Dubai’s property boom prompted Emaar, the city’s largest publicly traded developer, to provide shareholders with a big return. The move sent its stock soaring on Monday to a 17-year high.

The company, founded by Mohamed Alabbar, announced on Friday that it would declare dividends at 100% of its share capital starting with 2024 and continuing for the next few years.

Emaar said the new policy is aimed “at enhancing shareholder value while ensuring the financial sustainability and strategic growth” of the company.

The company’s 14% surge on the Dubai Financial Market on Monday led the exchange’s benchmark index to its highest level in almost a decade, rising 4.5%.

Meanwhile, Ali Sajwani, Managing Director of Damac Properties, says demand for Dubai property is growing among European customers, who are fleeing high taxes and regulatory changes to settle in the UAE.

“The customer base has shifted today,” Sajwani told The National. “The biggest customers are coming from Europe, no longer from Russia or Ukraine, and we believe that’s going to continue, and it’s going to grow further into 2025.”

Dubai’s benchmark stock index soared today to its highest in nearly 10 years amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this week.

The Dubai Financial Market’s General Index jumped 3.7% in morning trading to reach 5,010, led by Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, which rose 8%. The Fed’s decisions affect monetary policy in the Gulf, where the UAE dirham and other currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The stock surge comes as the UAE has embarked on a borrowing binge that promises to extend well into 2025, Bloomberg reports.

Emirati companies and sovereign entities in the UAE issued $38.4 billion of dollar debt this year, a 54% increase from 2023, according to the news agency.

In Abu Dhabi, ADNOC’s new XRG investment firm announced today that it has completed the formation of its joint venture with BP on an international natural gas platform called Arcius Energy. The JV, which will initially operate in Egypt, is 51% owned by BP and 49% by XRG.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund concluded its yearlong quest to buy a chunk of London’s Heathrow Airport, joining an ownership group that includes the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Singapore.

The PIF will own a 15% stake in FGP TopCo, the holding company that controls Europe’s busiest airport, after the deal was finalized on Thursday. The Saudi fund bought into Heathrow at the same time that Paris-based private equity firm Ardian acquired a 22.6% stake in the airport, which has a market value of about 8.7 billion pounds, or  $11 billion.

“Heathrow acts as a crucial gateway to the world, and we look forward to supporting Heathrow’s management in its efforts to secure the sustainable growth of the airport and to continue to maintain its position as a global aviation hub,” Turqi Al-Nowaiser, PIF Deputy Governor and Head of International Investments, said in a statement.

The Saudi fund, which manages some $930 billion in assets, has acquired a range of holdings in the U.K. that includes the Newcastle United football club and large stakes in Selfridges department store and the Rocco Forte luxury hotel group.

Among Heathrow’s owners are the Qatar Investment Authority, which holds a 20% interest, Singapore’s GIC sovereign fund and the Australian Retirement Trust.

The new chief of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund plans to shake things up in Doha.
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CEO Mohammed Al-Sowaidi tells the Financial Times that the Qatar Investment Authority will deploy funds more “aggressively” and “do bigger-ticket deals,” counting on a projected windfall from gas prices that could ultimately double the fund’s size.

Sowaidi said he was bullish on the U.S., the U.K. and Asia, with plans to focus on technology, artificial intelligence, healthcare, real estate and infrastructure.

Al-Sowaidi was the QIA’s chief of investment in the Americas before he was appointed CEO last month.

Saudi Arabia has 10 years to prepare for its stint as the epicenter of global sports when the kingdom hosts soccer’s 2034 World Cup.

Gathered in an online meeting on Wednesday convened by governing body FIFA, representatives of 200 national soccer federations gave their approval to Saudi Arabia, which was uncontested in its bid for hosting the world’s most-watched sporting event, the Associated Press reports.

“We look forward to hosting an exceptional and unprecedented edition of the FIFA World Cup by harnessing our strengths and capabilities to bring joy to football fans around the world,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on projects related to the World Cup, including one of the stadiums built 350 meters above the ground in NEOM. Another stadium named for the Crown Prince will be atop a cliff in Riyadh’s Qiddiya sports and entertainment development.

Much like Qatar’s experience hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Saudi Arabia will be subject to intense scrutiny of its human rights record, including the treatment of women and migrant workers.

LIV Golf, the upstart league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is generating renewed buzz in its two-year dance with the PGA tour.

The sovereign wealth fund is nearing a deal to acquire a stake of about 6% in PGA Tour Enterprises, which would value the U.S.-based golf league’s commercial arm at $12 billion, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations.

The PIF started LIV Golf in 2022 as a rival to the PGA Tour, setting off court battles after the new league lured away star golfers for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The two organizations agreed to a merger deal in 2023, but have since been unable to agree on the terms.

LIV is also considering a possible merger with Europe’s DP World Tour, Bloomberg reported last month.

The two golf leagues already have a strategic alliance on prize money growth and some reciprocal memberships.

Talabat Holding, which staged the Gulf’s largest IPO of the year, made its trading debut on the Dubai Financial Market stock exchange with a 6.9% drop in its shares.|

The MENA delivery service’s decline on Tuesday was followed with a 12% plunge by its parent company Delivery Hero in Frankfurt.

Talabat raised $2 billion last week in the initial sale of a 20% stake in the popular motorcycle-driven food delivery company.

The Gulf has been one of the busiest regions for IPOs in 2024, with recent share sales by Saudi Arabia’s United International Holding Co., UAE-based Lulu Retail Holdings and Oman’s OQ Exploration & Production.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is making the rounds in the Gulf, consulting with leaders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia about trade and the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape.

After being greeted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Starmer told reporters his main focus was on business between the two countries, The Guardian reports.

“I’ve been making the case that now’s the time for further investment into our country,” he said.

Starmer met earlier in the day with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi.