E-invoicing providers' deadline passes and systems test begins

1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Adnoc Gas has a potential new buyer for incoming extra supply + Is a third Hormuz bypass on the way?

Good morning, lovely people. The midterms are over, the Democrats have won both the House and the Senate in a landslide, and the war that has defined our year was a big part of the reason why.

About six in 10 voters told AP’s Election Day poll that the US made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran. US President Donald Trump conceded the war played a role in his party’s losses. “Iran was a piece of it,” he told The Wall Street Journal, though he still stood by his decision to attack.

What it means for us is still unclear. While the Gulf has been bracing for another escalation in attacks after the elections, Trump’s tone was softer yesterday. He told the Financial Times he had no immediate plans to strike Iran, saying the US is ready but that “there may be no reason for it.” Tehran isn’t giving ground either. An Iranian official told Reuters the two sides are still a ways off from an agreement, and Iran’s supreme leader said partisan swings in Washington won’t change US hostility. The window to watch is the next two months. The new Congress isn’t sworn in until January, and some analysts see a Democratic win as possibly strengthening Trump’s incentive to act during the transition.

We’re also keeping an eye on our AI chip deals. Democrats have promised to investigate the Trump administration agreements that gave G42 license-free access to the most advanced US chips and approved up to 35k chips for Saudi Arabia’s Humain. Controlling both chambers gives them subpoena power. They can’t undo the agreements before a Democrat is in the White House, but the UAE’s license-free access expires in April, so any extension will now face much closer scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

It’s an equally big day for news here at home. Most large businesses picked a provider before last Friday’s deadline, providers tell us, but many haven’t started the integration work they’ll need to go live on 1 January. We take a look at the bottlenecks in this morning’s Big Story Today.

Meanwhile, DIP priced its IPO at the midpoint of its range, with Saudi Arabia’s PIF and a Blackstone unit reportedly in the book, while Emaar moves to acquire all of Emaar Development at an AED 60 bn valuation. In debt, Pearl Petroleum upsized its bond to USD 500 mn at a lower rate than it paid two years ago, and Ta’ziz closed USD 1.39 bn to finance a chemicals export terminal and an ammonia plant in Ruwais. Also this morning: Non-oil firms raised their prices at a record pace in October, which bodes ill for this month’s inflation figures, and Gulf crude exports are back near pre-war levels, enough to tip Dubai’s oil market into contango.

Gas for the north

Adnoc Gas has a potential new buyer for the extra gas it’s bringing online. Adnoc Gas and Etihad Water and Electricity (EtihadWE) signed an agreement to explore supplying gas to new power plants across the Northern Emirates, Wam reports. A supply agreement would give Adnoc Gas a domestic market for the additional volumes its growth program is set to unlock and give EtihadWE fuel for the gas-fired part of its planned mix of gas and renewable generation. Neither side disclosed volumes, contract value, or delivery timelines.

The UAE wants to stop importing gas by 2030. The country still imports gas to cover a domestic supply deficit, which stood at an estimated 17.7 bn cbm in 2025. Adnoc Gas projects domestic gas demand will grow 4-5% a year between 2023 and 2030. To close the gap, Adnoc Gas is spending USD 13.2 bn on its Rich Gas Development program to expand processing capacity and USD 2.4 bn on its Estidama project to extend the national gas network.

Another Hormuz bypass pipeline?

Adnoc has denied it, but Bloomberg’s sources say the UAE is mulling a third west-east pipeline for crude deliveries to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Plans could still change, and third parties may also be able to use the pipeline through to Fujairah, the sources said. Adnoc says that the reports are “purely speculative” and “not accurate.”

Three’s a charm: Adcop, the existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, helped keep supplies moving somewhat amid the disruption in Hormuz, prompting Adnoc to accelerate work since the conflict started on its West-East pipeline, which is set to double Hormuz-bypassing export capacity. Last week, it was reported that the pipeline could begin supplying Asian customers by early next year as the UAE doubles down on its zero-reliance-on-Hormuz strategy.

PSA

WEATHER- In Abu Dhabi, temperatures will reach 35°C today, while Dubai will see a high of 34°C, before both emirates see overnight lows of 25°C, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

Wall Street rallied yesterday after Democrats won a sweeping midterm victory that gave them control of both the House and Senate, while expectations of an earlier end to the Iran War drove oil prices down. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft each gained over 6%, as investors wager that the new Congress will push for cuts in AI investment. Energy stocks fell 4.7% and were heading for their steepest daily drop since 2025. Tesla, SpaceX, and data-center companies like CoreWeave declined, while housing stocks gained on lower Treasury yields and mining shares rose as metals prices climbed.

