International Holding Co., the broad-based conglomerate controlled by UAE power broker Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, is expanding its financial services business by forming Rorix Holdings.

The new company under the IHC umbrella will focus on finance, commodities trading and trade insurance, the parent company said in a statement on Monday.

Through Rorix, IHC said it expects to accelerate trade volumes, attract foreign investment, and broaden economic partnerships.

Rorix will “play a crucial role in realizing the UAE’s vision in facilitating seamless trade across borders,” IHC Chief Executive Syed Basar Shueb said.

The new firm will seek to capitalize on a flurry of free trade agreements the UAE has signed in the past three years with countries including India, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey and South Korea, he said.

Asia’s second richest man Gautam Adani has laid out his succession plans for the first time.

In a rare interview, the 62-year-old tycoon says he will retire at 70 and hand over the reins of his vast Adani Group conglomerate to his two sons, Karan and Jeet, and their cousins, Pranav and Sagar, Bloomberg reports.

Adani is the 11th richest individual in the world, with a net worth of more than $100 billion, and has deep business connections in the Gulf from ports and power to tech and AI.

Planning for one of the world’s largest and most complex transfers of wealth kicked off in 2018 when Adani invited the four heirs to lunch at his home and gave them a three-month ultimatum to decide whether they would keep the Adani Group together or split it up and part ways, Bloomberg reported.

The four men decided to stick together. “I am happy that all of them are hungry for growth, which is not common in the second generation,” Adani said. “They have to work together to build a legacy.”

Saudi Arabia is cautiously bullish on Asia’s appetite for oil while it tries to stoke demand in Europe.

That’s the takeaway from state-owned Aramco’s decision to raise the price of its Arab Light crude to Asia for the first time in three months – an increase of 20 cents to $2 a barrel above the regional Oman-Dubai benchmark, Bloomberg reports. At the same time, the world’s biggest oil company slashed prices in Europe by $2.75, its biggest reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The moves come days after OPEC+ signaled it would make no changes to oil supplies this month and maintained its tentative plans to let member-countries start increasing production next quarter.

In contrast to its rivals whose stock prices are hitting record highs this year, Aramco is down 17%, the worst performance among the world’s 10 biggest oil companies by revenue, a reflection of its production cuts. PetroChina, by contrast, is up 24% while Exxon Mobil has gained 17% and Shell has risen 4.6% since the beginning of 2024.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is putting its $925 billion in assets to work in China.

Following a trip to Beijing last month by a delegation of Saudi executives led by PIF Governor Yasir Al Rumayyan, the sovereign wealth fund corralled preliminary agreements worth $50 billion with six major Chinese financial institutions.

Besides a series of deals focused on renewable energy and steel manufacturing that were already disclosed, the PIF said in a statement on Thursday that it signed the memorandums of understanding with the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, China Export and Credit Insurance Corp., the Export-Import Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The new agreements “demonstrate the PIF’s strong and deepening relationships with leading financial institutions and accentuate PIF’s commitment to enhancing partnerships globally,” Fahad Al Saif, the fund’s Head of Global Capital Finance, said in the statement.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states have been engaged in a delicate balancing act of strengthening commercial ties with China, the world’s second-biggest economy, while steering clear of U.S. efforts to restrict Chinese access to cutting-edge technology in artificial intelligence and other competitive fields.

Two of Kuwait’s biggest banks are exploring a merger that would create an Islamic lender with more than $50 billion in assets.

The proposed tie-up comes amid a wave of banking consolidation across the Middle East, partly driven by competition for financing large-scale projects as Gulf countries rapidly diversify away from oil. 

Boubyan Bank, with assets worth $29 billion and Gulf Bank, with assets worth $24 billion, will conduct due diligence and valuation studies into the potential deal, the two lenders said in a statement.

The move comes as Kuwait Finance House weighs taking a large stake in Saudi Investment Bank, while National Bank of Bahrain considers a potential merger with Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait.

