Good morning, lovely people. In keeping with the theme of the week, we have another news dump day with a bunch of M&A updates, debt and M&A news, and more positive news for the UAE’s AI and tech ambitions.

WEATHER- It’s another mostly sunny day today, though we see a thick fog forming in Dubai, so be careful while driving today. Dubai is set to see a daytime high of 38°C and an overnight low of 30°C, while Abu Dhabi will see a high of 34°C before the mercury dips to 31°C at night.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Nigerian b’naire Aliko Dangote is establishing a family office in Dubai that will look to expand his group’s portfolio beyond industrials, he told Bloomberg. Dangote’s daughter, Halima, moved to the emirate last month to manage the firm.

His ties with Dubai go way back: Dubai Holding bought a minority stake in his cement company a decade ago, and Dangote more recently invested in UAE-based emerging markets asset manager Gateway Partners.

Remember: The number of m’naires in the UAE is expected to grow by 15% over the next five years, reaching 232.1k in 2028 from 202.2k currently, amid an influx of high net-worth individuals who are setting up family offices here, according to a study by the investment bank UBS. The country is expected to see 6.7k more m’naires this year, the highest net inflow of m’naires worldwide.

#2- South African bank Investec opened a regional office in the Dubai International Financial Centre to serve high-net-worth clients and family offices in the GCC, the lender said in a statement. Investec plans to capitalize on the extensive expat community in the emirate, with 5k of its UK clients living in Dubai, and more than 2.4k South African-affiliated companies being registered in the emirate, Bloomberg reports.

SPEAKING OF DUBAI’S POSITION AS A FINANCIAL CENTER- Dubai moved up on the Global Financial Centers Index to land in the 16th spot globally, up from 20th in a previous ranking in March. It maintained the first spot in the Mena region, followed by Abu Dhabi, which moved up two ranks to land in the 35th place. The index is published by London’s commercial think-tank firm Z/Yen Group.

#3- French private equity firm PAI Partners is vying with US peer Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for the acquisition of Sanofi’s consumer health unit, after both companies filed binding offers to the French drugmaker, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The bids could value the unit at over EUR 15 bn (c. USD 16.74 bn), sources said, in what could be one of Europe’s largest transactions this year. Sanofi said it would make a decision in the coming days after reviewing the offers.

REMEMBER- PAI has been in talks with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to potentially join its bid. It’s also reportedly in talks with Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, sources told Bloomberg.

An acquisition might not be the only outcome: Sanofi could opt for a spinoff of the unit if the offers didn’t meet its expectations, Bloomberg cites sources as saying. Taking the company public is also on the table, a company representative said, adding that a transaction is expected to take place in 4Q 2024 at the earliest.

REMEMBER- Another Adia + PAI transaction is in the works: Adia is mulling investing at least EUR 1 bn in Froneri, PAI’s ice cream JV with Nestlé, which owns brands like Haagen-Dazs.

#4- Kenya is negotiating a USD 1.5 bn loan with Abu Dhabi to help close its financing gap and boost its FX reserves, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. The proposed loan could carry an interest rate of 8.2%, lower than current yields on Kenya’s sovereign bonds. The country’s fiscal deficit stands at 4.3% of GDP, necessitating USD 2.8 bn in foreign loans and USD 3.2 bn in local funding to address the shortfall.

This comes on the heels of a joint committee session in Abu Dhabi last month, where the UAE and Kenya discussed enhancing cooperation in trade, investment, tourism, energy, and defense. Earlier this year in February, the two nations concluded discussions on a trade and economic partnership agreement, with plans to formalize it soon.

#5- NeoPay to expand in the region? New majority owners of our friends at Mashreq’s payment services provider NeoPay, Bahrain-based asset management firm Arcapita Group Holdings and Turkish fintech firm Dgpays, want to expand its services outside the UAE and into other GCC countries, Egypt, and Pakistan, Arcapita’s Managing Director of MENA Investment Yousif Al Abdalla told Al Arabiya (watch, runtime: 9:30). The expansion could happen through M&As with firms operating in the market, forming JVs with local banks, or acquiring the necessary license to operate in the new markets, he added.

