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Good morning, friends. A new week is upon us, promising a somewhat busy week with a news cycle that cuts across different areas of interest. Leading this morning’s news well is Fourth Milling Company issuing its prospectus for its planned IPO on Tadawul’s main market, followed by reports that Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company could be competing for Shell’s downstream business in South Africa.
^^ We have details on these stories and more in this morning’s news well, below.
HAPPENING TODAY-
The International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad (IAIO) will kick off in Riyadh today and run through to this Thursday, 12 September, according to state news agency SPA. Organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, the event will feature participants from 25 countries.
WEATHER- Riyadh’s mercury will peak at 42°C today, before dropping to a low of 28°C. Meanwhile, Jeddah will see a high of 39°C, and a low of 31°C.
HAPPENING THIS WEEK-
Industry Minister Bandar Alkhorayef landed in Hong Kong yesterday to discuss industrial cooperation with key organizations including Hong Kong’s Department of Trade and Industry, the Innovation Office, Hutchison Ports, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Cyberport, and Johnson Electric Group, state news agency (SPA) reports. This visit is part of a broader one-week economic mission to East Asia.
Al Khorayef already made a stop in China, where he rolled out the red carpet for investors eyeing the Kingdom’s automotive, food, pharma, and aviation industries during a roundtable meeting organized by the Federation of Saudi Chambers in Guangzhou, state news agency SPA reported. Al Khorayef also discussed potential investments in lithium for EV batteries and copper refining with major Chinese mining firms in a meeting with top representatives from General Lithium Corporation and Jiangxi Copper, according to a separate report.
#2- Savola Group’s shareholders will have until this Tuesday, 10 September, to exercise their rights to purchase additional shares, after its SAR 6 bn rights issue wrapped up on Thursday, according to a filing to Tadawul. The Tadawul-listed player will then reduce its capital before offloading its entire 34.5% stake in Almarai to its existing shareholders.
#3- EFG Hermes’ annual conference in London begins tomorrow, giving investors “unique and unparalleled access to leading equities in MENA and key frontier emerging markets.” The event will wrap this Thursday, 12 September.
PSAs-
#1- Students are getting a four-day weekend for National Day: Schools will be closed on Sunday and Monday, 22-23 September, in observance of National Day (which falls on Monday, 23 September), Al Arabiya reports. Meanwhile, the Saudi Central Bank (Sama) — along with banks and all other institutions under Sama’s purview — will be off on Monday, 23 September, Sama confirmed last week. We’re still waiting for an announcement from Tadawul.
#2- Some 34 investment tenders in Al Hujrah governorate are up for grabs on the Furas platform, state news agency (SPA) reported.
WATCH THIS SPACE-
#1- Nomu-listed Gas Arabian Services (GAS) has submitted a request to regulators to transition to Tadawul’s main market, according to a disclosure to Tadawul. In preparation for the transition, GAS planned to debut an additional 10% stake on the market in a secondary share sale to meet requirements to transition to Tadawul’s main market. Yaqeen Capital will be acting as financial advisor on the potential transaction.
#2- Saudi Arabia has identified Italy as a “partner of choice to bring green products to the European continent,” as the Kingdom looks to ramp up production of blue and green hydrogen as part of efforts to diversify away from traditional hydrocarbon products, Reuters quotes Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih as saying at a conference in Milan. Al Falih also cited a need to build out ports and pipelines to carry low carbon energy exports to Europe, adding that he intends to visit Germany and other European countries to drum up support among customers and partners.
REMEMBER- Saudi has been working to develop green and blue hydrogen capacity here at home, after launching its national green hydrogen production strategy in 2020. It set a target to generate 1.2 mn tons of green hydrogen and supply 10% of global hydrogen demand by 2030. It aims to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by the end of the decade. Neom Green Hydrogen Company, a joint venture between Neom, Acwa Power, and Air Products, is setting up a USD 8.5 bn utility-scale green hydrogen facility with a 1.2 mn ton annual green ammonia production capacity powered by nearly 4 GW of renewable power.
#3- The Regional Cloud Seeding Program is now in its fifth phase, covering most of the KIngdom, according to state news agency SPA. The program aims to boost rainfall by up to 20%, provide an alternative water source, expand green areas, and combat desertification. In 2023, 415 cloud seeding flights were conducted across six regions in Saudi.
#4- The profitability of GCC banks looks set to stay strong this year thanks to “increasing lending volumes, higher fee income, stable margins, and strong cost efficiency,” according to an S&P Global report. The ratings agency forecasts the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 150 bps between September 2024 and the end of 2025.
How 1H 2024 went: GCC banks’ net income margins remained stable at 2.7% in 1H, driven by prolonged higher interest rates, while return on assets increased to 1.74% from 1.65% at the end of 2023. Non-oil sectors in Saudi and the UAE drove 10.4% annualized lending growth for the top 45 GCC banks during the period, up from 6.7% in 2023.
