU’s trade deficit with China, which hit USD 404 bn last year. The bloc plans to cut imports from sectors including chemicals, furniture, and machinery, possibly through import caps or tariffs, with measures that may be presented as soon as 1Q 2027. The European Commission is looking to repeat its recent agreement with Beijing that capped imports of Chinese hybrid vehicles at 350k a year, a limit set high enough to keep China from retaliating.

***

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***

Apollo buys into Mubadala Capital, bringing USD 5 bn in commitments with it

Apollo buying into Mubadala Capital: US investment giant Apollo is taking a minority stake in Mubadala subsidiary Mubadala Capital, according to a statement. CNBC had earlier reported the stake was nearly 10%. Apollo and other incoming shareholders are expected to commit a combined USD 5 bn to Mubadala Capital’s investment strategies at initial close.

Why it matters: Mubadala Capital was built to manage the sovereign investor’s own money, and it’s now turning into a global asset manager that raises and earns fees on third-party capital. Selling minority stakes is only part of that. In July, Mubadala transferred management of its USD 25 bn credit portfolio to Mubadala Capital while keeping ownership of the assets, alongside a USD 4.65 bn commitment to expand the business. That gives it a bigger platform to pitch to pension funds, insurers, and other institutional investors. Its core alternatives business manages more than USD 60 bn across five strategies, while its wider operations, including strategic partnerships, manage, advise, or administer more than USD 755 bn.

This is the third time Mubadala Capital has sold equity to an outsider — and each transaction was built differently. The first, in 2024, was effectively a swap: Mubadala Capital bought a 42% stake in US credit manager Silver Rock Financial, and Silver Rock’s founders and the Milken family office’s M-Cor took equity in Mubadala Capital in return. TWG Global’s transaction last year was a two-way capital trade: TWG took 5% and committed USD 2.5 bn to Mubadala Capital products, while Mubadala Capital anchored a USD 10 bn investment in TWG’s USD 15 bn equity raise, which gave Mubadala exposure to the Walter-Tull portfolio.

The Apollo transaction is the most one-directional on paper: Apollo gets equity and commits capital, but the statement mentions no Mubadala commitment to Apollo in return. Then again, the flow has already gone the other way — Mubadala has spent years seeding Apollo’s strategies. The two have worked together on private-market financing since 2020, including a USD 2.5 bn private credit joint venture launched in 2023.

What doesn’t change: Mubadala Investment Company stays the majority shareholder. Mubadala Capital keeps its own governance, and its management retains full authority over investment decisions.

What’s next: The transaction is expected to close in 4Q 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

ADVISORS- Goldman Sachs and Jefferies are financial advisors to Mubadala Capital, with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as counsel. Morgan Stanley is financial advisor to Apollo, with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as counsel.

Alpha Dhabi recycles its SpaceX and Anthropic gains into a USD 1 bn commitment to Alpha Wave’s next fund

Alpha Dhabi is putting its AI gains back to work. The ADX-listed IHC unit agreed to commit USD 1 bn (AED 3.67 bn) to Alpha Wave III, the next global fund from US manager Alpha Wave Global, according to a disclosure to the bourse (pdf). The fund will invest globally in AI and high-growth tech companies. Alpha Dhabi plans to fund it from a mix of cash distributions from the previous fund, Alpha Wave Ventures II (AWV II), and existing resources. The commitment still needs approvals.

The first fund has more than paid for itself on paper. Alpha Dhabi committed AED 9.2 bn to AWV II in 2022. Its c. 24% stake in that fund was valued at AED 14.3 bn at the end of June. The stake gives it indirect exposure to SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cerebras. Alpha Dhabi also delivered AED 3.7 bn in fair-value gains in 1H 2026, which helped push its net income up 48% to AED 9.8 bn, as we reported in August.

The money also stays inside the IHC family. IHC’s financial services arm Judan agreed in March to buy 50.1% of Alpha Wave Global. Judan was set up to consolidate financial services assets from IHC and Alpha Dhabi, among others.

The bigger picture: Abu Dhabi wants a seat at every frontier AI lab. MGX co-led Anthropic’s USD 30 bn Series G in February and came back for its USD 65 bn Series H in May. It is now in talks to join OpenAI’s next USD 30 bn round, in addition to its investment in Elon Musk’s xAI.

