More American pro sports are looking at the Gulf as a showcase to broaden their international appeal.

Following Abu Dhabi’s annual NBA basketball series, the NFL said it’s exploring the possibility of playing a regular-season game in the UAE, Reuters reports.

Peter O’Reilly, the league’s executive vice president, said there is “strong interest” among NFL team owners in hosting a game in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

The league expanded its global markets program on Monday by granting international marketing rights in the UAE to the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Commanders.

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at Donald Trump’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in the coming weeks; ADIA’s anchor investment in a $1.8 billion AlbaCore loan program; permission granted for a flynas IPO in Riyadh; and prospects for NFL football in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. But first, EU regulators scrutinize ADNOC’s Covestro deal.

ADNOC’s $17.2 billion acquisition of German chemicals company Covestro, its biggest ever, rests on a decision due next month by regulators in Brussels.

The European Commission antitrust agency is set to announce on May 12 whether to allow Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. to move ahead with the corporate takeover, Reuters reports.

The deal signed in November was a major development in ADNOC’s drive to diversify its business amid efforts by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to reduce their dependence on oil.

Covestro, which makes plastics and chemicals for the automotive, construction and engineering industries, was created in 2015 after being spun off from Bayer.

The Brussels-based agency, which acts as an referee on corporate competition in the 27-country European Union, will either okay the deal with its decision next month or open a further four-month investigation to determine whether to allow the acquisition.

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U.S. President Donald Trump is making plans to visit Saudi Arabia in the next month as the centerpiece to the first foreign trip of his second term, just as he did eight years ago in his first. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday he looks forward to nailing down Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s commitment to make massive investments in the U.S. “They’ve agreed to spend close to a trillion dollars in American companies, which to me means jobs,” Trump said. The trip, which will take place “next month or maybe a little bit later,” should also include stops in the UAE, Qatar and some countries outside the Middle East, he added.

TOUCHDOWN DUBAI

More American pro sports are looking at the Gulf as a showcase to broaden their international appeal. Following Abu Dhabi’s annual NBA basketball series, the NFL said it’s exploring the possibility of playing a regular-season game in the UAE, Reuters reports. Peter O’Reilly, the league’s executive vice president, said there is “strong interest” among NFL team owners in hosting a game in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. The league expanded its global markets program on Monday by granting international marketing rights in the UAE to the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Commanders.

 📺 Culture Shift: Saudi Arabia is broadening its treatment of how Islamic history is portrayed on television. The airing of “Muawiya,” a $100 million series produced by MBC and shown during the month of Ramadan, was a controversial step because it represented divergent views from the conservative approach to Muslim figures that the kingdom required in the past, Bradley Hope writes in The Wall Street Journal. Filmed in Tunisia, the 30-episode series traces the life of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufya from his early days as a scribe to the Prophet Muhammad to his founding of the Umayyad Caliphate, Islam’s first hereditary dynasty.

📷 Photo of the Day

Emirates launches Courier Express package delivery service at Dubai International Airport today after first teasing that it might be an April Fool’s joke. (Emirates/X)

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at Masdar’s solar purchase in Spain, the minority interest acquired in Khazna data centers by MGX and Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi-based Agthia’s acquisition of Riviere, and customers lining up for a $49 million penthouse in the Burj Khalifa. But first, job growth is slowing in Saudi Arabia.

Across-the-board budget cuts at companies owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are likely to chill employment growth in the kingdom amid declines in oil revenue and foreign investment.

After hitting close to 10% in 2022, growth in recruitment for jobs may slow to 3% by the beginning of next year, a report by the consulting firm JLL Middle East predicts.

The $925 billion sovereign wealth fund has ordered spending cuts across all of its portfolio companies, leading to layoffs, hiring freezes and project delays. Nearly 2 million expatriates have joined the workforce in Saudi Arabia over the past two years, according to government data.

The PIF’s downsizing order reflects the kingdom’s widening budget deficit, which has developed through a decline in both the volume and value of oil exports.

The budget deficit and employment slowdown could also pose challenges for Saudi Arabia as it builds ambitious projects such as Neom and prepares to host major global events including Expo 2030 and the FIFA World Cup, JLL notes.

Eid Mubarak! The Circuit will publish its next issue on Wednesday, April 2, after the holiday. Kindly let us know your thoughts and feedback by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at [email protected].

SKY PALACE

A duplex penthouse in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper that carries a $49 million asking price is attracting interest from American buyers, including basketball players, boxers and Nascar drivers. The apartment on the 107th and 108th floors of the world’s tallest building is unfinished, with its concrete floors and wraparound glass windows waiting to be fit out by its new owner, real estate agent Asad Khan tells Business Insider. Measuring 21,000 square feet, the apartment is being marketed as a “Sky Palace,” with amenities that include a private elevator, an indoor pool and 12 parking spaces. The 163-story Burj Khalifa, which was completed in 2010 by Emaar Properties, stands 2,722 feet and contains a mixture of office, residential, hotel, restaurant and retail space.

