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Saudi Arabia

Adnic Allianz SF

Abu Dhabi insurer Adnic takes over Saudi’s Allianz SF

Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (Adnic) is to take a majority stake in one of Saudi Arabia’s top insurance companies as it looks to increase its presence in the kingdom. Adnic announced to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on Thursday that it plans to acquire 51 percent of share capital of Allianz Saudi Fransi […]

Aramco MidOcean

Aramco invests $500m in LNG business MidOcean

Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has made its first investment in the international liquefied natural gas (LNG) market with a $500 million investment in MidOcean Energy. The Saudi oil supermajor has acquired a minority stake in the company, which is the LNG unit of US-based energy investor EIG. The deal includes an option to increase the size […]

Israeli Muslims could visit Saudi holy sites

Israel expects religious tourism to Saudi holy cities

Israel sees religious tourism among its Muslim population as a major benefit of a peace deal with Saudi Arabia, Israeli minister of tourism Haim Katz said in Riyadh this week.  “Twenty percent of Israel is Muslim, two million, and they will come to Mecca easily,” Katz told AGBI on September 27 at a gala dinner […]

Saudi unemployed - most are willing to work in private sector

Almost all unemployed Saudis ready to join private sector

Almost 95 percent of unemployed Saudi nationals are open to taking up jobs in the private sector, according to the latest survey by the kingdom’s statistical authority. Unemployment among citizens of the kingdom state declined marginally to 8.3 percent in the second quarter from 8.5 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The overall unemployment […]

Lucid opens first global EV factory in Saudi Arabia

Californian electric vehicle (EV) maker Lucid Group has opened its first international manufacturing plant in the newly-launched King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) special economic zone. The Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority last week issued Lucid a permit to operate a manufacturing unit at KAEC in Jeddah. The US-based EV maker, which is backed by […]

Saudi Arabia plans a vaccine factory

Saudi Arabia injects $133m into vaccine factory

Saudi Arabia is planning to invest SAR500 million ($133 million) in a factory to boost local vaccine and medicine manufacturing capacity as the kingdom seeks to become a regional centre for biotechnology. Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones, also known as Modon, has signed an investment agreement with the Vaccine Industrial Company to […]

Talks with PIF and DP World progressing says PGA Tour

PGA Tour said its planned merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf and DP World Tour has garnered unsolicited interest from investors as it continues to finalise an agreement with the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the DP World Tour. The PGA said that while it did not solicit additional investment interest, it has a […]

Aramaco has signed a deal with Chinese refiner Shenghong

Aramco in talks to buy 10% stake in Chinese refiner

Saudi Aramco has started talks with China’s privately owned Jiangsu Eastern Shenghong Company to acquire a 10 percent equity stake in the Chinese firm’s refiner and petrochemical subsidiary.  Under the cooperation framework agreement, the world’s largest oil producing company intends to supply Jiangsu Shenghong Petrochemical Industry Group with crude oil and potentially other feedstocks.  Aramco and […]

Gulf refinery upgrade programme

Gulf invests in major oil refinery upgrade programme

Gulf states are expanding their oil refining capacity through a series of massive upgrades, at the same time as they drive towards net zero and seek to move away from petroleum and natural gas. The apparent contradiction is, however, only apparent.  From Az-Zour in Kuwait to Duqm in Oman, the refinery upgrades are central to […]

Qiddiya tourism

$1bn tourism school to open in Saudi’s Qiddiya

Saudi Arabia plans to build a $1 billion tourism school in the Qiddiya sports, culture and entertainment city giga-project.  The Riyadh School for Tourism and Hospitality will train workers from around the world, not only Saudi Arabia, tourism minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb told a UN World Tourism Organization gathering in the capital. The training headquarters at […]

Haim Katz is the first Israeli minister to make an official visit to Saudi Arabia

Israeli minister makes historic visit to Saudi Arabia

Israeli tourism minister Haim Katz made the first ever public visit by a member of the Israeli government to Saudi Arabia this week, attending a World Tourism Day event in Riyadh.  The Israeli ministry of tourism said Katz was leading a delegation on a two-day stay in the Saudi capital as part of the United […]

