Good morning, friends. It’s shaping up to be another busy week in capital markets and Riyadh will be awash in Brits drumming up business as senior execs from some 300 companies arrive here for Saudi Great Futures. Plus: The US energy secretary and the head of Nasa are both set to touch down here this week.

HAPPENING TODAY- Bankers for fintech player Rasan will kick off the bookbuilding process for the company’s Tadawul IPO. The company is offering a 30% stake through an offering of both new and existing shares. Saudi Fransi Capital is quarterbacking the transaction. Orders for the institutional tranche need to be in by Thursday.

AND- Bookbuilding for the institutional tranche of labor outfit Saudi Manpower’s main market IPO {wraps on Tuesday}.

PSA- The National Assessment for Schools (NAFS) begins this morning and runs through Monday, 27 May. Some 1.1 mn students in the third, sixth and ninth grade across 20k schools across the Kingdom will sit for the exams, which officials use to gauge each school’s performance.

HAPPENING TOMORROW- The Saudi Gigaproject Summit will open tomorrow at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel and Residences. The Meed event will showcase Saudi’s USD 870 bn gigaproject drive. The Kingdom’s multi-bn USD pipeline of construction projects is changing the face of the country and creating significant room for the private sector as a catalyst for Saudi’s diversification away from oil.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK- More than 300 British companies will descend upon Riyadh this Tuesday and Wednesday for Saudi Great Futures, a UK government-sponsored investment conference backed by our friends at HSBC.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will be leading the delegation as part of a year-long campaign that UK official hope will result in expanded “trade, tourism, education, and cultural activity.” Dowden is no stranger to the Saudi — the Tory MP spoke last fall at the Future Investment Initiative — check out his remarks here.

The pitch: “The Saudis have a respect and appetite for British intelligence, ingenuity, skills and experience from architecture to education, clean tech to AI, luxury to fashion and creativity to construction,” the event website declares. Dowden’s office notes that the “five lead gigaprojects” will see investment of c. USD 3 tn through 2030.

AND- Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson will be in Riyadh this week as part of a tour that will also take him to Italy. “Nelson will meet with Saudi Space Agency and other senior officials to discuss future collaboration and underscore the importance of civil space cooperation for the broader United States and Saudi Arabia relationship,” a Nasa statement reads.

TODAY’S WEATHER- There’s a chance of rain and thunderstorms in Riyadh with a daytime high of 41°C and a low of 27°C. Makkah is seeing similar weather conditions with a high of 43°C, with a low of 30°C. Meanwhile, Jeddah is expected to see a clearer sky with a high of 39°C and a low of 29°C.

DATA POINTS-

#1- The Industrial Production Index (IPI) fell 8.7% y-o-y in March 2024 due to a drop in mining and quarrying activities which account for c. 61% of the index’s weight, the General Authority of Statistics (Gastat) said in a report (pdf).

#2-Traffic tracked by the Saudi Ports Authority dropped 8.37% y-o-y to 910 vessels in April 2024, and passenger numbers fell 36% to 55.3k, Mawani reports

#3- Saudi EXIM Bank granted SAR 10 bn in loans to manufacturers and exporters in 1Q 2024, with plans to offer financing and insurance worth SAR 20 bn by year end, CEO Saad Alkhalb told Asharq Alawsat. The lender aims to hit 4x this year’s target by 2030, he added.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Commerce Minister Majed Al Qasabi wrapped up a visit to Thailand with a commitment on to bolster trade in both directions, state news agency SPA reported. Al Qasabi said the government is working to reduce barriers to trade, but offered no additional detail. He said Thailand holds potential in sectors including energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism.

#2-Test runs for flying taxis and drones could be underway as soon as next month, Transport and Logistics Services Minister Saleh al-Jasser told Al-Arabiya (watch, runtime: 0:58). Trials for urban air travel are scheduled for the upcoming Hajj season, he said, adding that “there is currently a lot of competition among various transportation companies to provide a practical product in the upcoming years.”

REMEMBER- The still-ver-new concept of urban air mobility is slowly getting traction with officials. Neom and German flying taxi maker Volocopter having successfully tested the Kingdom’s first electric air taxi. French engineering firm Setec Group is also currently conducting a feasibility study to locally operate a flying taxi project. In 2022, Neom Investment Fund invested USD 175 mn in German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle maker Volocopter.

#3- Tencent-backed fintech company Airwallex is looking to secure a license within the next 18 months to operate in the Kingdom, CEO Jack Zhang told Bloomberg. The Aussie company is currently in talks with GCC sovereign wealth funds including the Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and UAE’s Mubadala Investment as it pushes through with its MENA expansion plans, Zhang said.

UAE + Qatar + Bahrain: With 20 offices around the globe, the startup is also looking to secure a license in the UAE in the next 6-12 months and it has Qatar and Bahrain on its radar.

#4- Singapore-based Ant International inches closer Saudi market entry: The global arm of China’s fintech major Ant Group inked an MoU the Investment Ministry as part of its push to acquire the necessary licenses to operate here, serving as a prelude to further expansion in the region, according to a joint statement. The SME-focused fintech company’s brands include Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst, and Anext Bank.

#5- Nujuma — a Ritz-Carlton property — will welcome its first guests on Sunday, 26 May, Aleqtisadiah reports. The 82-key resort is located on PIF-backed Red Sea Global’s Ummahat Islands. Nujuma is slated to be Ummahat Island’s second operational resort after the St. Regis Red Sea Resort, which opened its doors earlier this year.

