THIS MORNING: SpaceX hype drives KHC shares to 10-year high

Good morning, friends. The local listing pipeline is roaring back to life this morning, as infrastructure contractor Mutlaq Al Ghowairi kicks off institutional bookbuilding for a potential SAR 3 bn Tadawul listing. It’s the Gulf's first heavyweight IPO test since the conflict erupted, arriving alongside residential real estate developer MSGA’s planned float on Nomu as local equity demand breaks the post-war ice.

ALSO- The Kingdom’s multi-bn-USD football project is officially entering its next corporate era following the PIF's landmark stake sell-down of Al Hilal to Kingdom Holding. We sat down with Deloitte to unpack how the Saudi Pro League is shifting away from state checkbooks and toward sustainable, commercial balance sheets.

Watch this space

MARKET WATCH — SpaceX fever has sent Kingdom Holding shares to a 10-year high. Kingdom Holding Company’s (KHC) share price jumped almost 10% on Sunday to close at 13.58, its strongest level in roughly a decade, as investors piled in ahead of the long-awaited listing of SpaceX. KHC is up some 54% so far this year, outperforming the wider TASI index, which gained 5.6% YTD.

The catalyst: Kingdom Holding disclosed to the Arabic press last week that it holds a combined 0.63% stake in Elon Musk’s rocket company, owned together with Alwaleed’s private office. That slice is worth some USD 8.32 bn at a USD 1.25 tn valuation, and could climb to roughly USD 10.6 bn if SpaceX prices at USD 1.75 tn.

The IPO is almost here: SpaceX filed to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, targeting a raise of up to USD 75 bn at a valuation north of USD 2 tn, Bloomberg reports. Marketing is expected to kick off on 4 June, with pricing as soon as 11 June.

FROM THE RUMOR MILL — Consultancy contracts and payments halted? The government reportedly paused approvals for new consultancy contracts and delayed some payments to Western advisory firms, unnamed consultancy executives told the Financial Times. Ministries and government buyers were instructed not to issue new awards without special Finance Ministry approval, while some invoice payments were pushed back until at least July, the sources said.

Behind the decision: The pause aims to contain a widening fiscal deficit and the fallout from the US-Iran conflict, according to the sources. The deficit widened to SAR 125.7 bn in 1Q, its highest quarterly level since 2018.

The Finance Ministry disputed these claims, stating to the salmon-colored paper that 99.5% of invoices were settled within their agreed-upon timelines in 2026. The size of the present deficit is due to a liquidity lag and government spending being directed towards containing the war’s impact, the ministry said, emphasizing oil revenue already exceeded estimates for 1Q.

CYBERSECURITY — BinDawood the latest target of cyber attacks: Retail conglomerate BinDawood Holding saw a “limited data breach” that affected customer data history on its superstores’ e-commerce application, according to a Tadawul disclosure.

What we know: The company says it has since patched the security loophole and brought in a government-approved cybersecurity firm to investigate. BinDawood did not disclose details about how the breach happened and who is responsible, though it clarified the breach did not include customer or company financial and banking data.

Cybersecurity concerns are now on everyone’s minds. Civilian digital infrastructure is increasingly becoming a frontline security issue in an era where digital networks facilitate vital services ranging from retail and telecommunications to banking.

Earning well is not the same as investing well — and for most mid-level executives and entrepreneurs, the gap between the two is wider than they’d like to admit. The financial landscape has shifted. Regional markets are opening up, AI is rewriting how portfolios get managed, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are entering the conversation.

And the questions that used to feel straightforward — buy or rent, fund the startup or play it safe, finance the car now or wait it out — are harder to answer than ever.

In Issue 2 of EnterpriseAM Money Matters, we get into the decisions that don’t have easy answers, because at this stage, playing it safe is the riskiest move you can make.

Tap or click here to subscribe to the Egypt edition, delivered to your inbox Wednesday, June 3.

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The big story abroad

The US-Iran diplomatic stalemate persists, despite both sides spending the weekend exchanging revisions to a draft pact that would keep a ceasefire in place. Regime-affiliated Iranian media has indicated that Washington and Tehran may wind up scrapping the potential resolution and that no definite result has been reached.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street: US investors seem unconvinced that an AI bubble is about to burst, wagering heavily on AI-related equities they believe still have untapped potential. The optimism is fueled by expected AI advances and big-ticket pledges on chips and data centers — investments expected to boost tech companies’ bottom lines.

And in business news: Berkshire Hathaway has made a USD 6.8 bn housing play, agreeing to acquire US homebuilder Taylor Morrison, marking the first multi-USD-bn acquisition under the helm of newly minted CEO Greg Abel. The move deepens the firm’s housing portfolio and puts it on its way to “unify [its] site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform,” Abel said.

And in the tech world: Dell has premiered the XPS 13, its new low-cost offering whose prices start at USD 699. It is expected to butt heads with Apple’s MacBook Neo, another laptop marketed for its affordability.