PIF-backed Asfar to open new mountain resort in 2025

Construction has commenced this month on the Saudi sovereign wealth fund-backed Gamra mountain resort project in Al Baha, the kingdom’s southwest region. The project is due to open in the first half of 2025. Saudi Tourism Investment Company (Asfar) will develop the project in partnership with Ebda, an adventure, sport and entertainment company, as the […]

Mohammed Al Jadaan, Saudi minister of finance. The kingdom has appointed an executive specifically to lead its virtual assets and digital currency programme

Saudi’s crypto economy shrugs off regional decline

Saudi Arabia was one of only six countries in which the volume of cryptocurrency deals grew over the last year, according to a new report. The majority of its Middle East neighbours recorded double-digit declines. The kingdom’s crypto economy grew by 12 percent between July 2022 and July this year, as per the 2023 Geography […]

The new deal with Hainan Airlines is part of Saudi Arabia's plan to attract 4m visitors from China by 2030

China and Saudi Arabia agree to more direct flights

The Saudi Air Connectivity Program (ACP) has signed an agreement with Hainan Airlines to launch two new air routes serving the kingdom and China as the two countries continue to forge closer ties. Flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to Beijing were opened by Saudia in August, providing 165 million people in northern China with direct […]

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has opened a Saudi headquarters

More companies set up Saudi HQs as deadline nears

Saudi Arabia has had limited success so far in its plan to tempt major companies to open regional headquarters in the kingdom, but more are obliging as the deadline to do so draws nearer. Among the companies relocating their main offices – or at least creating a presence in the kingdom – are international names […]

Mountain, Mountain Range, Nature

Tourism masterplan unveiled for Saudi’s highest peak

The first of three phases of Soudah Peaks, a luxury mountain tourism destination set 3,015 metres above sea level on Saudi Arabia’s highest peak, will be completed in 2027. The phase will have 940 hotel rooms, 391 residential units and 32,000 square metres of retail space, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. Crown Prince and […]

SAL, based in Jeddah, reported three-year compound annual growth of 20% in 2022

Saudi Logistics expects to raise $678m from IPO

Saudi Logistics Services Company (SAL) will raise SAR2.54 billion ($678 million) from its initial public offering after disclosing an indicative price range. The price range was set between SAR98 and SAR106 per share, the company said in a statement. The logistics business is 70 percent owned by Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation (Saudia) and 30 percent […]

Artist's impression of the planned cliff-top football stadium in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia's entertainment and sports complex south-west of Riyadh

Saudi developer wins $610m Qiddiya giga-project contract

A SAR2.3 billion ($610 million) contract has been awarded to carry out key infrastructure work on Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya giga-project, described as the country’s capital of entertainment. The Saudi Real Estate Company said in a filing on the Saudi Stock Exchange on Monday that contracts have been agreed between the Qiddiya Investment Company and one […]

Marriott's W Hotel in Lake Village, part of Saudi Arabia's Neom giga-project, will have 236 rooms, including 47 suites

Marriott to open two luxury hotels in Neom’s Trojena

Global hotel chain Marriott International will open two luxury properties in Trojena, a year-round mountain destination in the $500 million Neom development. The deal with the US hotelier includes Saudi Arabia’s first W Hotel and a JW Marriott property. “We are excited to work with Neom to develop these two properties in one of the […]

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced plans for Vision 2040

Saudi Arabia to begin preparing Vision 2040

Saudi Arabia is to begin working on the next phase of its economic diversification plan known as Vision 2030 and hopes to unveil its Vision 2040 as early as 2027, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview this week.  “Today we’re trying to close a few things, we’re aiming to close in the […]

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's number one priority is funding the kingdom's Vision 2030 giga-projects

Saudi economy slips as government pushes oil cuts

Analysts see the Saudi economy contracting in 2023 as a result of voluntary oil production cuts.  Higher prices, however, will still ensure that state coffers are full enough to meet the kingdom’s number one priority – funding its mammoth Vision 2030 diversification projects.  The International Monetary Fund said this month it saw a slowdown in […]

The current energy transition shortcomings are already causing mass confusion across industries that produce and or rely on energy, said Aramco CEO Amin Nasser

Oil firms cautious on drilling as energy transition looms

Government policies to fight climate change are discouraging oil companies from investing heavily in new production even as they turn in record profits. It is a dynamic that could spell tight supply and high prices as clean energy alternatives seek to fill the void. Crude oil prices have surged above $90 a barrel and some […]