The US$100bn dollar week

It's not every day that you witness US$164,344 being invested every second over seven days in and out of the Gulf, but it happened last week, and it's been thrilling to observe from the sidelines. Not only that, there's plenty more to come before the summer heat begins to kick in and local and regional investors pack their Louis Vuitton luggage sets for colder climes. Add it up and it's been a US$100bn-plus week.

The investment season is in full swing and several massive deals have been struck between some of the Gulf's and some of the world's biggest and most groundbreaking players.

It all began with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai announcing one of the largest philanthropic gestures on record while at the World Economic Forum in Jordan last week. A massive US$10bn will soon be winging its way over to establish an education foundation to tackle poor standards of education and literacy in the Arab world - an issue close to his heart and one that is key if the next generation of Arab business leaders is to successfully emerge. 48 hours later Sheikh Mohammed landed in South Korea and revealed one of the UAE's biggest ever deals with an external investment partner.

Mass property developer Sungwon Corporation, in conjunction with the newly set up Deira Investment Company headed up by Emirates Airline's Sheikh Ahmed, sealed a US$20bn contract to build homes, malls and harbour facilities along the Creek in Deira, one of Dubai's oldest and well preserved areas. US$5bn of which has been agreed. Sungwon is no stranger to regional deals, however, it has already invested a whopping US$4.4bn across the Middle East property sector, with an emphasis on the Emirates.

Next to roll by on the investment conveyor belt was SABIC. It had been muted for several days that the Saudi chemicals giant was looking to land a mega deal with analysts expecting it to bid for General Electric's up for auction plastics division, a company that employs over 10,000 people, but no one expected it to leave US hands for so much. The estimated US$8bn bid transformed into a final signature worth US$11.6bn. Scarily SABIC is far from done this year in either acquiring or investing cash into large company stakes across the globe. Its board have more bids up their sleeves.

Not to be outdone the UAE capital's Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) unveiled that it had accumulated 8% of regional investment bank and rising star EFG-Hermes for an undisclosed sum giving ADIA a seat on its board of directors.

And if all that wasn't enough Halliburton's CEO Dave Lesar finally revealed the worst kept secret in UAE business history - his company's official entry into the Emirates announcing with it that the energy services goliath is targeting up to US$80bn worth of projects from its Dubai base over the coming five years. But this is nothing. Gulf war chests are bulging at the seams and are set to be unleashed in the next four weeks before holidays are taken and the month long Ramadan celebrations begin in September. Look out for even more investment activity and even more records to be broken.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

USER COMMENTS (0 COMMENTS)

POST A COMMENT

CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.