Industry Mars Rover tech digs into Saudi mineral potential A mining and natural resources company is deploying technology based on Nasa’s Mars Rover in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom ramps up its mineral wealth potential. Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) unveiled its Nomad robot at the Future Mineral Forum in Riyadh on Wednesday. It said the technology will “change early-exploration efforts as we know them”. […] January 10, 2024
Finance Ramadan likely for delayed Saudi civil code Saudi Arabia’s much-anticipated new civil code has yet to come into effect, with industry figures estimating the deadline for implementation has shifted to the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan in March. The regulations were published last June ahead of a planned cabinet decree that would formalise them as legal practice by the end […] January 9, 2024
ANALYSIS Economy From sports to oil cuts: Saudi Arabia’s year in review As the curtain comes down on 2023 and Saudi Arabia moves closer to its Vision 2030 deadline, AGBI looks back at the highlights and notable events of the past twelve months in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia wins hosting rights for major events Saudi Arabia’s drive to draw global attention to its development efforts scored important […] January 1, 2024
Media & Advertising Coming to a movie theatre near you … AlUla It would make the perfect setting for Star Wars or Indiana Jones, but AlUla is developing production facilities that will expand its reach beyond sci-fi and desert adventure movies, making it one of the region’s prime locations for international shoots. The tourist location in northwest Saudi Arabia is fast developing into a mini-city with an […] December 24, 2023
Markets MBC raises $390m with oversubscribed IPO Saudi media company MBC Group’s IPO on the Saudi stock exchange was 17.6 times oversubscribed, raising SAR1.46 billion ($390 million). A minimum of nine shares were allocated to each subscriber and the remaining shares were distributed pro rata, according to a statement on stock market website Tadawul by lead manager and advisor HSBC Saudi Arabia, […] December 22, 2023
Construction The Avenues – Khobar to be built by Kuwait developer Kuwaiti developer Shomoul Holding this week launched a retail and residential project in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar worth SAR7.2 billion ($1.92 billion), securing a SAR4.35 billion loan for the first stage of construction. The government’s Tourism Development Fund, set up in 2020, provided the loan along with a consortium led by National Arab […] December 22, 2023
Construction Developer Jabal Omar plans debt-to-capital conversion Jabal Omar Development Company, one of the largest companies on the Saudi stock exchange, said this week it will settle around SAR547.5 million ($146 million) in debt owed to two companies by converting it into shares in a formal capital increase. The real estate developer builds and manages property in the pilgrimage city of Mecca. […] December 21, 2023
Tourism Saudi Arabia tourist numbers more than double Saudi Arabia had 14.6 million tourists during the first six months of 2023, more than twice the amount in the previous year, and their spending more than doubled to SAR87 billion ($23.2 billion), the ministry of tourism said this week. Tourism has become an important part of Saudi Arabia’s economic reform plans to diversify away […] December 21, 2023
Finance Payment app Foodics to launch first Saudi fintech IPO Foodics, the cloud-based restaurant management and payment business, is to be the first Saudi fintech to list on the Saudi stock exchange in an IPO next year. “We haven’t decided exactly when but we plan to do an initial public offering during the next year,” Foodics’s general manager, Kamal Mirghalani, told Saudi-owned TV channel Asharq […] December 20, 2023
People & Lifestyle Opera hits the high notes as Saudi’s latest cultural attraction Anyone for opera? There was a time when the last place you would expect a serious answer to this question would have been Riyadh. But after Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s landmark performance in Alula last year, the sky’s the limit for musical tastes of all types as Saudi Arabia strives to develop a cultural profile […] December 18, 2023
People & Lifestyle Saudi art blooms with the kingdom’s transformation The arts have undergone profound changes in Saudi Arabia over the past decade as the country has enacted wide-ranging reforms, according to a leading Saudi artist. Once silenced by religious forces and a conservative culture, female artists in particular have come to the fore through a raft of government and private sector initiatives to encourage […] December 18, 2023
