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  • Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits Harvard, MIT in Boston
     

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Harvard University and MIT in Boston, Massachusetts over the weekend to tour two of America’s premiere higher education campuses and talk about the importance of research and entrepreneurship to Vision 2030. The visit to Boston is the second stop in a weeks long tour across the United States, his first […]

     
  • Busy First Full Day for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Including Meetings with President, Congress
     

    In his first full day in Washington, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman kept a busy schedule of meetings, according to reports and photos released by the Saudi Press Agency. Crown Prince Mohammed had at least two separate meetings with members of Congress, and another meeting with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the expansive Saudi residence in […]

     
  • Interview: Bechtel’s Millennial Saudi Country Manager Abdulrahman Al-Ghabban Discusses Company’s Activities and Ambitions in Vision 2030 Era
     

    San Francisco-based Bechtel is one of the largest engineering, construction, and project management companies in the world, and it’s been doing business in Saudi Arabia for 75 years. Following the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic and social reform plan, the company hired its first Saudi national as country head of its operations in the Kingdom […]

     
  • Trump to Host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at White House on March 20
     

    President Donald Trump will host visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Washington on March 20 at the White House, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday, noting that the president “looks forward to strengthening ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia.” Prince Mohammed will arrive to a tumultuous time in Washington, especially in the foreign […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco IPO Delayed Until 2019, Financial Times Reports for Second Time
     

    Saudi Aramco’s long-awaited IPO “could be delayed until 2019 at the earliest,” the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing British officials briefed on the matter. It is the second time the London-based newspaper was the first to report that the IPO would be delayed. The Financial Times reported the same news in September, but Saudi officials […]

     
  • Flurry of Deals as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Visits Egypt
     

    After a unique military escort given by Egyptian fighter jets and a warm welcome from Egypt’s top leaders upon arrival, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wasted little time in dealmaking with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The two countries moved forward on several major agreements. Saudi Arabia and Egypt agreed to set up a $10 […]

     
  • JLL Research: 2018 a ‘Year of Implementation’ for Saudi Arabia
     

    A recent report by international real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle said that 2018 would be a “year of implementation” for Saudi Arabia following a historic 2017 in which Saudi Arabia saw great social and economic change. JLL predicts that recent reforms enacted by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will “translate positively” to the economy and […]

     
  • At Davos, Saudi Leaders Discuss Energy, Foreign Policy on World Stage
     

    Saudi government leaders arrived to Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum to meet with other world leaders and discuss key foreign policy and energy challenges facing the Kingdom. The 48th Annual Meeting in Davos will host 3,000 participants across all stakeholder groups including public & private sectors, civil society, academia, media, and arts & culture. The Saudi delegation is led […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Orders $2b ‘Deposit’ to Yemen to Shore Up Currency
     

    Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered a $2 billion transfer to the Yemeni central bank, according to reports, as the Kingdom looks to shore up the economy of its war-torn southern neighbor. The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI) said in a statement that the money is meant “to address the deteriorating economic situation” in Yemen. “All […]

     
  • Will Saudi Arabia Purchase a Stake in Hollywood’s Largest Agency?
     

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is in talks to buy a 5-10% stake in Endeavor, the holding company for Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME), for $500 million, according to reports. The Beverly-Hills, California based agency formed in 2009 as a merger between William Morris Agency and Endeavor Agency and represents artists across […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Sadr’s Inevitable Comeback: How Will He Reenter the Political Game?

    For the first time since 2005, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has no clear political role and no formal road map to get back into politics until elections are held again in 2025. So where does this leave him and the Sadrist movement?

  • Hey Middle East, what’s up?

    Apart from 2019, when the $29.4bn flotation of Aramco distorted the picture, last year was the busiest ever for initial public offerings in the region, with 60 issuers raising $24.5bn. In EMEA in its entirety, which of course includes the Middle East and two more entire continents, IPOs raised just $42.5bn. Market participants — as well as most press reports — predict similar levels of activity in 2023. They describe a healthy pipeline of government-owned companies as well as a growing number of private businesses waiting to come to market.

  • Hey Middle East, what’s up?

    An investor who bought shares in every single IPO of the region in the past year — proportionate to its deal value — could now sell their entire portfolio with around 25% profit. Buying all European IPOs in the same period would have resulted in a neutral performance, on average they are trading almost exactly 0% above or below their offer prices, according to Dealogic.

  • Iran: Who is poisoning hundreds of schoolgirls?

    Hundreds of schoolgirls in Iran have been hospitalised in recent weeks after being poisoned by what officials have described as an "intentional" gas attack. Although incidents have been reported across the country, the majority of cases have centred around the holy city of Qom.

  • Is Saudi Flag Day A Public Holiday? What You Need To Know

    At the moment, Saudi Flag Day has not been announced as a public or private holiday, meaning workers will still be expected to clock into work unless informed otherwise by the government. In the past when Saudi Founding Day was first announced, it was also unclear whether or not The Kingdom would have a day off to commemorate the special day; this year, two holiday dates were

  • How much money did India save in a year by buying Russian fuel?

    The West’s sanctions on Russia’s oil trade have benefited India hugely. In less than a year, the government has saved an estimated $3.6 billion by ramping up Russian oil imports.

  • Opinion: How ambitious is Biden’s Middle East policy?

    The Ukraine war has helped the Biden administration and most serious strategic thinkers in Washington to reconsider the strategic importance of Southwest Asia to US foreign policy. Energy exports from the Gulf region and the three key waterways, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf, plus their three key chokepoints, the Suez Canal, Bab Al Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz, are unmistakably central to any global regime of stability, security and prosperity.

  • Opinion: How ambitious is Biden’s Middle East policy?

    The Ukraine war has helped the Biden administration and most serious strategic thinkers in Washington to reconsider the strategic importance of Southwest Asia to US foreign policy. Energy exports from the Gulf region and the three key waterways, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf, plus their three key chokepoints, the Suez Canal, Bab Al Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz, are unmistakably central to any global regime of stability, security and prosperity.

  • Can the Middle East build its own Silicon Valley?

    Mr Sheikha said the building of “a $100 billion business, a trillion dollar business in the region, it's just not [going to] happen by just focusing on the UAE. It's also not going to happen by just focusing on Saudi Arabia”. He wondered if anyone could name many UAE start-ups that had found success in Saudi Arabia, or how many Saudi start-ups had succeeded in the UAE.

  • Saudi Arabia Wants to Be A Movie Capital. Will Hollywood Go Along?

    Anyone looking for cash needs to get creative. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have all benefited from soaring oil prices and need to deploy their capital across many industries. Private-equity funds, venture capitalists and investment bankers are all spending more time in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia in particular. (When I called one venture capitalist to pick their brain on this subject, they answered my call from Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital.)