Emaar’s Mohamed Alabbar says his memoir is about to be released

Mohamed Alabbar, the Emirati developer behind Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is releasing a memoir.

The 68-year-old founder of Emaar Properties said on Instagram that he wrote “For the Love of the Craft” to share his reflections as a family man and proud citizen of the UAE.

The book’s cover is pictured in the Instagram post but no publishing date is given.

Alabbar, a longtime advisor to the UAE leadership, established Emaar in 1997. The company built the Dubai Mall – then the world’s biggest mall by total area – in 2009 and opened the adjacent 162-story Burj Khalifa the following year.

Alabbar is also Chairman of international property developer Eagle Hills and e-commerce platform Noon.

Sotheby’s stages first international art auction in Saudi Arabia

As the sun sets over the golden mudbrick walls of At-Turaif that housed Saudi Arabia’s royal family 300 years ago, a glittering crowd will gather nearby this weekend to covet a historic collection of treasures.

Sotheby’s will use the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Riyadh’s historic Diriyah district as the backdrop for the kingdom’s first-ever international art auction. The event on Saturday will offer 100 lots of art, jewelry and sports memorabilia with an estimated value of more than $20 million.

“This sale is a huge deal for us because it involves us having to build an auction from scratch and convincing the consignors to sell,” Ashkan Baghestani, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art Day Sales, told The Circuit. “It is an evening sale because we wanted to come in with the big guns, offer masterworks, but also works that are affordable in terms of price point to the widest audience possible.”

The landmark sale, titled Origins, is being staged amid falling global art sales, with dealers and auction houses increasingly looking to wealthy Gulf countries to help keep them afloat.

The contents of the sale are being presented first in an exhibition, which opened on Feb. 1 and runs until the day of the auction. A wide range of fine art and luxury goods as well as digital art will whet the appetites of both new and seasoned art collectors.

Up for auction are works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, René Magritte, Wassily Kandinsky and Fernando Botero, alongside pieces by prominent artists from the Middle East. Those include the late Lebanese poet and painter Etel Adnan, Louay Kayyali from Syria, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian from Iran and Ahmed Mater, one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest names.

Other pieces include a James Turrell’s light installation going for between $120,000 and $180,000 (the American artist is presently working on a specially commissioned artwork for the Royal Commission of AlUla to be placed in the region’s Wadi AlFann or “Valley of the Arts”); Antony Gormley’s “Sidle” estimated at $700,000 to $900,000; the late sculptor Alexander Calder’s “Haute Couture” installation, estimated between $700,000 to $900,000 and “AMOR” by Robert Indiana going for $220,000 to $280,000.

“By showcasing a well-curated and versatile selection of works, the auction challenges misconceptions about the Saudi market—particularly the notion that wealth alone drives collecting habits,” Saudi art collector Basma Al Sulaiman told The Circuit.

“Instead, it highlights the region’s deep-rooted cultural and tribal heritage, which values cautious and informed decision-making,” said Al Sulaiman, founder of the Basma Al Sulaiman Museum of Contemporary Art, known as BASMOCA.

The Sotheby’s auction will also feature a collection of valuable watches in which the top lot is a Richard Mille RM038 Yohan Blake prototype. The watch, which was custom-made for Blake, a Jamaican sprinter who wore it during the 2012 London Olympic Game, is estimated at $1 million to $1.5 million. There’s also a yellow gold Cartier Crash made in 2007, estimated at $130,000 to $260,000, several Rolexes, and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak estimated at $80,000 to $150,000.

In the jewelry category, there is a pair of Harry Winston earrings made of ruby, turquoise and diamonds, estimated at $35,000 to $55,000, and a Bulgari Serpenti wristwatch in rubellite, emerald and diamond, estimated at $60,000 to  $70,000. 

Since Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2016 and launched his ambitious Vision 2030 socio-economic plan, culture has been at the forefront of major government investment both in the private and public realm, from major museums in the works to blockbuster biennales of contemporary and Islamic art.

“We’ve witnessed in the last five years with Vision 2030 a strong focus on art and culture on a governmental and institutional level,” Baghestani says. “There is now great cultural tourism in this country. We felt that it was now time that the commercial world and community within the art world should start kicking and have more of a presence in Saudi.”

However, the Sotheby’s auction is being staged as the Kingdom is tightening the purse strings amid lower oil prices and an overcommitment of resources affecting numerous Vision 2030 projects. Sotheby’s, meanwhile, faces struggles of its own.

The auction house founded in London in 1744 and now owned by Moroccan-born billionaire Patrick Drahi, signed a deal with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ in August 2024 for both parties to inject a joint $1 billion into the company.

