Good morning, wonderful people, and happy Monday. We have a relatively brisk issue of news today following a slightly uneventful weekend — let’s dive in.

But first: Happy Holi to our Indian readers. We hope this holiday brings you peace and joy.

THE BIG STORIES here at home are all M&As: MBC Group acquired a 13.7% stake in Abu Dhabi-based music streaming platform Anghami, while AD Ports snapped up a majority stake in a Georgian port and IHC’s International Resources Holding finalized its acquisition of Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines.

ALSO- The Central Bank of the UAE has greenlit Brookfield Asset Management’s USD 2.76 bn acquisition of Dubai-based payments provider Network International, according to a London Stock Exchange filing (pdf). The acquisition is still pending clearances from regulatory authorities in Kenya, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, according to the filing.

Background: The acquisition has been pending regulatory approvals since last June, and comes as Brookfield looks to expand its presence in the Middle East and North Africa. The Canadian firm has more than USD 5 bn in assets under management in the Middle East, and bought a 60% stake last year in First Abu Dhabi Bank’s payments arm, Magnati. FAB had said it would co-invest with Brookfield in the Network acquisition.

ADVISORS- Network International is advised by Citi, JP Morgan, PJT Partners, Allen & Overy, and Teneo, while Brookfield Asset Management is advised by Morgan Stanley and Linklaters.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT-

🌧️ WEATHER- Western and southern regions of the country will see cloudy skies with a chance of rain and occasional thunderstorms today and tomorrow, the National Center of Meteorology said earlier. Clouds are expected to clear starting tomorrow evening.

So, when do we eat? Maghrib prayers are at 6:36pm in Dubai and 6:39pm in Abu Dhabi, and you have until 5:03am to hydrate and caffeinate ahead of Fajr in Abu Dhabi, and until 4:59am in Dubai.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Event organizers will continue enjoying an exemption from a 10% tourism tax in Abu Dhabi until the end of the year as the emirate looks to promote its tourism industry, according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement. This waiver will apply to ticket sales until 31 December, 2024.

Remember: Abu Dhabi drew some 18 mn tourists in 2022, including 603k visitors for meetings, incentive events, conferences, and exhibitions. Hotel occupancy hit 70% during the year. Abu Dhabi’s goal was to achieve 24 mn visitors in 2023, but has not released final figures for actual tourist arrivals during the year.

#2- Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer Aldar Properties is planning another USD 500 mn green sukuk issuance this year after raising USD 500 mn through its maiden green sukuk issuance last year, CFO Faisal Falaknaz tells The National. The Islamic bonds will be issued under Aldar’s green framework, which targets “more green financing across all [Aldar’s] facilities,” Falaknaz said.

Aldar plans to double down on acquisitions, with AED 4-5 bn of equity earmarked to be “deployed into recurring income assets… Logistics is a very important segment that we are very keen on continuing to grow,” according to Falaknaz.

Remember: The developer is planning to invest AED 1 bn to expand logistics operations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and recently invested some AED 407 mn in logistics and storage assets in Europe.

#3- The Federal Tax Authority has overhauled three of its services to comply with the government’s service quality charter, state news agency Wam reports. The updates include expediting tax certificate issuances, improving its inquiry response chat service for excise goods registration, and cutting the processing time for tax refunds for UAE nationals building new residences.

#4- The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is in talks to invest an undisclosed amount in Indian audio streaming platform Pocket FM, the Economic Times reports. The investment would come in the form of a new large funding round that could value it at as much as USD 1.2 bn, on the heels of another USD 103 mn funding round from Lightspeed Ventures last week.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Public school students from grades 3-13 will be sitting for their make-up exams from today until this Friday, 29 March. The make-up assessments are forstudents who missed exams or encountered technical issues during testing, Emarat Al Youm reports.

DATA POINTS-

#1- The UAE leads the region in the 2023 Global Tourism Visa Openness and Facilitation Index by UN Tourism with a score of 67.80 out of 100, AlKhaleej Times reports.

#2- The UAE — along with Iraq and Egypt — was listed among the top 10 most air-polluted countries in 2023, with the UAE ranking seventh, Iraq ranking sixth, and Egypt ranking ninth, Asharq Business reports, citing IQ Air data.

#3- Dubai ranked first in the Arab world and 20th globally in the latest Global Financial Centres Index, published by London’s commercial think-tank firm Z/Yen Group and China Development Institute. Abu Dhabi was second in the region, ranking 37th globally among 121 global financial centers.

#4- Occupancy rates at Dubai hotels hit their highest levels in eight years in January, with revenue per room recording AED 535, up 10.5% y-o-y, Emarat Al Youm reports.

WAR WATCH-

More aid to Gaza: The third UAE aid ship departed from the Port of Fujairah carrying 4.6k tonnes of humanitarian supplies for Gaza yesterday as part of the Gallant Knight 3 humanitarian operation, Wam writes. Meanwhile, the UAE and Egypt also completed another round of their Birds of Goodness aid dispatch, airdropping 24 tonnes of food and relief aid bringing the total amount of aid to 510 tonnes since the start of the operations, Wam reports. Yesterday’s dispatch brings the total number of airdrop missions to 13.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

It’s shaping up to be a relatively quiet, holiday-shortened news week. Friday-Monday are off in much of the Western world in observance of the Good Friday and Easter, while Indian markets are closed today as the nation celebrates Holi and markets in Greece are also closed today for Independence Day.

Today is deadline day for Donald Trump, who needs to raise a USD 464 mn guarantee in connection with his appeal of a fraud case. His Truth Social network is set to go public with a Spac that his supporters have pumped to the moon, but there’s no vote before Friday and a listing on NYSE would come a bit further down the road.

Sam Bankman-Fried will be sentenced on Thursday after his conviction on fraud charges and related charges. And oddly enough: FTX customers may still get all of their money back.

MEANWHILE-

  • China is moving to ban Intel and AMD chips in government PCs and servers (Financial Times)
  • US investment funds have pulled nearly USD 14 bn from BlackRock as part of an anti-ESG campaign. (Financial Times)
  • France has raised its terror alert to the highest level in the wake of this weekend’s Isis attack on Moscow. (Reuters)
  • The AI and clean-tech booms have made electricity a bull market for the first time in decades — and could “derail the power sector’s journey to net zero.” (Semafor)

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Tickets for the 2024 Saudi Super Cup matches being held in Abu Dhabi from 8-11 April are now on sale. Tickets are available starting at AED 75 through Ticketmaster, with matches scheduled at Al Nahyan Stadium and Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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