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EBRD appoints Gretchen Biery Director for the eastern Mediterranean region

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Gretchen Biery Director for its eastern Mediterranean region
Gretchen Biery Director for its eastern Mediterranean region

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Gretchen Biery Director for its eastern Mediterranean region, leading its operations in Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza.

Ms Biery took up her new role on 1 September 2023, reporting to the Managing Director of the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region. She will be based in Jordan, where she succeeds Philip ter Woort.

An American national, Ms Biery joined the Bank in 2018 as Head of Lebanon, based in Beirut, where she established the EBRD’s office and oversaw operations. Since 2021, she has been Senior Advisor to the Managing Director of the SEMED region, focusing on preparations for the Bank’s potential expansion into sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq, as well as working with newer shareholders in the region, including Algeria.

“It is a great privilege to take over this role delivering the EBRD’s activities in the eastern Mediterranean,” Ms Biery said. “I’m very happy to return to the region and look forward to building on the achievements of my predecessors, supporting the region’s economy and working to deliver the Bank’s green and sustainable agenda with the public and private sectors.”

Prior to joining the Bank, Ms Biery held strategic and operational positions at multilateral development banks and the US Treasury, and consulted for bilateral development agencies. She worked extensively
in the Middle East and south-east Asia.

She brings to the role vast knowledge of the region, significant public-sector and policy dialogue experience, as well as experience supporting private-sector development.

She holds a master’s degree in international relations and economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a degree in international political science from the University of Louisville.

The EBRD launched its operations in the SEMED region in 2012 and, to date, has invested over €19.2 billion there. The Bank is working to strengthen the resilience of local economies in the region with a combination of investment and policy engagement. It focuses on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, promoting agribusiness, developing infrastructure and local services, supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency, and developing local capital markets.

 

Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Welcomes New USAID Director in Egypt.

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Welcomes New USAID Director in Egypt.
Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Welcomes New USAID Director in Egypt.

● Al-Mashat highlights the development partnership with the USAID.

● H.E. reviews joint programs and projects with USAID and discusses priorities for economic cooperation in various areas of development.

● Discussions on ways to strengthen joint cooperation in the projects of the NWFE program.

● USAID Mission Director confirms his aspiration to build on decades of fruitful cooperation within the framework of the Egyptian-American strategic partnership to advance development priorities.

The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, welcomes Mr. Sean Jones, the new United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director in Egypt, in the presence of the technical teams from the Ministry of International Cooperation and the USAID.

Al-Mashat began the meeting by welcoming Mr. Jones, and congratulating him on assuming his position, expressing her hope that the coming period will witness more joint cooperation and fruitful partnerships in light of Egyptian-US relations to enhance development efforts in Egypt in various sectors.

The Director of the USAID Mission in Egypt expressed his happiness to join the agency’s work team in Egypt to build on the decades-long partnership between the United States government and Egypt, stressing his aspiration to work jointly with various parties to meet the priorities at the level of the strategic partnership between the two countries to promote economic growth, women empowerment and climate action.

Al-Mashat highlighted the Government of Egypt’s joint relations with the United States of America, as well as the distinguished partnership that exists with the USAID, which extends to various development sectors in light of the common interests and relations between the two countries, and the reflection of this partnership in the formation of an ongoing development cooperation portfolio that records about $1 billion since 2014 in the form of development grants directed to many vital sectors, such as developing and maximizing the role of the private sector, financing small and medium enterprises, developing the education and health sectors, tourism, and agriculture, and enhancing climate action.

Al-Mashat pointed out that this strategic partnership will be strengthened during the year 2022 by signing grant agreements worth $160 million to advance development efforts by targeting several sectors, most notably education and health, in addition to a new climate initiative grant agreement worth $15 million, referring to the consultations. The technical teams from both sides are continuing to sign more grants during the current year to meet national development priorities.

The Minister of International Cooperation reviewed the details of the Nexus for Water, Food and Energy Platform, the NWFE program, and its role as a national platform in mobilizing and enhancing climate financing and private sector investments. They discussed the proposed cooperation pillars with the agency in this context.