What’s next: Anthropic’s listing, expected in mid-November, will give the market its first public price for one of AWV II’s biggest private holdings. Investors have trimmed their valuation expectations to c. USD 1.5 tn from USD 2 tn. Alpha Dhabi’s 3Q results will show how the AWV II mark held up. Alpha Wave III will draw down its capital over time, as the fund calls it.

UAE is Novo Nordisk’s launchpad for a 70-country GLP-1 push

Novo Nordisk is building a UAE hub on one premise: most people in the Gulf who could be on obesity medication aren’t. Gulf General Manager Venkat Kalyan tells us that 60-70% of the region’s population is overweight or obese and that fewer than 5-10% of those affected receive medication.

That gap is the commercial logic behind a run of UAE firsts: The Wegovy pill launched in the UAE ahead of any market outside the US (Bahrain has since approved it too). In addition, a new Gulf affiliate oversees six markets from the UAE, and one of Novo’s three global distribution centers is taking shape, with technical specialists from Denmark already on the ground, Venkat tells us.

Novo has been here for more than 40 years, treated 90k patients in the country in 2025, and invested almost AED 12 mn (c. USD 3.3 mn) in local R&D over the past decade, mostly clinical trials and real-world evidence studies. Kalyan says patient numbers will “definitely” grow and sees “significant potential” for deeper research ties with UAE institutions.

We spoke with Kalyan, who took his GM post earlier this year, on the sidelines of the Future Health Summit in Abu Dhabi last week to get a sense of why the firm picked the UAE for one of only three distribution centers and for the launch of the pill, and more. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

Enterprise: Why did Novo make the UAE its first launch market for the Wegovy pill and the base for one of its three global distribution centers?

VK: We are really prioritizing the UAE. The country stood out for its logistics, connectivity, and a stable regulatory environment. The center links our production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas with markets across the Gulf, Africa, and Central Asia. Once fully scaled, it should support access for more than 2.6 mn patients in markets with over 1 bn people. The UAE was also the second country after the US to approve the oral Wegovy, so we made it the first market outside the US to launch.

Across the Gulf, close to 60-70% of the population is overweight or obese, but the number of people who actually get the medicines is less than 5-10%. There’s big underdiagnosis, and even among those diagnosed, very few get pharmacotherapy. The potential is really big.

E: Where do the pill launch and the distribution center stand today?

VK: The Wegovy pill is very much available here, and the response has been very good. Patients and doctors are happy to have the choice between a once-weekly injection and a once-daily pill. It’s also been approved in Bahrain.

The distribution center is going in line with the agreed milestones. The initial team of experts from Denmark has arrived on site, and the center will develop in successive phases to ultimately cover close to 70 countries. The scientific office is also going very well. Our new Gulf affiliate, which runs medical, marketing, and communications, oversees the GCC except Saudi Arabia: the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar, plus Yemen.

E: What are your priorities for your first year as GM, and where does longevity fit?

VK: Obesity, diabetes, and getting the big projects up and running. We’ve now rebranded to Novo, with a new promise, “lasting health starts now,” so communicating that comes first. In obesity, it’s bringing the best innovation to more patients and more doctors. In diabetes, we’re launching higher-dose semaglutide and bringing a once-weekly insulin. Third is making sure the distribution center and the scientific office are operational.

Addressing the burden of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease takes much more than the availability of innovative medicines. It requires earlier diagnosis, sustainable access and reimbursement, long-term disease management, and continued public awareness.

Supply-chain resilience is another priority. Recent years have shown how important it is that medicines reach patients reliably, which is why the UAE’s focus on pharma security and continuity of supply is so relevant.

Longevity is a new science, and our GLP-1 is where a lot of it is happening. At the conference, our scientists showed data from our own clinical trials suggesting semaglutide reduces biological markers of organ aging. It doesn’t mean it will extend lifespan now, but it’s [going] in the right direction. The trials showed it treats diabetes, reduces obesity, and gives cardiovascular benefits.

