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  MEED set to turn 69 years old next month

  10 February 2026

  

   

  Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

  MEED celebrates its 69th birthday early next month – a journey characterised by huge transformations and upheavals in the region, but with one constant that MEED has lived by from day one: the goal of helping the world understand what is happening in the Middle East and how to benefit from it. 

  MEED set out all those years ago to offer the business community and government analysts vital information on economic development and commercial opportunities in the region. While the medium might have changed, morphing from newsletter to newsstand to online, MEED has not deviated from this original, unwavering mission. 

  In its early days, MEED was the only comprehensive source of information on the Middle East. Now it is the region’s leading subscription-based online business intelligence service, offering – as it has done done for decades – the latest business news, interspersed with political updates, comment and analysis.

  From newsletter to newstand 

  The first issue of Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) was published on 8 March 1957 as a hand-printed newsletter in the wake of the Suez invasion.

  Former editor the late Abdullah Jonathan Wallace – son of MEED’s founder, Elizabeth Collard (pictured, right) – remembers first working at MEED when he was 15 years old. He would come home from school on Thursday evenings to his mother’s Dickensian office in the then highly unfashionable Covent Garden area of London.

  “My job was to fill the 100-or-so envelopes of the subscribers and take them to the post office. Many people would pass by on press day to help collate and staple the newsletter,” he recalled.

  Collard, a feisty champion of Arab causes and the driving force behind MEED for its first two decades, had the foresight to realise the potential the Middle East offered to Western business. 

  A noted economic analyst on the developing world, Collard produced MEED from her one-roomed office on a hand-cranked Ronco printing machine, with the help of two part-time secretaries. 

  It is no coincidence that the first edition coincided with International Women’s Day, a fitting occasion for a remarkable woman who, by the late 1960s, was brought in to advise Prime Minister Harold Wilson on Middle East affairs. 

  Among the friends and relatives who helped staple and stuff envelopes with the 12-page newletter was Essa Saleh al-Gurg, later to become the UAE’s ambassador to the UK, who was then training as a banker in London.

  Lacking any editorial resources, the Middle East Economic Digest was exactly what it said it was: a compilation from newspapers and other reports. Newspapers were flown in weekly from Cairo and Beirut, then translated and condensed. By June 1965, there were still only three staff members.

  “Until the oil boom of the early 1970s, when MEED really took off, we were just about making ends meet,” said Wallace. “We could not afford to hire seasoned journalists or experienced commentators and mostly took British graduates straight from university.

  “This changed a little when oil peaked around the end of 1979 at $37.42 a barrel ($111 at today's prices), but we still preferred to take on graduates and train them on the job due to our high requirement for balanced reporting and tight, accurate writing, which also needed to be finely nuanced to avoid censorship in some countries.

  “In business terms, the economies of Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey dominated the interest of Western exporters in the 1960s, together with the cosmopolitan and stylish Beirut as an entrepot and banking centre.

  “The oil-producing states of the GCC hardly registered on the Western business radar when I visited Dubai in 1968. The British had a firm hold on the Trucial States and infrastructure projects were undertaken by UK firms.”

  The big issues covered in Wallace’s early years at MEED included the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the Camp David peace accords in 1978; Nasser’s death in 1970; the Lebanese civil war and the invasion of Lebanon by Syria; the 1980-89 Iran-Iraq War; and the assassinations of King Faisal Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia in 1975 and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

  Oil boom

  By the mid-1970s, MEED had become the MEED Group and was in the enviable position of receiving half of its revenue in advance from subscriptions. The other half came from advertising. Rising income streams let to expansion, including the launch of the African Economic Digest and the largest photographic library in the Middle East. A conference division was also started, which broke new ground, holding the Gulf's first banking conference in Bahrain in the late 1970s.

  “Increased revenue meant we could send our reporters to the region on a regular basis, open a bureau in Dubai and then Paris and Washington, and upgrade our typesetting and production equipment to allow us to print on faster, more sophisticated printing machines,” said Wallace.

