Good morning, wonderful people. We have another busy issue for you this morning, with capital markets still dominating news flow as eXtra prepares to IPO its consumer finance arm and both the PIF and our friends at Cenomi take debt to market.

^^ We have the rundown on these stories and more in this morning’s news well.

BUT FIRST- Shares of Avalon Pharma popped yesterday, closing up 30% — the maximum allowed — as they made their debut on the Tadawul’s main market. Avalon closed at SAR 106.60 a piece, up from an opening price of SAR 82. The drug maker sold 600k shares in its IPO earlier this month, good for a 30% stake.

AND- Institutional investors will be able to place orders today and tomorrow for the rump offering of Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication. Some 876.6k shares are on offer after the company’s capital raise was 96.5% subscribed, Etihad said in a filing to Tadawul yesterday. Alinma Investment is running the offering and serving as underwriter.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- We’re making progress connecting our electricity grid to Egypt’s: Infrastructure for the 3 GW Saudi-Egypt electrical interconnection project is 40%-50% complete, a government source told Enterprise Climate. The project — which consists of three stations connected via 1.35 km of overhead lines and 22 kms of submarine cables in the Gulf of Aqaba — is expected to come fully online in 2026, the source added.

There have been a few delays — not uncommon in projects like this: Trial operations for the USD 1.8 bn linkup of the two grids were set to begin in May 2025 with an official operational launch set for later in the same year. The first 1.5 GW phase was to have started operations in June 2025, followed by the second and final 1.5 GW phase in November 2025.

In context: Officials are positioning the Kingdom as a new regional exporter of clean power and are also exploring interconnections with the Greek grid that would allow us to sell green electrons to Europe. Egypt, meanwhile, is looking to sell green power and to use it to power hydrogen plants as it and the Kingdom look to capture part of the still-nascent European and regional market for green hydrogen.

Sound smart: Hydrogen is widely seen as a promising clean(er) fuel for hard-to-decarbonize sectors including maritime transport and heavy industry.

#2- Speaking of cleaner fuels: “Clean” diesel and gasoline are now available at your closest filling station. The Energy Ministry has completed the roll-out of cleaner diesel and Euro-V spec petrol across the Kingdom’s stations, replacing traditional diesel and gasoline fuels in the market, it said in a statement yesterday.

Why this matters: Diesel is a key fuel for commercial transport fleets, but it’s generally more polluting than gasoline. Set in 2009 as a European standard, Euro-V is one of the cleanest diesels in the world, with fewer particulates and less sulfur being emitted when it is burned in an engine. Only the more recently introduced Euro-VI standard is cleaner.

#3- Ireland is looking to reel in investments from GCC sovereign wealth funds for its infrastructure projects, the country’s Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Simon Coveney told Reuters on the sidelines of the WTO meeting ongoing in Abu Dhabi. Coveney said Ireland’s growing trade ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE are behind the interest.

#4- A new shipping line in the Red Sea: Feeder and short-sea shipping company Folk Maritime has launched here, expanding the kingdom’s connection with other Red Sea ports, Splash 247 reports. The new shipping line will operate two Red Sea services, using two 2.5k TEU feeders, connecting Jeddah with Neom, Yanbu and Ain Sokhna, Egypt. A smaller 700 TEU ship linked with Sudan will operate every two weeks.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The Human Capability Initiative will open today in Riyadh. It wraps on Thursday.

WEATHER- Expect a strong breeze in Riyadh and Jeddah today with some scattered clouds in Dammam.

  • Riyadh: 27°C daytime / 14°C overnight
  • Jeddah: 29°C daytime / 22°C overnight
  • Dammam: 21°C daytime / 13°C overnight

A look ahead: The mercury is set to nosedive in the capital city to 18°C tomorrow and Friday before gradually warming next week.

OIL WATCH-

OPEC+ has mechanisms that allow it to handle disruptions in the global energy market, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in an interview yesterday with a quarterly newsletter (pdf) issued by the Saudi Association of Energy Economics (SAEE). Demand for oil is poised to remain strong for the coming decades, he said, rebuffing calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels.

Also yesterday, per Reuters: “OPEC+ will consider extending voluntary oil output cuts into the second quarter, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters, to provide additional support for the market, and could keep them in place until the end of the year, according to two of them.”

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

It’s all Apple, all the time this morning in the international business press with a trifecta of stories casting Tim Cook and his crew into the spotlight.

#1- Apple is ending its secretive, decade-long effort to build an electric car. The company made the announcement internally yesterday. Bloomberg, which broke the news, says “many” of the 2k staff working on the car will be transferred to its AI unit, where they’ll work on generative AI projects. Technical challenges and signs that the market for EVs may be cooling factored into the decision, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes.

The story is getting ink everywhere:Financial Times | Wall Street Journal | Reuters.

(Sound smart: Gurman started breaking news about Apple as a teenage blogger at Apple news outlet 9to5Mac and has remained a perennial thorn in Apple’s side ever since.)

#2- The US Department of Justice may be on the verge of hitting Apple with an antitrust suit, and California has separately told Bloomberg that it may be “very interested” to join the case if it materializes. Reuters has also picked up the story while the Wall Street Journal has a former US attorney general asking in its opinion pages, “Siri, Does Apple Violate Antitrust Law?” (he thinks the answer is, “Yes.”)

#3- Big Apple shareholders Norges Bank Investment Management and Legal & General want Apple to be more transparent about its guidelines for the ethical use of AI, the Financial Times writes.

Apple investors don’t seem bothered by it all: The tech giant’s shares closed up nearly 1% yesterday.

MEANWHILE- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon isn’t so sure the global economy is headed for a soft landing, saying that while “the world is set up for a soft landing” there’s a “higher level uncertainty” thanks to inflation and geopolitical risks. “The market is way weighted to a very soft landing. [But] when you look at the pattern of facts the last three or four years, it’s hard for me to see it’s going to be that simple,” the Financial Times quotes him as having said.

SPORTS-

1- Al-Hilal broke the record for the most consecutive victories in the Saudi Pro League, surpassing Al Nassr’s previous record set in 2014 after beating 2-0 Al-Ettifaq on Monday. Al-Hilal now sits atop the league’s leaderboard.

#2- KSA Snowblast’s Snowboard Contest Cup kicks off today, said Riyadh Season on X. The ski iteration of the same cup kicks off on tomorrow (Thursday, 29 February).

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Riyadh will host the International Conference on Sand and Dust Storms in the Arabian Peninsulafrom Monday, 4 March to Wednesday, 6 March.

Tickets are on sale for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, scheduled for Jeddah from 7-9 March.

Riyadh will host a World Economic Forum special meeting on 28-29 April.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *