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.
L’Imad moves to take full control of AD Ports amid Hormuz risks
Abu Dhabi’s L’Imad Holding sovereign wealth fund wants tighter control of the emirate’s ports as the Iran war makes shipping through the Strait of Hormuz increasingly risky.
The government-owned fund is offering to buy the 24.6% of AD Ports it doesn’t already control for about $2.1 billion, valuing the company at $8.66 billion, Bloomberg reports.
The offer of 6.25 dirhams a share is a 23% premium to Friday’s close and sent AD Ports shares up by the daily limit of 15% on Monday.
Taking AD Ports private would give L’Imad more freedom to invest and make acquisitions across a network that includes ports, shipping services and economic zones, including infrastructure that can help Abu Dhabi bypass Hormuz.
The move comes two months after L’Imad said it would delist $81 billion utility TAQA, reversing Abu Dhabi’s recent push to put major state assets on the public market.
Milken rallies investments at Mubadala tennis tournament
Mubadala plans to devote about $170 billion to U.S. interests, roughly 44% of its portfolio, spanning AI and healthcare to energy and advanced manufacturing.
The strategy was at the center of discussions during a Milken Institute forum last week, held alongside the Mubadala D.C. Open, the UAE sovereign wealth fund’s annual ATP 500/WTA 500 tournament in Washington, D.C.
“For Mubadala, the U.S. is our most strategic and attractive investment market,” said Ahmed Saeed Al Calily, Mubadala’s Chief Strategy & Risk Officer.
Among the participants were seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Will Ahmed, Co-Founder and CEO of Whoop; Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota); Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Richard Ditizio, CEO of the Milken Institute.
The tennis tournament was scheduled to wrap up on Monday after play was suspended due to thunderstorms. Third-seeded Taylor Fritz was slated to face Rafael Jodar in the men’s final while Jessica Pegula and Alexandra Eala compete for the women’s title.
Abu Dhabi assesses plans for sovereign funds in turbulent year
From sovereign wealth funds to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE’s largest investment institutions came under review this week as officials assessed performance and future investment plans in the middle of a turbulent year marked by the Iran war.
The meeting of the Investment Affairs Council on Monday to review first-quarter earnings, recent deals and projects slated for later this year, was led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Advisor and chairman of some of Abu Dhabi’s largest firms and funds.
Among the entities under review were the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala, L’Imad and ADNOC, along with major investments executed since the start of the year and ongoing transactions across regional and international markets.
The meeting in Abu Dhabi was attended by Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of ADNOC; Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group CEO of Mubadala; Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed, Managing Director of ADIA, and Jassem Al Zaabi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance.
Also present were Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
A new report by Bain & Co. shows that Middle East sovereign wealth funds face major challenges while expanding their global reach. Over the next decade, the funds will have to adapt to such challenges as higher interest rates, geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, and the global energy transition, Arab News reports, citing the Bain report.
UAE quits OPEC
The UAE said it is quitting OPEC, delivering a powerful blow to the alliance amid disruptions to the global energy business triggered by the Iran war.
“This decision follows a comprehensive review of the UAE’s production policy and its current and future capacity and is based on our national interest and our commitment to contributing effectively to meeting the market’s pressing needs,” OPEC said on Tuesday in a statement carried by the UAE state news agency Wam.
The split with OPEC and the broader OPEC+ coalitiion, comes as Gulf producers struggle to move exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian threats and attacks have disrupted a key global sea channel and LNG transit route. The UAE said its departure will be effective May 1.
Tensions have been escalating since the UAE, the world’s seventh largest oil producer, criticized fellow Arab states for failing to adequately respond to Iranian attacks. Anwar Gargash, an advisor to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed publicly condemned what he described as weak political and military support from both the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League.
“During our time in the organization, we made significant contributions and even greater sacrifices for the benefit of all,” the OPEC statment said, “However, the time has come to focus our efforts on what our national interest dictates and our commitment to our investors, customers, partners and global energy markets. This is what we will focus on going forward.”
UAE expands U.S. investments amid disruptions from Iran war
The UAE is pressing ahead with major overseas investments despite the war, as Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Co. expands in the U.S. energy industry with a new multibillion-dollar deal.
IHC’s 2PointZero unit agreed to pay about $2.25 billion for a stake in U.S. natural gas producer Expand Energy in a transaction that gives the Abu Dhabi-backed platform access to upstream gas production and associated infrastructure as it builds a global energy portfolio, Bloomberg reports.
UAE Ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba told business leaders last week that Emirati investors would stand by roughly $1.4 trillion in planned and existing investments in the U.S., stressing that the economic partnership would remain “strong and enduring.”
In a separate transaction, IHC said it received regulatory approval for a deal worth about $1 billion to acquire a stake in Indian mortgage lender Sammaan Capital as part of a strategy to build controlling positions in finance and other high-growth industries.
IHC is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser who also oversees a network of state-linked investment vehicles. 2PointZero was established as a platform to spend tens of billions of dollars globally, with the U.S. gas deal among its largest transactions to date.
Dubai’s property market put to test in missile barrage from Iran
The UAE’s years-long property rally faces its first major test after Iranian missile strikes unsettled investors, sending shares in developers such as Aldar Properties and Emaar Properties down almost 5%.
The sell-off comes as analysts had already warned that a pipeline of new housing supply expected by 2028 could outpace population growth, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, bond prices of major developers also dropped sharply, effectively shutting the debt market.
With expatriates and overseas buyers underpinning much of the market’s demand, investors say the outlook will depend largely on whether foreign appetite for property in the UAE holds up.
G42 unveils monitoring system to safeguard U.S.-made AI chips
Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence group G42 says it will implement a new framework to tightly control advanced U.S. chips used in its data centers, seeking to reassure Washington that sensitive technology will be safeguarded and used in line with export rules.
The company plans to embed monitoring, geolocation verification and cryptographic tracking directly into its infrastructure, creating what it described as a “common operating picture” that offers continuous visibility into how the semiconductors are used.
Jacob Helberg, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment, said the approach could be “unprecedented,” giving American policymakers confidence that the UAE-based clusters cannot be accessed improperly or diverted to restricted users.
The effort comes amid longstanding U.S. concerns that Gulf states could become backdoors for China to obtain advanced American technology, an issue that has complicated previous export approvals.
If successful, G42 said its model could be expanded across partners in the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, positioning the UAE firm as a test case for how high-performance AI infrastructure can be built up globally while remaining compliant with U.S. security requirements.
Saudi group negotiates U.S. venture for Greenland minerals
Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s declarations of interest in taking over Greenland, a Saudi investment group is in talks with New York-based Critical Metals Corp. to build a refinery for processing the massive Arctic island’s mineral resources.
Critical Metals announced on Thursday that it signed a non-binding term sheet to form a 50-50 joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Tariq Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al-Qahtani & Brothers. The facility would be linked to the U.S. company’s planned Tanbreez mining project in Greenland.
Under the plan, about a quarter of the minerals from the Tanbreez mine would be processed in Saudi Arabia, which is looking to extract more value from its own deposits of so-called rare earths. Critical Metals said the refined materials could be used in high-tech applications and distributed through U.S. defense supply chains.
If finalized, the deal would give Critical Metals guaranteed customers and likely ease its path to full financing for the project, which is estimated to cost $290 million to start production by next year.
“We see a strong opportunity to work closely with partners in the United States to responsibly develop and deploy these materials in support of next-generation technologies,” Abdulmalik Tariq Al-Qahtani, the Saudi firm’s CEO, said in a statement.
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.