Retail Sama issues regulations for growing BNPL sector The Saudi Central Bank (Sama) has issued new rules covering the rapidly expanding buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) retail sector, which analysts predict will double in size to $2.7 billion in annual transactions by 2028. Sama said it was issuing the regulations to ensure sustainable growth, transparency and consumer rights in the BNPL market, as part of […] December 18, 2023
People & Lifestyle Gwyneth Paltrow slides door on films to focus on Goop Gwyneth Paltrow has all but closed the door on her acting career, giving her more time to focus on her wellness brand Goop and to explore new countries such as Saudi Arabia, the Oscar winner told an audience at the Red Sea International Film Festival. “For the foreseeable future I’m at Goop. I have a […] December 18, 2023
Economy Saudi mortgage lending rises despite GDP slowdown Saudi banks’ mortgage lending to individuals and businesses rose in the third quarter, up 13 percent on 2022, despite a slowdown caused by lower oil prices and oil output cuts. A bulletin released this week by the central bank reported loans of SAR591.7 billion ($158 billion) to individuals and SAR155.5 billion to companies in Q3. […] December 18, 2023
Media & Advertising In the streaming age, the TV stays on after Ramadan YouTube creators and streaming services are changing the face of television all over the world – but particularly in Arab countries, according to executives who attended the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah this month. The entertainment industry in the Middle East traditionally focused on the fasting month, when TV shows could find a captive […] December 18, 2023
Tech Saudi Arabia ‘leads in luring venture capital to tech’ Saudi Arabia has become a regional centre for venture capital in the tech sector, a government minister told a technology conference in Riyadh this week. “The kingdom has become part of the fabric of the global digital economy,” Mohammed Alrobayan, deputy minister of communications and IT, told the techXpand forum. “Testament to this is the […] December 18, 2023
Video length: 05:22 Construction Norwegian architects to help bring opera to Saudi masses Norwegian architects Snøhetta have unveiled the design for an opera house to be built in Riyadh by 2028 as part of Saudi Arabia’s drive to make a once forbidding capital city a global cultural destination. Video representations of the Royal Diriyah Opera House were shown last week at a ceremony in the historical Diriyah district […] December 18, 2023
Giga-projects Diriyah giga-project promises Beverly Hills in Riyadh Saudi Arabia plans to make its Diriyah heritage district the “Beverly Hills of Riyadh” by 2028 in time for the World Expo 2030 to be held in the city, the giga-project’s CEO said this week. Jerry Inzerillo, head of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, said these plans include the construction of a 1.9km road like […] December 18, 2023
Media & Advertising Modern Saudi gets its close-up at Jeddah film festival The new Saudi Arabia seen on screen at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah is barely recognisable from the country where religious mores prevented the mingling of unrelated men and women, and suspicions of foreigners cast a long shadow. Among the stories being told at this month’s festival are those of a young […] December 18, 2023
Tourism Golf course emerges from the desert at Diriyah giga-project Saudi Arabia is developing a luxury golf and equestrian resort outside Riyadh as part of the Diriyah giga-project, with three major hotel brands announcing this week that they were taking part. Aman, Oberoi and Six Senses are the first hotels to start construction in the mountainous rocky land on the edge of the desert west […] December 14, 2023
Analysis Construction Locals bemused by Jeddah’s planned transformation Amid a vast area of empty land in north Jeddah’s Obhur district, a lone unfinished tower stands out on the horizon with motionless yellow cranes around its edges – a stalled sign of the transformation of Saudi Arabia’s second city. Now work on the tower – possibly the tallest in the world upon completion – […] December 11, 2023
Tech No need to fear AI, says Indian music legend New technologies such as artificial intelligence should be embraced, famed Indian composer A.R. Rahman said at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah this week. “It’s not new… human beings are constantly evolving, they will rise up to something that they can do.” AI has become something of a bogeyman in people’s minds, but […] December 8, 2023