H.E. also referred to the political declaration issued by the United States, Germany and Egypt to support the energy pillar within the NWFE program to provide development grants to implement its projects, and the government’s recent update and announcement of the NDCs in confirmation of its commitment to advancing climate action efforts.

Through USAID, the US government has invested more than $30 billion in Egypt’s development. These efforts strengthened the partnership between the United States and Egypt and contributed to improving the situation of the Egyptian people.

Alibaba Cloud Open-Sources Large Vision Language Model for Image Understanding

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Alibaba Cloud Open-Sources Large Vision Language Model for Image Understanding
Alibaba Cloud Open-Sources Large Vision Language Model for Image Understanding

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, launched two open-source large vision language models (LVLM), Qwen-VL and its conversationally fine-tuned Qwen-VL-Chat. The models can comprehend images, texts and bounding boxes in prompts and facilitate multi-round question answering in both English and Chinese.

Qwen-VL is the multimodal version of Qwen-7B, Alibaba Cloud’s 7-billion-parameter model of its large language model Tongyi Qianwen (also available on ModelScope as open-source). Capable of understanding both image inputs and text prompts in English and Chinese, Qwen-VL can perform various tasks such as responding to open-ended queries related to different images and generating image captions.

Qwen-VL-Chat caters to more complex interaction, such as comparing multiple image inputs and engaging in multi-round question answering. Leveraging alignment techniques, this AI assistant exhibits a range of creative capabilities, which include writing poetry and stories based on input images, summarizing the content of multiple pictures, and solving mathematical questions displayed in images.

In a bid to democratize AI technologies, Alibaba Cloud has shared the model’s code, weights, and documentation with academics, researchers, and commercial institutions worldwide. This contribution to the open-source community is accessible via Alibaba’s AI model community ModelScope and the collaborative AI platform Hugging Face. For commercial uses, companies with over 100 million monthly active users can request a license from Alibaba Cloud.

The introduction of these models, with their ability to extract meaning and information from images, holds the potential to revolutionize the interaction with visual content. For instance, leveraging its image comprehension and question answering capability, the models could provide information assistance to visually impaired individuals during online shopping in the future.

The Qwen-VL model was pre-trained on image and text datasets. Compared to other open-source large vision language models that can process and understand images in 224*224 resolution, Qwen-VL can handle image input at a resolution of 448*448, resulting in better image recognition and comprehension.

Based on various benchmarks,Qwen-VL recorded outstanding performs on several visual language tasks, including zero-shot captioning, general visual question answering, text-oriented visual question answering and object detection.

Qwen-VL-Chat has also achieved leading results in both Chinese and English for text-image dialogue and alignment levels with humans, according to the benchmark test of Alibaba Cloud. This test involved over 300 images, 800 questions, and 27 categories.

Earlier this month, Alibaba Cloud open sourced its 7-billion-parameter LLMs, Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat as its ongoing contribution to the open-source community. The two models have had over 400,000 downloads within a month of their launch.

Ecobank Rwanda Appoints Richard Mugisha as New Chairman of the Board of Directors

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Ecobank Rwanda Appoints Richard Mugisha as New Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ecobank Rwanda Appoints Richard Mugisha as New Chairman of the Board of Directors

Ecobank Rwanda announced the appointment of Mr. Richard Mugisha as its new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Mugisha replaces Mr. Ivan Twagirashema who retired in August 2023, having served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the past 4 years. He is credited with ability to provide effective strategic direction, foster innovation, maintain strong financial performance, and uphold the bank’s commitment to responsible banking practices.

The appointment of Mr. Mugisha is part of Ecobank Rwanda’s ongoing commitment to strengthen its leadership team and help drive forward its strategy of delivering innovative financial solutions to the Rwandan market.

Mr. Mugisha is a seasoned entrepreneur and legal expert with over 25 years practice, providing legal counsel to both public and private sectors in Rwanda and beyond. He’s had significant achievements in driving strategic growth and operational excellence in the various organizations that he’s served, including those in the financial sector.

As a professional with a proven track record, Mr. Mugisha has consistently demonstrated remarkable capabilities in board leadership, stakeholder engagement in addition to his ability to foster innovative business strategies while providing invaluable counsel to a wide range of clients. His extensive experience and visionary approach makes him an exceptional addition to Ecobank Rwanda’s leadership team.

