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  • PIF Picks All-Star Investors for FII Advisory Board
     

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has formed an advisory board of 11 top technology, finance and business executives that will provide strategic guidance on developing the kingdom’s Future Investment Initiative as a platform that attracts investment. The advisors include Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japan’s SoftBank Group, Joe Kaeser, the president and chief executive of German industrial […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia’s PIF Seeks $11 Billion Loan, FT Reports
     

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is set to choose international banks to lend the wealth fund $11 billion, according to a report in the London-based Financial Times. The FT reports that there is strong interest from major international lenders in participating in the loan to the PIF, including “[s]ome of the most senior names in international banking, including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Morgan […]

     
  • Al-Falih Denies Reuters Report of Cancelled Saudi Aramco IPO
     

    Saudi Arabia is refuting a Reuters report yesterday that said the Kingdom was cancelling its planned IPO for Saudi Aramco, according to comments made by the Kingdom’s minister of energy Khalid Al-Falih. “The Government remains committed to the IPO of Saudi Aramco at a time of its own choosing when conditions are optimum,” Al-Falih said. […]

     
  • Saudi’s SAMA Warns Against Cryptocurrencies
     

    The Saudi government has outlawed using and trading in Bitcoin, citing the high risk and negative consequences in the cryptocurrency. Saudi Arabia’s Monetary Agency (SAMA) warned against trading in digital currencies for “their negative consequences and high risks on traders as they are out of government supervision.” SAMA continued that cyptocurrencies like Bitcoin “are illegal in the kingdom […]

     
  • Conflicting Reports on PIF Interest in Massive Tesla Stake
     

    Conflicting reports have surfaced on the interest level of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in purchasing a large stake in Tesla, which could enable the electric car company founded by Elon Musk to go private. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is “working to be part of any investor pool that emerges to take Tesla private,” Bloomberg News […]

     
  • Report: Saudi-backed SoftBank Earnings Surge on Vision Fund Valuation
     

    SoftBank has reported a 49.2 percent surge in its latest quarterly earnings due in part to a $2.2 billion gain at its tech-focused Saudi-backed Vision Fund, Zawya reports. According to Zawya, the fund’s investment gain was a result of the sale of the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart to US chain Walmart. An increase in the value of the fund’s […]

     
  • Third Cinema Operating License Awarded in Saudi Arabia as Entertainment Sector Heats Up
     

    Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Information and Chairman of the General Authority for Audiovisual Media Dr. Awwad Al-Awad awarded the third cinema operation license to the Al-Rashed United Group — Empire Cinema as the Kingdom’s entertainment sector heats up. US giant AMC and Dubai-based Vox Cinemas received the first two licenses and have already opened theaters in April […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco Weighs Global Bond Sale to Finance Purchase of Sabic Stake from PIF
     

    Saudi Aramco is considering tapping the international bond market for the first time, Bloomberg and the WSJ report, in order to finance the acquisition of petrochemical giant Sabic. The move into global capital markets could offer an alternative to an initial public offering, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the talks. ‘The plans for a bond, […]

     
  • Reports: Saudi Aramco Interested in Buying Controlling Stake in Sabic, Possibly Up to 70%; IPO Timeline in Question
     

    Saudi Aramco aims to buy a controlling stake in petrochemical maker SABIC, possibly up to 70% of the company that is currently controlled by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to reports. Sabic, as the chemical company is known, carries a market value of over $100 billion. Amin Nasser, Aramco’s chief executive officer, said in an […]

     
  • Report: Saudi Aramco Mulls Stake in SABIC
     

    Saudi Aramco has invited banks to pitch for an advisory role on the potential acquisition of a strategic stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Riyadh-listed SABIC, the world’s number-four chemical firm, is 70 percent owned by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s top sovereign […]

     

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  • Oil tumbles to lowest level since December 2021 as banking crisis routs markets

    Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday, as traders feared a brewing banking crisis could dent global economic growth. West Texas Intermediate futures fell more than 5% to settle at $67.61 per barrel, reaching its lowest level since December 2021. Brent crude , the international benchmark, slid 4% to $74.36 per barrel.

