Author: Stuart

Nearly two decades at one company would make most executives institutional fixtures. For Ashok Kumar, that longevity just earned him the mandate to tear down what he helped build. RoyalJet announced Tuesday that Kumar has been appointed Vice-President for Resources and Transformation, a newly configured role that hands the finance veteran responsibility for steering the Abu Dhabi-based private jet operator through digital transformation and fleet replacement. The appointment, revealed on 8 June, elevates Kumar from his previous post as VP of Finance and Corporate Services—a position he used to oversee operations generating roughly AED 1 billion annually. The timing signals…

The UAE real estate market will hit AED 2.98 trillion by 2031, according to Statista Market Insights. That’s five years to absorb a wave of residential towers, commercial districts and mixed-use developments spread across a country already synonymous with architectural ambition. The projection, released Tuesday from Dubai, signals sustained investor confidence despite global economic headwinds. Population growth and foreign direct investment continue to fuel demand, whilst the Emirates positions itself as a destination for capital seeking stability and returns. For developers, the timeline poses a practical question: how do you plan, finance and sell projects that won’t exist for years?…

Sung Woo Ahn has overseen exits worth more than KRW 1 trillion across two decades. The deals included taking golf equipment maker Titleist public on the New York Stock Exchange, selling Coffee Bean to Philippines-based Jollibee Foods for $350 million, and steering pre-IPO investments in Twitter and Impossible Foods through to liquidity events. Now he’s applying that experience to a different challenge. 500 Global announced on Wednesday that Ahn will join as Partner to lead the venture capital firm’s Seoul office, a move that brings institutional-grade exit expertise to a portfolio of more than 90 Korean technology companies the firm…

Dubai South recorded 1,357 property sales worth AED1.6 billion in May 2026, marking its third consecutive month as the emirate’s top-performing real estate zone. The figures cap a seven-month run in the top five areas, with transaction volumes climbing 15.9% from April. The surge accelerated after regional conflict erupted at the end of February. Since then, residential sales transactions across the sprawling master development have jumped 36.4%, according to a market report from fäm Properties released on Wednesday. Developer off-plan sales drove the gains. Those transactions climbed 24.8% in May to reach 1,233 deals, following a 35.71% spike in April.…

Brian Reilly spent nearly a decade navigating compliance frameworks across three continents before landing at the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Now he’s made a different bet: that Channel Islands-based Praxis can capture a growing slice of the Middle East’s increasingly complex regulatory advisory market. Praxis announced Tuesday it had hired Reilly as Senior Regulatory Adviser, based in Dubai. The appointment marks the latest senior hire for the independent professional services firm as it expands its corporate and funds platform across the Gulf Cooperation Council. Reilly brings 25 years of financial services experience spanning fund administration, investment management, banking and regulatory…

UiPath secured certification from Dubai’s Electronic Security Center on June 3rd, ending a regulatory lockout that had barred the automation giant from serving the emirate’s government agencies. The approval covers UiPath’s Automation Cloud Commercial UAE region and certifies the New York-listed company’s suite of AI and automation tools against cybersecurity standards mandated by Dubai law. Until now, government and semi-government organisations in Dubai were prohibited from purchasing cloud services from providers lacking DESC certification. That barrier no longer exists for UiPath. The door is now open. Dubai’s Electronic Security Center operates under the Digital Dubai Authority and serves as the…

Renovating a property has many moving parts. One of the steady challenges for owners is to link the people who design the work with the people who build it. The design-build model, in which one firm handles both, has grown into a common answer to that challenge. It fits well with residential renovation in markets such as Nova Scotia. The coordination problem In a traditional renovation, an owner might hire a designer or architect to plan the work and a separate contractor to carry it out. That split can open gaps. Designs may not take in the realities of the…

UAE merger activity dropped 37% in the first quarter of 2026, falling to just 33 deals worth US$2.2bn. Yet the decline masks a more complex reality: investors aren’t retreating—they’re recalibrating. According to Ansarada’s latest Middle East M&A Market Analysis, the broader region recorded 196 announced transactions valued at US$23.3bn during Q1, down from 207 deals worth US$31.3bn in the same period last year. The UAE’s sharper decline—from 52 deals in Q1 2025 to 33 this year—reflects what Justin Smith, managing director at the AI-powered virtual data room platform, characterised as a strategic pause rather than a crisis of confidence. “While…

Maamoor Khan drives under constant watch now. Every acceleration, every corner, every hard press of the brake—captured by cameras installed above his dashboard and transmitted back to fleet managers at Dulsco Group’s Dubai headquarters. He recently achieved Silver Status for logging over 1,000 hours of safe driving. The monitoring helped, he acknowledged. “The new safety systems have helped all of us become more aware and confident as professional drivers on the road,” Khan explained. “The real-time feedback and ongoing training encourage us to improve every day, not just for ourselves but for our passengers, colleagues and everyone sharing the roads.”…

On June 1st, 2026, senior executives gathered at the Amman Stock Exchange for a bell-ringing ceremony that marked more than regional courtesy. The event welcomed Jordan’s bourse into Tabadul, the cross-border trading platform operated by Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Among those present was Abdel Hadi Al Sa’di, chief executive of BHM Capital, who had flown in knowing his firm was about to claim a competitive first. Two days later, BHM Capital confirmed it had become the first financial institution in the UAE to activate client access to Amman’s stock market through the platform. The Dubai-listed broker beat domestic rivals to…