Stockholm-based EQT establishes Gulf foothold in Abu Dhabi
Europe’s largest private investment firm is opening its first Middle East office in Abu Dhabi, in the latest sign that the Iran war has done little to dent the UAE’s appeal as a financial hub.
Swedish firm EQT, which manages $389 billion in client assets, will join a growing lineup of global asset managers in the Abu Dhabi Global Market free zone, The National reports. Smiyet Belrhiti will lead the Abu Dhabi office.
“The launch of EQT’s Middle East platform reflects our conviction in the scale and momentum of opportunity across the GCC,” EQT CEO Per Franzén said.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Lesha Bank signed an agreement with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners to invest more than $1 billion alongside the infrastructure investor.
BlackRock plans to deploy up to $100 billion in the Middle East, targeting infrastructure and opportunities created by the opening of state-owned assets to private investment, Zawya reports.
L’Imad-owned McLaren plans to build $674 million factory in U.K.
McLaren Automotive is planning to invest $674 million in a new U.K. factory, as Abu Dhabi’s L’Imad sovereign wealth fund works to reboot the cash-strapped British supercar-maker and help launch its first SUV.
The move, which will create 1,000 new jobs by 2032, is a welcome boost for U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham amid thousands of job cuts at Jaguar Land Rover and wider cost pressures on Europe’s carmakers.
McLaren CEO Nick Collins told Bloomberg that an SUV would broaden the brand’s appeal beyond racing fans, following a similar path to luxury supercar makers like Ferrari and Lamborghini.
“In the way we’re going to do it, there’s absolutely space for another one,” he said.
L’Imad took control of McLaren from Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings, which had purchased it from Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign fund.
Turkey bets on tax incentives to lure investors from Gulf
Turkey is positioning itself as a new wealth hub between Europe and the Middle East, unveiling tax incentives to attract wealthy expats and overseas investors amid instability in the Gulf and London.
The measures include reduced inheritance taxes, exemptions on overseas income for up to 20 years and an amnesty programme for undeclared foreign assets, echoing incentives previously offered by the U.K., Bloomberg reports.
Turkey’s push comes as the government seeks to strengthen its financial credentials after years of inflation, currency volatility and political uncertainty, while Gulf nations face renewed questions over regional security risks.
Officials say Turkey aims to become a global center for investment and capital management, though analysts note it remains unclear how many wealthy individuals will choose it over established destinations in the Gulf and Europe.
JPMorgan expands EMEA team, hiring 30 senior bankers
JPMorgan is accelerating its expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, hiring 30 senior bankers by year-end.
The recruits will support the firm’s effort to facilitate $1.5 trillion in financing for industries tied to national security, including up to $10 billion of its own capital, Reuters reports.
JPMorgan has doubled its workforce in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Poland over the past two years and plans to increase staffing in those markets by another 60% over the next five years.
The bank also said it has expanded lending in the Middle East as the U.S.-Iran conflict prompted some competitors to pull back from the region.
MSC launches Europe-Gulf route to bypass Strait of Hormuz
MSC, the world’s largest ocean cargo carrier, is launching a new Europe-Gulf shipping service that uses sea, rail and trucking routes to get around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
The new line will run from Antwerp through the Suez Canal to Red Sea ports before moving goods overland across Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.
The shift comes as the U.S.-Iran blockade has disrupted supply chains and threatened a sea corridor that handles about 20% of global oil and gas flows.
MSC said the hybrid network, which will begin operating May 10, aims to maintain reliable transit times to major Gulf hubs, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Saudi Port of Dammam.
Gulf expats shop for second homes, safe haven in Europe
Expats in the Middle East are shopping for second homes in Europe and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for second passports as the Iran war fuels safety concerns and drives demand for stable overseas assets.
Hotspots for house-shoppers include London, Paris, Geneva and Monaco, which are seeing increased interest from expats living in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, Bloomberg reports.
Buyers are focusing on prime, ready-to-move-in properties and working through family offices and brokers to secure residences quickly, with some shifting funds out of the region as security risks rise and travel patterns change.
In parallel, demand from UAE expats for passports from other countries has increased since the start of the war, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports. It cites an Indian-Arab family of four that secured citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis under a government program that charged about $270,000.
Meanwhile, U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is seeking to attract expats from the Gulf by promoting Britain as a safe haven and repairing relationships strained by recent tax changes, The Financial Times reports. She plans to revisit tax rules that currently risk double taxation on income from U.S. LLCs for those relocating to the U.K., according to the FT.
ADNOC clinches $17B Covestro deal after regulatory battle
Coming out on top after more than a year of scrutiny by European regulators, ADNOC has secured a 95% stake in Germany’s Covestro, completing the largest acquisition in the UAE energy firm’s history and deepening its push into chemicals.
The deal values the specialty materials maker at roughly $17 billion, and gives ADNOC control through its investment arm XRG and affiliated holding companies, Covestro said in a report to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Covestro produces polymers and advanced materials used in the automotive, construction and electronics industries. The acquisition strengthens Adnoc’s strategy to diversify beyond oil and gas, and build a global chemicals portfolio.
