IHC deepens its bet on India with an USD 11.5 bn aluminum joint venture

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Recovery at EGA’s Taweelah plant picks up speed + ADCB reports outage

Good morning, friends, and happy FRIDAY. We have an investment-heavy issue for you today, as news of Abu Dhabi capital flowing across the world continues to gain pace.

IHC's mining arm is putting up its share of an USD 11.5 bn aluminum complex in Odisha alongside Adani — the largest single FDI commitment India's metals sector has ever seen. Meanwhile Adnoc's XRG just closed on a bigger slice of a Texas LNG project, and Emarat is planting a flag in Armenia. If you're keeping a map of where Emirati money is landing this month, you're going to need a bigger map.

Plus: Alternative investment platform BlueFive Capital is also back with its second play this week, picking up a controlling stake in a Dubai dredging contractor — stretching its portfolio across private equity, Islamic finance, AI, vehicle leasing, autonomous delivery, and land reclamation.

Another ADCB outage

Customers of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) temporarily lost access to banking services, after the lender said it was carrying out “essential system maintenance,” with technical teams working to restore operations, the bank said in an X post. ADCB didn't say what prompted the maintenance or give a timeline for restoring services, saying only that it was working “around the clock” to bring systems back online.

What we don't know: ADCB hasn't specified which services were hit — branches, ATMs, online banking, the mobile app — or for how long — but one customer told us their cards weren't working for all of yesterday.

REMEMBER- The disruption comes a couple of months after ADCB suffered another outage due to wider regional IT disruptions following damage to Gulf data centers during the regional conflict.

Speaking of ADCB…

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is reportedly teaming up with JPMorgan and Qatar National Bank on roughly USD 7 bn in debt financing for Syrian reconstruction projects — one of the largest foreign financing commitments to the country since Bashar al-Assad's ouster, and a sign UAE banks are willing to take on Syria risk well ahead of most Western lenders. Bloomberg reports ADCB is working alongside QNB and JPMorgan on the five-year facility, which will back projects run by a consortium including Qatari conglomerate Power International Holding.

The details: The facility will be fully drawn from the outset, guaranteed by QNB, and priced at roughly 370 bps over SOFR — a 250 bps margin plus 120 bps in fees. Proceeds go toward rebuilding power infrastructure and an airport. Power International, controlled by the Syrian-born Al-Khayyat family, has become one of the most active foreign investors in the country's reconstruction through its UCC Holding construction arm.

Back in the melt

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is bringing Al Taweelah back faster than expected after Iranian strikes forced the complex offline on 28 March, Wam reports. EGA has restarted 89 of the smelter’s c.1.3k reduction cells since 26 May, with anode removal complete, and bath cleaning and frozen metal clearing also progressing. The catch? Hot metal output could still take up to a year to fully recover.

IN CONTEXT- EGA invoked force majeure on some contracts after the shutdown, but told us metal already in transit and stockpiles in the UAE and overseas kept many customers supplied. EGA had estimated the full recovery would take up to a year — a timeline that remains unchanged despite the faster-than-expected early restart.

Other parts are moving faster: The casthouse resumed output on 4 May, while recycled-metal production restarted in early May and could reach full capacity within six months, subject to scrap availability. The alumina refinery is due back in early 3Q, depending on bauxite supplies, though the smelter restart does not hinge on the refinery reaching full output.

There is some breathing room: Jebel Ali remains at full capacity, raw-material deliveries are covering both ongoing production and the restart, and stronger aluminum margins are helping offset lost output. EGA is also selling more metal than Jebel Ali produces by drawing down inventories, although pre-crisis shipment levels still depend on Hormuz reopening. The company did not disclose the damage or repair bill.

EGA is building other buffers too: Its new 185k-ton Al Taweelah recycling plant — the UAE’s largest — began producing recycled metal in May, with total recycling capacity targeted to reach 400k tons by 2028. The company is also pursuing an Italian acquisition and a possible stake in Oman’s 400k-ton-a-year Sohar Aluminium to broaden its production base.

The NMC clean-up continues

Another major legal overhang from NMC’s collapse is being cleared. India’s state-owned Bank of Baroda will pay USD 600 mn through its Abu Dhabi branch to settle claims with Abu Dhabi-based hospital operator NMC Health, its related entities, and their administrators, Business Standard reports, citing a regulatory filing.

