Good morning, friends. Saudi Arabia just changed its own security calculus. The Kingdom, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement on Friday, binding all three to treat an attack on any one as an attack on all — with a mutual-defense clause Reuters describes as technically comparable to NATO's Article 5. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed alongside counterparts Erdogan and Sharif in the holy city. Read that lineup again: NATO’s second-largest army and the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world are now formally bound to the Kingdom's defense. After a summer of absorbing strikes from Yemen and Iraq, Riyadh just answered with the biggest structural move available to it.
Two smaller items to clock underneath that. The Cabinet has extended the deadline for correcting and documenting unregistered real estate transactions — a compliance date, not a headline, but worth knowing if you're holding property that needs paperwork. And 2Q earnings are, unsurprisingly, telling the story of the war in numbers: Savola is the only name we're covering today that grew net income this quarter. Acwa, Kingdom Holding, Aldawaa, and the rest all took a hit, some worse than others.
LIV Golf closing in on new investor
LIV Golf is close to landing an unnamed lead investor after signing a term sheet, seeking to replace the Public Investment Fund’s financing, which is set to end this month, Financial Times reports, citing an announcement by LIV’s CEO Scott O’Neil. The investor is the credit arm of London’s private equity group BC Partners, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
This investor would anchor a new funding round alongside potential minority investors, O’Neil said, with the definitive agreement covering the tour through 2030 potentially being finalized as soon as next month. Meanwhile, the league aims to shift its new structure to focus on having players become the collective majority stake owners, O’Neil added.
The negotiations are complicated by guaranteed player contracts that extend beyond the end of PIF’s funding. Several leading players, including Jon Rahm, are owed potentially hundreds of mns of USD under existing agreements. The sovereign fund is considering settling these obligations at a discount, allowing players to sign new contracts with LIV. Meanwhile, the new investors are seeking assurances that players will not pursue additional claims against the PIF over existing contracts.
The restructuring could also involve a pre-packaged bankruptcy, which would allow LIV to address legacy liabilities through a court process before bringing in new capital. LIV already brought in board members and advisers with bankruptcy expertise following PIF’s decision to pull the funding plug.
PIF already disbursed the funding it committed for 2026, with LIV being responsible for covering any remaining costs of staging tournaments, a source familiar with the fund’s position told the FT. The league is reportedly not certain that PIF will continue to fund it through the rest of the season, and seeks USD 250-350 mn from new investors to support a planned LIV 2.0 strategy.
REMEMBER- The funding uncertainty has already jeopardized the golf league’s schedule, with it being on the verge of cancelling its season-ending Team Championship, despite reports that its Indianapolis event this month is expected to go forward.
ALSO- One less suitor? The PGA Tour, meanwhile, ruled out renewed merger talks with LIV, with the sports entity being solely focused on its own strategy, chief executive Brian Rolapp told Bloomberg. The golf tour responded to LIV’s struggles by revamping its competition structure, increasing player compensation and investing in emerging talent. It also secured sizable funding from Strategic Sports, which committed USD 1.5 bn in 2024, with the investment potentially rising to USD 3 bn.
UK regs wave through Warner Bros. takeover
UK regulators gave the all-clear to Paramount’s PIF-backed USD 110 bn buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a statement (pdf) from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Paramount has offered to turn assurances into “binding commitments” after the UK Culture Secretary flagged concerns that the merger would affect media competition in the UK, according to a UK government correspondence.
The commitments, per the agreement (pdf), include distinct editorial identities across channels and services, no merging of UK streaming platforms (despite Paramount’s separate plan to fold HBO Max into Paramount+), continued editorial independence for Channel 5 as a public service broadcaster, and a firewall between cost-cutting and content commissioning.
BACKGROUND- The merger is facing delays in other jurisdictions. The overall deadline for the merger has been pushed to June 2027 after a federal judge in Oakland approved a delay tied to a lawsuit filed by California and several other states seeking to block the agreement. However, the EU gave it the green light on the condition that Paramount end its distribution tie-up with Universal in Europe within 13 months of closing.
Data point
3.46 bn barrels — that's how much crude oil Saudi Arabia produced in 2025, up 5.6% y-o-y, according to Gastat’s 2025 Oil and Gas Statistics (pdf). Crude oil exports rose 6% to 2.35 bn barrels, while domestic crude consumption fell 6.7% to 155.4 mn barrels. Refined petroleum product output reached 991.5 mn barrels, led by gas diesel oil at 432.2 mn barrels, up 6% y-o-y, followed by gasoline at 242 mn barrels, up 1.6%.
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The big story abroad
Updates from the regional war made the rounds over the weekend. Iran and Oman are “very close” to agreeing on a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, but reopening it hinges on several conditions, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi reportedly said. An agreement requires Washington ending its naval blockade and sanctions, withdrawing regional troops, paying war reparations, and unfreezing Iranian assets, according to Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
More strikes in the strait: The UAE claimed that Tehran attacked a carrier affiliated with its state oil company Adnoc while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. No injuries were reported.
Berkshire Hathaway starts spending: Ending Warren Buffett’s three-year selling streak, Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO Greg Abel invested a net USD 19.8 bn in the stock market during 2Q. Abel is putting the Omaha-based company’s hefty reserves to work, highlighted by a USD 10 bn stake in Alphabet and USD 4.5 bn in stock buybacks.
Switch Inc files for IPO: Las Vegas-based data center developer and operator Switch Inc confidentially filed for a US IPO, penciling in a listing as early as November, capitalizing on demand for AI computing power. The news comes roughly one month after the firm sought to raise USD 2 bn in a private funding round led by VC fund Andreessen Horowitz.
Speaking of IPOs in the AI world: Chinese AI startup Moonshot has restructured its business and onboarded major state-backed investors to secure Beijing’s go-ahead for a Hong Kong IPO, which sources suggest is likely to take place next year. A potential listing may require unwinding the firm’s offshore structure, which had been established to raise funding in USD.


