Good morning, friends. It’s Thursday, but we have a packed issue for you before any if us can slide into the weekend. It’s a particularly beautiful day for a Bono-backed climate investment platform run by TPG, which just landed a USD 1.5 bn commitment from pension fund manager Hassana.

HAPPENING NOW-

#1- The CIPS MENA conference gets underway this morning at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences – Granada. The first half of the day will see speakers and panel discussions on building sustainable supply chains, supporting local content, localization of the procurement and supply industry, addressing current challenges in supply chains and exploring the digital transformation in procurement. An awards ceremony kicks off at 6pm. You can register for the conference here or view the full agenda here (pdf).

#2- Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, is coming back to Saudi this weekend, a senior White House official said earlier this week. He’ll also be heading to Israel, where he’s expected to focus on the IDF’s ramp-up of its assault on Rafah.

Sullivan will be the third senior US official to stop in Riyadh in less than a week. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was here yesterday (see below) and Nasa chief Bill Nelson was also in town this week.

#2- Red Sea Fashion Week will get underway tomorrow and run until Saturday, 18 May at theSt. Regis Red Sea Resort, according to state news agency SPA. The event, organized by the Saudi Fashion Commission, will feature an opening show on the first day, followed by two days of runway shows showcasing collections from both Saudi and international designers.

Showcasing their work at the event: Designers Tima Abid, Sara Altwaim, Yasmina Q, Hadia Ghaleb, and Rebirth with Turkish brand Niluu.

TODAY’S WEATHER- There’s a chance of rain in Riyadh with a daytime high of 41°C and a low of 29°C. Makkah is set for a clear sky with a high of 40°C and a low of 28°C, with similar forecasts for Jeddah with a high of 36°C and a low of 25°C.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- WHISPERS- The Public Investment Fund has sold down big stakes in US equities, a regulatory filing shows. It now directly holds US-listed equities with a market value of c. USD 18 bn as of the end of 1Q 2024 — down from USD 35 bn at the end of December.

The slide in market value of the securities PIF holds reflects active selling. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up more than 13% so far this year.

What the PIF is unloading: Stakes worth USD 600 mn or more in Amazon, Salesforce, and Microsoft, for starters, a Bloomberg analysis found, though it has swapped into call options for smaller stakes, giving it the option to buy into them if it wants. It has also shed more than USD 600 mn worth of BlackRock stock, a USD 757 mn stake in travel company Booking, USD 942 mn in Carnival shares.

What gives? Bloomberg offers no analysis, but we suspect it’s a wave of profit-taking as the PIF comes aims to deploy more capital here at home — and faster — to support the Vision 2030 economic diversification drive.

#2- Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed an energy cooperation roadmap with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the Energy Ministry said in a post on X. The roadmap outlines a timeline for cooperation in “critical projects” in electricity and renewables, green hydrogen, energy efficiency and others.

Importantly, the roadmap also checks-off mention of nuclear power. A nuclear energy pact is one of three cornerstone agreements (along with one on defense and a third on AI and advanced technologies) that could be part of a grand accord that sees Saudi take steps to normalize relations with Israel.

SOUND SMART- Washington had originally hoped to sign the three pacts as part of a wider series of accords that would see Saudi normalize ties with Israel, but some in the Biden administration are pushing to close the bilateral agreements now to put pressure on Israel to come to the table on Gaza. While Axios is positioning that as a “long shot,” it also notes that “US and Saudi officials say they’ve made significant progress in their talks.”

#3- French energy giant TotalEnergies is talking with Acwa Power about new investments in Saudi renewables, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne told Asharq Business on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum (watch, runtime: 12:43). “In Saudi, we don’t produce oil and gas but we try to achieve a mix of investments in petrochemicals and renewable energy,” Pouyanne said, with

out providing further details. He said TotalEnergies’ global strategy was focused on proving that the French firm can invest in both oil and gas and renewable energy.

REMEMBER- The Kingdom unveiled plans in said in December to more than double its renewables target to 130 GW by 2030. It plans to add 20 GW in renewable energy annually to reach 130 GW by 2030, up from a previous target of 58.5 GW, according to earlier statements by the Energy Minister. The government is ready to export up to 150 GW of green hydrogen or electricity, he said.

#4- Is green hydrogen stuck in a rut? Thyssenkrupp Nucera, the hydrogen arm of the German industrial engineering giant, “has reported a drop in demand for the equipment it supplies to develop green hydrogen, the latest evidence that the nascent technology aimed at cutting emissions risks losing momentum,” the Financial Times writes this morning.

The issue: Would-be clients in Europe and North America are basically waiting for governments to finalize incentive packages (and, more sustainably, help create a market) that will make their projects commercially viable. They’re looking for a mix of direct subsidies and, in some cases, offtake agreements at set prices that lock in their margins on the still-nascent technology. (Regulatory questions on issues such as mass balancing are also factors, as are national commitments to decarbonization targets.)

WHY DOES IT MATTER? Saudi is making a big push into green hydrogen at Neom, where companies including Acwa Power aim to produce as much as 600 tons per day when they flip the “on” switch a couple of years down the road. Acwa is also working on green hydrogen projects in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan and as far away as Indonesia.