Consolidation of financial institutions in the GCC is being driven by the need to create lenders with greater scale as countries seek financing for mega-projects and other diversification activities aimed at boosting the non-oil economy.

These capital intensive activities, and the development and diversification of funding channels are expected to drive the GCC’s debt capital market to reach $1 trillion outstanding by next year, according to a new report from Fitch. 

Saudi Arabia, which is contending with lower oil profits and mounting expenses associated with its Vision 2030 transformation plans, held a 43% share of the $940 billion outstanding government debt in the GCC at the end of Q1 2024, while the UAE held 30%.

Around 40% of outstanding government debt was sukuk – bonds compliant with Islamic sharia law – while the rest was in conventional bonds, Fitch said.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sukuk, meanwhile, reached $18 billion outstanding in GCC countries, driven by increasing sustainability commitments, according to Fitch.

Forget the early days of Tang and squeeze-tube turkey or freeze-dried spaghetti and meatballs on the International Space Station.

Travelers aboard SpaceVIP’s Neptune capsule who pay $495,000 for the journey to Earth’s stratosphere will be treated to a menu prepared by innovative Danish chef Rasmus Munk, Arabian Business reports.

With the maiden six-hour flight scheduled for the second half of 2025, SpaceVIP founder Roman Chiporukha says interest from the UAE has been particularly strong. The vehicle, suspended from a giant balloon, is built by Florida-based Space Perspective.

Though the menu hasn’t been finalized yet, Munk’s Michelin-starred Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen is known for such dishes as lamb’s brain in walnut oil and cherry sauce, rhubarb gazpacho and “Bikini Toast” filled with Gruyére cheese and Joselito ham.

“I want to highlight food as a common thread in our human existence, and it will be truly meaningful to serve it while gazing down at the Earth’s curvature,” Munk said.

Saudi Arabia’s campaign to expand its economy beyond dependence on oil is widening its global focus and turning up new corporate trading partners in South Korea, Asia’s fourth largest economy.

After a business conference in Seoul this week, the kingdom reported signing 10 agreements ranging from construction and energy to healthcare and food exports.

Saudi Minister of Commerce Majid Al-Qasabi led a delegation of 80 business executives and government officials at the Saudi-Korean Business Forum, where South Korean companies pitched cooperation in car manufacturing, data centers and urban infrastructure, Arab News reports.

Al-Qasabi also met with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo after arriving in Seoul on Monday.

Commercial activity between the two countries, which reached $35 billion between 2019 and 2023, is likely to jump substantially with the signing of a free trade agreement last December between South Korea and the GCC, Cheong In-kyo, the head of trade negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, told the conference.

Abu Dhabi-based AI developer Bayanat, meanwhile, signed an agreement this month to form a joint venture with South Korea’s Autonomous a2z that will use driverless taxis to transport passengers arriving at Zayed International Airport to the Emirati capital’s hotels and attractions.

Egypt’s IMF-prescribed program to reform the economy with steps that include selling off state assets and devaluing the Egyptian pound won praise from the Washington-based lender after a review this week.

In turn, the IMF unlocked $820 million in support for the economy as part of the $57 billion bailout that Egypt received to help it emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades. “The Egyptian authorities’ recent efforts to restore macroeconomic stability have started to yield positive results,” the IMF said in a statement on Monday.

In the final runup to the review, Egypt raised fuel prices by up to 15% and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced further plans to reduce energy subsidies. Still, the IMF called on the government to ratchet up its efforts to divest from state-owned businesses.

Egypt, meanwhile, is showcasing the reforms as it seeks more funding for business projects from Saudi Arabia. Egyptian Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Hassan El-Khatib said after a meeting in Cairo with Saudi Ambassador to Egypt Saleh bin Eid Al-Hussaini that the government “is keen to create a favorable investment climate and provide all necessary support to Saudi investors.”