Good morning, friends, and TGIT. We have another packed issue with which to end the week, leading with the latest news from Almajed for Oud’s IPO process, as well as financing updates from Acwa Power, and Aramco handing out more contracts to Milan-based Saipem.

PLUS- We have more coverage from EFG Hermes’ annual conference in London last week in this morning’s Spotlight, wherein Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority Chairman Mohamed Farid discusses the developments and regulatory overhaul seen in the Egyptian market over the past several years.

** But first, a quick programming note: EnterpriseAM Saudi will be off next Sunday and Monday for a long weekend in observance of the National Day. Schools will also be closed on Sunday and Monday, while the Saudi Central Bank (Sama), the banks and institutions under its purview, and Tadawul will be off on Monday. We’ll be back in your inboxes at the usual time on Tuesday.

We’re five days out from the EnterpriseAM Finance Forum, which will be headlined this year by Investment Minister Hassan El Khatib, who’s joining us to outline a vision for where we’re going as a community and as an economy. The keynote interview will get underway at 9am sharp, and you won’t want to miss our exclusive networking breakfast from 8am.

Among the topics on the agenda, which you can view here:

  • Welcome to the hot seat — top industry CEOs set the tone by addressing the biggest (and toughest) questions of the day.
  • Looking from the outside in — what foreign investors and strategics think about Egypt right now.
  • The only asset class in town — It’s real estate or nothing. We’ll get into the ins and outs of the industry, how it’s financing itself, which areas (and price points) are next, and more.
  • Gazing into that crystal ball — The outlook for dealflow in 2025, from M&A and IPOs to securitization, FX and more.
  • A once in a generation opportunity? — A deep dive into the promise and pitfalls of the emerging energy economy.
  • Do we really love banking SMEs? — With NBFIs and fintech players staking their claims, banks are starting to take the SME market seriously.
  • The NBFI panel — The resilience of the Egyptian consumer is the business story of the decade. How are banks and NBFS players building sustainable businesses? What are the opportunities — and credit worries — in the B2B space?

** IMPORTANT NOTE — If you’ve already received your invitation on email, you *must* click through to confirm you’re attending.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The bookbuilding window for the retail tranche of Arabian Mills’ IPO on Tadawul’s main market ends today, the company said in a filing to Tadawul. Individual investors can subscribe to up to 10% of the flourmaker’s 15.4 mn shares on offer — good for a 30% stake — at SAR 66 apiece. The institutional portion of the offering closed 132x oversubscribed.

Zatca is hosting a live-streamed technical workshop on the next phase of e-invoicing integration at 2pm today, the authority said on X. The session will prepare companies for mandatory integration with Zatca’s Fatoora platform that’s set to start 1 March 2025. This is the latest phase of an e-invoicing rollout that began in late 2021. You can join the workshop here.

⚠️WEATHER WARNING- Thunderstorms are hitting parts of the Kingdom through to Sunday, with Al Baha, Asir, Jazan and areas of Makkah set to see the worst of it, while Najran and Madina will experience light to medium rain, the Saudi Civil Defense said in a post on X. Meanwhile, a sunny Riyadh will see a high of 38°C and a low of 27°C tomorrow and Jeddah’s mercury will hit a high of 37°C and a low of 31°C.

PSAs-

#1- Passports can be renewed electronically within the first six months of their issuance, the General Directorate of Passports said on X. Travel to Arab countries is allowed if your passport is more than three months away from expiry, while other countries require a minimum of six months’ validity, the directorate noted.

#2- Registration for PIF and Roshn Group’s Musahama Design Competition is open until Monday, 30 September. The competition invites emerging architects, recent graduates, and local design firms to design amenities for the Sedra Pedestrian Spine community. It features two tracks; one for Saudi final-year architecture students or recent graduates, and another for emerging Saudi architectural firms. The 14-week program includes professional webinars and workshops, with awards ranging from SAR 200k-400k, according to state news agency SPA.

#3- Registrations are open for the Madinah Industrial Exhibition: The Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry is calling on industrial project owners to register for the upcoming industrial exhibition in Madinah next month, via its online portal. The event will showcase local factory production to visitors, trade delegations and investors, offering prime marketing options.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Aramco eyes big LNG play: Aramco has set its sights on becoming a major player in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, Aramco Executive Vice President Abulkarim Al-Ghamdi said at a conference, according to Reuters. After expanding its stake in LNG company MidOcean Energy to 49%, the oil giant is pushing further into LNG ventures, including a recent 20-year offtake agreement with NextDecade.

#2- Bahri eyes LNG fleet expansion: Shipping giant Bahri is looking to build a fleet of 20-30 new LNG tankers in a bid to boost the Kingdom’s fuel supplies and meet rising global demand, Asharq Business quotes Bahri CEO Ahmed Ali Al Subaey as saying.

Details are scant: The company aims to build the fleet — which is set to carry LNG, hydrogen, and ammonia — through joint ventures with unnamed partners. No investment ticket has been disclosed, but the plan is set to be presented to the board of directors for approval next year.

#3- Chemical manufacturing company Al Battal Factory received approval from the Capital Market Authority to IPO on parallel market Nomu, according to a statement. The company plans to offer a 20% stake (670k shares) to qualified investors. The authority’s approval is valid for six months.