📷 Photo of the Day

Egypt’s economy is growing at a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022 following last year’s IMF bailout and a massive investment from the UAE. 

GDP grew 4.3% year-on-year in the last three months of 2024, which the government attributed largely to the IMF’s $8 billion loan package and Abu Dhabi-owned ADQ’s $35 billion Ras El-Hekma resort project.

Egypt’s Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation pointed to tourism, trade-related transportation and non-oil manufacturing as the key drivers of economic expansion.

Private investment increased 35.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, while public investment contracted 25.7%. Tourism grew by 18% in the fourth quarter, with total visitors rising to 4.41 million

Still, the Egyptian economy suffered some major setbacks, including a 70% decline in revenue from the Suez Canal because of  “ongoing geopolitical tensions” and a 7.5% drop in income from oil production.

Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden mining company is preparing to make major new investments this year to draw gold and phosphates from the kingdom’s vast desert territory.

The Saudi government plans to spend close to $2.3 billion on mining projects for the precious metal and minerals as part of its Vision 2030 blueprint for diversifying the economy and reducing its reliance on oil revenue, Zawya reports, citing the Almal newspaper.

Saudi Arabia controls more than 320 tons of gold reserves in local and foreign banks, the largest in the Arab world and 18th worldwide. Those reserves, together with gold and other metals underground, are estimated to be worth more than $2.5 trillion.

Saudi Arabia controls more than 320 tons of gold reserves in local and foreign banks, the largest in the Arab world and 18th worldwide. Those reserves, together with gold and other metals underground, are estimated to be worth more than $2.5 trillion.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone conversation to sum up a series of investment deals and high-level meetings between the two allies over the past week.

The Abu Dhabi-Washington call on Tuesday followed the announcement that the UAE will invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade, focusing AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.

The two presidents discussed Trump’s meeting with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser and Sheikh Mohamed’s brother, who leads many of the country’s largest companies and sovereign wealth funds.

Sheikh Tahnoon talked to an array of cabinet secretaries and also held meetings with heads of the biggest tech companies, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Palantir’s Alex Karp and xAI’s Elon Musk.

Amid shrinking profits, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the world’s biggest oil company is shopping for new investments in China.

Nasser spoke in Beijing on Monday at the China Development Forum, where he said Aramco is “currently” supporting projects in the areas of Fujian, Liaoning, Zhejiang and Tianjin.

“I emphasize ‘currently’ because we are continuing to identify additional opportunities, which include energy and chemicals, as well as technology,” Nasser said.

Aramco’s interest in China, Nasser said, rests partly on its emergence as the “world’s largest consumer and producer of petrochemicals, accounting for nearly half of global demand, and it’s becoming a major hub for the entire chemicals industry value chain, which will be critical to industries of the future.”

The conference in Beijing was the first stop for international executives and policymakers trying to navigate trade tensions between the U.S. and China, with the subject hitting center-stage this week at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan.

The Gulf states have become a dominant force in the world of sovereign wealth funds even if their assets fall shy of those in Norway and China.

Led by the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, government-owned funds in the Gulf are expected to grow 50% by 2030 and control $18 trillion in assets, according to an analysis by Deloitte Middle East. The region is home to six of the world’s 10 largest funds and about 40% of total sovereign assets.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority leads the Gulf with $1.05 trillion, according to Deloitte, followed by the Kuwait Investment Authority at $1.02 trillion, the Saudi Public Investment Fund with $925 billion and the Qatar Investment Authority with $526 billion.

“The Gulf region continues to be the epicenter of sovereign wealth fund activity, with its major players driving innovation in investment strategies and operational excellence,” Julie Kassab, sovereign wealth fund leader at Deloitte Middle East.

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with assets of more than $1.7 trillion. China Investment Corp. comes in second with $1.3 trillion.

Another phenomenon identified by Deloitte is the proliferation of Royal Private Offices, or RPOs, that now control approximately $500 billion in assets in the Gulf and have become one of the key drivers behind the creation of new sovereign wealth funds in the region.

Sovereign wealth fund tracker Global SWF has identified 35 RPOs in the Gulf, with the UAE home to a vast majority of the offices. The most significant of them is the Royal Group, a family enterprise headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Tahnoon is also Chairman of sovereign funds ADIA and ADQ, in addition to leading some of the emirate’s largest firms, including International Holding Co., MGX and G42.