Emaar pays $1.2bn special dividend as Gulf war batters Dubai business

Key Points

1. Emaar announced a 4.4bn dirham special dividend on September 16th, seven months into the Gulf war.
2. Its shares fell about a quarter in the month after February's hostilities began.
3. Emirati firms are pushing into Syria, India and Egypt as domestic demand stays weak.

The latest:

Emaar Properties announced a special dividend of 4.4bn dirhams ($1.2bn) on September 16th, equal to half of last year’s regular payout, as Dubai’s business recovery from the February Gulf war remains incomplete. Founder Mohamed Alabbar told The Economist the firm is unfazed, noting that a shake-up arrives roughly every two and a half years. Emaar was the biggest loser on the local stock market after hostilities began.

Details:

• The market hit: Emaar’s share price dropped by about a quarter in the month after fighting began in February, against a sixth for the local index overall, according to The Economist. The firm is widely treated as a bet not only on Dubai’s property market but on the emirate’s entire economy, which magnified the sell-off.
• The political signal: UAE president Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan walked through the giant Dubai Mall on March 2nd in what was read as a show of confidence in the emirate’s retail and property sectors. The mall is one of the world’s biggest and is operated by Emaar’s mall unit.
• The mixed indicators: Non-oil private businesses across the UAE reported stronger exports in August than in July and fewer supply disruptions to shops, but employment fell. Sales at Spinneys, a supermarket catering to wealthy expatriates, edged lower in the three months to June.
• Profits under pressure: Pre-tax profits at Talabat, the food-delivery service, fell by about 30% year on year across the Gulf in the first half of 2026. Hospitality workers remain furloughed or on reduced pay, and several hotels and restaurants have closed fully or partly for renovations, masking the real drop in occupancy.
• A denial: Some developers, including the Emirati conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim, were said to have delayed completing units because of rising materials costs. The company denies this and says the project in question “continues to progress in line with the established project schedule.”
• Beyond the UAE: Qatar’s exports of liquefied natural gas in August ran at a tenth of pre-war levels, according to The Economist. In Bahrain and Kuwait a strong recovery is described as distant, leaving the Gulf’s smaller economies further behind Dubai’s partial rebound.
• The Syria bet: Emaar in May exited a long-standing joint venture in Syria to go it alone, and intends to invest as much as $19bn in the still volatile country. Alabbar’s separate vehicle, Eagle Hills, is planning a $12bn project in the Maldives; both schemes are expected to include social housing.
• Other foreign pushes: Agthia Group, a food and beverage company, is targeting expansion in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while FAB, the UAE’s largest lender, plans to bulk up in Hong Kong to win more Chinese business. Emaar is also developing homes, retail and entertainment in Egypt and eyeing Navi Mumbai in India.
• The demand case: Dubai issued more than 1m residence permits in the first half of the year and renewed over 900,000. It granted another 66,000 long-term visas, a healthy figure though below the record pace of 2023, supporting Alabbar’s argument that arrivals from emerging economies will keep filling new homes.

Background:

Emaar built the 828-metre Burj Khalifa, which was about to open when the global financial crisis hit nearly 20 years ago. Its American unit filed for bankruptcy, profits sank and debt ballooned. Five years ago, during the covid-19 pandemic, Emaar bought out minority shareholders in its mall unit.

Between the lines:

The special dividend reads as a confidence signal rather than a recovery signal: it was paid in the same half-year that Talabat’s Gulf profits fell about 30% and UAE employment declined. Emaar’s international projects still generate only 5% of revenue, so the overseas pivot cannot yet offset a soft domestic market. Smaller firms without cash cushions lack even that option.

What’s next

Watch Dubai’s monthly non-oil business surveys for whether employment follows exports upward, Qatari LNG export volumes against pre-war levels, and whether Emaar’s $19bn Syria commitment and Eagle Hills’ $12bn Maldives project move from announcement to groundbreaking.