Scale AI sets up in Dubai + Edge wraps up CMD stake takeover

Scale AI in DIFC

Scale AI sets up shop in the DIFC: San Francisco-based AI data company Scale AI opened a UAE office at the Dubai AI Campus in the DIFC, unveiled at a signing ceremony during the Dubai AI Festival on Monday, The National reports. Scale, valued at USD 29 bn, organizes and labels the training data AI developers rely on. Its client list includes OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Nvidia, in addition to the US Army and Air Force.

The target is the government: Global Managing Director Trevor Thompson pointed to the UAE now “putting [AI] to work across government and the economy.” The demand is there: government clients have been flooding AI providers with requests since the UAE mandated agentic AI across half of government operations, as we reported in August.

PLUS- The Dubai AI Campus is now eyeing a whole new target of more than 1k AI companies and 5k specialized jobs by 2030, according to state news agency Wam. So far, the campus has attracted over 500 startups and AED 1 bn in investment since its 2024 launch.

And there’s more to come: The campus is planning a 100k sq ft purpose-built facility in DIFC’s Zabeel District, designed as a hub for AI development, testing, and commercialisation, where companies and government entities can test solutions before wider deployment.

Edge wraps up CMD stake takeover

State defense firm Edge has brought advanced propulsion into its supply chain after wrapping up its takeover of a controlling stake in Italian propulsion systems manufacturer CMD, the company said in a press release. The two initially agreed on the transaction in May; however, the value or size of the stake hasn’t been disclosed.

Post-takeover, Edge is aiming to build a “European propulsion hub” and will invest in scaling up CMD’s manufacturing capabilities, accelerating R&D, and strengthening its market position. The statement also said CMD could provide large orders for unmanned aerial systems engines for Edge, with the two also exploring how CMD’s offerings could be used for Edge’s subsidiary Abu Dhabi Ship Building’s operations.

BMI sees Brent above USD 100 into 2027 as Hormuz stays commercially choked

A Strait of Hormuz that is open but commercially compromised is set to keep oil prices high well into 2027, and monetary policy tight with them, research firm BMI said at a MENA outlook webinar attended by EnterpriseAM. BMI expects Brent crude to average above USD 100 a barrel in 4Q 2026 and above USD 110 in 1Q 2027, on the assumption that Washington and Tehran reach another preliminary agreement to reopen the strait early next year. Brent would ease back toward the USD 70s later in 2027 as flows recover, though a serious escalation would push it above USD 120 and delay any normalization.

BMI maps three end-states… It sees a 40% chance a preliminary agreement holds and matures into a final settlement covering nuclear and sanctions issues; a 30% chance such an agreement decays into a “stop-start cycle” of violations and collapsed talks; and a 30% chance of escalation into high-intensity warfare. The first two paths together make a preliminary agreement the base case at 70%, most likely in 1Q 2027 (40%), against 25% for 4Q 2026 and 5% for 2Q 2027. The stop-start path is the most damaging, the agency says, as it would turn a shock that businesses still treat as temporary into a structural drag on investment, confidence, and non-oil growth.

… and two conditions for shipping to normalize under any scenario: a political agreement, then at least four weeks without a security incident, to let owners, insurers, and regulators reprice the risk. Flows then take six to 12 weeks to normalize, with tankers returning faster than LNG and container ships. On that framework, even a late-2026 deal would not deliver stable Hormuz flows before early 2027, and a slip or breakdown pushes it into the second half. Even then, BMI puts baseline traffic around 30% below pre-war levels, near 100 vessels a day.

The knock-on runs straight into rates: Higher energy prices keep inflation elevated for longer, BMI argues, forcing central banks to hold tighter and dragging on activity just as US and global bond yields are already climbing — lifting debt-service costs, slowing credit, and weakening business investment. Its base case for the Fed is two more 25 bps hikes this year, then a hold through 2027, though it says recent Fed signals have made the timing and the number less certain.

The hit won’t be distributed evenly across the Gulf: BMI forecasts the GCC economy shrinking 4.2% in 2026 before a 9.4% rebound in 2027. Saudi Arabia is set to contract an estimated 3.6% this year, with its oil sector to go down 16-17%, while Bahrain (-15.3%), Kuwait (-17.3%), and Qatar (-12.8%) will fall by double digits. The UAE is the near-term surprise, revised up to 1.6% growth for 2026 after it used its Opec exit, the Fujairah pipeline, and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman to lift output to a record 4 mn bbl / d.

