Gulf

1. Eric Trump pushes crypto
2. Sawiris bets on UAE coast
3. Abu Dhabi’s new stablecoin
4. Qatar Airways and…
5. …Emirates on trade war

A Beirut hotel and a billionaire’s revenge.

Eric Trump’s property and crypto tour

Eric Trump is in Dubai selling crypto and luxury property, just weeks before his father’s highly anticipated trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.

The Trump Tower in Dubai — built by Saudi developer Dar Global — features 75 million dirham ($20.4 million) penthouses and three- to four-bedroom apartments priced around 5 million dirhams. The Trump Organization is also planning real estate developments in Riyadh, Jeddah, Oman, and Abu Dhabi, and Reuters reported it’s in talks with developer Qatari Diar for a golf course and villa project in Qatar.

The fuzzy line between business and politics is exemplified in the loosely regulated crypto industry: Eric and his brother Donald Trump Jr. manage the family’s stake in World Liberty Financial, a firm co-founded by Zach Witkoff — son of the US president’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. Abu Dhabi-based DWF Labs disclosed a $25 million purchase of tokens tied to World Liberty this month, becoming one of its biggest holders.

Eric Trump will speak tomorrow at a crypto conference headlined by industry figures such as Changpeng Zhao, founder of trading platform Binance. World Liberty plans to offer a stablecoin on Binance, and Zach Witkoff met with Zhao — who served four months in US prison for money laundering and is seeking a presidential pardon — in Abu Dhabi this week, according to The New York Times.

A $10B bet on the UAE coast

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is planning to pour $10 billion into developing a residential community between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, an otherwise sleepy 80-mile stretch dotted with industrial sites and warehouses that is becoming a hot spot for new real estate projects. His firm Ora Developers — which has residences and hotels in Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece — has launched Bayn, a master-planned community 35 minutes from downtown Dubai and 45 minutes from Abu Dhabi. High inflation in Egypt, where Ora is based, has squeezed margins, but the UAE offers a more stable investment climate with fewer economic headwinds, news site Enterprise UAE reported.

UAE to issue new stablecoin

The UAE national security adviser’s firms are leading an effort to roll out a dirham-backed stablecoin. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, has lined up the three of the largest entities he chairs — sovereign wealth fund ADQ, which focuses on infrastructure and energy investments; First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest lender; and conglomerate International Holding Co. — as the founding partners in the stablecoin project, which is awaiting regulatory approval from the UAE Central Bank.

The new digital asset — a cryptocurrency whose value will be pegged to the Emirati dirham — will be issued by FAB, and be managed on the ADI Foundation’s blockchain, an IHC-backed entity launched this year with the aim of developing an international payments network. ADI has signed on 20 governments in Africa and Europe, according to the firm.

Prices won’t go up: Qatar Airways CEO

Qatar Airways has built a stockpile of spare aircraft parts and has no plans to hike ticket prices, even as global carriers brace for the impact of new US tariffs. While the Middle East’s second-largest airline expects some impact on air-freight due to higher import charges, it will “absorb and adapt with any changes,” its CEO told Bloomberg.

Passenger demand is also high enough, including on its US routes, to keep ticket prices steady, he said, a data point echoed by Emirates’ chairman. Western carriers have been less optimistic: Virgin Atlantic has reported a dropoff in sales for its US routes and American Airlines last week pulled its full-year earnings outlook after domestic travel bookings dropped.

Emirates unfazed by trade war

The Gulf’s largest airline isn’t seeing any fallout from the trade war. Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said travel demand — including to the US — remains strong, with firm bookings for the rest of the year. The airline expects a “record” annual profit for fiscal year 2024 and is “very satisfied” with its cash reserves.

But delays on delivery of new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus continue to limit growth. Buying jets originally meant for Chinese carriers isn’t a fix, Sheikh Ahmed said, since Emirates would have to strip and refit them to its own specs — a considerable expense. “I’m sure that Boeing will not sell it at half the price,” he added.

Energy Transition

• Qatar has opened two new solar parks, doubling its solar energy production to 1,675 megawatts. With the 2,000-megawatt Dukhan solar power plant on track for 2029, the country expects to hit its goal of meeting around a third of electricity demand through solar power by 2030. — The Peninsula
• ALTÉRRA, the UAE’s $30 billion climate-focused fund, is investing $100 million into Indian renewable energy company Evren in a co-investment deal with Brookfield Asset Management and other investors. The funds will go toward constructing solar, wind, and battery storage projects in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
• The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is continuing a push into India by backing the IPO of Ather Energy, an electric scooter manufacturer with the country’s biggest charging network for two-wheeled EVs. The company is looking to raise $360 million to expand vehicle production and reduce debt. — AGBI

Media

• Russia Today has largely been driven out of markets in North America and Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s international television network has carved out a base in the UAE to run operations and finances, and through it, is still finding Western audiences. — Meduza

Real Estate

• A “comprehensive review” is underway at Saudi Arabia’s NEOM. The $500 billion project is facing scrutiny as the kingdom contends with lower oil prices and wider deficits. NEOM’s leadership are trying to get projects that have exceeded timelines and budgets back on track or reduce their scope. — Financial Times

Crypto

• Abu Dhabi-listed crypto company Phoenix Group added 52 megawatts of mining capacity in Ethiopia, bringing its total to 132 MW in the country and over 500 MW globally — which it says places it among the world’s top 10 Bitcoin miners. Its facilities in the African country will draw 90% of their power from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
• Fintech company Circle Internet Group received approval from Abu Dhabi’s ADGM regulator to operate as a money services provider, which it says is a step toward a broader financial services license. The New York stablecoin issuer incorporated a branch in ADGM in December.

Khalaf Al-Habtoor is done with Lebanon — and he’s taking his five-star hotel with him. The outspoken Dubai-based real estate and hospitality billionaire has invested around $1 billion in Lebanon, sticking with the country through years of security and economic turmoil. But a dispute over the withdrawal of his funds from Lebanese banks last year — and a threat that he would be “slaughtered and killed” — drove him to withdraw from the country, literally.

Sitting at a cafe with his staff — and an unnamed man introduced as an engineer from one of China’s biggest construction companies — he discussed in a video posted to X how the Chinese company has the expertise to slice up the Metropolitan Palace Hotel in Beirut and ship it out on barges. Al-Habtoor appeared to agree the plan was feasible, directing his team to ensure the pieces are moved when the waters are calm. It’s unclear when, or if, he will go through with it — or whether Lebanese authorities will allow the disassembly.

Some of the biggest US power companies are at odds with senior Trump administration officials on how to fill the country’s looming electricity deficit and beat China at the AI race, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell reports.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Semafor’s World Economy Summit last week that the continued use of federal tax credits to replace fossil fuels in the electric grid with renewables “would be catastrophic for our country.”

But executives of companies actually managing the delivery of power to new data centers have a more nuanced view: Even as rising trade barriers with China make some technologies more expensive, renewables plus batteries are still the cheapest and fastest way to put new electrons on the grid.