Good morning, ladies and gents. It’s a big morning for foreign partnerships — BlackRock and PIF will launch a USD 5 bn asset manager headquartered in the capital city, while our friends at Mumtada have announced a tie-up with Mass General Birmingham to launch the first of a series of national rehabilitation and long-term care centers.

PSA- The kids need to dial into school once again, Riyadh school officials said overnight. We have more rain and a chance of heavy thunderstorms in the forecast, per the national weather center. Time to fire up Madrasati and Rawdhati… Look for a high today of 27°C and a low overnight of 19°C.

AND- There’s another storm moving into the UAE, sending schools there to remote learning tomorrow and Friday, EnterpriseAM UAE reports.

HAPPENING TODAY- The US Federal Reserve’s open markets committee wraps up a two-day meeting. Everyone and her cousin will be reading the sheep’s entrails afterward in search of clues as to its current thinking on when rate cuts might begin.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Tadawul Group will host the Hong Kong edition of its Capital Market Forum next Thursday, 9 May, according to a statement. Headlined “powering connections,” the two-day event is a partnership between Tadawul and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). You can find the agenda here and registration form here.

Top speakers at the first CMF event overseas in Hong Kong include Tadawul Group CEO Khalid Al Hussan, Saudi Exchange CEO Mohammed Al Rumaih, Capital Market Authority board member Abdulaziz bin Hassan, Deputy Investment Minister for Investment Development Saleh Al Khabti and others.

SOUND SMART- Tadawul officials and other policymakers have been on a drive to build closer ties with China. The first Saudi exchange-traded fund in Asia launched in Hong Kong this past December, PIF boss Yassir Al Rumayyan launched the HK version of the Kingdom’s flagship Future Investment Initiative conference in December, and ministers attended a high-profile China-Saudi investment conference in Beijing saw MoUs worth SAR bns signed.

#2- IPO WATCH- The IPO of healthcare outfit Qomel on parallel market Nomu was 2.75x oversubscribed, its financial advisor, Watheeq Capital, said in a statement to Tadawul yesterday. Qualified investors placed their orders on 21-25 April at a set price of SAR 80 apiece. Qomel is offering a 14.3% stake on Nomu.

What’s next: Watheeq Capital will complete procedures with Tadawul and then determine a date for Qomel’s listing on Nomu.

Use of proceeds: Qomel will use proceeds from the offering to invest in growth, including a SAR 100 mn pharma manufacturing facility being built by fully owned subsidiary Qomel Factory Co. in Sudair Industrial City.

ALSO- Miral Dental Group has set guidance pricing of SAR 100 per share for its direct listing on Nomu, Argaam reported. Trading will be limited to qualified investors. Direct listings allow a company to list its shares on the exchange without having to issue fresh stock or raise funds. Instead, current shareholders can simply opt to start offering shares for sale after the company’s stock is admitted to trading.

#3- Hamburgini-related food poisoning under control: Half of the reported cases of food poisoning related to local burger joint Hamburgini have been released from hospital, the Health Ministry’s spokesperson said on X. Hamburgini was indefinitely shut down last week amid multiple reports of food poisoning.

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DID YOU KNOW that we also cover Egypt and the UAE?

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Just a couple of stories are getting very wide play in the global business press on an otherwise very quiet Wednesday morning. It’s a national holiday today from much of Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden) to India, Korea, and Latin America in observance of labor day.

Here’s the rundown on what’s making headlines:

#1- Palace intrigue at HSBC: The Financial Times has the best insider take we’ve seen yet on the “shock exit” of Noel Quinn, the CEO of Europe’s biggest bank. “Inside HSBC headquarters, the narrative is that it was impossible for both Quinn and group chair Mark Tucker to continue in their roles.” Each effectively had a “three-year deadline” to leave the lender at around the same time — and Tucker wanted to oversee the selection of the third CEO his board will work with.

#2- Demand for artificial intelligence drove sales growth at Amazon’s cloud division in 1Q — a fact you now know because every single news outlet from the FT and Wall Street Journal to Bloomberg is leading with that story at the top of their homepages as we head to dispatch this morning. Germany’s Handelsblatt notes that both Google and Microsoft Azure (both admittedly smaller players) grew their AI cloud businesses twice as fast in the fourth quarter. Amazon’s profit more than tripled, comfortably ahead of analyst expectations.

#3- Benjamin Netanyahu is signaling he will push ahead with a ground assault on Rafah “with or without a deal.” Speaking as Cairo-brokered ceasefire talks continued, Netanyahu said, “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’ battalions there — with or without a deal,”

We’ll know more tonight: Hamas is expected to reply later today to Israel’s latest proposal and Israel says it’s not talking until it does.

Netanyahu’s statement got a lot of attention on foreign press: Associated Press | Washington Post | Reuters | Politico | The Guardian | CNN.

#4- Pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses — and heavy-handed responses to them — are also getting plenty of ink. Columbia President Minouche Shafik is still under fire from both sides, New York City is massing police next to the campus after protesters “dramatically” took over a building, and those occupying the building have been threatened with expulsion.

OIL WATCH-

#1- Iraq and Kazakhstan have laid out their plans to catch up with Opec-mandated oil cuts they didn’t comply with in 1Q 2024, Bloomberg reports, citing an emailed statement from Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry and an Iraqi official who asked not to be named. Both countries have been pumping “several hundred thousand barrels a day” more than the limit they agreed to meet.

What’s next on production cuts: The oil cartel is next scheduled to convene on Saturday, 1 June to determine whether or not to extend its oil-market-balancing production cuts into 2H 2024.

#2-Bahrain is in the search for investors to fund a vital pipeline that transports crude from Saudi, Bloomberg reported yesterday citing sources it says are familiar with the matter. The pipeline, which connects Saudi oil processing facilities at Abqaiq with Bahrain’s Bapco refiner, has the capacity to transport up to 350k barrels of oil per day. The sources said the Bahraini government could raise a few hundred mn USD from the sale to investors.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Automechanika Riyadh is still open until tomorrow at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center. The annual trade fair will showcase the automotive industry’s latest advances and innovations.

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