Bill Gates has accused the Trump administration of blocking efforts to manage AI risks, warning the technology could cause a pandemic far deadlier than Covid. Speaking at an FT summit, the Microsoft co-founder named AI-enabled bioweapons and cyberattacks as the biggest immediate threats. He said self-regulation will not work and urged Washington to consider safety benchmarks for AI models, lead a global effort to fix cyber vulnerabilities, and expand monitoring to catch AI-enabled infections early.

Google has widened its voluntary severance program to staff in several countries this year to contain rising costs as it pours money into AI. The company said it started extending the packages in June to some workers in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland, though the number of workers who took them is unknown. Past offers did not include employees in Google Cloud or DeepMind, and the new round seems to exclude them as well. The expansion follows Microsoft’s move to offer buyouts to 60k staff as part of its own cost-cutting push.

***

You’re reading EnterpriseAM UAE, your essential daily roundup of business, economics, and must-read news about the UAE, delivered straight to your inbox. We’re out Monday through Friday by 7am UAE time.

EnterpriseAM UAE is available without charge thanks to the generous support of our friends at Mashreq and Hassan Allam Properties.

Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy of EnterpriseAM UAE.

Want to send us a story idea, request coverage, ask for a correction, or otherwise get in touch? Reach out to us on [email protected].

DID YOU KNOW that we also cover Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the MENA logistics industry?

***

Market watch

Gulf barrels outrun demand again: The region’s oil market is showing signs of surplus for the first time since July. Dubai’s nearest timespread, which sets the price for nearly all crude exported from the region, slipped into contango this week, with the November contract trading c. USD 2 / bbl below December, traders tell Bloomberg. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, and Kuwait shipped a combined 15.53 mn bbl / d of crude in October, up 10% from September and roughly in line with pre-war levels, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

SOUND SMART- Contango means prompt oil trades below later-dated oil and is a sign there’s no rush for barrels today.

The UAE raised exports to 3.74 mn bbl / d, its highest since July. Saudi Arabia did the heavy lifting, raising exports 13% to 7 mn bbl / d, with Red Sea port Yanbu up 35% to 3.07 mn bbl / d after its East-West pipeline came back from a September attack launched from Iraq. Iraq added 9.5% to 3.35 mn bbl, and Kuwait boosted shipments by a third to 1.44 mn bbl / d, while Iran shipped nothing for a second month under the US naval blockade.

Physical markets are softening across the board. Spot transactions in S&P Global’s Dubai trading window, which usually price at a premium, came in near parity with the benchmark, and a North Sea cargo offered below Brent found no buyers. A month ago, such cargoes fetched premiums. “This time, the increase is more gradual,” June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities, tells the business news service. In June, she said, a backlog of oil sitting on supertankers exited the Gulf all at once. Brent crude futures are holding above the USD 100-a-barrel threshold amid reports that Washington carried out an attack on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday.

Large UAE firms beat the e-invoicing deadline on paper. Now comes the systems test.

Most of the UAE’s large businesses signed up an e-invoicing provider before last Friday’s deadline, but providers tell us many have yet to start the integration work they’ll need to go live in under two months. “Most larger firms did appoint an accredited service provider on time, but many treated it as a signature on a contract rather than the start of an integration project,” Abu Amir, CEO of Sharjah-based IT firm Missan Global, tells EnterpriseAM.

Why it matters: Businesses with revenues of AED 50 mn or more must go live on 1 January 2027. From then on, invoices are validated automatically, and those that don’t pass get rejected.

There’s no official compliance figure yet. Around 35k Peppol IDs — identifiers businesses use to exchange e-invoices through the Peppol network — are now recorded in the UAE, according to figures provided by ClearTax. That count is imperfect: some companies hold several IDs, and some that have appointed a provider don’t show up at all.

The readiness gap was already visible in June, when just 14.1% of more than 500 finance executives surveyed by ClearTax considered their businesses fully prepared and 60.5% had yet to conduct an ERP gap analysis. We covered the survey here.

Smaller businesses have more time — and for good reason. They have until 31 March 2027 to appoint an ASP and until 1 July 2027 to go live. Their roadblocks are bigger: older or heavily customized accounting systems may need upgrades, while incomplete customer TRNs, inconsistent tax codes, and duplicate records can trigger rejected invoices once validation becomes automatic, experts tell us. Disconnected POS systems, spreadsheets, and accounting platforms add another layer of cleanup.