Said Ecobank Rwanda Managing Director, Mrs. Carine Umutoni: “We are grateful to Mr. Mugisha for joining us as our new Chairman of the Board of Directors. We look forward to leveraging his broad expertise and extensive experience within the corporate and commercial legal space to drive forward our innovation and excellence agenda. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our outgoing Chairman, Dr. Ivan Twagirashema for his dedicated service to our Bank for the past 9 years and wish him the very best in his retirement.”

Mr. Mugisha expressed his delight to serve the bank in this role, stating: “I am truly honored to join Ecobank Rwanda, a renowned Pan-African institution that has consistently demonstrated its dedication to innovation, customer service, and community development, As I step into this role, I am dedicated to upholding the bank’s legacy of excellence while driving forward its strategic vision. Building upon the foundation laid by my predecessor, I am committed to working closely with the board, the executive team, and our stakeholders to ensure Ecobank Rwanda’s continued success.”

As Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mugisha will provide strategic direction, leadership, and oversight to support the bank’s growth strategies and reinforce its commitment to delivering top-notch financial solutions to individuals, businesses, and communities across Rwanda.

Cityscape Talks The Future of Real Estate in Egypt

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Cityscape Talks: The Future of Real Estate in Egypt
Cityscape Talks: The Future of Real Estate in Egypt

Cityscape Talks will be Egypt’s platform for ministerial keynote sessions, presentations, panel discussions featuring experts from the real estate industry, government sectors, investors, and decision-makers. The talks will be introduced at the twelfth edition of Cityscape, the leading real estate exhibition in Egypt and Africa. The platform aims to provide insights into the most important developments in the public and private sectors, investment prospects, financing options, mortgages, and sustainability.

Organized by Informa Markets, a globally renowned leader in organizing exhibitions, and under the esteemed patronage of the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, Cityscape will take place from September 20-23 at the Egypt International Exhibition Center (EIEC). The highly anticipated event offers a valuable opportunity to learn about the latest trends in the Egyptian real estate sector, with a particular focus on cutting-edge technologies that are driving industry progress. It also serves as a catalyst for pivotal investment opportunities that will shape the future of Egypt’s real estate sector.

Cityscape Talks aims to foster discussions on strategies and initiatives aimed at bolstering the real estate investment climate in Egypt and achieving economic growth. It will also delve into the future of sustainable buildings and environmental management, considering global initiatives towards carbon neutrality that are driving the adoption of sustainable solutions in the market.

One of the keynote sessions being delivered by Hossam Heiba, President, General Authority for Free Zones and Investments (GAFI), will focus on how the government is reshaping its policies to boost real estate investments in Egypt.

What’s new for 2023? The talks will emphasize the importance of gender equality, as it proudly hosts for the first time ever a Women in Real Estate (WIRE) led panel discussion followed by networking taking place on the show floor. This will highlight the significant role of women in the industry, aligning with Egypt’s Vision 2030. The platform will serve as an ideal ground to hear from leading women in Egypt’s real estate landscape.

Cityscape talks will host a distinguished group of experts and CEOs, headed by Dr. Waleed Abbas, Supervisor of the Minister of Housing Office, Assistant Minister of Housing for the Affairs of NUCA, and Supervisor of the Planning and Projects Sector. Other participants include Eng. Khaled Abbas, Chairman and Managing Director of The Administrative Capital for Urban Development; Amr ElHamy, CEO of Tourism, Real Estate & Antiquities at The Sovereign Fund of Egypt; Ayman Amer, General Manager of SODIC; Hashem El Sayed, Vice Chairman, and CEO of the Egyptian Real Estate Fund; and Eng. Ahmed Mansour, CEO of CRED Developments.

Dr. Waleed Abbas, Supervisor of the Minister of Housing Office, Assistant Minister of Housing for the Affairs of NUCA, and Supervisor of the Planning and Projects Sector, stated: “It’s wonderful to be a part of Cityscape Talks 2023 once again. As a part of my opening speech, I’m excited to share with you all an overview of the Egyptian government role and various stakeholders in supporting the movement of real estate market and investment opportunities. Come join me as we look at Egypt’s growing real estate prospects.”