The transaction cleared 14 months of regulatory probes in Europe, including review under the European Union’s foreign subsidies rules. Germany’s Economic Ministry gave the deal its final approval on Nov. 5.
Covestro said earlier that upon closing of the deal, the company would proceed with a $1.4 billion capital increase for strategic investment and further execution of its sustainability program.
LIV Golf recruits HSBC as its international banking partner
LIV Golf, the upstart league owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is building up in Europe with the signing of HSBC as its official international banking partner.
The three-year alliance with the London-based bank will start today with the LIV Golf Andalucia event at Real Club Valderrama in Spain.
HSBC has been a longtime sponsor of Europe’s DP Tour, which entered a strategic alliance in 2020 with the PGA, the established U.S. tour.
Under the agreement, HSBC said it will sponsor two of the league’s 13 teams, the Crushers GC and Majesticks GC.
HSBC will also become the presenting partner of LIV Golf’s “9 to Play” segment that will appear during every LIV Golf live broadcast and is seen in 120 international markets.
“HSBC’s track record in supporting and advancing the game of golf is inspiring and admirable, and we are proud to welcome them into LIV Golf’s growing roster of global partners,” LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said in a statement.
LIV Golf, which poached some of the PGA’s biggest names through $100 million-plus contracts, is currently in its fourth season.
The two leagues have been negotiating a merger unsuccessfully for the past two years.
President Donald Trump is one of LIV Golf’s most prominent fans and has hosted events at his golf resorts in New Jersey, Florida and Washington D.C.
Egypt intercontinental rail plan needs go-ahead for Saudi bridge
Egypt is aiming to link its expanding railway network with Asia and Europe, but it hasn’t yet been able to finalize plans to build a bridge to Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, it will use ships to bring cargo across the Red Sea, Reuters reports. Saudi’s King Salman first announced the bridge project in 2016, envisioning a road that would cross the Straits of Tiran to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
If completed, the route would compete with another notional rail project that would connect the UAE to Israel’s Haifa Port through Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Another project on the drawing board would run north from the Gulf through Iraq.
Novartis seeks to close gap with U.S. in Gulf drug approvals
Novartis, Europe’s second-largest drugmaker, is seeking to obtain broader rights from regulators to sell its newest medicines in the UAE and neighboring Gulf countries as soon as they are approved in the U.S.
Mohamed Ezz Eldin, a 25-year Novartis veteran who runs operations in the Gulf, said the Swiss company is also tapping into genetic data with partners from the region to develop new treatments for rare diseases and illnesses prevalent in the Middle East.
“Our key focus is ensuring that patients eligible for our medicines have access,” Ezz Eldin said in an interview with The Circuit. The Novartis executive, who is based in Dubai, signed a research partnership agreement this week with the Emirates Dermatology Association.
Among the company’s priority activities in the Gulf are development of advanced digital health technologies, AI-based diagnostics and nuclear medicine treatments for cancer, Ezz Eldin said.
The company is also working with the Emirati Genome Program, which analyzes genetic data collected from donors to conduct research with government health authorities and other pharmaceutical firms. Novartis is also supporting the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s Health, Endurance Longevity and Medicine cluster, known as HELM, in which the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund is a strategic partner.
The UAE, which aspires to become a regional center for biotech development, expects the genome program to yield insights into disease onset and progression, the impact on high-risk populations, and possible new treatments.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your priorities for growth in the Gulf?
Our key focus is ensuring that patients eligible for our medicines have access. We partner with authorities and societies to expand access to innovative medicines. We aim to ensure that every eligible patient can access our therapies and adhere to treatment. Access, bringing innovation to the UAE and the GCC, and patient education are core to what we do. In the UAE, patients have almost simultaneous access to medicines after FDA approval. Through partnerships with authorities, we ensure patient and disease awareness to support access.
What areas of research is Novartis engaged with in the region?
AI applied to research is one. One of our most important key performance indicators is how fast our innovative medicines and advanced therapies are available in the UAE. Recently, the UAE was the second or third globally to register and make available several of our medicines, such as cell and gene therapies. Advanced therapies like radioligand therapy for prostate cancer were available in the UAE almost simultaneously with the U.S. and Europe. Speed of registration, availability, reimbursement, and patient access are critical KPIs for us.
You’ve spoken about the importance of regional partnerships. Which organizations is Novartis working with?
Our partnerships extend across a broad spectrum. We are proud to partner with authorities across the Emirates in areas like disease awareness and patient support programs. We have a partnership with the Emirates Dermatology Society focused on disease awareness, education, and degeneration. We also partnered with the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi on drug establishment.
Across different therapy areas, we focus on access to innovation, patient support programs, disease awareness, and other activities. We recently expanded our clinical research activities here. We are proud to have evidence generation, real-world evidence studies, and clinical trials. We also partnered with the DOH on the genomic project they are running.
What does Novartis’ genetic research in the Gulf entail?
We are in a collaborative phase with the Department of Health and other global pharma companies to identify research questions that we can solve together. Initially, we are assessing the linkage between genomic profiling, electronic medical records, and biobank data. After this phase, we aim to launch individual research projects to understand disease onset, high-risk populations, and disease progression, with the goal of prevention and individualized treatment.