  Since its launch in 1957, MEED has been tackling news issues head-on with groundbreaking exclusives that shape the Middle East

  By mid-1986, when it was acquired by Emap, MEED had far outgrown its early role of monitoring published news reports. It had a staff of 20 full-time journalists and 12 researchers and newsroom assistants, with more than 30 correspondents overseas, mostly in the Middle East itself.

  The newsletter of the early days became a weekly magazine, and then, as the face of media changed, transformed into a subscription-based online business intelligence service, which now publishes a monthly magazine, MEED Business Review. The business also includes MEED Projects, a subscription-only service offering in-depth project tracking through its database; and MEED Insight, MEED’s premium research division.

  Today, MEED is owned by GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company, headquartered in London, UK, that acquired MEED Media from Ascential PLC in December 2017. The business is still growing, with more than 60 members of staff in its Dubai office.

  

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  MEED Editorial
• 
  Contract award nears for Abha airport expansion PPP

  10 February 2026

  

   

  Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Holding Company (Matarat) and the National Centre for Privatisation & PPP (NCP) are said to be close to awarding a contract to develop and operate a new passenger terminal building and related facilities at Abha International airport.

  MEED understands that the negotiations are in the final stages and the contract will be awarded within a few weeks.

  The companies prequalified to bid for the contract are:

  • GMR Airports (India)
  • Mada TAV: Mada International Holding (local) / TAV Airports Holding
  • Touwalk Alliance: Skilled Engineers Contracting (local) / Limak Insaat (Turkiye) / Incheon International Airport Corporation (South Korea) / Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Shair & Partners, Lebanon) /  Obermeyer Middle East (Germany/Abu Dhabi)
  • VI Asyad DAA: Vision International Investment Company (local) / Asyad Holding (local) / DAA International (Ireland)

  Located in Asir Province, the first phase of the Abha International airport public-private partnership (PPP) project will expand the terminal area from 10,500 square metres (sq m) to 65,000 sq m.

  In March last year, the clients held one-on-one meetings with prospective bidders in Riyadh.

  The contract scope includes a new rapid-exit taxiway on the existing runway, a new apron to serve the new terminal, access roads to the new terminal building and a new car park area.

  Additionally, the scope includes support facilities, such as an electrical substation expansion and a new sewage treatment plant. 

  Construction is scheduled for completion in 2028.

  The project will be developed under a build-transfer-operate (BTO) model and will involve designing, financing, constructing and operating a greenfield terminal.

  This will be the kingdom’s third airport PPP project, following the Hajj terminal at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International airport and the $1.2bn Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International airport in Medina.

  Higher capacity

  According to Matarat, Abha airport’s capacity will increase to accommodate over 13 million passengers annually – a 10-fold rise from its current 1.5 million capacity.

  Once completed, the airport will handle more than 90,000 flights a year, up from 30,000.

  The new terminal is also expected to feature 20 gates and 41 check-in counters, including seven new self-service check-in kiosks.

  The BTO contract duration is 30 years.

  The existing terminal, which served 4.4 million passengers in 2019, will be closed once the new terminal becomes operational.

  Matarat’s transaction advisory team for the project comprises UK-headquartered Deloitte as financial adviser, ALG as technical adviser and London-based Ashurst as legal adviser.

  ALSO READ: Saudi Arabia seeks Qassim airport PPP interest

  

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  Yasir Iqbal
• 
  Chinese firm wins Oman sewage network contract

  9 February 2026

  

   

  China’s Hunan Installation Overseas Engineering has won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build water supply and sewage networks in the Al-Khuwair 17-1 municipal planning zone in Muscat, Oman.

  The contract awarded by state utility Nama Water Services (NWS) covers the construction of water supply, drainage and treated effluent (TE) systems.

  The scope of work includes the supply and installation of about 30 kilometres of sewage pipelines and 15km of water supply pipelines. 

  Hunan Installation has been expanding in Oman recently through contracts with NWS.

  According to MEED Projects, the contractor was awarded a $37m EPC contract last March to build water distribution networks and housing connections in Khasab, Musandam Governorate.

  In 2024, it won a $70m contract from NWS for a major water distribution scheme in the wilayats of Samail and Izki. The project includes reservoirs, pumping stations and more than 400km of pipelines.

