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Minister of state for foreign trade Thani Al-Zeyoudi has been appointed executive chairman of Rorix Holdings, a trade finance, commodities exchange and insurance specialist recently set up by International Holding Company, the powerful local conglomerate.
Dubai-based DP World has blamed attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the 40% fall in its profits in the first half of 2024. In contrast, Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports said its revenues had more than doubled and profits were up 25%.
Talks between Mohammad Hassan Akhund and the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed are a further sign of slowly-developing ties between Abu Dhabi and the Taliban regime.
The UAE has seen distinctly mixed results from the six Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements that it has brought into force over the past two years. Trade with India has been growing at a slower pace than trade with the rest of the world and other deals have also been underperforming, as the easing of tariffs and other trade restrictions rubs up against broader geopolitical and macroeconomic issues.
In late July, just as the UAE was wrapping up several of its latest bilateral free trade deals, a GCC delegation was in Ankara from 29-31 July for the first round of discussions on a free trade deal with Türkiye. That was soon followed on 1 August by the official launch of negotiations on a free trade agreement between the GCC and Indonesia.
The UAE has been clamping down hard on opposition figures this year, in what appears to be an increasingly repressive domestic political arena. A mass trial ended in July with the conviction of 53 people – many of them still behind bars from a 2013 court case. Abu Dhabi now says it has identified a new secret group of exiles operating outside the country trying to stir up trouble back home.
The federal gambling regulator awarded a licence to run the UAE’s first authorised national lottery to a relative unknown in late July, leaving existing operators searching for new business models.
The appointment of Sheikh Theyab Bin Tahnoun Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan as chairman of the Dubai Financial Market-listed construction company Drake & Scull International is part of the business rehabilitation of a veteran gulf contracting company.
Listed subsidiaries of Sheikh Tahnoun’s Investment Holding Company have had a tough first half of the year, with Multiply Group reporting a large loss and sister companies Alpha Dhabi and Emirates Stallions Group announcing sharp drops in profits.
Shell, BP, Mitsui and TotalEnergies have all signed up to take 10% stakes in the $5.5bn Ruwais LNG project. Construction work is due to start soon, with the first LNG deliveries pencilled in for 2028.
Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan will chair the new Smart and Autonomous Systems Council, which will act as a regulator and aim to attract investment into a sector which encompasses everything from self-driving cars to smart oil well technology and military weapons.
The Dubai-based low-cost carrier has complained that years of delivery delays by Boeing have “significantly impacted” its operations and are likely to negatively affect its financial performance this year.
Abu Dhabi’s Al-Sayegh Group, best known for its electronics distribution business, has expanded its interests in Africa with a cashew processing plant.
Sheikha Mahra, a daughter of Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, posted a message on Instagram directed at her husband of just over a year, Sheikh Mana Al-Maktoum, saying “I divorce you”.
Umm Al-Quwain ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Rashid Al-Mualla has merged the emirate’s Municipality and Urban Planning departments, with Municipality chief Sheikh Ali Bin Saud placed in charge of the new body.