Eng. Khaled Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman and Managing Director, Administrative Center for Urban Development, said: “With Egypt’s real estate sector bustling with activity from investors and homebuyers, I’m very happy to associate with Cityscape Talks Egypt 2023. Join me, as I share with you the contributions to the urban expansion and deepening the role of the new administrative capital in the Egyptian economy along with the efforts that we’ve taken to include key practical and administrative priorities related to energy efficiency, smart utilities, green buildings, as well the management of the city functions and operation.”

Eng. Fathallah Fawzy, Chairman, MENA for real estate development consultancy, stated: “As the President and Chairman of Cityscape Talks 2023, it gives me immense pleasure to invite you to join us for four exciting days of sessions from senior government officials, developers, bankers, architects and many more. As a special feature, we are also excited to launch the Women in Real estate (WIRE) initiative with a dedicated panel discussion followed by networking by women achievers in Egypt’s real estate. It’s exciting times for real estate in Egypt and I look forward to seeing you all there.”

Lastly, in collaboration with The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Cityscape Egypt will feature the student design charette initiative. This initiative is a fast-paced brainstorming session designed to create an original solution to expected challenges. The aim is to highlight the importance of using innovative modern designs for the development of cities and improving the lives of citizens. A group of students from different universities, including AAST Alexandria, AAST Cairo, and AAST Smart Village, will participate in the workshop. The charette will then be judged by the grand jury on September 23, 2023. The last day will also include CPD workshops on architecture and design, led by RIBA members.

The twelfth edition of Cityscape will bring together over 70 important exhibitors from the real estate sector, showcasing a wide range of projects from across Egypt in a spacious 35,000 m2 covered area across 4 halls. The exhibition will feature exclusive deals, innovative payment options, and exciting previews of hundreds of new projects, attracting a diverse crowd of over 20,000 visitors.

Bill Snow releases a new book on mergers and acquisitions

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Bill Snow releases a new book on mergers and acquisitions
Bill Snow releases a new book on mergers and acquisitions

This updated second edition is the go-to resource for business owners and investors seeking practical guidance and real-world advice on navigating successful M&A transactions. With a focus on providing useful techniques and comprehensive insights, this book goes beyond mere case studies to cover international laws and regulations, environmental considerations, and actionable instructions that can be readily applied.

Written in clear and accessible language, Mergers & Acquisitions For Dummies takes readers through the entire M&A process, describes different types of transactions, demonstrates various ways to structure a deal, defines methods to identify and contact targets, provides insights on how to finance transactions, reveals what helps and hurts a company’s valuation, offers negotiating tips, explains how to perform due diligence, analyzes the purchase agreement, and discloses methods to help ensure the combined companies are successfully integrated.

Whether you are a transactions pro, a service provider tangentially involved in transactions, or a student thinking of becoming an investment banker, this book will provide the insights and knowledge that will help you become successful. Business owners and executives will also find this book helpful, not only when they want to buy or sell a company, but if they want to learn more about what improves a company’s value. The evaluation process used by M&A professionals to transact a business sale is often quite different from the processes used by owners and executives to manage those businesses.

With over 30 years of experience, Bill Snow is a sought-after authority in the field of M&A and can discuss topics such as:

How Covid has affected inventory – “just-in-time” is now “just-in-case”
Entering the M&A zone: Why selling a company is often easier than buying a company
The real reasons M&A deals do not close
Beyond the numbers: What factors really drive a company’s valuation
So you want to buy a company? Tips on how to contact business owners
How the skills at the poker table can improve your deal negotiation skills
Comprehending how the M&A process can help a business owner create value
Why adjusted EBITDA has become a “Frankenstein’s Monster” in the deal world
How to determine if a competitor might be a viable acquirer…Without letting them know your company is for sale
What helps and what hurts a company’s valuation?
Lessons from pop culture: 11 seemingly disparate non-business references from movies and music
Stop asking, start offering: The secret to opening doors
How quality of earnings reports can enhance value

ADES Holding to float 30% stake on Tadawul, IPO could surpass $1 billion valuation

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Sahfy
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ADES Holding Company, a leading oil and gas drilling and production services provider in the Middle East and North Africa region, announced today that it intends to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) and the listing of its shares on the Saudi Exchange’s Main Market. The IPO is expected to raise significant capital for the Company, which could fetch more than $1 billion, Reuters reported last November citing two sources familiar with the matter. The IPO is also expected to increase the Company’s visibility and attract new investors.