There’s still a long way to go: “Among our SME clients, only a minority have started anything concrete,” Amir says. Most are still asking their accounting software vendor what they need to do. Many have yet to check whether their existing system can connect to an ASP or what an upgrade would cost if it can’t. The bigger problem is “a lot of owners still see e-invoicing as a finance-team task, when in practice it touches the ERP, master data, and the people who raise invoices every day,” Amir tells us.

The hard part starts now

Integration problems are expected to show up in data mapping and testing, SunTec Business Solutions President Amit Dua tells EnterpriseAM. That’s when companies tend to uncover inconsistent customer and supplier records or invoice scenarios that don’t behave as expected. “The challenge is not necessarily the age of the systems, but how fragmented and interconnected they are,” he says. A single company might have several ERP and billing platforms feeding invoice data in different formats, with manual steps in between.

That doesn’t mean a wave of ERP replacements. Most firms can keep their existing systems and fix only the gaps, ClearTax founder and CEO Archit Gupta tells us. The catch is that the ASP’s fee says little about the final bill. Two companies of similar size can face very different costs depending on how much work sits around the provider.

Sending invoices is only half the job. Gupta says firms also need to sort out what happens when a supplier invoice comes the other way: where it lands, how it gets booked, and who steps in when it fails. His benchmark for readiness is “a process that has been tested and that employees can actually operate.”

On the bright side: The penalties have softened. The Finance Ministry has eased parts of the framework, with rules taking effect last week capping fines for late implementation or ASP appointment at AED 50k over a 12-month period.

Dubai Investments prices DIP Holding mid-range at AED 1.12

Dubai Investments priced its 20% float of DIP Holding at AED 1.12 per share, just below the midpoint of its AED 1.10-1.15 range. That raises c. AED 1.9 bn (USD 529 mn) and values the landlord behind Dubai Investments Park at AED 9.7 bn at listing, according to the pricing statement (pdf). Shares will be allocated on 10 November, and trading is expected to start on the DFM the following day.

Dubai Investments chose not to squeeze the book. Orders covered the full offering within minutes of the books opening, and the offering was oversubscribed “multiple times,” with demand from local, regional, and international investors, the statement said. Even so, the seller stopped short of the ceiling. A mid-range finish is unusual in the UAE, where recent offerings have tended to price at the top, but the company says the price is meant to support “a strong and sustainable aftermarket.” Put plainly, it gave up a small slice of proceeds so the stock would have a better chance of trading above its offer price.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and a Blackstone unit were among the foreign investors in the book, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter. Local family offices, including major shareholders in parent Dubai Investments, also placed orders, as did Al Tayer Group, according to the business news service.

At AED 1.12, the implied dividend yield is c. 7.5% on the AED 725 mn DIP expects to pay for 2027. At the AED 14 bn top end of the range banks pitched last month, the yield would have been c. 5%, in line with Salik and Parkin. Some investors wanted something closer to Emaar’s 9%. Dubai Investments CEO Khalid bin Kalban rejected that comparison, arguing that a ground-lease business with no capex is closer to infrastructure than to a developer.

One number is still missing: the coverage multiple. Kamco Invest’s Junaid Ansari and Century Financial’s Vijay Valecha both told us last month that 10-15x would count as a strong result. Valecha described that level as “disciplined institutional demand” rather than the 20x-plus euphoria of earlier cycles. Dubai Investments has not disclosed the figure.

Why it matters: DIP is the first UAE listing since the war froze the pipeline. Dubai Holding, Emirates Global Aluminium, and Al Habtoor have all paused or shelved listings this year. At USD 529 mn, DIP alone equals nearly half of the c. USD 1.1 bn the Gulf raised through mid-September. A lot rides on this one: a weak debut would mean lower valuations or delays for the issuers queued behind DIP, and a stock trading below its offer price in the first few weeks would signal that buyers still want a markdown, analysts told us.

REMEMBER- DIP has a safety net for day one: Stabilization manager xCube holds 10% of the offering, or 173.5 mn shares. At the offer price, that gives it c. AED 194 mn to buy stock if DIP slips below AED 1.12 in its first 30 days of trading.

ADVISORS- Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, and HSBC are joint global coordinators. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Arqaam Capital, Dubai Islamic Bank, and our friends at EFG Hermes UAE are bookrunners. Emirates NBD is lead receiving bank, alongside ADCB, ADIB, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic, FAB, and Wio. Al Mal Capital is financial advisor, and Emirates NBD Capital is listing advisor.

