Brookfield Venture Scores #Dubai’s Biggest Office Deal Since 2019 - Bloomberg

Brookfield Venture Scores Dubai’s Biggest Office Deal Since 2019 - Bloomberg

A Brookfield Asset Management Inc. joint venture in Dubai scored the city’s largest office deal since 2019 after a Middle Eastern food-delivery firm decided to relocate its regional headquarters.

Merex Investment Group, jointly owned by Canada’s Brookfield and Dubai Holdings, signed a seven-year lease with talabat for its new headquarters to service operations in nine countries across the region.

Talabat, owned by Germany’s Delivery Hero SE, will take up 150,000 square feet (14,000 square meters) in two buildings in Dubai’s City Walk, an upscale shopping district. It’s the largest prime office space leased in Dubai since the pandemic upended traditional work, according to Merex Chief Executive Officer Shahram Shamsaee.

Prospects for commercial real estate are in flux as many employees still choose to work from home and take advantage of the flexibility afforded by policies instituted since the pandemic. Companies are responding by trying to lure them back with offers of a more attractive work space packed with amenities that allow for a more relaxed environment.

Talabat is tripling the amount of office space and will move nearly 1,000 employees from its current offices, across eight floors in the Business Bay area of Dubai, to a building that used to be a department store. The move for Talabat will be in two stages starting in November and ending in the first quarter of next year.

#Qatar tells UK judge it wants Airbus A321 jets or damages | Reuters

Qatar tells UK judge it wants Airbus A321 jets or damages | Reuters

Qatar Airways has asked a UK court to reinstate an order for 50 Airbus (AIR.PA) A321neo passenger jets that the European planemaker revoked as part of a bitter dispute over the partial grounding of larger A350s, a court filing showed on Friday.

Failing that, the Gulf carrier is asking a UK judge to award the airline unquantified damages over the planemaker's decision to withdraw what it described as a "unique" plane as it prepares to receive the 220-seat A321neo from February next year.

Airbus declined comment on the filing.

The claim is the latest salvo in a months-old contractual and safety dispute that has brought relations between two of the industry's largest players to an all-time low.

#UAE's e& looks to expand in telecoms and other areas, including via M&A | Reuters

UAE's e& looks to expand in telecoms and other areas, including via M&A | Reuters

E& (ETISALAT.AD), the UAE telecoms group formerly called Etisalat, is looking to expand into new markets in Africa, Europe and Asia and in areas outside telecoms such as financial technology as its seeks to drive growth, its CEO told Reuters.

The company is exploring a range of possibilities, including potential joint ventures, acquisitions and listings of subsidiaries, though it would want to retain control of all its units, Group CEO Hatem Dowidar said in an interview.

"While telco is a good business, and we're still focusing on telco - as for us it is the money-generating cash cow - the long-term growth needs to be through expansion," Dowidar said.

"In the telco space, we are looking at geographic expansion," he said, exploring markets in Africa, Europe and Asia with room for growth, political stability and strong regulations. He did not name any specific target markets.