Gulf

1. ADNOC’s $80 billion platform
2. Oman-Iran smuggling route
3. Mubadala’s Canadian push
4. Saudi deficits mount…
5. … mines for fresh cash
6. Trump’s Mideast envoy

Argentine rodents prosper in Dubai’s desert.

ADNOC’s global push

The UAE’s national oil company launched XRG, an international investment arm focused on lower-carbon energy and chemicals, and international gas assets, valued at $80 billion. ADNOC said in a statement it plans to double the new entity’s assets over the next decade as it capitalizes on the energy transition, power demand from artificial intelligence, and growth in emerging markets.

Abu Dhabi has been expanding its crude capacity and LNG output domestically while building an international portfolio. This year, ADNOC agreed to acquire Germany’s chemical giant Covestro for $13 billion, finalized a majority stake in ammonia producer Fertiglobe, invested in LNG projects in Mozambique, and partnered with ExxonMobil on a US hydrogen plant. Details on which of ADNOC’s existing international operations will be included in XRG weren’t disclosed. XRG will begin operations in the first quarter of 2025.

View from Hormuz, smuggler haven

Continued sanctions on Iran have kept smugglers busy, operating in broad daylight in one of the world’s busiest waterways, writes Camilla Wright, a media commentator for global news and pop culture outlets, in a Semafor column.

“Where the Arabian peninsula spikes out up into a sharp point, separating the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, only 21 nautical miles south of Iran, lies Musandam. On a clear day, you can see the Iranian coast across the shipping lanes where a quarter of the world’s oil consumption passes through,” Wright wrote.

The coast is generally quiet during the day, but by night, it transforms into a hive of activity, Wright observed. “What’s going on, we ask. Fishing boats, is the answer, as we see a crane lift a car up and onto a small boat barely bigger than the car. Cargo safely loaded, it speeds off into the darkness.”

Mubadala nabs asset manager

Abu Dhabi has landed a deal in the lucrative — and booming — asset management business, agreeing to take private a Canadian wealth management firm through a unit of Mubadala Capital. The $3.4 billion deal, subject to regulator approval, values Toronto-listed CI Financial Corp. at $12.1 billion and boosts the sovereign wealth fund’s North American financial services portfolio following its majority acquisition of New York’s Fortress Investment Group this year.

Demand for stakes in asset management businesses (from other asset management businesses) is rising, driven by their steady stream of cash from management fees and annual returns up to the high teens, Semafor previously reported. From practically zero acquisitions of this kind in the early 2010s, there were 38 such deals last year, with newer players like Mubadala getting in on the game.

Saudi Arabia reins in its spending

Saudi Arabia plans to reduce government spending next year and anticipates lower revenue, but will continue to invest heavily in economic diversification, its latest budget showed. The finance ministry said the budget reflects its priority for “spending efficiency and fiscal sustainability.” Reforms have driven unemployment among Saudis to a record low of 7.1%, while women’s labor force participation has reached 35.4%, surpassing the official target of 30%. Although oil prices are expected to remain well below the government’s breakeven point, GDP is projected to grow by 4.8% next year. “The Saudi economy has reached a stage where oil market volatility doesn’t impact it as much as it used to,” said Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

Semafor has announced Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein, Citadel Founder & CEO Ken Griffin, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and KKR Co-Chairman Henry Kravis as Co-Chairs of the World Economy Summit on April 23-25, 2025.

Their participation reflects the extraordinary prestige of this unique event in Washington, D.C., which brings together US Cabinet officials, global finance ministers, central bankers and Fortune 500 CEOs for conversations that cut through the political noise to dive into the most pressing issues facing the world economy.

Saudi Arabia draws $9B mining deals

Saudi Arabia has drawn investors from China and India to tap the $2.5 trillion in minerals the government believes lies beneath the kingdom. Nine mining and metals deals were announced in Riyadh worth more than $9.32 billion, including a $2 billion deal with India’s Vedanta for copper mining and up to $1.6 billion from China’s Zijin primarily for zinc.

Troves of untapped resources critical to the energy transition, including bauxite, copper, gold, and phosphate has put mining at the front of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic transformation agenda, with massive resources being poured into discovery and development to turn the minerals into end products. Momentum on foreign investment — something Riyadh has so far fallen short on year after year — signals the importance, and promise, of the sector. Vedanta was lured by incentives including land, water, and power services, and the possibility of a lower cost of capital there, the company’s base metals CEO told Reuters.

Trump’s Middle East envoy’s Gulf ties

Steven Witkoff — President-elect Donald Trump’s friend, fellow New York real estate billionaire, and incoming Middle East envoy — has longstanding ties to Gulf sovereign wealth funds. This isn’t surprising, given the Gulf’s significant role in New York’s luxury property market, but it raises potential conflicts as he negotiates with nations and leaders who were past, and possibly future, business partners, The New York Times reported. Witkoff’s appointment follows a pattern from Trump’s first term: His son-in-law Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engaged with Gulf leaders during Trump’s presidency and later secured billions in investments from the region’s sovereign funds.

Diplomacy

• Jared and Joshua Kushner pledged a total of $2 million to Chabad of the UAE shortly after the funeral of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the 28-year-old Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary who was murdered last week. Meanwhile, UAE officials expressed appreciation to Türkiye for its role in apprehending the alleged perpetrators.

Energy

• QatarEnergy is boosting its stake in two oil and gas blocks in Namibia, acquiring additional shares from its partner TotalEnergies. The blocks are located approximately 300 kilometers off the Namibian coast, in water depths of 2,600 to 3,800 meters.

Sports

• Cricket is next up in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to become a driving force in athletics on the global stage. The kingdom will launch its own professional cricket league — with stadiums planned in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Yanbu — and is eyeing international investments in the world’s second most popular sport via the Public Investment Fund. — Arab News

Who is this for?

• In an unexpected development for UAE-Texas diplomacy, drivers’ licences from the Emirates will soon be recognized in the Lone Star State under a new agreement. — Khaleej Times

The 40,000 finance and banking jobs that London lost post Brexit? The best of them went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the world’s most exciting financial hubs. Our friends at EnterpriseAM report every weekday morning on what drives dealflow and shapes business decisions in the UAE. Get the inside track and subscribe to EnterpriseAM here for free.

Hidden among the dunes of Dubai’s Al Qudra Lakes, a group of wanderers has made itself at home: Patagonian maras, rabbit-like rodents native to Argentina. The mammals “with long legs, big ears, and a body like a hoofed animal,” were spotted by Jon Gambrell, news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. No one knows for sure how they got there, but their population is growing in the desert oasis where predators are scarce. The leading theory suggests that a few were kept as exotic pets and escaped — later reproducing in the wild — from one of the nearby farms owned by Dubai’s elite.

Investors have been scrambling to keep up with the US president-elect, including some capitalizing on the political moment, testing how long the Trump trade will last, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman wrote.