IHC expands digital finance push with Peko Holdings acquisition
International Holding Co., the UAE’s largest publicly traded company, is stepping up its expansion into digital financial services with the purchase of a 70% stake in Peko Holdings.
Peko runs a digital platform that helps small and mid-sized businesses manage tasks such as paying bills, issuing invoices, handling payroll and keeping track of basic compliance requirements, replacing multiple systems with a single online tool.
The deal adds to a run of acquisitions by IHC aimed at building a broad digital finance and services business, following investments that include Invictus Investment and First Women Bank, as well as earlier technology-focused purchases designed to generate recurring, fee-based income.
IHC, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, plays an outsized role in the UAE economy through a portfolio that includes some of the country’s most valuable companies, such as Alpha Dhabi Holding, Multiply Group and National Marine Dredging Co.
The group is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE National Security Advisor, and has positioned itself as a key vehicle for Abu Dhabi’s drive to diversify away from oil by backing fast-growing businesses in technology and digital finance.
Emaar’s Alabbar plots global growth, says Dubai feels small
Emaar Properties, the Dubai-based real estate company that built the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, is exploring acquisitions in the U.S., India and China as part of a major push into international markets.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar said the company plans to use profits generated in the UAE’s recent property boom to finance its expansion, seeking majority stakes in foreign real-estate developers and joint ventures.
“It’s time for intensive, global growth,” Alabbar told the FT. “Emaar is strong in the United Arab Emirates, but I think the market may be getting too small for us – or Dubai may be getting too small – for this growth story to continue.”
Emaar already owns large stocks of overseas land and operates subsidiaries in Egypt, India and Saudi Arabia.
Alabbar is also head of Eagle Hills, a private investment and real estate development company based in Abu Dhabi; Noon.com, an e-commerce platform; and Americana Group, which operates restaurants across the Middle East and North Africa.
Alabbar said Emaar’s financial performance has provided the cash for expansion, citing a 34% increase to $2.8 billion in net income for the first half of 2025.
Aramco, ADNOC cutting back on M&A amid decline in oil prices
The Gulf’s largest state-owned oil companies are adapting to lower crude prices in the foreseeable future by cutting back on multibillion-dollar acquisitions and selling assets.
Both Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest petroleum exporter, and Abu Dhabi-based ADNOC have slowed down their M&A activities as they assess what the 16% drop in oil prices this year will mean for their bottom lines, the Financial Times reports.
Over the past three years, Aramco and ADNOC have been the oil industry’s most active dealmakers, announcing more than $60 billion of acquisitions as the two giants expanded into gas, chemicals and lubricants.
With oil prices falling to $67 a barrel this week and analysts predicting continued oversupply in the market, both companies are looking at ways to cut spending and curb their appetites for big acquisitions, the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meanwhile, reported that net profit fell by more than half last year to about $7 billion, reflecting the impact of lower crude prices for the sovereign wealth fund, which owns a 16% stake in Aramco.
The PIF’s income from investment activities, however, gained 38% from the previous year, pushing the fund’s total assets under management above $1 trillion, second among Gulf sovereign wealth funds to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Why is Abu Dhabi’s PureHealth buying up U.K. hospitals?
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The UAE’s biggest health-care network, PureHealth, has made two big-ticket acquisitions since forming last year, looking outside the region to the U.S. and U.K. for growth, while forging a research relationship with Israel.
Last week, PureHealth bought one of the U.K.’s largest independent hospital operators in a $1.2 billion deal. Circle Health Group operates 53 private hospitals and marks PureHealth’s entrance into the British market. The news came three months after a deal was finalized for a minority stake in U.S.-based Ardent Health Services. The $490 million equity investment made PureHealth the only UAE-based health-care provider to ever directly acquire assets in U.S. hospitals and clinics.
ADQ, PureHealth’s largest shareholder, is one of the Middle East’s largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of large Abu Dhabi firms.
As one of several sovereign wealth funds in the capital emirate it also has a unique mandate: to be the lead investor driving the UAE’s economic transformation from petro-state to a knowledge-based economy. Chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s national security adviser and brother to president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, its portfolio includes holdings in agriculture, energy, financial services, health care and life sciences.
ADQ merged its health-care subsidiaries with Alpha Dhabi’s Pure Health Medical Supplies in January 2022. PureHealth, which had branded itself as a research and clinical hub focused on longevity, was the main provider of the nation’s massive COVID-19 testing effort at the time. ADQ’s agreement consolidated the public health provider SEHA, major health insurer Daman and stem cell research center ADSCC into one group, creating a footprint of more than 25 hospitals, more than 100 clinics and more than 160 laboratories in the UAE. Its shareholders include Alpha Dhabi Holding, AH Capital, Ataa Financial Investments as well as International Holding Co., a company also led by Sheikh Tahnoon.
“Going forward, PureHealth will actively seek expansion opportunities globally to further diversify its portfolio and leverage its success in the UAE,” Mohamed Thani Murshed Al Rumaithi, chairman of Alpha Dhabi Holding, a minority shareholder, said at the time.
Earlier this year, PureHealth also struck a strategic partnership with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, a globally recognized medical research institution.
The two entities said at the time they will closely collaborate on joint clinical research projects, promote the use of advanced technology in health care, expand genetic research initiatives and boost health tourism in both countries.
The alliance will also focus on education and training. Both parties will jointly organize conferences and events, and create clinical specialization projects and internships.
This expansion strategy follows a wider trend in the Gulf, Bloomberg noted last week, with a glut of deals happening between the Middle East and the West in sectors spanning sport, energy, logistics and yes, health care.
“Corporates in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are being empowered by their sovereign backers to go out and seek transformative transactions,” Hamza Girach, co-head of Citigroup Inc.’s Middle East and Africa, banking, capital markets and advisory unit, told Bloomberg in an interview. “This is the biggest shift that we are seeing when it comes to dealmaking in the Middle East, which is the emergence of these companies who are seeking overseas growth and keen to expand via acquisitions.”
PureHealth’s deal with Ardent, which was first announced in September 2022, gives PureHealth board observer rights, although not a seat on Ardent’s board of directors. The investment also “does not include plans for either the expansion of Ardent’s physical footprint or collaboration between Ardent and PureHealth in the delivery of care”, according to a statement.
“The conclusion of this transaction marks the beginning of a new phase of growth for PureHealth in which we will build on our global relationships and strengthen our international reputation,” Farhan Malik, managing director and CEO of PureHealth, said at the time.
These global ambitions for UAE health care came after a strong pandemic performance, which to outsiders may have appeared unexpected. Health-care costs were increasing when COVID-19 took hold and the country had a shortage of nurses relative to Western nations, according to analysis by the U.S.-UAE Business Council in 2021. Yet on Bloomberg’s monthly global COVID-19 resilience ranking the UAE regularly sat in the top three, thanks to a high vaccination rate and relatively limited interference to travel and economic activity.
Today, Abu Dhabi has ambitions to capture the world’s first population-wide genetic library and localize pharmaceuticals manufacturing while becoming a destination for clinical trials and research. The genome project is a foundational piece to Abu Dhabi’s ambitious plans for personalized medicine, which also include a connected network of the emirate’s medical records.