Non-oil sector sees record price hikes as fuel costs bite

UAE non-oil firms raised their selling prices at the fastest pace on record in October, according to S&P Global’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (pdf). Input costs climbed at the fastest pace since June 2022, with fuel being a big part of the squeeze as fuel and diesel prices rose for the third month, and firms passed them on to customers. The headline reading slipped to 54.8 from 55.3 in September, which still signals growth, coming in above the 50.0 threshold separating contraction from expansion.

The good news: New orders accelerated, and new export work rose at its fastest pace in exactly two years. Hiring didn’t keep up: employment fell for the third time in five months as firms protected their margins.

That doesn’t bode well for October’s inflation figures, which we’re watching for later this month. Dubai’s annual inflation eased to 5.0% in September from 5.5% in August, but Emirates NBD Research (pdf) noted that the dip came almost entirely from a sharp fall in volatile recreation costs. Transport inflation accelerated to 14.7%, and food rose 8.1%, its fastest pace since July 2022. Housing, the biggest item in the basket, eased to 6.2%, its slowest since December. Emirates NBD expects inflation to pick up again in October as that month’s petrol hike feeds through and to end the year at around 5.6%. S&P Global’s David Owen also flagged greater inflation risk in 4Q.

The other good news: There’s some relief at the pump this month. Petrol prices fell for November after three straight months of increases.

ALSO- Dubai bucked the national dip. The emirate’s PMI rose to an eight-month high of 54.6 from 54.5 in September. New business grew at its joint-fastest pace since February, and purchasing activity rose at its sharpest in nine months. Dubai firms also reported record increases in selling prices, citing higher costs for raw materials, fuel, energy, freight, maintenance, storage, and rent. Meanwhile, supplier performance improved as more firms switched to local vendors to get around disrupted shipping routes, continuing a trend that started earlier this year. Employment edged down.

Emaar moves to buy out Emaar Development minorities at a valuation of AED 60 bn

Emaar Properties is going ahead with a 100% buyout of its construction arm Emaar Development, according to a DFM disclosure (pdf). The developer is offering AED 15 per share for up to 100% of the issued and paid-up share capital of Emaar Development that it doesn’t already own. Currently, it owns just over 79% of the unit. The proposal is still subject to shareholder approval.

The transaction would value the construction arm at around USD 16.3 bn and would cost Emaar Properties about AED 12.6 bn. The AED 15 share price on offer is 7.9% higher than its last close on the day Emaar Properties’ plans first got out, but still down 25% from a February high, having shed value during the war. October alone saw it lose 7.3% after Dubai residential sales values fell 47% y-o-y in 3Q. It’s also below its average price target of AED 16.54, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Why now? Emaar’s board is meeting this week to review ways to create shareholder value and, with the construction arm being its main cashflow generator, full ownership would give the developer more control over fund generation at a time when it has a busy pipeline.

A full buyout would likely take another big name off the DFM. Emaar Development raised about USD 1.3 bn when it listed in 2017. Its predecessor, Emaar Malls, was delisted during Covid at about two-thirds of its IPO price. Damac went private months later at nearly 45% below its 2015 listing, and both exits raised concerns about investor appetite for Dubai’s market. A full buyout would also add to a run of big names leaving UAE bourses this year. Taqa left the ADX on 1 September after L’imad subsidiary Abu Dhabi Power Corporation bought out its minority shareholders. L’imad has since lifted its AD Ports stake to 98.93% and moved to squeeze out the rest, with a delisting expected to follow.

Ta’ziz closes USD 1.39 bn financing for Ruwais chemicals terminal, ammonia plant

Ta’ziz is funding two more pieces of its Ruwais chemicals zone: Adnoc-ADQ joint venture Ta’ziz closed USD 1.39 bn in financing for a chemicals export terminal and an ammonia plant in Ruwais, according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement. Both financings were oversubscribed. Together with the USD 2 bn it raised for its methanol plant in April, Ta’ziz has now secured more than USD 3.39 bn for three projects in a zone set to produce 4.7 mn tons of chemicals a year by 2028.

The export terminal takes about two-thirds of the money: Ta’ziz Terminals, a joint venture between Adnoc and Advario Star Energy, secured more than USD 928 mn from nine regional and international banks, including USD 225 mn in Islamic financing. The long-term loan is non-recourse, meaning lenders are repaid from the project rather than by its shareholders. The terminal will store liquid chemicals from the zone and ship them to regional and global markets. Rotary Engineering has completed about 70% of the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work.

