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UAE national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (TBZ) controls a $1trn-plus investment empire that, mixing private and public funds, is in full expansion mode. Although now widely commented on, the structure of Tahnoun’s business empire and the identities of those individuals who work most closely with TBZ often remain opaque, as is the nature of financial links with his powerful Bani Fatima brothers.

A deal between Abu Dhabi giant Adnoc and UK major BP to co-invest in Egyptian gas assets highlights how wealthy Gulf national oil companies are seeking lower-carbon expansion opportunities across Africa, with actors from Qatar and Kuwait also among those on the hunt.

The Bahraini sovereign wealth fund will fold its existing agriculture assets into the new body, as part of efforts to improve food security

A relatively rare phone call between Bahrain’s King Hamad and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim on 3 March followed signs of progress being made on the long-delayed Friendship Bridge project to create a physical link between the sometimes feuding neighbours.

Luxembourg-based real estate fund Meigerhorn II Etoy has filed a winding-up petition in the Cayman Islands against GEMS Global Schools, part of Dubai’s GEMS Education, over unpaid rent at a now-closed Swiss school.

The Abu Dhabi government’s ADQ wealth fund and Tahnoun Bin Zayed’s International Holding Company have sold key real estate assets to Q Holding, in return for shares in the listed real estate group, in a complex deal that further signals the increasing co-operation between Abu Dhabi’s many state and privately-owned funds.

In a $66.5m deal with Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy, Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi is selling Svenska Petroleum Exploration, his Sweden-based oil company that has been up for sale since bankruptcy proceedings were launched against Al-Amoudi’s Petroswede in early 2023

A trade deal between the UAE and Cambodia came into force in early February, just weeks after negotiations were finalised for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Costa Rica, as more of Abu Dhabi’s preferred Cepa deals are unrolled.

Alpha Dhabi reported a 25% rise in profits in 2023, alongside a 14% increase in revenues, as the investment firm owned by UAE national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s International Holding Company announced multi-billion-dinar joint venture deals with Adnoc Drilling and Mubadala.

None of the Gulf’s emerging ´middle powers’ have issued a detailed policy document setting out their approach to projecting soft power, even as they continue to spend extravagantly while drawing in investment and talent. Autocracies have no real need to orchestrate the sort of public debate that might follow, even if they regularly sound out local opinion via traditional diwans or more modern polling techniques — not to mention ever more pervasive surveillance of their citizens and others’ communications.

Plans by the Saudi state-owned Public Investment Fund to remodel the world of professional golf continue to cause controversy in Washington, where senators are taking a dim view of the fund’s approach to their inquiries. That is not denting the PIF’s sporting appetite though, with cycling, rugby and motorsport deals in the pipeline.

Khalid Al-Shamlan takes over the real estate and infrastructure file at the Abu Dhabi government’s investment fund.

Former Kuwait Projects Company (Kipco) vice chairman Faisal Al-Ayar’s attempt to recover $840,000 from his son-in-law – who is in divorce proceedings with Al-Ayar’s daughter – has been dismissed by an Abu Dhabi court for lack of jurisdiction, mirroring a similar ruling in Dubai.

Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund has reportedly invested a further $38m into McLaren, just weeks after the luxury sportscar maker had said a full recapitalisation had been completed.

Sovereign wealth fund the Oman Investment Authority has launched a third fund in its portfolio. The OR2bn Future Fund Oman will sit alongside the National Development Fund and Future Generations Fund