The settlement means the ADGM cases have been discontinued and the English proceedings are being withdrawn, with Bank of Baroda’s liability under the settlement capped at USD 600 mn and the remaining terms stay confidential.

IN CONTEXT- NMC collapsed into administration in 2020 after short-seller Muddy Waters exposed more than USD 4 bn in hidden debt. The legal cleanup is still playing out: NMC dropped its GBP 2 bn negligence claim against EY earlier this year, while founder BR Shetty was separately ordered to pay USD 46 mn to State Bank of India over a personal guarantee.

Not a denial

Emirates NBD has responded to reports that it is eyeing HSBC’s Turkey business — without shutting them down. In a bourse filing (pdf), Dubai’s largest lender said that, “to date, there have not been any developments which would require the Bank to make a specific announcement,” while noting that it regularly explores organic and inorganic growth opportunities.

ICYMI- Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Emirates NBD was in early-stage talks to buy HSBC’s Turkey operations. An agreement would deepen its presence in a market where it already owns Denizbank and extend the acquisition streak that most recently saw it take a 60% stake in India’s RBL Bank.

More bypass plans, this time through Syria

Potential investments from Abu Dhabi in a route linking Syrian ports with Iraq’s Umm Qasr and onward to Khalifa Port in the UAE would be “welcome initiatives” that Transport Minister Yarub Badr says is waiting to be “translated into projects” in an interview with the National.

Background: Discussions between Abu Dhabi and Damascus on the logistics corridor surfaced last week, and they also cover possible investment in Syrian free zones, dry ports in Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs, and a proposed logistics hub at the Al-Tanf border crossing. The move comes just a week after AD Ports launched a Khalifa-Umm Qasr service aimed at connecting the Gulf with Turkey and Europe.

Why this matters: Overland bypasses have become a key hedge for Gulf states against blockades in the Strait of Hormuz after the disruptions caused by the conflict over the past few months, with the UAE in particular saying it’s working towards zero reliance on the Strait.

Data point

127 — that's how many new foreign investment projects the UAE attracted in the three months since the start of the US-Iran war, retaining a commanding lead across the GCC even as investor activity across the wider Middle East slowed sharply, according to new preliminary data from fDi Markets, cited by Al Bayan.

Still ahead: The UAE remained the region's top destination for greenfield foreign direct investment between March and May, according to the data. We recently reported that Dubai ranked 1st internationally for attracting new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects last year.

Zoom out: The total number of announced projects across the Middle East fell by roughly two-thirds y-o-y as investors paused decisions amid regional uncertainty and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The outlook: The regional pullback reflects a wait-and-see approach rather than a structural decline in investor appetite, analysts cited in the report said, pointing to continued hiring, office openings and market expansion by foreign companies, particularly in the UAE. They expect investment activity to rebound once the conflict is resolved.

Speaking of FDI: The UAE has emerged as Qatar’s biggest foreign investor, pouring USD 814.8 mn in investments across 73 projects in Qatar last year, according to Invest Qatar. The UAE accounted for 19.6% of foreign-backed projects and an even larger 24% of total FDI by value.

PSA

WEATHER- Temperatures reach a high of 41°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi today, with lows ranging between 30-31°C, according to our favorite weather app.

The big story abroad

The US economy is sending mixed signals this morning: US hiring cooled sharply in June, with employers adding just 57k jobs against forecasts of 110k. Some economists point to a delayed drag from the Middle East war's energy shock, and traders have all but priced out a near-term Fed rate hike.

Meanwhile, private credit has seen redemption requests outrun payouts in 2Q 2026, leaving USD 14.5 bn trapped against USD 8.6 bn returned — funds are locking up USD 1.70 for every USD 1 an investor gets back.

And Wall Street closed out 1H 2026 on a high — stocks, bonds and commodities posted their best combined first-half return since 2021, despite a Middle East war, an oil price that doubled then collapsed, and wild swings in Fed rate expectations. The S&P 500 is up c. 9% YTD, while Bloomberg's survey puts the average year-end target at 7,716 — roughly 3% upside from June 30.