#4- Egypt could be looking to attract Saudi investments in its Ras Banas peninsula on the Red Sea, after months of talks on Saudi converting its deposits with the Central Bank of Egypt into investments, Reuters reports, citing a source from the country’s Finance Ministry. The PIF has more recently been directed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to facilitate USD 5 bn in investments into Egypt as part of the “first phase” of a larger program of investment.

IN CONTEXT- The Egyptian government is in the process of drafting an investment plan to offer the Red Sea’s Ras Banas to private sector players in a transaction similar to ADQ’s USD 35 bn Ras El Hekma development agreement.

MARKET WATCH-

Arabian United Float Glass (UFG) shares dropped 30% on their first day of trading on the Nomu parallel market, closing at SAR 37.8 apiece, according to market data. UFG took a 7% stake to market in an IPO that raised SAR 64.3 mn.

DATA POINTS-

#1- The number of trucks crossing Saudi’s borders through land ports rose 11.9% y-o-y in 1Q 2024 to 962.5k trucks, Aleqtisadiah reports, citing data by the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority. The number of outbound trucks was up 12.7% at 478.7k, while inbound trucks grew 17% at 483.9k. Al Batha (connecting to the UAE) and Al Haditha (connecting to Jordan) land ports accounted for the lion’s share of all crossings, at 353.9k trucks and 115.8k trucks.

#2- Saudi’s ports saw a 14.6% y-o-y increase in container traffic in 2023, surpassing 5 mn TEUs, with 3.4 mn TEUs in imports and 2.2 mn TEUs in exports, according to the General Authority for Statistics’ (Gastat) Maritime Transports Statistics 2023 report (pdf). Ship traffic was up 33.8% y-o-y at 19k vessels, with King Fahad Industrial Port in Yanbu leading the pack at 6.5k vessels.

Passenger numbers rose 11.5% to over 1 mn, with Jazan Port recording the heaviest traffic. The total cargo handled reached 308.6 mn tons, with 203.5 mn tons outbound and 105.1 mn tons inbound. Jeddah Islamic Port led in imports, while King Fahad Industrial Port in Yanbu topped exports.

The Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry issued 32 mining licenses in July 2024, it said in a post on X. The licenses include 16 for exploration, 10 for building materials and quarries, three for surplus mineral ore, and three for exploitation.

SPORTS-

Al Nassr sacks Luis Castro as its manager after a 14-month stint with the Cristiano Ronaldo-led team, the club said in a post on X. The Portuguese manager failed to secure a league title with Al Nassr, and leaves the club at 7th place in the Saudi Pro League having secured all 3 points in only one game in the new domestic season.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Even with everything going on in the world, the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates is topping the headlines in the international business press. US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell announced late yesterday that the Fed had voted to lower interest rates by half a percentage point in its first rate cut since 2020, bringing the benchmark federal funds rate to between 4.75% and 5%. In its statement on the decision, the Fed noted that the decision reflects “greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”

Gulf policymakers followed suit late yesterday, with Sama and the central banks of the UAE and Bahrain lowering their interest rates by 50 basis points, Qatar lowering rates 55 points, and Kuwait lowering rates by 25 basis points.

** We’ve got the complete rundown of the Fed’s decision to cut rates, what happens next, and how the market reacted in our Planet Finance section, below.

WHILE IN OUR CORNER OF THE WORLD- Lebanon was hit yesterday with yet another set of Israeli device explosions as Hezbollah continues to reel from what has been described as the most significant penetration of the armed group’s communication networks since the beginning of the war on Gaza. The latest set of explosions were of the group’s hand-held radios, which killed 20 and injured over 450 in Lebanon’s single deadliest day since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging fire over the border nearly a year ago. The episode has further heightened fears of an escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, with Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah set to give an address today.

AND OVER IN TECH NEWS- Google will not have to pay a EUR 1.5 bn fine levied on the company by the European Commission after winning an appeal, though the court accepted the commission’s assessment that the tech giant had engaged in anticompetitive practices with regard to its online advertising business. The decision marks a victory for big tech in the EU’s recent antitrust crusade just as Meta comes under scrutiny by the commission for anticompetitive practices linked to its Marketplace services, with a decision on the case — and an appropriate fine — to be decided as early as next month.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Riyadh International Book Fair is set to kick off on Thursday, 26 September at King Saud University. The event, which will run until Saturday, 5 October, will feature some 2k publishing houses from over 30 countries. As this year’s guest of honor, Qatar will have its cultural heritage on full display. Expect book signings, children’s programs and new business zones for publishers and literary agents.

The MEPRA KSA Leadership Majlis is set to take place on 1 October in the Madareem Crown Hotel, Riyadh. The event will bring together PR professionals to discuss creative communications, youth engagement, and integrating cultural heritage into modern strategies. It includes panel discussions, the MEPRA Fellowship Awards, and registration is open until next Tuesday, September 24.

Noor Riyadh is coming back this November: The Guinness record holder for the largest light art festival is returning to various locations in Riyadh starting Thursday, 28 November, through to Monday, 14 December. 13 more Guinness world records were awarded at the festival since its inception in 2021.

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