XRG, the lower-carbon global investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC, has walked away from a $19 billion takeover bid for Australian energy company Santos after the parties failed to agree on key terms.

Santos shares fell 12% on Thursday in trading on Sydney’s ASX, wiping some $2 billion off its market value.

A consortium led by XRG and including Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ and private equity firm Carlyle made the play for Australia’s second-largest gas producer in June. 

While the deal promised to be the largest all-cash buyout in Australian history, analysts expressed doubts over whether the sale would materialize after a lukewarm reception from shareholders and uncertainty over whether it would win regulatory approval.

Santos, a perennial takeover target still smarting from failed talks with domestic rival Woodside Energy last year, has stakes in prized gas assets in Papua New Guinea as well as its major Australian LNG projects. 

The failed deal and three months of lost time is also a setback for XRG, which is rapidly scaling up global operations and has set an ambitious goal to build a gas and LNG business with capacity of 20-25 million metric tons a year by 2035. 

The company, which was launched late last year with an enterprise value of more than $80 billion, is also facing headwinds in Europe, where its $17 billion acquisition of German chemicals firm Covestro is under review by the European Commission. 

Abu Dhabi-owned MGX agreed to co-invest with private equity firm Silver Lake and a group of partners in acquiring 51% of Intel’s programmable chip business, Altera.

The deal, which was announced on Tuesday after being completed on Sept. 12, values Altera at about $8.75 billion. The investor group led by Silver Lake paid approximately $3.3 billion for its majority stake.

The size of MGX’s individual investment was not immediately disclosed. Under the agreement, Intel will retain a 49% ownership in Altera (not to be confused with the UAE climate investment fund, Altérra).

MGX, founded last year by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sovereign wealth fund and tech company G42, said the deal aligns with its strategy to invest in the world’s most promising AI developers.

“Altera provides a foundational platform for next-generation computing,” Omar Alismail, MGX Chief Investment Officer, Semiconductors and Infrastructure, said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to scale a company of such significance into a true global leader for the AI era.”

The deal is one of the first in the semiconductor sector for MGX, which has set a goal to build its assets under management to at least $100 billion.

Saudi Arabian buy-now-pay-later company Tamara secured up to $2.4 billion in financing from backers including Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo in what the company described as the largest syndicated debt deal by a Middle East fintech firm.

The Sharia-compliant deal will refinance and increase a previous $500 million asset-backed facility, helping the company to expand its credit and payment products beyond 20 million customers, Reuters reports.

The package, announced at the Money 20/20 Middle East conference in Saudi Arabia on Monday, includes an initial $1.4 billion, with a further $1 billion available.

Fintech deal activity in the MENA region increased 69% year-on-year for the first half of 2025, according to MAGNiTT.

The NFL is coming to Saudi Arabia. After sinking billions into soccer, golf, tennis and mixed martial arts, the kingdom is taking tentative steps into the realm of American football.

In an initial move, retired superstar quarterback Tom Brady will play alongside current and former NFL stars in a three-team tournament next March. Brady is partnering with Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, to promote the event, the Associated Press reports.

Don’t expect the helmets, shoulder pads and ferocious tackles that rouse the crowds each Sunday across the U.S. Instead, the competition will be comparatively genteel with a flag football variation of the game taking the place of the bone-crunching sport at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.

The Fanatics Flag Football Classic on March 21 will include star players Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles, CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys and Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers. Though the league’s players are participating, the NFL itself is not an official sponsor of the tournament, which will also take place in 2027 and 2028.

In flag football, which will be played for the first time at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, teams must remove a streamer, or flag, from the ball carriers instead of tackling them.

“It’s a multi-year commitment,” Brady said at a press conference in Las Vegas on Monday. “Obviously, we’re getting off to a good start. The first year will be kind of where everyone’s attention and energy is at.”

Emaar Properties, the Dubai-based real estate company that built the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, is exploring acquisitions in the U.S., India and China as part of a major push into international markets.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar said the company plans to use profits generated in the UAE’s recent property boom to finance its expansion, seeking majority stakes in foreign real-estate developers and joint ventures.

“It’s time for intensive, global growth,” Alabbar told the FT. “Emaar is strong in the United Arab Emirates, but I think the market may be getting too small for us – or Dubai may be getting too small – for this growth story to continue.”

Emaar already owns large stocks of overseas land and operates subsidiaries in Egypt, India and Saudi Arabia.

Alabbar is also head of Eagle Hills, a private investment and real estate development company based in Abu Dhabi; Noon.com, an e-commerce platform; and Americana Group, which operates restaurants across the Middle East and North Africa.

Alabbar said Emaar’s financial performance has provided the cash for expansion, citing a 34% increase to $2.8 billion in net income for the first half of 2025.

Saudi Arabia is launching a 24-hour TV channel dedicated exclusively to women’s sports that will mix international programming with coverage of Saudi women’s soccer and other athletic competitions.  

AWSN, the All Women’s Sports Network, will team up with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and national broadcaster Saudi Sports Co. to operate the new channel, Reuters reports. 

The international AWSN channel, co-founded last year by comedian-actress Whoopi Goldberg and Los Angeles-based Jungo TV, can be seen in 65 countries. The new Saudi affiliate, SSC AWSN, will stream via the MBC Shahid platform.

“Together, we are breaking barriers by providing global coverage of Saudi women’s sports while introducing to the kingdom an unprecedented lineup of international leagues and talent,” AWSN CEO George Chung said.

The launch coincides with the current season of the Saudi Women’s Premier League soccer tournament, which will be broadcast both domestically and internationally for the first time. SSC AWSN will feature a prime-time league match each week, as well as UEFA soccer events and other international women’s sporting competitions.

Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the U.S., hailed the new channel’s introduction. “Since the launch of the Women’s Premier League in 2022, I have been immensely proud of the progress it has made,” the Ambassador said. “With this partnership, their fans abroad will be able to watch them live.”

Professional services firm PwC unveiled its sleek new regional headquarters in Riyadh this week as it vowed a “strengthened commitment” to the kingdom.

The Big Four firm has been scrambling to repair its relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund since February, when the sovereign wealth fund banned it from any new advisory work for one year.

While no official reason was given, PwC reportedly ruffled feathers when it attempted to recruit one of the fund’s senior executives working on the $500 billion Neom megaproject, where it was hired as a consultant.

The suspension does not apply to the firm’s audit services. The new regional headquarters in Laysen Valley includes an experience center, forensics lab, PwC Academy, Majlis and wellness spaces.

Saudi Arabia’s flagship business forum, the Future Investment Initiative, is expanding its global reach with a conference in Tokyo.

The FII Priority Asia Summit is slated for Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, and represents a strategic move by the kingdom to strengthen partnerships with key Japanese financial institutions, Nikkei Asia reports.

Major players such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui are expected to attend the event, which is often referred to as “Davos in the desert.”

The FII Institute, founded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has also sponsored conferences in Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Miami, where U.S. President Donald Trump spoke in February.