#6- Officials have ordered the recall of Bon Tum mayonnaise after it traced the Hamburgini-linked food poisoning outbreak to the condiment brand, state news agency SPA reported yesterday. It said the factory producing the mayonnaise has been closed pending legal action. The move comes after a laboratory analysis by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority identified clostridium botulinum bacteria in the mayo used by the local burger chain. One person reportedly died of food poisoning and more than 70 were made sick.

PSAs-

The Health Ministry has reported three local cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), including one death, to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the week starting Wednesday, 10 April 2024, the UN agency said in a news release. The three men, aged 56 to 60, had underlying health conditions and were likely exposed to the disease at a medical facility in Riyadh. This brings the total number of reported cases in the Kingdom this year to four, with two of them having died.

SPORTS-

#1- Al Hilal bagged the Saudi Pro League title yesterday with a 4-1 victory over Al Hazem. It now sits on the top of the league with a 12-point advantage over rival Al Nassr, but needs to get through three matches before being officially crowned. Al Hilal has its eyes on the treble after being crowned the Saudi Super Cup title last month and reaching the Saudi King’s Cup final, where they will face Al Nassr later this month.

Among this weekend’s matches:

  • Al Ahli beat Al Shabab 2-1;
  • Al Nassr won 3-1 over Al Akhdoud;
  • Al Ittihad lost 5-0 to Al Ettifaq.

#2- The PGA Tour Enterprises formed a transaction subcommittee to continue talks with the Public Investment Fund on what’s next for the PGA / Liv / European Tour merger, according to a statement by the PGA Tour. The seven-member subcommittee sees three active PGA Tour players on board, including Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. It also includes PGA Tour Enterprises newly elected chairman Joe Gorder.

What they said: “Together with our player directors, we understand that fans are counting on us to actively engage with the PIF and pursue other investment and innovation opportunities that benefit everyone—fans, players, and sponsors alike. We’re all committed to making this happen,” Gorder said in a statement.

#3- Hattan Alsaid made history as the first Saudi woman to sign with a major MMApromoter, Al Arabiya reported. Alsaid knocked down Egypt’s Nada Faheem in round two of the Women’s flyweight amateur bout on Friday during Riyadh’s inaugural Professional Fighters League (PFL) MENA season.

Also from the ring- Saudi MMA champ Abdullah “The Reaper” Al Qahtani defeated Jordan’s Yazeed Hasanain to secure a spot in the featherweights semi-finals, while Malik Basahel beat India’s Harsh Pandya in the men’s flyweight amateur showcase bout.

#4- China’s Wang Chuqin and Chen Meng were crowned champions of the Kingdom’s first-ever professional table tennis event Saudi Smash. The world number won 4-2 against Germany’s Patrick Franziska. Meng beat women’s number one Sun Yingsha with a 4-2 victory.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

IN BUSINESS- The United States is about to slap a tariff of up to 100% on Chinese electric vehicles in a bid to protect its domestic EV industry from subsidized competition. The Biden administration will announce the move on Tuesday, the Financial Times reports this morning.

“All we do is complain while China advances,” writes Kevin Williams in Inside EVs after a trip to Beijing. Read: I went to China and drove a dozen electric cars. Western automakers are cooked. Need more background on what’s going on in the global EV market? Check out last Thursday’s Big Story Abroad here.

IN WAR- An isolated and defiant Israel has ordered more Palestinians to flee Rafah as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “stand alone” and push ahead with a full assault on the city. “The UN estimates that about 150k people have already fled Rafah since Israel sent ground troops to the eastern edge of the city on Monday and seized the border crossing with Egypt,” the Financial Times reports.

AND- UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed swatted away Israeli claims that the UAE would be part of a post-conflict administration for Gaza, writing late Saturday night in a post on X that Netanyahu “does not have any legal capacity to take this step. The UAE refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for Israel’s presence in the Gaza Strip.”

IN TECH- OpenAI isn’t launching ChatGPT-5 or search engine, but will unveil on Monday “some new stuff we think people will love. Feels like magic to me,” CEO Sam Altman wrote on X. Reuters had earlier reported the AI company was launching a search engine to rival Google.

Google, meanwhile, will kick off its Google I/O conference tomorrow morning. Expect plenty of talk about (not around — about) AI.

AND- Apple is still in talks with OpenAI and Google to put their chatbots on the iPhone, Bloomberg reports.

KUWAIT DISSOLVES PARLIAMENT-

Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber, the emir of Kuwait, has dissolved parliament and suspended for up to four years some articles of the constitution, saying in a televised address that the moves were necessary to root out corruption. “The unhealthy atmosphere experienced by Kuwait in previous years has encouraged the spread of corruption to reach most state facilities, and unfortunately it reached the security and economic institutions,” he said.

Go deeper: Kuwait’s state news agency Al Anba has more of Sheikh Meshal’s remarks. The story is getting ink from the Financial Times and Bloomberg.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The MENA Construction Summit will kick off next Tuesday, 14 May at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences. Also organized by Meed, the one-day event will bring together developers, contractors, key executives and others to discuss the latest innovations in the construction industry.

Red Sea Fashion Week will make its debut on Thursday, 16 May 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.

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.

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