The IPO is scheduled to take place in September 2023. The offer will comprise an offer of 338,718,754 ordinary shares, representing 30% of the Company’s issued share capital (after the increase) through the sale of a mix of existing shares and newly issued shares. The Offer Shares will be listed and traded on the Saudi Exchange’s Main Market following the completion of the IPO and listing formalities with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Saudi Exchange.

The Offer Shares will be offered for subscription to individual investors (Individual Subscribers) and institutional investors (Participating Parties), including Participating Parties outside the United States in “offshore transactions” in accordance with Regulation S under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).

A maximum of 338,718,754 shares, representing 100% of total Offer Shares, will be initially allocated to Participating Parties. The financial advisors (as defined below) may, in coordination with the Company, reduce the number of shares allocated to Participating Parties to 304,846,879 shares, representing 90% of total Offer Shares, to accommodate for Individual Subscriber demand.

A maximum of 33,871,875 ordinary shares, representing 10% of the total Offer Shares, will be allocated to Individual Subscribers. Individual Subscribers must, at the time of subscription, have an active stock portfolio at a Capital Market Institution associated with the Receiving Agent being subscribed through, otherwise subscriptions will be rendered void and the amounts paid will be refunded.

The final Offering price will be determined at the end of the book-building process.

The Company appointed EFG Hermes Saudi Arabia (“Hermes”), Goldman Sachs Saudi Arabia (“Goldman Sachs”), J.P. Morgan Saudi Arabia (“J.P. Morgan”) and SNB Capital Company (“SNB Capital”) as its financial advisors (collectively referred to as the “Financial Advisors”) and global coordinators. In addition, the Company has appointed SNB Capital Company as Lead Manager (the “Lead Manager”) in relation to the Offering. The Company has also appointed EFG Hermes Saudi Arabia, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, SNB Capital, GIB Capital, HSBC Saudi Arabia, Al Rajhi Capital and Saudi Fransi Capital as bookrunners and underwriters (the “Underwriters”) in relation to the Offering.

Arab National Bank (“ANB”), Alrajhi Bank (“Alrajhi”), Riyad Bank and The Saudi National Bank (“SNB”) have been appointed as receiving entities (collectively, the “Receiving Entities”) for the Individual Subscribers’ tranche.

Lazard Financial Advisory (“Lazard”) has been appointed as Independent Financial Advisor to the Company.

Inside the Success of Munjz’s Revolutionary Property Management Solutions

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Inside the Success of Munjz’s Revolutionary Property Management Solutions
Inside the Success of Munjz’s Revolutionary Property Management Solutions

Munjz, the Saudi-based, prop-tech cloud platform designed to cater to KSA property owners and developers, sets a new precedent within the property management industry after gaining robust traction in the past year. The company has revealed insight into its recent growth since securing a $5 million Pre-Series A funding round in February 2023, solidifying its position as a leader within the space. 

Established in 2018, Munjz emerged as a response to address the needs of both residential and commercial tenants, providing innovative solutions for services such as on-demand maintenance accessible through their platform. The company shifted from B2C to B2B in 2021, introducing a comprehensive multi-solution digital platform catering to the maintenance and facility management industry. Today, the company uses enhanced property management systems (PMS) to facilitate streamlined operations, enabling property and business owners, facility managers, and maintenance managers to manage their operations and property revenues on a unified hub. 

Munjz offers a comprehensive suite of prop-tech solutions tailored to different needs within the property management landscape. Munjz Connect is a property management software B2B platform that streamlines maintenance management for both commercial and residential properties. Munjz Now, a B2C platform, empowers homeowners and residents to control their maintenance tasks directly. Meanwhile, Munjz Market targets vendors and service providers, facilitating their engagement with property management processes. Through these distinct platforms, Munjz creates a unified property management ecosystem, enhancing efficiency and communication among stakeholders, encompassing property operations, activities, and expenses in real time.

