Good morning, lovely people, and happy almost-FRIDAY. It’s been a busy week of news, so we’re looking forward to the weekend.

THE BIG STORIES here at home: A toss-up between news of Mubadala potentially tapping Islamic debt markets this month, the Central Bank of the UAE holding interest rates steady following the US Federal Reserve’s decision, and a longer feature on S&P Global’s outlook for UAE corporates in 2024.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT-

Grab your umbrellas — it’s going to be a rainy weekend: Chance of rain could hit earlier than expected, with Friday expected tosee cloudy skies and light to moderate rainfall, and Saturday potentially seeing heavy downpours — paired with lightning, thunder, and strong winds, especially in areas at sea, according to the National Center of Meteorology. Conditions are expected to ease by Tuesday evening.

HAPPENING TODAY-

#1- Parkin’s shares will begin trading on the Dubai Financial Market today under the ticker PARKIN, following a blockbuster IPO that saw it raise AED 1.57 bn. The IPO was 165x oversubscribed, and values the company at AED 6.3 bn.

Refresher: The Dubai Investment Fund is selling a 25% stake (or 749.7 mn shares) in the company on the DFM. Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) established Parkin in January, just a few months after saying it would go public with its taxi and parking assets in 2023. The company designs and manages public and private parking spaces in the emirate, and issues parking permits.

ADVISORS- Rothschild & Co’s Middle East division is the independent financial advisor, while Emirates NBD, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC Holdings are joint global coordinators, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, our friends at EFG Hermes UAE, and First Abu Dhabi Bank are joint bookrunners. Emirates NBD is the lead receiving bank of the IPO, with the Commercial Bank of Dubai, FAB, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, AlMaryah Community Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, Wio Bank, and our friends at Mashreq, also acting as receiving banks.

#2-An official from Lebanese group Hezbollah arrived in the UAE in what Reuters describes as a “landmark visit” to negotiate the release of detained Lebanese citizens, according to sources close to the group. Pundits speaking to the newswire suggest that the visit from Wafiq Safa, the head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, might represent a shift in the relations between the UAE and Hezbollah, which is currently designated as a terrorist group in the country.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Adnoc to run up against third competitor over Braskem stake: A third company is reportedly throwing its hat in the ring for a majority stake in Brazil’s petrochemical company Braskem, for which Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is also bidding, Braskem CFO Pedro Freitas said on an analyst call, Bloomberg reports. Adnoc and Braskem’s second-biggest shareholder Petrobras has been conducting due diligence for the majority stake after US private equity giant Apollo Global Management exited the talks.

Who’s the mystery company? Although Braskem did not disclose who the third bidder is, Brazilian newspaper Valor suggests it is Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s subsidiary, Petrochemical Industries Corporation.

ICYMI- Adnoc made a non-binding offer to Braskem in November to acquire Brazilian conglomerate Novoner’s 38.3% stake in Braskem. Braskem had also received a joint USD 7.6 bn offer from Adnoc and Apollo for the stake in May.

#2- Tabreed plans to raise USD 1 bn to expand operations: The UAE’s district coolingcompany Tabreed received shareholder approval for a USD 1 bn bond and/or sukuk issuance aimed at funding acquisitions and general corporate purposes sometime over the next year, according to a DFM disclosure (pdf).

What we know: The company’s board of directors is yet to decide whether to issue the bonds or sukuk in one or more tranches, the statement said. The bonds — which will either be issued by Tabreed directly or through one of its special purpose vehicles — will be offered at a margin not exceeding the prevailing market rate for companies with similar credit ratings, the statement noted.

Background: Tabreed is planning to increase its market share in the UAE and five other countries it is currently operating in, namely India, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Egypt, Tabreed said in a separate DFM disclosure (pdf) published yesterday.

#2- Fifty hedge funds to join DIFC: The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is in talks with 50 hedge funds to establish their offices in the financial center, DIFC governor Essa Kazim told AlKhaleej. Another 50 hedge funds from the US, Europe, and the GCC are already registered in the DIFC.

REFRESHER- Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) saw a 125% y-o-y uptick in registrations by hedge fund managers in 2023 and expects continued strong interest from global hedge funds looking to set up shop in DIFC, DFSA CEO Ian Johnston said in February.

#3- Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) is on track to wrap up construction on its pilot plant to tackle aluminum refining waste this year, it said in a statement. Once live, the plant will convert bauxite residue, a byproduct of aluminum refinement, into up to 6 tonnes of manufactured soil — expected to have up to ten times better carbon dioxide absorption than natural soil — daily in Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi.

Refresher: The aluminum producer started construction on the plant back in November 2023, aiming to use the facility to test large-scale trials for plant growth with the manufactured soil it calls Turba, and overcome the UAE’s soil scarcity.

