Abu Dhabi’s PureHealth has agreed to acquire a 60 per cent stake in Hellenic Healthcare Group (HHG), valuing the provider of private healthcare services in Greece and Cyprus at $2.31bn (EUR2.2bn).

“CVC Capital Partners will retain 35 per cent of the business while CEO Dimitris Spyridis will own 5 per cent shareholding,” PureHealth said in a bourse filing.

With a capacity of over 1,600 beds, HHG has cemented its position as a leading provider in Greece and Cyprus, delivering advanced medical services across a network of 10 hospitals and 16 diagnostic centres across Greece and Cyprus.

With a team of over 6,700 healthcare professionals, HHG provides care for approximately 1.4 million patients each year. The healthcare services group offers a wide range of medical specialities, including advanced care in oncology, cardiology, and neurosurgery.

The Abu Dhabi-listed healthcare platform said the acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals without disclosing a timeline for its completion.

“The acquisition represents a significant milestone in PureHealth’s strategic expansion, reinforcing our presence in Europe and further solidifying our position as a leader in healthcare,” said Shaista Asif, Group CEO at PureHealth.

“Integrating HHG into our portfolio not only reinforces our position in Europe but also creates significant value for our group by contributing to revenue diversification, driving operational synergies and strengthening our financial performance.”

Meanwhile, ADQ-backed PureHealth has been investing in recent years to grow its portfolio and expand globally. The group completed the acquisition of Circle Health Group, the UK’s largest independent hospital operator, for around $1.2bn in 2023 and a 26.05 per cent stake in Ardent Health for $500m.

With a market capitalisation of $10.8bn (Dhs40bn) as of January 25, 2025, PureHealth’s nine-month profit was 13 per cent year-on-year to Dhs1.4bn, while its revenues rose by 56 per cent to Dhs19bn. The healthcare firm operates more than 100 hospitals and over 300 clinics with 56,000-plus employees.

Read: UAE’s M42 restructures operations to foster growth, innovation

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced the successful completion of a $4bn Reg S bond issuance.

The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

The international bond offering, which is part of PIF’s Euro Medium-Term Note Programme, was four times oversubscribed, with an order book totaling approximately $16bn.

The issuance consists of two tranches:

• $2.4bn (SAR9bn), maturing in five years
• $1.6bn (SAR6bn), maturing in nine and a half years

PIF bond oversubscribed

The strong oversubscription highlights the effectiveness of PIF’s capital-raising strategy.

The issuance further reinforces PIF’s robust financial standing and its adherence to best practices in debt financing.

Ahmed Alrobayan, head of Public Markets, Global Capital Finance at PIF, commented: “Continued strong demand from international institutional investors is a testament to PIF’s diversified investor base, robust medium-term capital raising strategy and strong credit profile.

“These factors allow uninterrupted access to the global capital markets and support PIF’s efforts in driving Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation.”

PIF holds an Aa3 rating from Moody’s with a stable outlook, and an A+ rating from Fitch, also with a stable outlook.

The fund’s funding sources include government capital injections, asset transfers from the government, retained earnings from investments, and loans and debt instruments.

Saudi telecoms group (stc Group) said on Tuesday that it had secured a contract worth $8.70bn (SAR32.64bn) from a government entity to build, operate and provide telecommunications infrastructure services.

The telecom giant said in a bourse filing that the contract has a duration of 18 months for preparation and execution, followed by 15 years of project operations.

stc said that the financial impact of the contract would be positive, and revenue will be recognised after the project becomes operational, which is expected to occur in Q4 2026 and continue till the end of the contract.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) raised SAR3.86bn from selling a 2 per cent stake in stc Group. The fund, which sold 6 per cent of stc for $3.2bn in 2021, now holds a 62 per cent stake in the telecoms group after the offering.

Read: Saudi Arabia’s PIF raises $1bn from stc Group stake sale

Saudi Arabia’s capital markets regulator said on Monday that the kingdom would allow foreign investments in listed companies that own properties within “the boundaries of the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah” as the government seeks to attract more investment.