After the deal was made a leaked report in September showed Sotheby’s core earnings had declined by 88 percent and its auction sales had dropped by 25 percent in the first half of 2024. In December the auction house announced over 100 layoffs. 

While the Sotheby’s auction is taking place during a period of great market uncertainty, it holds much promise for its ability to foster growth for the art market in Saudi Arabia, fostering new collectors and encouraging the rise of the country’s own art market, still largely dominated by the public sector.

As Baghestani puts it: “So much needs to be done still on a commercial level. I think being the first ones and the first runners to offer such a wide range of work is exciting.”

ADNOC dealmaking goes straight to top amid Covestro negotiations

The decision by the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC to move from operating simply as a domestic oil producer to taking the reins as an international dealmaker comes straight from the top – and progress this week on a $12.5 billion takeover of German chemicals giant Covestro may burnish its reputation.  

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed chaired a 2022 board meeting where he approved a $150 billion five-year capital spending plan to transition the company from a traditional state oil firm into a diversified, multinational energy company. 

When the Covestro deal appeared to stall in recent months, ADNOC raised its bid after seeking approval from MBZ, Bloomberg reports. The negotiations took place against a backdrop of accelerating deal activity at ADNOC and its alternative energy company, Masdar, in which it owns a 33% stake. 

Now Masdar finds itself in a bidding war to acquire Spanish renewables firm Saeta Yield from Brookfield. In the past year it has bought a renewable energy company in Greece and announced a deal to purchase a 50% stake in Terra-Gen, one of the largest private renewable energy producers in the U.S.

The ink dries on these agreements as ADNOC is boosting production capacity and Masdar is looking to develop or acquire an energy portfolio of at least 100 GW capacity by 2030.

Meet the best friends introducing Middle Eastern date syrup to the wider world

As teenagers, David Czinn and Brian Finkel joked that they would go into business together one day. Little did they expect that their pipe dream would become reality, or that their fledgling business — based on an ancient biblical fruit, and with one foot in the very modern startup nation — would grow into a formidable international operation with private backing and products sold in 7,000 stores across the U.S.

D’vash Organics — whose name comes from the word in the Torah used for honey, which in biblical times referred to date honey — specializes in date syrup and date energy bars. Czinn and Finkel serve as president and CEO, respectively, of D’vash, which currently sells goods in the U.S. and South Korea, with plans to expand to Canada. 

Although D’vash is based in California and Czinn resides in Los Angeles, Finkel has lived in Israel since 2013 and works remotely overseas, traversing a 10-hour time difference to communicate with his partner.

With executives on two continents, D’vash lives the premise that it will unite different groups of people. Two Jews from the Midwest working with partners in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, with a business team based in the Philippines, sell their Middle Eastern-influenced products around the world. For Czinn, D’vash bears the legacy of his grandmother’s love of feeding people and the commitment of his parents’ — who are doctors — to a healthy lifestyle.

“I think there’s something very special with food,” Czinn told Jewish Insider. “It bridges a lot of gaps… there’s nothing better than when you sit down at a table and you break bread together. If there’s a good meal, I think it can solve all the problems… [because] you get people comfortable with one another,” explained Czinn.

Czinn and Finkel met at Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, a gap-year program in Jerusalem, where they bonded over food, and experienced what Finkel called “one of the most formative years of my life.” 

From there, the two friends progressed to separate colleges, Czinn heading to the University of Maryland to study business and Finkel heading to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business to study economics and finance. Although they attended separate universities, Czinn and Finkel frequently saw each other, commuting by train for monthly visits.

The origins of D’vash Organics lie in an innocuous phone call — like the numerous phone calls Czinn and Finkel enjoyed as friends — when Finkel described date syrup’s ubiquity in Israel.

“One day… I realized I was eating Silan date syrup all the time. And I kind of just had this epiphany. And I called David, who had been in the food industry already for a number of years, and I said, ‘Hey, what do you think about date syrup?’”

Czinn was confident that date syrup could take off in the U.S. He had initially broken into the food industry when he noticed the health-conscious food culture in L.A. and detected a market for an organic fruit snack company, which he then co-founded with his cousin, called Fruigees. Czinn now saw demand for a cheaper, healthier alternative to honey, and date syrup fit the bill.

The two friends were intrigued about bringing date syrup to an American audience, and the timing was perfect: Finkel was between jobs and Czinn had just enjoyed success with Fruigees. Overcoming the skepticism of friends and family, Czinn and Finkel took the plunge and created D’vash.