#5- Apex Group launched a regional office in Riyadh, where it will “provide a full range of innovative financial services and solutions, including managing, advisory and operating,” according to a press release. Apex Saudi Arabia says its team has experience with services for Islamic and private equity funds, equities, commodity, FX, and derivatives.

The Saudi appeal: “The Kingdom is one of the fastest growing global economies, and its stable economic conditions make it an attractive jurisdiction to conduct business,” Apex Group Regional Managing Director, Christiane El-Habre said.

What’s Apex? The firm provides services to the finance industry and financial professionals on the corporate side, ranging from fund administration and financial platforms to services for family offices and corporations. It has clients around the world.

#4- Dubai-based Ziwo eyes Saudi expansion: AI-powered call-center solutions provider Ziwo plans to expand in the Kingdom using fresh financing from its most recent funding round, Gulf News reports citing a company media release. The funding was raised at the two-day Seamless Middle East 2024 conference in Dubai, which wrapped up yesterday.

DATA POINTS-

#1- The Kingdom’s foreign reserve assets rose 3% y-o-y in April to SAR 1.6 tn, according to Argaam. On a monthly basis, foreign reserve assets fell 2% in April. Foreign currency reserves constitute 94% of the Kingdom’s foreign reserve assets.

#2- The total number of construction workers at Neom is expected to rise 43% y-o-y to 200k next year, Argaam quotes the company’s CEO Nadhmi Al Nasr as saying during the Saudi Great Futures summit yesterday. There are currently 500k full-time employees from 100 countries living and working at the futuristic city, he added.

REMEMBER- Neom is seeking fresh hires, with some 246 job openings including typical contractor jobs related to the ongoing construction of the USD 500 bn development and marketing positions to promote the city in Europe and elsewhere. The hiring spree comes as Neom embarked on a drive to assure contractors and bankers that the buildout of the city was proceeding on schedule after reports of the government scaling back the project.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Driving the conversation in the global business press this morning: Major Wall Street benchmarks hit a fresh high yesterday as traders welcomed promising US inflation data. We have the story in this morning’s Planet Finance, below.

MEANWHILE, IN GAZA- Israel has started sending troops into Rafah in what Bloomberg believes is the beginning of a “full-blow invasion.” The Israeli military has given advance warnings to Rafah citizens as tanks and infantry make their way into the eastern part of the city bordering Egypt. The move is visibly ramping up tensions with Egypt, the European Union, and the United States.

AN ARAB ROLE IN POST-WAR GAZA? The Biden administration is in talks with Egypt, the UAE, and Morocco about their potential participation in a “peacekeeping force” that would deploy in Gaza following the war, the Financial Times writes. The three Arab nations are considering the initiative but “they would want the US to recognise a Palestinian state first,” a western official told the salmon-colored paper. Saudi Arabia has straight up rejected the idea all together.

ELSEWHERE IN GLOBAL POLITICS- You’re going to be hearing a lot about Russia-China ties in the next couple of days. Vladimir Putin is in Beijing today and tomorrow to meet Xi Jinping. The Financial Times worries in its Big Read that Moscow and Beijing represent “an economic ‘friendship’ that could rattle the world.”

PLUS- A handful of stories in global politics about which you should know:

OIL WATCH- The International Energy Agency lowered its forecast for oil demand. It now sees global demand rising by 1.1 mn bpd in 2024 — 140k bpd less than last month’s projections — pointing to weaker demand particularly in Europe. This stands in stark contrast to OPEC’s forecast (pdf) that oil demand will rise by 2.25 mn bpd in 2024.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Riyadh will host the Saudi Energy Convention from Sunday, 19 May to Tuesday, 21 May. The convention will see energy and utilities industry leaders advance collaborative decarbonization efforts and identify innovation areas. It will also host the Saudi Utilities Convention and Saudi Hydrogen Convention to address the role and challenges of rolling out hydrogen, water and utility projects that are in line with the global energy transition. Over 10k energy professionals and 200 industry speakers will be present at the event.

The Future Aviation Forum will get underway on Monday, 20 May and run until Wednesday, 22 May at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh. The event, organized by the General Authority of Civil Aviation, will see the Kingdom showcasing some USD 100 bn worth of investment options in the aviation and logistics sector at large.

Riyadh will host the annual conference of the Airports Council International — also known as WAGA — from Tuesday, 21 May to Thursday, 23 May. The global gathering brings together leading senior executives from around the world to cover topics that shape the aviation industry. The event’s speakers include PIF-owned airline Riyadh Air CEO Rony Douglas, Saudi Air Connectivity Program Majid Khan, Riyadh Airports CEO Ayman Aboabah and others.

Demo day for the final round of the Sanabil 500 MENA seed accelerator will kick off on Wednesday, 29 May in Riyadh with seven finalists. Applications for the next batch are now open and will close on 6 August 2024.

Riyadh will host a Global AI Summit from 10-12 September, state news agency SPA reported yesterday. The event, which is organized by the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, will focus on key AI topics and trends, delving into its local and global adoptions, ethics, and infrastructure.

Dammam will host the Saudi Maritime and Logistics Congress from Wednesday, 18 September to Thursday, 19 September. The two-day event looks to gather up to 10k attendees and 200 exhibitors, and will discuss topics including interlinked logistics, developments in supply chains, digitalisation, decarbonisation, the energy transition, and workforce development.

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