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IHC, Adani tie up for USD 11.5 bn aluminum venture in India

The mining arm of Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC), International Resources Holding (IRH), is making a major aluminum play in India, signing an MoU alongside Adani Enterprises with the Odisha state government to build an USD 11.5 bn integrated aluminum manufacturing complex in eastern India through a 50:50 joint venture, according to a statement.

It's the largest foreign investment India's metals sector has ever seen — and the biggest single commitment IHC has made to the Adani relationship since the pair first partnered in 2022.

Buildout plan: The facility will feature a 4 mn tons per annum (tpa) alumina refinery, a 2 mn tpa aluminum smelter, a 4k MW captive power plant, and a 1 mn tpa downstream manufacturing park. The project will roll out in two phases, with the first phase accounting for roughly USD 7 bn of the investment and the second getting the remaining c.USD 4.7 bn, per the JV statement.

The government in Odisha — which holds some of India’s largest bauxite reserves and already accounts for 54% of national aluminium output — will fast-track land, power, and water clearances.

Why it matters

IHC has had big plans for India, and has been diversifying hard, from a reinsurance platform to an AED stablecoin project with ADQ and First Abu Dhabi Bank, from a USD 998 mn stake in Indian housing financier Sammaan Capital to a majority stake in Pakistan's First Women Bank. IRH already holds Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines and has separately signed MoUs with Indian state-owned miners on critical minerals.

The Abu Dhabi firm said last year it plans to deploy USD 110 bn in India over the next five years across data centers, renewables, nuclear power, and infrastructure. It’s already partnered with Adani previously on digitization and energy, despite later trimming some of these positions, and with Haldiram Snacks Foods. As recently as earlier this year, IHC unit ePointZero formed a joint venture with Adani Green Energy to develop renewable projects across India — the Odisha JV is the second Adani tie-up IHC has struck in 2026 alone.

The move also lands weeks after the UAE's most consequential India move to date: Emirates NBD completed a USD 2.8 bn acquisition of a 60% controlling stake in RBL Bank last month, marking the largest foreign direct investment India's banking sector has ever recorded, and the first time a foreign bank has taken majority control of a profitable Indian lender.

Between the two transactions, UAE institutions have now put more than USD 14 bn into India's banking and metals sectors in barely a year — and both arrived as India and the UAE work toward more than doubling bilateral trade to USD 200 bn in bilateral trade by 2032, from the USD 100 bn-plus it crossed for the second straight year in FY 2025-26.

The demand case

India is the world's second-largest aluminum producer and third-largest consumer — it made 4.2 mn tons in FY 2025 against consumption of 5.5 mn tons, with per-capita use still at 3.4-3.9 kg versus a global average of 8-12 kg. A government aluminum-vision document projects domestic consumption climbing to 8.5 mn tons by FY 2030 and more than tripling to 28 mn tons by 2047, which would require national capacity to scale to 37 mn tpa. That gap is the commercial logic for IHC underwriting a plant this size rather than buying into an existing producer.

BlueFive buys controlling stake in UAE dredging firm Gulf Cobla

BlueFive Capital is expanding into infrastructure, taking a controlling stake in Dubai-based contractor Gulf Cobla, according to a press release. The Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment platform has agreed to buy a 70% stake in Gulf Cobla, one of the UAE's oldest dredging and land reclamation contractors — its latest bet in a run of deals that now spans private equity, Islamic finance, AI, vehicle leasing, and autonomous delivery.

The details: BlueFive agreed to buy a 70% stake made up of Swiss-based Advanced Dynamics Investments’ entire 49% holding, and a 21% stake from Dubai’s Dutco Group. Dutco will keep the remaining 30% and stay on as a shareholder as the two look at expansion into new regional markets.

Gulf Cobla? The firm is one of the UAE's oldest dredging and land reclamation contractors, with a track record of projects across the Middle East and South Asia, including work on Jebel Ali Port, Aqaba New Port in Jordan and the airport in Malé, Maldives.