  Unlike its previous NWS contracts, which focused on the distribution of potable water, Hunan Installation’s job for the Al-Khuwair scheme covers water supply along with sewage and drainage networks.

  Hunan Installation recently submitted a bid for another NWS tender covering the construction of a $60m water distribution network in A’Seeb, Muscat, under Package 3 (Phase 2).

  The $60m project has attracted seven commercial bids:

  • Towell Infrastructure Projects (Oman): $52.08m
  • Target (Oman): $55.12m
  • Hunan Industrial Installation (China): $56.96m
  • Societe Egyptienne d’Entreprises (Egypt): $58.30m
  • Hassan Allam Construction (Egypt): $59.61m
  • United Gulf Construction Company (Oman): $73.27m
  • Petrojet & Partners (Egypt): $863.70m

  NWS is also procuring for the construction of an $80m water transmission system project, which has attracted seven bids, with the lowest bid from local contractor Eastern Overseas ($52.94m).

  Contracts for both projects are expected to be awarded in this quarter.

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  READ THE FEBRUARY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Spending on oil and gas production surges; Doha’s efforts support extraordinary growth in 2026; Water sector regains momentum in 2025.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Mena upstream spending set to soar > AGENDA: Global upstream spending to grow  > INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED's GCC water developer ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT: Pipeline boom lifts Mena water awards > MARKET FOCUS: Qatar’s strategy falls into place > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Iran protests elevate regional uncertainty > CONTRACT AWARDS: Contract awards decline in 2025 > LEADERSHIP: Tomorrow’s communities must heal us, not just house us > INTERVIEW: AtkinsRealis on building faster > PORTS: DP World underpins Dubai’s economic growth strategy > INTERVIEW: Parsons says projects market will show resilience  > LEADERSHIP: Energy security starts with rethinking waste > LEADERSHIP: Why 2026 is a breakthrough year for Middle East construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Egypt utility contracts hit $5bn decade peak

  9 February 2026

  

   

  Egypt’s power and water sector had its strongest year in over a decade in 2025, hitting $5bn in contract awards for the first time since 2015. Power projects accounted for $4.2bn of the total, while water infrastructure awards rebounded to $823m after slumping to $128m the previous year.

  Power contracts

  In the power sector, the rise in major contract awards was led by wind, solar, waste-to-energy and transmission schemes. The most prominent award was the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 1.1GW Suez wind independent power project, secured by PowerChina.

  The project is being developed by Suez Wind Energy, a special-purpose vehicle formed by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa and Egypt-based HAU Energy. Upon completion, it will be one of the largest onshore wind farms globally.

  Despite dipping from the previous year, solar accounted for about $1bn of total awards. 

  Independent forecasts suggest Egypt’s renewable capacity could reach around 31.6GW and account for roughly 42% of the electricity mix by 2035, pointing to sustained growth in solar and wind. 

  In November, a consortium of local firms Hassan Allam Utilities and Infinity Power won contracts to develop two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with a combined capacity of 1,200MW, supported by 720MWh of battery storage under agreements with the Ministry of Electricity & Renewable Energy and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.

  Meanwhile, a joint venture of China Energy Engineering Corporation and Jiangsu Power Design Institute was appointed main contractor for the country’s first waste-to-energy plant.

  The Abu Rawash facility in Giza will process 1,200 tonnes of municipal waste a day to generate 30MW of electricity and is expected to begin operations in 2029.

  Grid reinforcement also progressed with PowerChina awarded the EPC contract for lots two and three of the East Ismailia-Zagazig 500kV overhead transmission line, a 130-kilometre corridor crossing the Suez and Al-Sharqia governorates.

  Project milestones

  Beyond the main contract awards, several major projects passed key development stages.

  In December, UAE’s Amea Power and Japan’s Kyuden International Corporation reached financial close on a $700m project comprising a 1,000MW solar plant and 600MWh battery system in Aswan. The scheme is backed by a $570m debt package led by the International Finance Corporation and is expected to become Africa’s largest single-asset solar and storage facility when it enters operation this year.