Since Q1 of 2023, the company has assumed management of 3,500 additional units, expanding its portfolio to 12,000 total. Among its extensive clientele are more than 90 esteemed brands that have partnered with Munjz to manage the maintenance of commercial properties, including household names such as McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, and Al Majdiah Residence. 

Subscribed users can manage their own team of technicians, vendors, and contractors through the platform or tap into Munjz’s extensive database of service providers. Activating one subscription plan gives access to multiple parties, such as tenants, employees, and service teams, including technicians, to automate order requests, purchases, payments, and performance tracking. With Munjz offering tailor-made subscriptions, new subscribers are encouraged to explore and utilize the free 15-day trial and build the perfect plan, with the option to avail an annual discount.

“We are thrilled to provide Munjz Connect to the wider property market through a subscription base,” said Abdullah Al-Daij, Founder and CEO of Munjz. “Our platform embodies the convergence of advanced technology and industry expertise. It empowers property managers and owners to effortlessly oversee their operations while enhancing the experience for residents and service providers.”

With Munjz’s innovative features, user-centric design, and unwavering dedication to simplifying complex property management workflows, it is set to revolutionize the industry, setting new standards for efficiency, collaboration, and growth in one place. For more information about Munjz and its groundbreaking solutions, please visit https://munjz.com.

Strong demand and lack of supply will continue to drive growth for the UAE’s real estate market in 2023, says CBRE

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Sahfy Sahfy
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Taimur Khan, Head of Research – MENA at CBRE in Duba
Taimur Khan, Head of Research – MENA at CBRE in Duba

CBRE anticipates that a strong demand and a lack of supply in key sectors will continue to support a positive outlook for the UAE’s real estate market in 2023, according to the company’s 2023 UAE Real Estate Market Outlook Mid-Year Review.

Global economic headwinds, led by tighter monetary policy regimes and persistently high inflation in major economies, have led to downgrades in both global and the UAE’s GDP growth forecasts. At the start of the year, the UAE’s economy was expected to grow by 3.5% and the latest forecast now puts this number at 2.2%. However, the downgrade has been down to the expected contraction in the UAE’s hydrocarbon sector, which is forecast to contract by 3.3% (compared to the 2.7% growth expected in January 2023). The non-hydrocarbon sector, on the other hand, is now estimated to register 4.2% growth in 2023, up from the previously estimated growth of 3.9%.

Despite a weaker than expected hydrocarbon sector and even amidst what we now expect will be a prolonged rates cycle, which is likely to impact demand, CBRE continues to maintain many of its forecasts made in early 2023.

Taimur Khan, Head of Research – MENA at CBRE in Dubai, comments: “In large parts, we are seeing market performance playout as expected in 2023, where despite some global economic concerns, the lack of supply in key commercial sectors such as the industrial & logistics, office, and even segments of its retail sectors has underpinned strong performance. The continued growth of demand in the residential sector has been more surprising. That being said, we nevertheless maintain our outlook that the rate of price growth by year-end will have tapered, but still remain positive.”

CBRE’s report details the company’s 2023 UAE real estate market outlook mid-year review for multiple sectors.

Offices
Activity levels in Abu Dhabi’s office market have been strong throughout the first half of 2023, with new office rental contract registrations up 12.4% year-on-year. Rents have continued to increase although the annual rate growth rates have moderated, across all segments of the market as expected. In Dubai, whilst occupier demand remains strong and has driven average occupancy levels to 92.7% as at Q2 2023, the lack of available stock is impacting take-up. Average rents have continued to rise, where in the year to Q2 2023, Prime, Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C rents have grown by 17.2%, 11.0%, 16.4%, and 30.0%, respectively. Only the Grade C segment has not shown a moderation in its rate of change since the start of the year, other than this market has developed as expected.


Residential

Year-on-year, in the year to date to H1 2023, the total number of transactions in Abu Dhabi has increased by 94.1%. This has been underpinned by a 160.4% increase in off-plan transactions over this period. Whilst on an annual basis average Abu Dhabi’s villa prices have started to grow at a faster rate, for apartments we have seen this rate moderate in Q2. For the latter, we still expect this trend to reverse over the course of the year. In Dubai, the total volume of transactions has broken records in the first half of the year, up 43.3% year-on-year in the year to date to H1 2023. This surge in demand has also underpinned higher than expected price growth. On the rental front, in Dubai, the growth rate of average rents has moderated in each of the first six months of the year. In Abu Dhabi, the rental market to date has performed as forecasted.