A jack of all trades: The acquisition marks a first foray into infrastructure and real estate for a firm which has been diversifying into a slew of sectors this year, including in Islamic finance through a tie-up with Saudi Arabia’s Al Murjan Group, US and European tech through a USD multi-bn fund, and vehicle leasing and autonomous delivery. BlueFive has also been increasing its exposure across Asia, after it was appointed as a general partner for a USD 4.6 bn China-focused fund-of-funds after launching another China-focused fund with CICC.

XRG increases stake in Rio Grande project + Emarat opens up in Armenia

XRG increases stake in Rio Grande project

Adnoc’s international investment arm XRG closed the transaction to increase its stake in the Rio Grande LNG project in Texas — a transaction Adnoc's international investment arm first flagged back in January. XRG picked up an additional 7.6% equity interest in Trains 4 and 5 from an acquisition vehicle of BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), according to a statement.

The transaction cleared the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) along with other customary regulatory approvals — worth noting given how often US foreign-investment reviews have slowed down Gulf deals this year. No investment value was disclosed.

Why it matters: XRG now holds equity in all five trains at Rio Grande LNG, up from three when it first bought in. Combined, Trains 4 and 5 add roughly 12 mtpa of liquefaction capacity to a facility already expected to produce around 30 mtpa in total — one of the largest LNG export builds in the US. XRG also holds a 20-year, 1.9 mtpa offtake agreement from Train 4, so the equity stake now sits alongside a locked-in buyer position. It first bought an indirect 11.7% stake in Rio Grande's Phase 1 (Trains 1-3) in September 2025, also through GIP.

Emarat enters Armenia with its first fuel station

State-owned fuel retailer Emarat's first stop abroad is Yerevan. The retailer has opened its first service station outside the UAE — a launch in the Armenian capital that marks the 50-year-old company's first international expansion.

The station is step one of a bigger build-out. Emarat and Armenia's MegaTrade — part of the SIL Capital portfolio — plan to roll out a network of stations across Armenia, the companies said on LinkedIn. The two firms signed a partnership last year to lay the groundwork.

Why it matters: Armenia is an unusual first stop for a Gulf state fuel retailer better known for its home turf than global ambitions. The move is a small but visible marker of two things worth tracking: UAE downstream energy players looking past a saturated domestic market for growth, and Armenia's deepening commercial ties with the Gulf.

Standard Chartered launches USDC access through DIFC

Standard Chartered launches USDC access: Standard Chartered’s Dubai International Financial Center operations has become the first global systemically important bank to let institutional clients mint and redeem USDC directly through its banking platform, marking another step in the integration of regulated stablecoins into mainstream finance, Wam reports. Institutional clients will be able to access USDC through the lender’s DIFC operations with a single onboarding process without opening a direct account with the stablecoin issuer.

A closer look: The capability, which is initially being rolled out through the bank's Dubai International Financial Center operations, is designed to help institutional clients move funds between traditional banking systems and blockchain networks for activities including on-chain settlement, treasury and liquidity management.

Megadeals are back just as AI rewrites the M&A playbook

Global M&A surged to a record USD 2.8 tn in 1H 2026, up 49% y-o-y, as megadeals swept through markets despite geopolitical turbulence, the Financial Times reports, citing LSEG data. Bain's midyear M&A outlook also points to a broad rebound, with activity in the first five months of the year putting 2026 on track to become the second-best year for M&A on record.

Bigger, not busier: Just 47 transactions worth more than USD 10 bn accounted for more than USD 1.3 tn — nearly half of global M&A value — while the total number of transactions fell 9% to around 24k, a six-year low, according to LSEG data. Bain similarly found strategic M&A value rose 36% y-o-y while transaction count increased just 2%, suggesting companies are making fewer, but bigger wagers.

Corporates are placing the bets — PE is sitting most of them out. Financial sponsor transaction value fell 9% even as strategic buyers pushed ahead, Bain says — a split that shows corporate acquirers, not buyout firms, are driving the rebound.

EMEA is having a moment: Strategic transaction value across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is up 77% y-t-d (as of May), powered by large targets in the region, Bain says. Europe has become an M&A hotspot as companies chase consolidation and scale, including the USD 24 bn offer for Altice France and Kone's USD 34.4 bn bid for TK Elevator.