  Amea also commissioned a separate 300MWh battery energy storage system in Aswan in July, integrated with its existing 500MW Abydos solar plant, marking Egypt’s first utility-scale storage deployment.

  Hybrid projects have also seen increased investor interest, with France’s EDF Power Solutions recently acquiring a 20% stake in the 1.1GW Obelisk solar-battery scheme near Luxor, joining Scatec and Norfund as shareholders.

  At El-Dabaa, the nuclear programme entered a new phase as Egypt placed its first fuel order with Rosatom and installed the initial VVER-1200 reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1. These steps mark the shift from civil construction to mechanical and systems installation, following the granting of construction permits for all four units between 2022 and 2023.

  The focus of procurement is set to shift decisively towards water in the next 12 to 18 months, with $3.54bn of projects at the prequalification stage and $917m currently under bidding or bid evaluation

  Water contracts

  Egypt’s water sector showed early signs of recovery following a sharp slowdown the previous year. The largest award was secured in June by a joint venture of Hassan Allam Construction and Metito Utilities. It involves the Alexandria West wastewater treatment plant upgrade, which will convert the facility from primary to secondary treatment and lift capacity to 600,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) through new sludge digestion, biogas and process units.

  Hassan also won the main contract for the $150m Abu Qir seawater reverse osmosis plant, adding 80,000 cm/d of potable supply, as part of a consortium with Water & Environment Technologies Company (Wetico).

  Further awards were led by local contractors including Intech, a Hassan Allam Holding subsidiary, appointed to deliver the EPC works for the Marsa Matrouh extension, doubling capacity to 60,000 cm/d.

  Among international contractors, Kuwait’s Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons secured the main contract for the $104m Tanta rehabilitation project in Gharbia, delivering 100,000 cm/d of new treatment capacity.

  Shift in focus

  The focus of procurement is set to shift decisively towards water in the next 12 to 18 months, with $3.54bn of projects at the prequalification stage and $917m currently under bidding or bid evaluation.

  Egypt is among the region’s most water-constrained countries, with demand exceeding renewable supply by about 7 billion cubic metres a year and per-capita availability of roughly 500 cubic metres, far below the international scarcity threshold.

  As of February 2026, almost $500m-worth of water infrastructure contracts are under main bidding, including the $157m fourth extension of the Giza wastewater treatment plant, led by Construction Authority for Potable Water and Wastewater (CAPW).

  The project will add 400,000 cm/d of treatment capacity to supply recycled water for the Barakat drainage system and support 29,000 acres of irrigation. The contract was recently retendered, with bids due by 30 March.

  In the medium-to-long term, the scale of schemes moving through prequalification suggests Egypt could be on the cusp of a major upswing in water investment.

  The pipeline is led by projects such as the Hammam desalination plant on the North Coast, the New Alamein and Matrouh seawater schemes, and new wastewater treatment and reuse facilities linked to agricultural development zones.

  If a meaningful share of these $3.54bn projects moves into main tendering, annual water awards would likely surpass recent years and begin to rebalance a utilities market dominated by the power sector.

  

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  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Egypt nears return to economic stability

  9 February 2026

  

   

  After a torrid few years characterised by seismic exogenous challenges – from the collapse in traffic through the Suez Canal through to spiralling inflation – the mood in Cairo heading into 2026 is notably more relaxed over its economic prospects.

  Policymakers have reason to be satisfied with the turn of events. Inflation in late 2025 slipped to its lowest level in four years, at 12.3%, amid falling food prices. More good news is likely this year, as the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) anticipates inflation halving to just 7% in late 2026.

  One straw in the wind, indicative of a more confident economic disposition, came with the settling of long-standing arrears owed to international oil companies active in Egypt. A receivables bill that once stood at $6bn has been reduced to just over $1bn as the government moves to incentivise investment in its upstream oil and gas sector.

  GDP growth is on course to reach around 5% this year, and tourism numbers are surging – bringing with them much-needed hard currency. Meanwhile, non-oil exports increased 17% to almost $49bn in 2025, supporting a slimming of the trade deficit by 9 percentage points to $34.4bn.

  Analysts see stronger growth dynamics in play this year.