IN CONTEXT- The terminal’s storage facilities and pipelines are part of a USD 2 bn package of infrastructure contracts Ta’ziz awarded in 2024. That package also included NMDC Group’s USD 300 mn contract to build the zone’s chemicals port, which was slated for completion in 4Q 2026. Adnoc Logistics & Services signed a 50-year agreement last year to own and operate the port. Its two liquid berths will handle cargoes including ammonia, methanol, and caustic soda.

The ammonia plant is closer to the finish line: Ta’ziz, Fertiglobe, Japan’s Mitsui, and South Korea’s GS Energy raised more than USD 460 mn through a six-year loan from seven banks. Contractor Tecnimont has completed more than 90% of the EPC work on the plant, which is designed to produce 1 mn tons of ammonia a year.

REMEMBER- Ta’ziz already has buyers lined up for much of what Ruwais will produce. In May, the company signed USD 28.5 bn worth of transactions spanning five to 25 years to secure raw materials and sell chemicals from the zone. Adnoc and Proman will buy methanol, while Emirates Global Aluminium is among the buyers for caustic soda.

Oaktree-backed Pure DC lines up USD 1.9 bn financing framework, adding FAB to its lenders

Pure DC landed a USD 1.9 bn credit line, and FAB is among the new lenders: Oaktree Capital Management-backed Pure Data Centers Group (Pure DC) secured a financing framework of about USD 1.9 bn to fund its build-out across Europe and the Middle East, according to a statement. The funding includes a USD 780 mn Platform Growth Facility and a USD 1.1 bn accordion that lets the company expand borrowing. Citigroup Global Markets, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and Infranity join existing lenders ABN Amro, Allianz Global Investors, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

The money will be allocated to land and power for future campuses: Pure DC will use the facility to support its development pipeline and buy future sites. The money will also go toward securing energy for new data centers, Executive Chairman and interim CEO Gary Wojtaszek told Bloomberg. The London-based developer is targeting 3 GW of total capacity. It works with energy companies on more integrated power supplies, including on-site generation at its Dublin campus.

Banks over bonds: Pure DC tried to raise financing in the bond market earlier this year, then dropped the plan when traditional lenders offered more favorable terms. Financing for large AI campuses has become more expensive and lenders more selective, as investors grow concerned about the debt flowing into AI infrastructure.

Pure DC raised more than USD 6.2 bn in a year. Its earlier rounds include USD 2.7 bn in May. Of that, USD 2.15 bn was backed by its Dublin and Amsterdam campuses. In July, it added EUR 1.3 bn in senior debt for the first phase of its Seinäjoki AI campus in Finland. That 110 MW phase is fully leased, and the site can scale beyond 550 MW. Microsoft is among the campus’s customers, Bloomberg reports.

The Gulf is both a market and a lender: The developer operates a 20 MW building on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, where the campus can grow to 48 MW. In Riyadh, it has a joint venture with Dune Vaults on a campus designed for an initial 57.6 MW and able to exceed 100 MW. FAB, the only Gulf lender in the new group, also backed the USD 2.6 bn, 10-year facility for G42-owned Khazna Data Centers last year, alongside ADCB.

The new debt is meant to make an equity raise easier: Wojtaszek expects the new debt to make it easier to raise equity by validating the company’s business model. “People are just recognizing how the value associated with controlling the real estate and doing development is much safer than what some of the other investment alternatives are,” he told Bloomberg.

Pearl Petroleum upsizes its bond to USD 500 mn at cheaper rate than it paid two years ago

Pearl Petroleum priced a USD 500 mn, five-year senior secured bond at a 10.375% fixed coupon, joint operators Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum said (pdf) yesterday. Books came in 1.7x oversubscribed, which allows Pearl to upsize the offering from its initial USD 400 mn target to USD 500 mn. The bond matures in November 2031. The hydrocarbon producer, which operates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, will use the funds to refinance an existing USD 350 mn bond and pay for further development at the Khor Mor and Chemchemal gas fields.

Pearl is borrowing more, for longer, at a lower rate. The new coupon comes in below the 13% Pearl paid on its USD 350 mn, 3.5-year bond in November 2024, which is the paper this issue refinances. By our math, the annual coupon bill rises to c. USD 51.9 mn from c. USD 45.5 mn. That means the extra USD 150 mn costs Pearl only c. USD 6.4 mn a year in added interest.

Why it matters: Investors are charging less to lend against Kurdistan gas, and they are doing it in a war year. Pearl scrapped a planned bond in 2019 amid slow demand, and in 2024, it had to pay 13% to get one done. This time, investors from the US, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia took part, and the companies said the transaction closed despite high global bond yields and regional geopolitical uncertainty.