AI is also pushing M&A beyond tech: Technology led all sectors with USD 649 bn of announced transactions in 1H, according to LSEG. Bain points to the proposed NextEra Energy-Dominion Energy merger as an example of how data centers are reshaping acquisition tactics, with utilities looking for the scale needed to build power generation for large-load demand data centers.

The catch? Bain calls it a “winner’s paradox”: Companies are chasing scale and resilience at the same time that AI transformation is becoming impossible to ignore. Or, as the report puts it: “How could we possibly manage an AI transformation alongside, or through, a massive integration program? At the same time, how can we afford not to?”

That means every acquisition thesis now needs an AI lens. Bain says acquirers need to assess how AI changes the target's business model, where synergies can arrive faster, and how much extra cost AI transformation adds to integration. In short: The M&A market is hot again, but integrating acquisitions while reinventing the business for AI may prove the harder task.

What's next: Bain has global dealmaking on pace to top USD 5.3 tn for the full year — just short of 2021's record USD 5.6 tn. Whether that pace holds through 2H will say a lot about whether this is a genuine cycle or a megadeal sugar high.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are mostly in the green this morning, with traders continuing to rotate out of tech stocks. Japan’s Nikkei is up 0.4%, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 1.3%. China’s CSI 300 is also up 0.7%. The only outliers: Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex slid 0.9%, and South Korea’s small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.1%. Meanwhile, US markets are closed tomorrow for the 4 July holiday.

ADX	9,810	+0.2% (YTD: -1.9%)
DFM	5,991	-0.3% (YTD: -2.0%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,720	+0.2% (YTD: -3.5%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.5% o/n	4.2% 1 yr
TASI	10,827	-0.3% (YTD: +3.2%)
EGX30	50,533	+0.1% (YTD: +20.8%)
S&P 500	7,483	+0% (YTD: +9.3%)
FTSE 100	10,653	+1.7% (YTD: +7.3%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,360	+1.2% (YTD: +9.8%)
Brent crude	USD 71.55	-0.4%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.21	+0.4%
Gold	USD 4,147.9	+0.5%
BTC	USD 61,483	+2.3% (YTD: -30.7%)
Chimera JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.73	-0.3% (YTD: +1.7%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	151.7	+0.1% (YTD: -0.0%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	16.15	-2.7% (YTD: +8%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX rose 0.2% yesterday on turnover of AED 858.3 mn. The index is down 1.9% YTD.

In the green: Hayah Ins. Company (+6.5%), National Corporation for Tourism & Hotels (+3.9%), and Invest Bank (+3.7%).

In the red: Ins. House (-4.7%), Orascom Construction (-3.8%), and Gulf Medical Projects Company (-2.9%).

Over on the DFM, the index fell 0.3% on turnover of AED 474.2 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was up 0.2%.

Sovra's Ahmed Wehbi got kicked out of his own bank years ago — now he's building a fintech that makes sure no one else does

Ahmed Wehbi's origin story starts with him standing outside a bank that had just refused to give him his own money. That experience inspired what has become his first venture, backed by some of the region’s most influential entrepreneurs and b’naires — a self-custody fintech built on stablecoins that lets people hold and move their money with no intermediary standing in between.

Wehbi has just closed a pre-seed round for Sovra and is preparing for launch this quarter. The first target markets are the ones global fintechs skip — think Lebanon, Syria, Iraq.

Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a member of the community starts their day — and throws in a couple of questions just for fun. This week, we sat down with Wehbi (LinkedIn) to talk about how the company came to be, how he’s building , what his mornings (and evenings) actually look like, and what he's reading right now. Edited excerpts from our conversation, lightly cleaned up for clarity:

EnterpriseAM: Where did the idea for Sovra actually come from?

Ahmed Wehbi: I worked hard for a big part of my 20s — in consulting, traveling back and forth across the GCC and the region, serving different clients, and building up savings for my future, putting it in a bank, in a savings account, thinking that that was the right thing to do. And then one day I started to hear that banks [in Lebanon, where I’m from] were shutting their doors and no longer giving people access to their money. I called my bank since I was abroad. I said, “Hey, can I access my money?” and I didn't get a clear answer.

So I took the first plane back home, went to the bank, made my case as to why I've been working hard and my money is my money and I should have it — but that went nowhere, and I was basically kicked out. When I was on the street, I realized that seeing a number on a screen and actually having access to it are two very different things.