Oman and Bahrain mark the extremes: Oman is one of only two Gulf economies BMI sees growing this year, at 3.8%, because its main oil terminal at Mina Al Fahal lies outside the strait and keeps exporting. As a result, its public debt is set to fall toward 25% of GDP by end-2027. Bahrain is the fiscal weak link, with a 2026 deficit widening to 14% of GDP, public debt pushing past 160%, debt-service already absorbing more than a third of revenue, and CDS spreads blowing out well beyond the rest of the bloc. BMI expects GCC partners to keep Bahrain funded, at the cost of politically sensitive spending cuts and new taxes.

For most of the Gulf, the cushion is the balance sheet. Outside Bahrain, BMI argues, fiscal positions are not fragile, with low debt and sovereign-wealth buffers able to absorb the shock. The likely response, it says, is a reprioritization of capital from external deployment toward domestic resilience: defence, infrastructure that cuts reliance on Hormuz, and diversification. That would ripple outward, since MENA economies that lean on Gulf investment, from Egypt to the Levant, would feel it if the money turns inward.

The spillover reaches the oil importers. Higher crude has lifted fuel and import bills across North Africa and the Levant. BMI trimmed Egypt’s FY2026/27 growth forecast to 5.0% and sees the EGP holding in a 52-57 range to the USD into 1Q 2027, cushioned by record reserves near USD 57 bn; it reads the authorities’ tolerance for a weaker currency as a sign of a more flexible regime that can absorb the shock. Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia face the sharpest cost-of-living pressure and the social discontent that follows, while Iraq has already devalued the IQD 15.4% and turned to the IMF.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets were in the green earlier today. South Korea’s Kospi was up around 4% and Japan’s Nikkei was up around 2.2%. The upswing tracked overnight gains seen among most Wall Street equities.

ADX	9,641	+0.5% (YTD: -3.5%)
DFM	5,752	+0.3% (YTD: -5.2%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,718	+0.5% (YTD: -3.5%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.7% o/n	4.7% 1 yr
TASI	9,762	+3.4% (YTD: -7.0%)
EGX30	48,417	-1.7% (YTD: +15.8%)
S&P 500	7,677	+0.7% (YTD: +12.1%)
FTSE 100	10,767	+0.7% (YTD: +8.4%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,116	+0.8% (YTD: +5.5%)
Brent crude	USD 115.81	-0.8%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.60	-0.1%
Gold	USD 4,027	-0.3%
BTC	USD 79,951	-0.6% (YTD: -8.7%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.52	+0.6% (YTD: -2.4%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	148.11	0.0% (YTD: -2.5%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	18.39	-5.5% (YTD: +23.0%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX rose 0.6% yesterday on turnover of AED 875.7 mn. The index is down 3.5% YTD.

In the green: Space42 (+4.8%), Americana Restaurants International (+4.8%), and Bank of Sharjah (+3.8%).

In the red: Orascom Construction (-5.0%), Abu Dhabi Aviation Co. (-2.2%), and Adnoc Gas (-1.6%).

Over on the DFM, the index rose 0.3% on turnover of AED 496.8 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was up 0.5%.

CALENDAR

OCTOBER

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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THIS MORNING: DP World sets its sights on Canada’s export gateway plan + Pearl Petroleum lines up USD 500 mn bond

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Apollo buys into Mubadala Capital, bringing USD 5 bn in commitments with it

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Alpha Dhabi recycles its SpaceX and Anthropic gains into a USD 1 bn commitment to Alpha Wave’s next fund

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UAE is Novo Nordisk’s launchpad for a 70-country GLP-1 push

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Scale AI sets up in Dubai + Edge wraps up CMD stake takeover

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BMI sees Brent above USD 100 into 2027 as Hormuz stays commercially choked

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Apollo buys into Mubadala Capital, bringing USD 5 bn in commitments with it

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Alpha Dhabi recycles its SpaceX and Anthropic gains into a USD 1 bn commitment to Alpha Wave’s next fund

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UAE is Novo Nordisk’s launchpad for a 70-country GLP-1 push

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