  “Even the Central Bank is saying we are very close to full throttle for the economy. Inflation is cooling, and we expect it to reach single digits by Q4 of this year. That should give the CBE scope for another 500 basis points of monetary easing for this year,” says Pieter du Preez, senior economist at Oxford Economics.

  The current deposit rate stands at 20%, leaving plenty more room for growth-supportive interest rate cuts to come.

  By 2027, says Du Preez, Egypt should be witnessing the return of monetary policy stability.

  “Fiscal stability is the big question,” he says. “The latest figures show the fiscal deficit is a bit narrower, but the biggest drag on the fiscal side is still interest payments, which are about 50% of expenditures and 75% of revenues. Most countries seeing that would go into default immediately.”

  Dodging default

  There are solid reasons why Egypt has not gone into default mode. The IMF noted an impressive 35% increase in tax revenues in the July-November 2025 period, through reforms to widen the tax base, improve voluntary tax compliance, and streamline exemptions. Ratings agency Moody’s noted that this was the result of IMF-backed reforms stimulating tax collection. The net result was a record fiscal surplus of 3.3% of GDP in the financial year ending June 2025.

  Debt reduction targets are also being met, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 80% anticipated by June 2026 – a reduction from 96% two years prior.

  Cairo has been further helped by some lucrative land sales in recent years, including Abu Dhabi’s landmark $35bn Ras El-Hekma real estate project, and the Qatar-backed Alam Al-Roum real estate project, which could involve investments of up to $29.7bn.

  The reaching in late December 2025 of a staff-level agreement with the IMF on the fifth and sixth reviews under the Extended Fund Facility arrangement, part of an $8bn loan agreement, came as another confidence booster.

  That still leaves some major challenges that need to be overcome if Cairo is to attract investment beyond big-ticket Gulf projects.

  “The questions start flagging for 2027, post the IMF deal. We’ve seen this before. After the IMF programme ends, they revert back to old ways, managing the exchange rate and borrowing,” says Du Preez.

  Some support will come from a stronger pound and weaker dollar, and a subsiding in the regional conflict that led to Egypt losing some $20bn through disruption to Suez Canal traffic. Tourism income is set to reach $17.8bn this year. 

  A recharging of the flagging Egyptian privatisation programme, something the IMF in particular is keen to see progress on, would add substance to the government’s efforts.

  “There will probably be a pickup again in privatisation this year, given that it will be given much more emphasis in the up-and-coming reviews. And we’ll probably see a few more subsidy cuts,” says Du Preez.

  Banking bonus

  The more supportive macro picture should have positive impacts on Egypt’s banking sector. Ratings agency S&P released in early February a banking outlook that envisaged increased private sector investment, along with sustained momentum within the tourism sector, and a loosening monetary policy. These would provide tailwinds to lending expansion, which it sees reaching about 25% in 2026.

  Bank lending has increased by 30% annually since March 2025, though that reflects inflationary impacts and currency fluctuations.

  The ratings agency warned that the strong lending growth will not be sufficient to compensate for the impact of declining interest rates on profitability. S&P warned the sector’s return on equity will decline to about 20% in 2026 – from a peak of 39% in 2024, attributable to the adverse impacts of lower interest on banks’ income statements.

  Despite the strong credit growth, analysts warn it is also fuelling the “crowding out” effect that has seen state-linked companies absorb too high a proportion of bank loans, leaving less credit to spare for private businesses. 

  That situation may be changing. “There’s less need for banks to buy government debt directly. And with the overall debt burden falling as a share of GDP, there’s less need to actually buy debt in general, and that should free up more resources as well,” says James Swanston, Mena economist at consultancy Capital Economics.

  The upside for Egyptian banks is that their higher exposure to the government is better for their overall risk dynamic than exposure to equivalent private sector borrowers.

  “Certainly capital buffer-wise, banks are in a better place than they have been in recent years. Non-performing loans (NPLs) have come down,” says Swanston, although changes in the definition of what constitutes an NPL might change this.

  “At the same time, there is an economy that is improving, so even if the NPL ratio does rise, it’s not going to spell disaster for the Egyptian banking sector,” says Swanston.

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  James Gavin