It got me thinking: what is money in the first place, and what does it symbolize? I realized that money is basically effort you've spent in the past for the purpose that you plan to spend in the future. It comes as a store of a certain value, of work that you've done, because you don't want to spend it right now. And so how that money is stored, and what kind of system we design around that, can be life-changing — not only for individuals but for civilization. That's where I started to explore how technology could help solve this, and whether we really need intermediaries standing between us and our money.

E: How did the fundraising process start? And why did you go for a mix of angel investors and a VC?

AW: Once I realized the need for something like Sovra was there, the first thing I did was immerse myself in the technology. I worked for a startup that was building deep infrastructure for a couple of years. I wanted to learn the weeds before I could design and create the end product that people would use.

Throughout that journey I also saw what worked elsewhere, particularly Latin America, where there's an ecosystem of thriving applications solving problems similar to ours. That's where I took inspiration from, and I happened to meet the managing director of our VC that led the round — Pharsalus Capital — who also shared my belief that we could use technology to enhance personal sovereignty and the ability for people to own their money in the places that need it most, which is our region.

We set out to find established entrepreneurs and funders — people who'd also had their own successes solving problems at scale for the region, and in some cases even using the same technology. This set of investors and myself really found each other and aligned around two things: the size of the problem and how important it is to solve it, and the potential of the technology.

E: Stablecoins are still relatively new to the region, even as recognition of them grows in the UAE. What's the main challenge in building the technology — and in building the trust that gets people comfortable using it?

AW: This region is very diverse. It has parts with a very developed banking and financial ecosystem, and then parts where people are stuffing banknotes under the mattress because local institutions have failed. We are building primarily right now for the latter — less so places with established infrastructure, more so places where local solutions have failed people and international solutions don't extend. We see these global fintechs promising global reach and faster, cheaper access to financial services, but they very often exclude places like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. That's where we believe the need is biggest.

The cool thing about self-custodial architecture and stablecoins is that they're borderless, so they can move across borders very easily and very cheaply. The problem is that the technology has been complex to use so far. So the challenge becomes creating a product that's easy and intuitive enough for people to use, that integrates into their lives without requiring them to go out of their way to learn something new — and also educating people on what solutions exist, because that becomes the core of the trust we're trying to build. We solve for trust by explaining to users very transparently, very openly, everything that's going on, where their money is, showing it to them at any point in time — not asking them to trust us, but building a system that doesn't require trust in the first place.

E: Who's actually building the technology? Have you had to partner with outside institutions?

AW: What we're building is the technology layer that makes this global financial infrastructure accessible to people, and the entire build of that layer is something we do in-house — we have a team, mostly on the engineering side. Then we partner with financial institutions or providers that live under the hood and offer licensed financial services to our users. So any activity that interfaces with a financial activity — people depositing, withdrawing, issuing a card, paying with their balances, sending to banks, receiving from banks — all of that is conducted through licensed third parties that we integrate onto the platform.

E: Tell us about your morning routine — what does it actually look like?

AW: I check Slack within five seconds of waking up. Then I put my phone aside, try to wake up, take my dog for a walk, have some coffee, and catch up on what's going on on X mainly — a lot of what happens in this space happens on X. Sometimes, if I have time for it, a yoga or a gym session in the morning before coming to the office, if we're in Beirut, or jumping online if I'm in Dubai or elsewhere.

E: And in the evening — how do you wind down?

AW: I don't think I do. I try — with my wife, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Having team members across multiple time zones means sometimes I need to be present at different times of the day. I try my best to find moments of peace and quiet, more so in the morning after checking Slack.

Wehbi’s favorites

What he's reading: Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio. I've been really going deep into the definition of money.

What he does in his spare time: Movement, in whatever form is on offer — yoga, football, martial arts. I just like to move my body and I find it gives me a lot of peace and clarity of mind.

Favorite piece of advice: You can think about things all you want, the only way to find out is when you do. It helps me as a former consultant and as a person who likes to think strategically and really assess and evaluate things. I've realized that a lot of times the answer does not lie in my mind — it lies in how my body and my intuition is reacting to things.

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.

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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