IN CONTEXT- Pearl used the 2024 bond to help fund the USD 1.1 bn Khor Mor expansion. It sells gas from the field under a supply agreement with Iraq’s Electricity Ministry. In August, the Khor Mor partners clashed with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

What’s next: The bond will list on Euronext ABM in Oslo. Retiring the 13% notes, which were due May 2028, removes Pearl’s nearest maturity and pushes its bond debt out to 2031.

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

Al Etihad Payments, Bank of Sharjah make executive appointments

Al Etihad Payments names CEO

Al Etihad Payments (AEP), the Central Bank of the UAE’s payments subsidiary, named Aref Al Ramli (LinkedIn) as CEO, according to a press release. At AEP, he will lead the development and adoption of national payment platforms, including Aani and Jaywan.

Al Ramli brings over 24 years of financial services experience, joining from Al Hilal Bank, where he served as chief digital officer. He previously led Emirates Digital Wallet as CEO and was executive vice president for digital banking and innovation at Mashreq. Al Ramli also served as chairman of the UAE Banks Federation’s digital committee.

Bank of Sharjah taps chief treasury officer

Bank of Sharjah appointed Fawad Ishaq (LinkedIn) as chief treasury officer, according to a press release. Ishaq previously served as chief treasury and investment officer at Doha Bank.

Ishaq has over 25 years of experience in treasury and investment and has held senior roles at Investcorp, Bank ABC, BNP Paribas, and JPMorgan in the US, the UK, and the Middle East region.

Burjeel + Agthia report 3Q earnings

A wider reach boosts Burjeel

Higher patient numbers helped Burjeel Holdings’ bottom line tick up 4.9% y-o-y to AED 184 mn in 3Q, with revenue growing 7.9% y-o-y to AED 1.5 bn, Burjeel said in its management discussion and analysis (pdf). Patient footfall rose 19.3% y-o-y during the quarter, and Burjeel also credited wider community reach with boosting its results. Inpatient volumes grew 17.3% during the quarter, while outpatient numbers recorded 19.3% growth and a 73% utilization rate. Hospitals provided the most revenue with AED 1.4 bn, but it was medical centers that saw the biggest growth at AED 133 mn, up 19.5%, as the operator expanded its community-based healthcare network — a trend we’ve been tracking recently.

9M was a similar story, with net income rising 6.6% y-o-y to AED 386 mn. Top line lagged slightly behind but still posted 5.6% growth to AED 4.3 bn. Bed occupancy reached 73% in 9M. Total patient footfall rose 13.1% y-o-y to 5.8 mn on the back of rebounding demand, wider community reach, and new facilities. Once again, the lion’s share of revenue came from hospitals, as better utilization and patient demand pushed their top-line contribution 6.9% higher y-o-y to AED 3.9 bn.

Costs start to catch up with Agthia

ADQ-owned F&B firm Agthia’s revenue rose 14.4% y-o-y in 3Q to AED 1.3 bn, while its bottom line shot up from AED 4.1 mn last year to AED 33.2 mn this quarter after EBITDA rose 39% y-o-y to AED 123.1 mn, the company said in its management discussion and analysis (pdf). Revenue was boosted by AED 104.7 mn in one-off sales in the water and food segment tied to the UAE’s food security program, management said.

On a 9M basis, revenue rose 9.6% to AED 3.9 bn, while net income jumped to AED 154.6 mn from AED 53.2 mn. Similarly, EBITDA was up 36.7% during the first nine months of the year. However, management flagged that one-off impairments last year largely accounted for the stark y-o-y comparisons. Excluding those, EBITDA was down 26.2% y-o-y on the back of cost pressures.

IN CONTEXT- Agthia’s 2Q results were buoyed by shoring up supplies ahead of the regional turmoil, while 3Q figures reflect the impact of restocking those supplies at current prices, management said. It says higher input and supply chain costs are likely to weigh on future earnings.

GFH exits again, Mubadala’s Moeve exits oil and gas, PureHealth goes shopping, M42 Bahrain gets a helping hand

GFH clocks another US logistics exit

Dubai-based investment manager GFH Partners has sold a 10-property industrial outdoor storage portfolio in the US for USD 113 mn, marking its fifth logistics exit in six years, according to a company statement shared with EnterpriseAM. The sale, completed on 22 October, includes eight properties used for truck parking, equipment storage, and logistics operations.