More applications: EGA has deployed its bauxite residue research team to explore other applications of Turba in the steel, cement, and construction industries. Some 150 mn tonnes of the material are produced globally each year, with less than 2% put to productive use, it said in its statement, citing industry experts.

DATA POINTS-

#1- Dubai is on track to hand over some 34k real estate units this year, while its neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi is slated to trade some 8k units, Khaleej Times reports, citing industry experts. The continued growth in the UAE’s property market amid global challenges, such as a high interest rate environment, will come on the back of a robust economy, government initiatives, and increasing investor confidence, experts suggest.

How this compares to other forecasts: S&P Global Ratings said back in December that it expects developers to sell up to 40k Dubai homes this year, compared to historical figures of 15-30k homes sold. The ratings agency has since updated its forecasts to suggest the emirate’s property market will cool down, pushing price declines to within the 5-10% range on the back of an oversupply risk.

ICYMI: We recently ran a deep-dive into the reasons behind the property price boom in 2023, and a breakdown of different analysts’ and pundits’ outlook for the market this year.

#2- Some 70.8% of companies operating in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) are planning to up their workforce, with 29.9% eyeing significant increases and 40.9% anticipating moderate growth in staffing, ADGM said in a statement. The international financial center’s asset management sector is expected to draw in the most growth, with 18.6% of companies spotlighting its potential, followed by fintech (17.1%) and digital assets, blockchain, and distributed ledger technology (16.8%).

#3- The national industrial sector’s contribution to GDP has increased by some 49% since 2020, when the Industry and Advanced Technology Ministry was established, Minister Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber told Wam. The sector accounts for AED 197 bn of the national economy today, compared to AED 132 bn before 2020. Al Jaber attributes the growth to “strategic initiatives and programs” from the ministry, including a national in-country value program redirecting AED 237 bn spent outside the UAE into the national economy and national procurement strategies employing some 16k Emiratis across certified companies.

Industrial exports have climbed 60% during the period,hitting an estimated AED 187 bn in 2023. The ministry spent AED 1.5 bn on measures to support growth in high-tech industries in 2023, helping to drive high-tech exports to AED 3.5 bn in 2023 from AED 2.9 bn in 2020. The authority also provided AED 5.3 bn in financing for the industrial sector last year.

#4- The number of industrial licenses issued in Abu Dhabi — excluding freezones — rose 51% y-o-y in 2023 to reach 363, Wam reports, citing Abu Dhabi Chamber figures. In 2023, the emirate’s industrial sector saw an increase in foreign investors, reaching a total of 46 companies. Mining support services accounted for the largest share of foreign investment with 13 companies, followed by chemicals with five companies, and basic metals with four companies.

#5- The UAE ranked 22nd in the 2024 World Happiness Report — measuring life evaluations from 2021 to 2023 — with a score of 6.733. The country was positioned second in the list of Arab countries, coming after Kuwait, which landed in 13th place with a score of 6.951.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

The US Federal Reserve’s guidance that it’s on track to deliver as many as three rate cuts this year is the big story in the global business press. We have the rundown in this morning’s news well, below.

Also worth knowing about:

  • Reddit has priced its IPO at the top of the range on which it had guided (more on that in Planet Finance, below). Shares start trading this afternoon in New York. (Financial Times)
  • PE giant Apollo Global is offering USD 11 bn for Paramount Global’s film and TV studio, the owner of broadcast outlet CBS and producer of the Top Gun franchise. (Wall Street Journal)

And Tim Cook isn’t having a great morning: The Apple CEO is dealing with a report that the US government could sue the company as soon as today for alleged antitrust violations. Meanwhile, rivals Meta, Microsoft, X, and Match have joined Epic Games in claiming that Apple isn’t playing ball with a court ruling on in-app payments.

FINALLY- Of Black Nazis and other AI faux pas: Semafor writes that Adobe AI model Firefly is as bad as Google’s Gemini was a couple of weeks back.

The misstep: “I asked Firefly to create images using similar prompts that got Gemini in trouble. It created Black soldiers fighting for Nazi Germany in World War II. In scenes depicting the Founding Fathers [of the United States] and the [US] constitutional convention in 1787, Black men and women were inserted into roles. When I asked it to create a comic book character of an old white man, it drew one, but also gave me three others of a Black man, a Black woman and a white woman. And yes, it even drew me a picture of Black Vikings, just like Gemini.” Read more.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Abu Dhabi Global Healthcare Week is set to take place between 13 and 15 May at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company Centre (Adnec), hosted by the Abu Dhabi Department of Health. The three-day event will see industry figures showcase the latest developments in the healthcare sector.

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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