D’vash is dedicated to providing a product that is healthy — both for people and the environment. Their syrup is cheaper, more sustainable and contains 25% less sugar than honey; it is also vegan and does not include high-fructose corn syrup. Because pediatricians and parents are concerned about children consuming large amounts of protein, D’vash addresses that worry by manufacturing energy bars without high protein content.

When it was a new company, D’vash endured many rejections before eventually securing vital contracts with sellers and distributors. 

“Brian showed me all of the aisles filled with date syrup in the Middle East. We really believed that we had what hummus was 10 years ago, prior to Sabra being acquired by Pepsi,” explained Czinn.

“When you think of ketchup, you think of Heinz; when you think of pop, you think of Coca-Cola; [when you think of] tissues, [you think of] Kleenex. All these iconic brands are identified with the product that they make, and are basically synonymous with that product… When people think of dates or anything date-related… we want people to think of D’vash,” said Finkel.

With products already sold in three countries, and contracts with major American stores including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Costco and CVS, D’vash has expanded to the skies in a new partnership with Cathay Pacific Airlines, announced last month. The Hong Kong-based airline will provide D’vash’s energy bars as refreshments on their flights.

D’vash’s success illustrates the broader shifting political climate in the Middle East, and highlights the bridgeable gaps among divided groups. In the company’s early days, D’vash relied on dates grown in the Coachella Valley in California, but as the business expanded, Czinn and Finkel needed a larger date supplier, and stumbled upon the United Arab Emirates-based Al Barakah Dates Factory.

“When we started to reach out to alternative suppliers, we did a deep dive — it was probably a Google search — and we reached out to Al Barakah,” recounted Czinn. Although the date company was initially skeptical, its officials were quickly impressed as D’vash’s orders grew in size and frequency, and were eager to enter a formal partnership with Czinn and Finkel.

Although Al Barakah did not know that D’vash’s founders were Jewish, nor that one is Israeli, they coincidentally floated a potential partnership the same week the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the UAE, were announced. By the time Finkel flew to Dubai to meet with his Emirati associates, direct flights had opened between Israel and Dubai, creating a quick option to conduct business.

For Czinn, the Abraham Accords “really made me believe that this entire thing was fate.” It also meant business with the UAE was easier and cheaper because Finkel was a short plane flight away.

While visiting Dubai to formalize their cooperation, Finkel and his wife went out to dinner at Armani Kaf, Dubai’s first kosher restaurant, with his Al Barakah counterpart and his wife. When Finkel mentioned that he lived in Israel, his new business partner reacted positively and explained that he had long conducted business with Israel using unmarked containers traveling through Jordan; the new peace treaty smoothened his business dealings.

“Now that we’re vertically integrated… we can remain nimble, and build what the market desires, and so whatever the market dictates in terms of what type of products people are looking for, we have all the ingredients necessary in order to create the right products,” said Czinn reflecting on the benefits conferred by partnering with Al Barakah dates.

For the two founders, the learning curve has been steep, but filled with memorable moments. At first, in a push for product sustainability, D’vash manufactured all of its syrups in glass bottles, but ran into trouble. 

“We would get emails on a regular basis. No matter how well we would pad the product — bubble wrap it, put it into stronger, corrugated boxes — FedEx and UPS would manage to break it,” related Czinn. In response, the company pivoted to plastic bottles, acknowledging the necessity of using less-green, but more durable containers.

They also learned the power of persistence first-hand. After sending numerous emails to the buyers at Costco touting their new products without receiving a response, Czinn and Finkel emailed the company’s CEO, CFO and COO in a desperate Hail Mary. To their surprise, one of the executives forwarded the email to the company’s buyers, and the buyers responded to D’vash to negotiate a contract.

Once the Costco deal was solidified, the first shipment ran into trouble when it was blocked by a large cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal. “Never in a million years did I think a large news story would impact mine and Brian’s life,” Czinn reflected.

Although they worried Costco would be upset about the delay due to a “dog ate my homework” type of excuse, the international wholesale company was understanding of the delay. For Czinn and Finkel, the episode reinforced the importance of perpetual resilience.

“We’re constantly having to innovate, think outside of the box, get creative and constantly figure out ways to win,” reflected Czinn.

The duo hope to roll out more products, expand to more countries and score contracts with brands as an ingredient in other foods.

Despite the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s slowly growing presence, D’vash has not faced resentment because of Finkel’s Israeli citizenship; on the contrary, Finkel’s experiences in Israel is a chance to create awareness about the Jewish state.

“I think it’s an opportunity to educate. It’s an opportunity to have a discussion. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow from one another, and hopefully,” said Czinn, “that will help build and create more open minds.”