What helped get the properties sale-ready? GFH reported double-digit rental growth on lease renewals across the nine Chicago and Kansas properties, while a previously vacant Texas site was leased to an investment-grade tenant. The firm didn’t disclose the portfolio’s purchase price or investor returns.

REMEMBER- GFH has been busy cashing in on its US logistics investments: The latest sale follows its USD 151 mn disposal of a Michelin distribution facility in Illinois just weeks earlier and a USD 130 mn portfolio exit in July. GFH says it plans to keep investing in logistics through dedicated industrial outdoor storage funds, focusing on locations where demand for storage space is supported by proximity to transport corridors and limited new supply.

Mubadala-owned Moeve is nearly out of oil and gas production

Mubadala-owned Spanish energy firm Moeve agreed to sell its minority stakes in three Algerian oilfields to Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina, according to a press release. The sale brings the company, almost 62% owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, close to a full exit from the business. Pertamina will acquire Moeve’s non-operated stakes in the fields for an undisclosed sum. The transfers still need approval from Algerian authorities.

A gas field sale will finish the job: Moeve separately agreed to sell its minority stake in Algeria’s Timimoun gas field, Reuters reports, citing a person it says is familiar with the matter. Together, the Algerian sales will complete Moeve’s exit from exploration and production. It will keep its refineries in Spain, which have benefited from strong refining margins in recent quarters. In Algeria, Moeve says it’ll keep exploring renewables, green hydrogen, and chemicals. It’s already studying a potential green hydrogen project with state energy firm Sonatrach.

Moeve is rebuilding around hydrogen and biofuels: Moeve is pursuing an EUR 8 bn investment plan centered on low-carbon businesses, which includes Onuba, a green hydrogen project in southern Spain.

PureHealth goes shopping for neighborhood clinics

ADX-listed healthcare group PureHealth agreed to acquire six facilities from Aspen Clinics across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, according to a press release. The clinics, located in Shakhbout City, Al Wathba, Al Salamat, Abu Samrah, Al Dhahirah, and Um Ghafah, will be integrated into its Seha Clinics network once the transaction is completed, providing outpatient and community-based healthcare services. Financial terms and a completion timeline weren’t disclosed.

The bigger play? PureHealth is expanding its outpatient footprint by bringing existing clinics into its network rather than building new facilities from scratch. As we reported last month, UAE healthcare operators have increasingly been turning to smaller, community-based facilities to treat patients without the costs associated with hospital stays. PureHealth’s outpatient volumes grew 17% y-o-y in 2025, reflecting the growing role of this segment in its domestic operations.

M42’s Bahrain hospital plans get a helping hand

Abu Dhabi-based healthcare group M42 secured support from Bahrain’s Labour Fund (Tamkeen) for its plans in the country, including its proposed multispecialty hospital in Bahrain Bay, according to a Tamkeen statement. The agreement was signed with Mubadala Health Bahrain, M42’s joint venture with Bahrain-based HealthVision, which is expected to hire more than 200 people. The Bahrain Bay facility will offer 20 medical specialties, AI-powered genetic testing, and precision medicine services. The value and exact form of Tamkeen’s support weren’t disclosed.

REMEMBER- M42 has already been building its presence in Bahrain: We reported in October that M42 and HealthVision were developing the hospital, with Bahrain’s Future Generation Reserve providing the land. The latest agreement adds workforce support to the project, building on M42’s first Bahrain hospital, which it launched last year with support from Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat.

JPMorgan and HSBC want to arrange the risk transfers that let development banks lend more

JPMorgan and HSBC are drumming up a new line of business arranging securitizations that let development banks offload credit risk to private investors and make capital available, Bloomberg reports, citing the two lenders. The move follows a formal pledge early last month by 30 multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) to make synthetic risk transfers (SRTs) and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) a standard part of how they fund themselves, according to Reuters.

So what’s the choreography behind it? A development bank pays an outside investor, usually a pension fund, an insurer, or a hedge fund, to absorb part of the credit losses on a loan portfolio. Regulators and rating agencies then let the bank hold less capital against those loans, and it can lend the difference again. The potential pool is large, with MDBs holding around USD 1.5 tn in development assets between them, according to a joint report by the lenders. The urgency comes from shrinking support from wealthy shareholder governments.

Investors have already tested the waters. Dutch pension manager PGGM anchored an SRT in May, taking part in the mezzanine tranche in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) inaugural EUR 1 bn synthetic securitization, according to the bank. PGGM’s Luca Paonessa, lead portfolio manager for credit risk sharing investments, tells Bloomberg that appetite should grow as development lenders publish more of their historical loss and default data, which investors need to price the risk.