 

Hotels
The UAE’s ADRs, as expected, have softened year-on-year in the year to date to June 2023 by 1.9%. Over the same period, we have seen the occupancy rate rise by 4.1 percentage points, to reach 75.7%. This increase in occupancy has been at a faster rate than expected and as a result, we have seen RevPARs increase by 3.6% over the same period noted above. This better than expected performance can be in parts put down to the reopening of the European tourism market. Given the UAE’s hub status, tourists are both deciding and being induced into breaking-up their trips to the continent, which has helped underpin stronger performance. This, in turn, is helping drive demand and profitability in what is usually the start of the low season. The beachfront luxury segment of the market has underperformed the wider market in occupancy, ADR and RevPAR terms. We no longer expect a softening in ADRs and hence, we expect RevPARs to post positive performance for the year.

Retail
As we reach the halfway point of 2023, we have indeed seen a convergence in rental performance. In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, average rental growth reached 16.9% and 38.0% in the year to Q2 2023, up and down from the 5.6% and 51.5% year-on-year growth rates registered in 2022 respectively. In Dubai, year-on-year in the year to date to June 2023, we have seen new retail contract registrations fall by 16.2%. Whilst occupier demand remains very strong, the availability of prime quality stock is curtailing activity levels. In Abu Dhabi, long-awaited concepts, both new and repositioned, have underpinned an increase in the number of new retail contract registrations in Q2 2023, although a sluggish Q1 has meant the total is down marginally y-o-y. 

Industrial & Logistics

On the whole, in the 12 months to June 2023, we have seen rental growth continue in the industrial and logistics sector over the course of the year, with average rents in Abu Dhabi and Dubai increasing by 6.4% and 19.0%, respectively. As at Q2 2023, average rents in Abu Dhabi stood at AED 393 per square metre and in Dubai at AED 41 per square foot. However, whilst we have seen uniform growth across sub-markets in both cities, the rate of growth has certainly been very polarized, as expected. Institutional quality stock has recorded significant rental increases over the first half of the year, whereas secondary stock, in most cases, has seen more muted rental growth in comparison over this period.

OQ Wins the ICF Coaching Impact Award

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Sahfy Sahfy
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OQ Wins the ICF Coaching Impact Award
OQ Wins the ICF Coaching Impact Award

OQ, the global integrated energy group, has been honoured with the prestigious ICF Coaching Impact Award by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). The award recognizes OQ’s exceptional use of coaching to enhance organisational culture, attain remarkable objectives, empower staff, and drive national progress. Presented biennially to the foremost emerging organization, the award signifies the highest global coaching standards.

OQ’s recognition applauds its dedication to human development, emphasising staff qualification and societal support through personal coaching. The group’s executive management plays a pivotal role, fostering these initiatives to strengthen coaching programs. From 2021 to 2023, OQ coached 530 employees, trained 80 leaders to coach teams, and achieved a return on investment in coaching of around USD $500,000. With 1,775 coaching hours completed and 49 coaches trained, 6 are internationally accredited.

The positive impact of coaching and employment extended to the public and private sectors through the coaching programs.

OQ triumphed over a competitive field of over 100 international companies to secure the ICF Coaching Impact Award. Out of the 46 finalists, OQ emerged as the global leader in this category.

OQ’s culture of continuous growth has thrived in partnership with Takatuf, its development collaborator. This collaboration has empowered leaders, trained employee cohorts, and guided fresh graduates towards International Coaching Federation accreditation.

Olivia Al Farsi, Vice President People and Culture said: ‘”Coaching is vital in Oman’s evolving landscape and a crucial skill. At OQ, we invest in cultivating coaching expertise to reshape our culture, elevate business results, and strengthen adaptability. This milestone prompts us to extend coaching to teams for stronger internal and external ties, and to individuals to enhance career and family wellbeing.”

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