Remember: Arcapita and Dgpays recently snapped up 65% of Mashreq Bank’s payment subsidiary NeoPay in a transaction valuing it at USD 385 mn.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT-

Drivers in Ajman will need to be careful with violations like mobile phone usage and failure to wear seatbelts, with the emirate set to launch a smart monitoring system on 1 October to detect the violations, Ajman police stated in an X post.

HAPPENING TODAY-

#1- The Freight Summit Global Conference is on its final day today at the W Hotel in The Palm, Dubai. The conference is slated to bring together over 400 international freight forwarders to network and boost partnerships globally.

#2- The 2024 Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) annual meeting kicked off on Sunday and will run until tomorrow in Abu Dhabi, marking the first time the forum is held in the Middle East, state news agency Wam reports.

#5- Gulfood Green is on its final day today at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The event connects startups and investors in the FoodTech and AgriTech sectors, exploring new methods of food production, trade, and consumption. You can register here.

#6- The Global Aerospace Summit is on its second and final day today in Abu Dhabi. The summit will gather key players in the global aerospace supply chain industry along with high level industry and government officials to discuss industry services, legal structure and resource sharing.

#8- Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is heading the UAE delegation at the UN General Assembly, which will wrap up on 30 September, Wam reports.

The UAE is among several countries invited to talks planned for tomorrow to discuss a six-point plan proposed by Brazil and China for dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reports. The proposal has already been rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Also expected to attend the talks: Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

#9- The Dubai World Trade Centre is hosting the ISM Middle East 2024 event today, featuring discussions on trends in the sweets and snacks industry.

#10- The Private Label Middle East event is taking place today at the Dubai World Trade Centre, with a focus on making products more accessible to consumers while promoting ecological responsibility.

#11- The 42nd edition of the ArabLab Live exhibition is on its final day today at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The exhibition is showcasing over 1k exhibitors, featuring seminars on biotechnology, environmental analysis and food safety to foster networking and discussions on laboratory advancements.

HAPPENING NEXT WEEK-

CBUAE to auction AED 14.1 bn M-Bills: The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) will offer up to AED 14.1 bn in four M-Bills at an auction on Monday 30 September, according to a statement (pdf) from the bank. The bills will have tenors ranging from 28 to 266 days.

Decoding central bank speak: M-bills are short-term securities issued in AED by the CBUAE at no interest. The bonds typically have maturity dates of one to 12 months and are not retrievable through any other listing. A tap issuance allows the CBUAE to more finely control money supply by allowing it the flexibility to continue selling bills past the initial auction date.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Business news is once again being pushed down the digital front page as the world’s press cover frantic diplomatic efforts to try to put together a ceasefire to stop “hell … breaking loose” — in the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. French and US authorities pushed for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah at the UN General Assembly yesterday, with French president Emmanuel Macron saying, “Israel cannot, without consequence, just expand its operations to Lebanon.” The two countries are apparently pushing for a 21-day ceasefire, according to two sources speaking to the Financial Times, with Biden expressing hopes that a truce might help pave the way to “dealing with the [occupied] West Bank” and Gaza.

Alongside hopes for a ceasefire are fears of an Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon after Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops that the country’s airstrikes on Lebanon were aimed not just at degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities, but “to prepare the ground for your possible entry.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE REGION- Libya’s two opposing governments have reportedly agreed on a new central bank leadership to be announced later today, sending Brent crude futures down 2.3% by the end of trading with the expectation of the country to soon up supply. The country’s oil output has fallen by more than half this month after a dispute between competing political factions over central bank-controlled oil revenues led to the removal of the bank’s governor and production strikes in protest.

AND IN BIG TECH NEWS- OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati announced her departure yesterday — the third in a string of high-profile departures from the AI leader after John Schulman and Ilya Sutskever earlier this year. It was also revealed that OpenAI is in the midst of formulating a plan to restructure the core business into a for-profit corporation as the company seeks to remove the cap on investor returns.

PLUS- The FBI is investigating California-based VC fund Hone Capital on allegations of accessing information about the technology, finances, and clients of US-based startups for the benefit of their Beijing-based financiers or even even the Chinese state. The VC fund has invested in more than 360 tech startups in less than three years, including acquiring stakes in driverless car maker Cruise, payments group Stripe, and aerospace engineer Boom.

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