For the banks, the real prize is a repeatable product. JPMorgan’s Faheen Allibhoy, who heads the bank’s development finance and advisory team, argues the market needs regular, standardized issuance to take hold. “You can’t do one-offs,” she says. HSBC’s Himesh Patel, managing director and head of public sector banking for EMEA, says the shift “will create further [avenues] across structuring, risk distribution, capital markets execution, and investor placement” — the transaction lifecycle from designing the structures to selling them. Deutsche Bank has also welcomed the shift. Deutsche’s caveat is that volume will be capped by the supply of bankable projects and the depth of investor demand.

Where the bigger risk is: Moving loans off a balance sheet doesn’t, on its own, mean more money reaches developing economies, three ODI Global researchers argued in a recent commentary. They point to the IFC’s co-lending program, where investors set eligibility criteria before the IFC originates a single loan, which means investor preferences can steer what gets financed in the first place.

The push lands days before COP31 opens in Antalya on 9 November, where scaling climate finance for the poorest countries will be high on the agenda. JPMorgan and HSBC are both sending teams. Allibhoy says the new tools are no substitute for the funding shortfall MDBs face.

The mechanics are already in this region. The World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) wrapped USD 313 mn of HSBC and Standard Chartered trade loans to the National Bank of Egypt in March, and the EBRD’s first risk-sharing facility with an Egyptian bank, USD 25 mn with Emirates NBD Egypt, closed in June 2025. Both moved credit risk off a lender’s book so it could lend again. What JPMorgan and HSBC are pitching is the industrial-scale version of the same trade — and Egypt sits on both sides of it, as a regular borrower from the development banks whose capital is being released and as a securitization issuer in its own right.

OUR TAKE- Private investors will naturally favor loan books with long track records they can price, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The bigger concern is whether MDBs eventually start lending with those investors in mind, favoring loans they can easily securitize over riskier projects in fragile states, early-stage climate adaptation, or sectors where there’s little data to price risk. MDB shareholders need to make sure the capital unlocked by these transactions goes back into the kind of lending private investors are unwilling to finance. Otherwise, securitization could end up changing not just how development banks fund their lending, but who gets that funding in the first place.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Korean stocks ended higher yesterday after a volatile session as investors weighed US midterm results. Kospi swung into negative territory on tech losses before recovering to close up +0.6%. In Japan, Nikkei 225 fell -1.4%.

ADX	9,461	-0.0% (YTD: -5.3%)
DFM	6,041	+4.0% (YTD: -0.1%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,911	+3.9% (YTD: +0.5%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.6% o/n	5.1% 1 yr
TASI	10,039	+1.7% (YTD: -4.3%)
EGX30	50,650	+2.8% (YTD: +21.1%)
S&P 500	7,689	+1.6% (YTD: +12.3%)
FTSE 100	10,829	+1.8% (YTD: +9.0%)
Euro Stox 50	6,266	+2.0% (YTD: +8.1%)
Brent crude	USD 94.40	-8.9%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.96	+2.2%
Gold	USD 4,073	+3.4%
BTC	USD 80,408	+3.9% (YTD: -8.2%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.57	+0.3% (YTD: -4.8%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	148.95	-0.1% (YTD: -1.9%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	16.61	-20.3% (YTD: +11.1%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM rose 4.0% yesterday on turnover of AED 2.1 bn. The index is down 0.1% YTD.

In the green: Amlak Finance (+13.3%), Etihad Energy Holding (+12.9%), and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (+7.8%).

In the red: Emirates Reem Investments Company (-5.0%), Al Mazaya Holding Company (-5.0%), and Agility The Public Warehousing Company (-5.0%).

Over on the ADX, the index remained flat on turnover of AED 1.6 bn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was up 3.9%.

CALENDAR

NOVEMBER

2-5 November (Monday-Thursday): Adipec, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

2-6 November (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

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.

11 November (Wednesday): DIP Holding expected to begin trading on the DFM.

12 November (Thursday): Bloomberg Invest, One&Only Royal Mirage, Dubai.

16-17 November (Monday-Tuesday): The Mining Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

16-18 November (Monday-Wednesday): World Police Summit, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

17-18 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Data Center World Middle East, Dusit Thani Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

18-19 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Touchdown Middle East 2026, Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi.

19 November (Thursday): Middle East Defense Conference, Rabdan Academy Headquarters, Abu Dhabi.

23-26 November (Monday-Sunday): Big 5 Global, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

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.

Sections

About

Privacy & Support