The move is designed to boost investment, improve the appeal and efficiency of the capital market, and enhance its regional and global competitiveness, all while providing support to the local economy, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia’s markets watchdog said that under the initiative, foreign investment would be limited to shares, convertible debt instruments, or both and would exclude “strategic foreign investors.” The initiative seeks to attract foreign capital and ensure the necessary liquidity for ongoing and upcoming projects in Makkah and Madinah.

The CMA said that foreign ownership cannot exceed 49 per cent of a company’s listed shares. The market regulator allowed foreigners to subscribe to real estate funds (REITs) investing within the boundaries of Islam’s two holiest sites of Mecca and Medina in 2021.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has introduced sweeping reforms to investment laws and loosened foreign ownership rules in the stock market to boost its investment appeal as part of its Vision 2030 diversification strategy.

Saudi Arabia aims to attract 30 million pilgrims for Hajj and the year-round pilgrimage of Umrah annually by the end of the decade. The kingdom earned about $12bn from the two pilgrimages in 2019, according to official data.

Read: Saudi Arabia’s real estate, infrastructure projects hit $1.25tn

Technology shares fell on Tuesday as a global market rout sparked by the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model entered day two, with investors questioning the sky-high valuation and dominance of AI bellwethers.

Shares of Nvidia, the poster child of the AI boom in recent years, dragged US stocks lower, sinking 17 per cent on Monday and wiping $593bn from the chipmaker’s market value, a record one-day loss for any company.

It all stemmed from a free AI assistant launched by Chinese startup DeepSeek last week that the firm said uses less data at a fraction of the cost of services available currently, garnering significant attention worldwide including from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman who called it an “impressive model”.

READ MORE: What is DeepSeek and why is it disrupting the AI sector?

“We will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor!,” Altman, the head of the AI firm behind ChatGPT, said in a social media post.

The launch and increasing popularity of DeepSeek spurred investors to dump tech stocks globally, with ripples felt from Tokyo to Amsterdam to Silicon Valley.

In Japan, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest, a supplier to Nvidia, lost 10 per cent on Tuesday after diving nearly 9 per cent on Monday. Chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 5.3 per cent, while technology start-up investor SoftBank Group 9984.T was 6 per cent lower.

Over in the US, Broadcom finished down 17.4 per cent, followed by ChatGPT backer Microsoft which fell 2.1 per cent and then Google parent Alphabet which ended down 4.2 per cent.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index tumbled 9.2 per cent, for its deepest percentage drop since March 2020. Tech heavy South Korean and Taiwan markets are closed for Lunar New Year.

The selloff has brought into the spotlight the crowded positioning among investors as well as the extremely high valuation of some of these firms.

“What makes Monday’s tech selloff so jarring is that the valuations of many of these AI and tech companies offer no margin of error,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group.

“The excessive weighting these tech stocks have in many investor portfolios and the high concentration these tech stocks have in the market indices was a significant and under-appreciated risk issue.”

The hype around AI has powered a huge flow of capital into equities in the last 18 months, inflating valuations and lifting stock markets to record highs.

It is not just the chipmakers and tech companies but companies focused on datacentres also taking a hit, with Malaysia’s utility conglomerate YTL Power down 7.5 per cent on Tuesday, its third session of steep loss.

Jun Rong Yeap, market strategist at IG, said there may be some “sell first, think later” thinking at play, with opinions divided on whether DeepSeek will eventually be the so-called game-changer that reshapes the U.S. AI landscape.

“But if anything, market participants dislike uncertainties and are clearly unwilling to take the risks in the near term.”

Little is known about the Hangzhou startup behind DeepSeek, whose controlling shareholder is Liang Wenfeng, co-founder of quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, records showed.

Its researchers wrote in a paper last month that DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia‘s lower-capability H800 chips for training, at a cost of less than $6m.

Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, said the development serves as a reminder that competition in the global AI arena is intensifying and Nvidia may not be in pole position forever.

“By developing cutting-edge AI models with less advanced and more cost-efficient hardware, DeepSeek challenges the heavy investments U.S. tech companies are pouring into high-cost AI infrastructure.”

Investor focus will now be on the flurry of tech earnings this week, with executives likely keen to calm frayed nerves.