Good morning, friends, and welcome to what we expect is the last day before Ramadan. (We’ll know for certain this evening). Tomorrow is also Flag Day, but officials are yet to declare it a day off work.

We have a packed issue for you this morning, with news from the PIF + Aramco, real estate, telecoms, and tons and tons of sports.

So, when do we eat? Maghrib prayers are at 6:01 pm tomorrow in the capital, and you’ll have until 4:47 am on Tuesday to finish your sohour ahead of fajr.

WEATHER- Expect scattered clouds in Riyadh today with clear skies and sunshine in Jeddah and Dammam.

  • Riyadh: 29°C daytime / 16°C overnight
  • Jeddah: 31°C daytime / 26°C overnight
  • Dammam: 27°C daytime / 19°C overnight

For the first day of Ramadan: The weather tomorrow is looking warmer (32°C) with the wind picking up ahead of maghrib and continuing through taraweeh prayers. Look for sun with cloudy periods and a high of 24°C on Tuesday.

PSA- The silly season of time changes has begun. Clocks spring forward one hour today in New York, Toronto, and much of North America. The UK follows suit on 31 March, while Egypt will advance one hour on 26 April. Saudi Arabia has never used daylight saving time.

THE BIG STORY AT HOME-

PIF clinches a bigger piece of Aramco ahead of a potential secondary share sale: The government has offloaded an 8% stake in oil giant Aramco to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) in a private transaction, according to a regulatory filing to Tadawul yesterday. This downsized the state’s direct ownership in Aramco to 82.2%. The transaction should be worth about USD 164 bn.

SOUND SMART- The sale brings the PIF’s direct and indirect ownership of the oil giant to 16%, providing it “with over USD 9 bn in annual dividend revenue from Aramco,” Reuters reports quoting Justin Alexander, director of Khalij Economics and GCC analyst for GlobalSource Partners.

BACKGROUND- The oil giant is reportedly in talks with our friends at HSBC as well as Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup to quarterback a potential USD 20 bn secondary sale later this year. Check out our past coverage here.

MEANWHILE: Aramco has unveiled its first marine fuel station — Aramco Marina —located at the Jeddah Yacht Club, state news agency SPA reports. The station has an annual operational capacity of over 65 mn liters of diesel and gasoline.

AND- Aramco is reportedly planning to extract lithium from brine found in its oilfields, Reuters report citing three unnamed sources. The move aligns with the Kingdom’s push to embrace green energy solutions — lithium is one of the main components in batteries for EVs, handsets, and laptops. The PIF holds significant stakes in EV companies Lucid and Ceer.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Careem not going public, aims to grow in Saudi: The company’s CEO Mudassir Sheikha has refuted rumors about the company going public in an interview with Aleqtisadiah on the sidelines of Leap 2024. The ride hailing company plans to expand to new cities within the Kingdom after recently raising USD 400 mn, Sheikha added. This includes expanding its bicycle service to new cities after it launched in Madinah. It’s also looking ot launch a carpooling service, he said.

#2- TikTok is eyeing a bigger foothold in Saudi, CEO Shou Zi Chew told Asharq News in an interview last week.The platform has plans to invest invest more here and introduce new products, Chew said, adding that the ByteDance-owned application is considering a pilot launch of its e-commerce platform TikTok Shop in the Kingdom. He did not provide further details on the plan or a timeline for the launch.

Neom, STA + entrepreneurship are on TikTok’s priority list: TikTok is looking to work closer with Saudi entities — including working on promotional campaigns for Neom and the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), Chew said. It also aims to boost entrepreneurship in the Kingdom under a partnership with nonprofit education and training platform Injaz, he added.

#3- NDF joins WEF: The National Development Fund (NDF) has become a member of the World Economic Forum, state news agency SPA reports. Membership opens the door for the NDF to rub shoulders with other WEF members including the World Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank Group, China Development Bank, and the Development Bank of Japan.

NDF is chaired by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman. It oversees nine development funds along with three banks — the Social Development Bank, Saudi Exim Bank, and the Small and Medium Enterprise Bank.

#4- The government will begin suspending some services to indebted individualsand businesses starting Monday, 11 March, state news agency SPA reported. The suspension of services will not impact access to education, healthcare, labor, commercial registration, or the issuance of identification documents. Suspension will come only after those impacted — bet hey citizens, expats, or businesses — are given a grace period to rectify their violation.

What can get you on the list? Defaulting on a loan, unpaid court fines, the failure to pay certain bills on time.

The courts will still have a final say on handing travel bans and a suspension of banking services for overdrawn citizens, expats and businesses, sources close to the matter told Okaz yesterday.

How will services be frozen? The government can act after obtaining an order from a court or the prosecutor’s office, or a decree from either the King or cabinet.

#5- Check your fuel gauge before leaving the gas station: Some 39 fuel stations in 19 provinces were shut down for installing devices that lied about the quantity of fuel sold at the pumps, state news agency SPA reports. Charges are pending.

#6- Jeddah’s skyline welcomed the minarets of the world’s first 3D-printed mosque, Arab News reported last week. The mosque, named after the late business leader Abdulaziz Abdullah Sharbatly, was built using cutting-edge 3D printers from China’s leading 3D construction printing solutions provider Guanli.

PSAs-

#1- Property owners in 56 districts in Riyadh, Dammam, and Madinah have until Thursday, 28 March, to register their properties — at no cost — throughthe Real Estate Registry (RER) e-platform, the Real Estate General Authority said in a statement on Friday. Fines will be levied for non compliance and those who fail to register will be unable to make any transactions on their properties. Check out our past coverage of RER here.

#2- Tenants can now transfer the remaining period of a residential lease to a new tenant without terminating the current contract or registering a new one through the new services provided by the government’s rental platform Ejar, it said in a statement.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

No single story dominates headlines this morning, but among those you should know about:

  • Talks on a ceasefire in Gaza are set to resume in Cairo today, though it seems unlikely Hamas will be physically in the Egyptian capital for the discussions.
  • Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI and the Wall Street Journal has thoughts about which flavor of AI might be best for your business.
  • Ransomware gangs LockBit and and BlackCat are implodingafter law enforcement mounted a coordinated campaign to take them down. LockBit made headlines in our part of the world with a high-profile attack on Egyptian fintech giant Fawry.

MORNING MUST-READS- Pundits spent much of 2022 and 2023 warning about economic armageddon — it didn’t arrive — but that doesn’t mean we’re not looking at a meltdown in (US) capital markets. That’s the takeaway from twin pieces getting plenty of attention this morning.

Start with:Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio warned of an economic disaster that never came. What now? in the Wall Street Journal.

Then read:Markets are hitting record highs. And economists like El-Erian and Krugman can’t shake off their fears, which digs into both potential catalysts for a market plunge — and why some think the US (and perhaps global) economy isn’t out of the woods just yet.

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