July 31: Developing Articles
DEAL MAKERS
UAE and Saudi sovereign wealth funds boosted MENA deal activity in the first half of 2024, pushing the value of mergers and acquisitions in the region up by 12% to $49.2 billion, according to a new report by EY. The two Gulf nations saw a combined total of 152 deals worth a reported $9.8 billion, mostly driven by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Mubadala in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) . The U.S. continued to be the top target destination for outbound investment, with 19 deals totalling $16 billion, including the largest transaction for the period, the $12 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Truist Life Insurance Services Holdings in February by CD&R , Stone Point Capital and Mubadala Financial Investment . Mubadala and ADIA, alongside Private equity firm PAG , were also behind the second biggest deal after investing $8.3 billion in a 60% stake in Chinese shopping mall company Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group.
AI CONCERN
Shares of 微软 , which signed a $1.5 billion development agreement with Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence firm G42 in April, slumped after second-quarter earnings from its Azure cloud-computing business missed expectations. The stock dropped 2.8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, reflecting concern about the company’s massive AI investments, the Wall Street Journal reports. Excitement about the potential for generative AI has helped fuel a surge in the shares of Microsoft and other tech companies since last year. More recently, though, investors have started to worry that the companies’ shares have become overvalued. Washington lawmakers have also raised questions about the Microsoft-G42 deal, arguing that it could give China access to AI technology developed in the U.S.