At a glance...2007

What a year it has been. Emerging economies continued their rapid growth; oil reached its all-time high at US$100 a barrel; parts of the Middle East experienced - and still experience - great turmoil politically and economically whereas other areas continued to shoot towards prosperity.

Abu Dhabi started to make its evident mark on the property market announcing major cultural, residential and tourism-related projects. Dubai continued to mount the ladder of giant property investments, with home companies making bold moves to tap into other regional and international markets. The GCC region, in general, has sustained and improved its level of growth in various industries, while countries such as Morocco, and Tunisia have joined the boom. Arabian Business takes a look at the biggest deals, initiatives, and disappointments of 2007.

The biggest deals

Emirates airline

Emirates Airline was by far the biggest spender during Dubai's Air Show this year. The carrier gave an enormous boost to Europe's struggling Airbus, after the manufacturer strived to end losses caused by the euro's strength against the dollar, and a US$6.8bn charge from the delays of the A380 superjumbo. The airplane manufacturer was not helped by delays of the A350 either.

However, if Airbus touched down at the Dubai Air Show with its Rolls Royce engines under firing, it set off back to Toulouse turbo-charged. In fact both Airbus and Boeing were well treated this year. Emirates ordered 70 A350s and 11 double-deck A380s, splashing US$20.2bn, in addition to 12 Boeing 777s valued at US$3.2bn. Later during the Air Show, Emirates Airline announced that its total order of aircraft reached US$34.9bn, the largest in the history of civil aviation. Emirates' total orders of Airbus reached US$31.7bn this year.

Both Airbus and Boeing have witnessed a jump in sales to both Asia and the Gulf. In 2007 the region's contribution to Airbus' backlog of orders was upped to 30%, from 10% in 2006.

Saudi arms deal

Early September, UK's BAE Systems' shares climbed up to 4.4% after reports began to circulate that it was about to announce a deal with Saudi Arabia worth US$40.5bn. The deal was officially confirmed mid-September. BAE has successfully sold 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets to the Kingdom at the price tag of US$8.84bn. However, the total value of the contract, including weapons, has been valued at up to US$40.5bn, according to reports by top news agencies.

Universal Studios

This year saw the inking of a number of theme park deals for Dubai. One of the biggest deals was between America's Universal Studios and Tatweer, a Dubai government-owned developer, to develop a US$2.2bn theme park. The park, which will be modelled after Universal's theme parks in Florida, California and Japan, will be the first of its kind in the Middle East region. Designed by creative consultant Steven Spielberg, themes of the park will be extracted from movie hits such as King Kong and Jurassic Park. Tatweer will develop the project in partnership with Universal Studio's resorts arm.

The theme park, according to Tatweer, will not only be one of the biggest in the region but the largest worldwide, and will be built as the centerpiece of Dubailand, a massive entertainment zone housing several amusement parks, offices and housing zones.

Arcapita

Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank announced investments with a Qatar-owned firm, Diar Real Estate Investment Co, which is developing a US$5.5bn project in Qatar. The capital will be poured into utilities and other infrastructure.

Arcapita, which owns Northern Ireland's largest utility, Viridian Group Plc, will develop, own and operate utilities in the US$5.5bn development as well as Diar's other projects internationally.

Gulf Finance House

Bahrain's investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) signed a deal this year with the Indian state of Maharashtra to build a US$10bn economic zone to lure in energy and telecoms companies. Located alongside the expressway linking Mumbai with the booming city of Pune, the project will comprise of four main districts including Energy City India, Software City Mumbai, Telecom City Mumbai and Entertainment City Mumbai.

GE Aviation

This year has also been a good year for GE Aviation, which received US$10bn in product and service orders at Dubai Airshow 2007. By the time the show ended, GE sold over 1100 GEnx engines, resulting in it becoming the company's fastest-selling high-thrust engine to date. In order to meet high demand, GE will boost its production levels by more than 50% over the upcoming three years.

HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

The Saudi Prince never fails to surprise and this year has been no exception. Prince Alwaleed set a new standard for luxury when he made the biggest individual purchase and the first VIP order for the Airbus A380 superjumbo in mid-November. The shopping spree cost him US$300m. The Prince also dared to go where few other private equity companies go by announcing a half billion dollar investment into Africa. The Prince's wealth is presently estimated at US$29.5bn, according to Arabian Business and Forbes magazine estimates.

Limitless - Dubai

The global development arm of Dubai World, Limitless, announced the largest and most complex civil engineering project in the Middle East in October this year. The company will oversee the design and construction of the US$11bn Arabian Canal development. The canal will include building a 75km man-made waterway that will flow inland from Dubai Waterfront, passing to the east of the new Dubai World Central International Airport before turning back towards Palm Jumeirah. It will be 150 metres wide and 6 metres deep and will have the capacity to accommodate boats up to 40 metres long. Work on the project was scheduled to commence in December 2007, with a three-year completion period.

Creating the canal will involve digging and moving over a million cubic metres of earth, enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools, every day. Upon completion, the project is expected to be one of the marvels of the engineering world.

Limitless will design its biggest mixed-use development as part of the Arabian Canal project. The US$50bn waterfront development will span 20,000 hectares and stretch for 33km along the inland section of the waterway, east of the new international airport. The project will include marinas, residential communities and business centres serving over a million people. Completion is expected to happen in phases over a period of 15 years.

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