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Gaza war can’t blunt Gulf dealmaking, but complicates foreign investment drive

TOPSHOT - A picture taken on October 23, 2018 shows (L to R) Lubna Olayan, CEO and Deputy Chairperson Olayan Financing, Yasir al-Rumayyan, Saudi managing director of Public investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Rusian Direct Investment Fund and Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak, managing director and CEO of Mubadala Development Company, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Future Investment Initiative FII conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh. - Saudi Arabia is hosting a key investment summit overshadowed
To:

Al-Monitor Readers

From:

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst, Al-Monitor

Date:

Dec. 6, 2023

Bottom Line:

Even the threat of war can’t dampen investor appetite for Gulf IPOs: Dubai Taxi Company’s late November listing received over $41 billion in investor orders for a $315 million public offering—record demand for a Dubai IPO. This comes after Middle Eastern airlines lined up billions in jet orders at the Dubai Airshow in November, demonstrating that regional dealmaking enjoys strong tailwinds. Still, the Gaza war has whipped up some headwinds: Foreign investors pulled a record amount of money from equity funds tracking Saudi Arabia in October and the conflict overshadowed Davos in the Desert, Riyadh’s flagship investment forum. It’s a snapshot of broader uncertainty hanging over Gulf economic diversification and development plans, which hinge in part on attracting foreign investment that could now be harder to secure with regional calm shattered.