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  • Venture capital investments in Saudi startups triple to $584 million

    Saudi Arabia experienced a major increase in venture capital investment during the first half of 2022. Investment in Saudi startups rose 244% to a record high of $584 million compared to the first half of 2021. A total of 88 investors have made deals with Saudi startups this year, Saudi Venture Capital said in a press release. "Saudi Arabia has always been an attractive market for entrepreneurs and investors from the kingdom and abroad due to the huge size of this market,” said CEO Nabeel Koshak.

  • Aston Martin rejects Geely bid, welcomes Saudi investment

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which also has a stake in McLaren, has become a new anchor investor and the second largest shareholder, spending £78 million (A$136.53m) for a 16.7 per cent stake in the firm. But Aston Martin’s board has summarily rejected a proposal from the Atlas Consortium – consisting of Geely and InvestIndustrial – to invest £1.3 billion (A$2.27b) in the British sports car manufacturer, saying “there is no basis for further discussion”.

  • Alinma Bank, Foodics sign strategic partnership to empower SMBs in Saudi

    Under this partnership, the two brands have come together to launch new products to enable small business owners to have full autonomy over their business decisions, allowing them to sell from anywhere at any time and accept payments on the go. This will allow them to maximise their sales and their productivity, while keeping track of their sales figures, inventory and customers.

  • The symbolic Red Sea islands at the heart of Biden’s Saudi trip

    "We will see how Palestine fits into future negotiations, but the exchanges will be viewed as additional steps and confidence building efforts in the roadmap to normalisation," Adel Hamaizia, associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House in London, told Middle East Eye.

  • Saudi Arabia’s Almarai second-quarter profit jumps 8% on higher revenue

    Saudi Arabia's Almarai, the Middle East's largest dairy company, reported an 8 per cent increase in second-quarter net profit as revenue rose with the easing of Covid-19-related restrictions. Consolidated profit attributable to shareholders climbed to 520.4 million Saudi riyals ($138.77m) in the three-month period ended June 30, the company said in a filing to the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul on Sunday.

  • The White House: The United States Strengthens Cooperation with Middle East Partners to Address 21st Century Challenges

    President Biden set forth five declaratory principles – partnership, deterrence, diplomacy, integration, and values – to guide U.S. engagement in the Middle East over the coming decades:

  • Saudi Arabia doubles second-quarter Russian fuel oil imports for power generation

    Data obtained by Reuters through Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking showed Saudi Arabia imported 647,000 tonnes (48,000 barrels per day) of fuel oil from Russia via Russian and Estonian ports in April-June this year. That was up from 320,000 tonnes in the same period a year ago.

  • Race for Iraqi presidency at stalemate as Kurdish parties hold firm

    Iraq’s government formation process remains stalled amid disagreements over the presidency, which has since 2005 customarily been held by a Kurd from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has fielded a rival candidate, but neither party appears to have the parliamentary votes necessary to clear the two-thirds threshold required by the constitution. The contentious impasse has dragged on since Iraq’s legislative elections last October.

  • Saudi sovereign fund to become Aston Martin’s no.2 shareholder

    Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund will become the second-largest shareholder of Aston Martin (AML.L) with a nearly 17% stake in a capital raise aimed at paying off debt and shoring up its business, the British luxury carmaker said on Friday. The company, faced with with high debt, a torrid stock fall and a struggling Formula One team, said it planned to raise 653 million pounds ($773.15 million) through PIF's 78 million pound investment and a separate rights issue of 575 million pounds.

  • Saudi Crown Prince’s $500 Billion ’Smart City’ Faces Major Setbacks

    Nonetheless, the chaotic trajectory of Neom so far suggests that MBS’s urban dream may never be delivered. The same is true of his broader plans for economic transformation. In the crown prince’s telling, Saudi Arabia will soon be a center of innovation and entrepreneurship, free of the corruption and religious extremism that have long held it back. But to his critics, this promised future is a veneer, a layer of technological gloss over a core of repression, kleptocracy, and—above all—indefinite one-man rule.