DATA POINTS-
#1- Cargo handling at Saudi ports increased 26.6% y-o-y to 30.5 mn tons in August, the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) said in a statement. Import containers jumped 15.2% y-o-y during the month to 261.3k TEUs, while export containers rose 18.8% to 259k TEUs.
#2- Fintech companies added SAR 5 bn to total assets under management between 2022 and 1H 2024, Abdullah Mohammed Binghannam, deputy of financing and investment at the Capital Market Authority told Aleqtisadiah.
#3- The number of workers on private sector payrolls came in at 11.6 mn in August, the National Labor Observatory said in a post on X. This includes 2.4 mn Saudi nationals — 1.4 mn men and 972.7k women — and 9.2 mn expats.
OIL WATCH-
Opec+ hits the brakes on oil production hike: OPEC+ has agreed to suspend its planned 180k bpd output hike for October and November, according to a statement. The move comes after prices fell to their lowest level in a year. While the group still intends to move forward with its plan to revive 2.2 mn bpd of idle supply over the year, the timeline for the process is now set to be complete by December 2025, two months later than originally planned.
Aramco has set the October official selling prices for its flagship Arab Light Crude to Asian buyers at USD 1.3 / barrel above the Oman and Dubai benchmarks, it said in an emailed statement to Enterprise. North American buyers will pay at a USD 4 premium to the Argus Sour Crude Index, while Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean will see USD 0.45 and USD 0.35 premiums to ICE Brent.
SPORTS-
#1- Saudi kicks off World Cup qualifiers with a draw: The Saudi national team started the third round of the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers with a 1-1 draw against Indonesia at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, the Saudi Gazette reports. The home team was placed in Group C with Australia, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Bahrain.
#2- Judd Trump clinched the title of Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters champion, edging out Mark Williams 10-9 in a final that was decided on the last ball. This tournament marked Saudi Arabia’s first-ever ranking snooker event, with Trump and Williams advancing to the final after defeating Shaun Murphy and Si Jiahui, respectively.
#3- Belgian pro league club Beerschot has completed the signings of Faisal Al Ghamdi and Marwan Al Sahafi, it said in two separate posts on X (here and here). The two players joined from Al Ittihad.
#4- Formula E has moved Saudi’s double-header to Jeddah, after it was initially set to take place in Diriyah on 14 and 15 February 2025, according to Formula E’s season calendar. Despite the change in venue, the event’s date is unchanged.
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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-
As is usually the case on Sundays, the global business press is light on big announcements with several business stories fighting for space on the digital front pages alongside US election coverage, Gaza, and Ukraine coverage.
Even the business news is US election news today, with the Biden administration reportedly readying a proposal for a new national security-focused US sovereign wealth fund that would allow the US to invest in areas like energy, tech, and certain critical supply chains as the country seeks to counter competitor countries’ (read: China’s) hold on key raw materials and technologies. While details remain fuzzy, reports suggest that policymakers are discussing targeting investing in emerging technologies with high barriers to entry and the production of synthetic critical minerals, among others.
A similar proposal has been endorsed by Trump, raising hopes among the proposal’s advocates that such a plan could muster the bipartisan support needed to see Congress pass it into law before the close of the Biden presidency.
OVER IN THE OIL MARKET NEWS- OPEC+ has delayed planned production hikes for an additional two months after the price of Brent crude fell to its lowest levels this year on the back of weak Chinese demand and the suggestion that some Libyan oil could soon come back on the market.
WHILE IN BIG TICKET M&A NEWS- BlackRock’s USD 12.5 bn agreement to buy Global Infrastructure Infrastructure Partners finally earned the greenlight that would see the sprawling global asset-manager portfolio of infrastructure assets rise to a cool USD 150 bn.
AND IN AI NEWS- Apple’s new iPhone will be armed with Arm, with Arm’s most recent V9 chip design used in the iPhone 16 set to drop tomorrow being talked up as Apple’s special ingredient to realize its AI ambitions.
CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-
The Crown Prince Camel Festival runs until this Tuesday, 10 September at the Taif Camel Racing Track, featuring 610 rounds of racing and a purse of SAR 56 mn.
SRMG Academy’s technology journalism course will kick off in Riyadh next Sunday, 15 September. The five-day, TikTok-backed program will run until 19 September.
Fenaa Alawwal cultural center will kick off the contemporary art forum Muntada FAA next Sunday, 15 September at the Diplomatic Quarters in Riyadh. The forum runs until Thursday, 19 September.
Smart Cities Saudi Expo 2024 runs 24-26 September at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center.
The two-day Kingdom Business and Luxury Travel Congress will kick off on Wednesday, 25 September, at the Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC Hotel and Convention.