  • Biban 2023: Forum to speed up Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification plan

    To further accelerate the growth of Saudi Arabia’s SME sector, the Kingdom is hosting Biban 2023, touted to be the largest SME and startup conference from March 9 to 13 in Riyadh. Organized by the Kingdom’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, also known as Monsha’at, this year’s Biban is expected to attract over 100,000 attendees from within the Kingdom and abroad, along with hosting 300 workshops likely to benefit more than 20,000 participants. “Biban is a giant of a meeting with over 100,000 expected to attend, learn and, hopefully, use what they learn to start businesses,” Paul Sullivan, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and a senior associate fellow at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies Energy and Environmental Security, told Arab News.

  • Egypt central bank seeks advisor for United Bank sale

    Egypt's central bank has sent investment banks a request for proposals to pitch for an advisory role in the sale of United Bank of Egypt, which the central bank owns, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Several big Western banks have received the request, one of the sources said. The search for advisors comes after talks with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to acquire United Bank failed after disagreement over its valuation.

  • Saudi Arabia deposits $5 bln in Turkey’s central bank – statement

    Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with Turkey to deposit $5 billion in the country's central bank through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the fund said on Monday. Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan announced his country's intention to make the deposit in December. While Turkey's net foreign exchange reserves rebounded from just over $6 billion last summer, when it was at its lowest in at least 20 years, they have lost some $8.5 billion since a massive earthquake hit the country's southern region early in February that killed more than 45,000 people and left millions homeless

  • Lebanon paralysis grows as security chief bows out

    he head of one of Lebanon's top security agencies retired Friday without a replacement, a casualty of the political and institutional paralysis which is stoking fears of a broader breakdown. "The country is in a state of almost total disintegration," said analyst Karim Bitar. "We are seeing the collapse of all state institutions that were still holding up." Lebanon is navigating a devastating economic crisis that has plunged more than 80 percent of the population into poverty, according to the United Nations.

  • Biban 2023: Saudi Arabia’s largest SME conference hosts final round of Entrepreneurship World Cup and other major highlights

    Biban, Saudi Arabia’s largest start-up, SME, and entrepreneurship conference, takes place between March 9 and March 13, 2023, at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center.

  • Israeli settlers rampage through a Palestinian town in revenge for West Bank shooting

    The U.S. ambassador to Israel said that a U.S. citizen was killed in a West Bank terror attack on Monday night, but the victim was not publicly identified. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the Israeli who died Monday near Jericho was also an American citizen.

  • West Bank Attack Kills 2 Israelis as Middle East Officials Meet in Jordan

    A Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis as American, Israeli and Arab officials met to discuss ways to lower tensions. Then Jewish settlers went on a rampage.

  • Saudi Arabia pauses wealth fund plan to acquire Egyptian bank – sources

    Saudi Arabia has put a plan by its sovereign wealth fund to acquire the United Bank of Egypt on hold because of a disagreement with the Egyptian authorities over its valuation, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The pause is the most recent stumble in vast investment programme promised by Gulf states after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted foreign investors to pull more than $20 billion out of Egyptian markets, throwing its economy into crisis.

  • Iraqi central bank to drop dollar for yuan in trade with China

    The Iraqi central bank announced on 22 February that, for the first time, it plans to allow trade from China to be settled directly in yuan instead of the US dollar to improve access to foreign currency. “It is the first time imports would be financed from China in yuan, as Iraqi imports from China have been financed in (US) dollars only,” the government’s economic adviser, Mudhir Salih, told Reuters on 22 February. According to a statement released by the Iraqi central bank, carrying out transactions in the Chinese currency would boost the balances of Iraqi banks with accounts with Chinese banks.