A SAR 1.6 bn vote for Jeddah Port

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Saudi and Egypt near commercial start on their 3 GW electricity link

Good morning, wonderful people. Saudi Arabia’s merchandise trade surplus contracted 10% y-o-y in June as both oil and merchandise exports fell, marking the first decline since February. Meanwhile, Aramco expects its upcoming mining joint venture with Maaden to accelerate copper exploration by combining 90 years of subsurface data with AI and high-performance computing. Let’s dive in.

Destination Sahel Issue IV, the final issue in the series, drops this week, and we’re exploring how Egypt’s North Coast could become more than a summer story.

Living in Sahel year-round is moving from a seasonal idea to a serious question; an industrial push is reshaping the Coast’s economic base, and Egyptian homebuyers are weighing Sahel against Dubai, London, and other Mediterranean markets for where to put their money.

In this issue, we get into what it would take for Sahel to work beyond the summer, how industry fits into the Coast’s next chapter, and the numbers behind the Sahel-vs-everywhere debate.

Click here to subscribe to the Egypt edition, coming straight to your inbox today.

Power bridge, almost ready

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are in the final stages of technical and operational trials on their 3-GW electricity interconnection, with the results of precision voltage, frequency, and other technical measurements set to determine the timing of commercial operation, a government official tells EnterpriseAM.

Pre-operation trials are expected to conclude by the end of August, the official says. Coordination meetings between the two sides are underway, following an easing in regional tensions, to verify compliance with technical standards and confirm that the Phase 2 works have left both grids ready for operation, the source said. A government document seen by EnterpriseAM says that Phase 2 was completed in 1Q 2026. Full-capacity operation would allow the two grids to exchange up to 3 GW of power, in line with their differing peak-demand timings. Full operation is expected in September, according to an unnamed government official.

The project: The USD 1.8 bn project, first floated in 2012, runs on 500-kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology, built for moving large amounts of power over long distances with minimal losses. It links Egypt’s Badr converter station to Saudi Arabia’s East Madinah and Tabuk stations via roughly 1.4k km of overhead lines and subsea cables crossing the Gulf of Aqaba.

Looking for int’l partners: Saudi Arabia is launching a separate tender for an international consultant to oversee the cable’s maintenance, the Arabic press reports, citing an unnamed official. Egypt is reportedly preparing a tender to select an international firm to ensure the subsea electricity cable is secure.

BACKGROUND- We first flagged this project in 2021, when it was moving forward with signed EPC contracts and the full link was slated for 2025. Since then, the launch date has slipped repeatedly: PM Madbouly targeted April 2026 during his site visit in October, and Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat said in February it would take place “within the coming weeks” — and as we noted two weeks ago, it had slipped again to the end of 2026.

Makkah pact courts fourth member

Bangladesh could join the Makkah mutual defense pact that Saudi Arabia signed with Turkey and Pakistan this month, and it is viewing the prospect “positively,” Reuters reports, citing comments by junior Foreign Minister Humayun Kabir. An unnamed Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry source confirmed to the newswire that Saudi Arabia has invited Dhaka to join.

REMEMBER- The framework, signed in Makkah and modeled on NATO’s collective-defense principle, commits its three Sunni-majority members to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all. It would bind together a nuclear-armed state (Pakistan), NATO’s second-largest army (Turkey), and the world’s top oil exporter (Saudi Arabia). Turkey has said the agreement is open to expansion.

Armah Sports nears Nomu graduation

Armah Sports will move to Tadawul’s main market on Sunday, 30 August, completing its transfer from the Nomu Parallel Market, the company said in a Tadawul announcement. The stock will trade under a 10% daily price fluctuation limit. The exchange approved the transfer earlier in the month.

Atomic red tape

Civil nuclear cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the US is moving forward, with President Donald Trump submitting an accord to Congress for review, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing an unnamed government official. Trump reportedly maintained his last-minute condition requiring Riyadh to normalize relations with Israel.

Catch up quick: Riyadh and Washington signed the 30-year agreement last month, ostensibly paving the Kingdom's way to enriching uranium on its soil — despite Trump later signaling that there would be no enrichment. The agreement faces a mandatory 90-day congressional review period, opening a window for skeptical lawmakers to try to block it.

Happening next week

The fifth edition of LEAP will kick off in Riyadh next Monday and run through Thursday (3 September) at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center, Requad AI’s CEO Abdullah Al Jaafari told Wamda. Expectations for this year’s version are to focus on further data center, cloud, and chip investments, as well as updates from Humain.

Agentic AI and Arabic-first technology are expected to make a strong appearance. Governments and companies in Saudi Arabia and the wider region are increasingly looking for Arabic-first products rather than English-language technology merely adapted for Arabic-speaking users.

Talent as a key constraint will also be a main topic of discussion, with Saudi Arabia aiming to train more than 20k data and AI specialists by 2030. Meanwhile, AI-supported software development is lowering the barrier to building products, potentially allowing more people with industry expertise to become first-time builders while experienced engineers remain essential for developing reliable products.

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The big story abroad

Taking top billing today are Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on US goods, featuring levies of up to 50% on USD 20 bn worth of imports from its southern neighbor. Effective 8 September, the tariffs target steel, dairy, and agricultural equipment and match Washington’s rates on Canadian goods.

In other geopolitical news: The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been dissolved as their fighters integrate into the Syrian military, the group’s leader Mazloum Abdi said. With US backing, the group helped combat the Islamic State and previously controlled parts of the country. The move signals a key breakthrough in President Ahmed Al Sharaa’s efforts to unite Syria’s factions.

Meanwhile, in the tech world: SpaceX aims to build a USD 100 bn spaceport in Louisiana, spanning 125k acres and marking the company’s second private launch site. SpaceX plans to begin building the base next year, targeting its initial rocket launches for 2029.

Speaking of tech, Anthropic is expected to inform investors that its total addressable market exceeds USD 30 tn, surpassing the USD 28.5 tn projection set by Elon Musk’s rocketmaker. The startup’s figure accounts for the full scope of its work that could be accomplished by AI models, and calculates the gains available if a product or service achieves 100% market share.

Trade surplus falls 10% in June as oil exports slip

The merchandise trade surplus fell 10% y-o-y in June, due to a drop in both oil and merchandise exports, coming off a 328.8% surge in May and marking the first decline since February, according to data (pdf) from the General Authority for Statistics. Total merchandise exports declined 4.5% y-o-y, while imports slid 3%.

Oil couldn’t cushion the fall this time: Oil exports declined 2.3% y-o-y, ending this year’s run of increases and recording the first drop since January. Because non-oil exports fell faster, oil’s share of total exports still edged up to 72% from 70.4% a year earlier.

Non-oil exports, including re-exports, fell 9.7% y-o-y during the month. Re-exports fell 6.7%, dragged by a 41.7% decline in machinery and electrical equipment re-exports, which made up 36.1% of the total. The ratio of non-oil exports to imports slipped to 34.9%, compared to 37.5% in June 2025.

OUR TAKE- The June contraction is the war showing up in the trade data with a lag. May’s surplus was inflated by Brent above USD 100 and a scramble to move crude before the disruptions bit. By June, rerouting exports through Yanbu and other Red Sea ports had raised transit, freight, and war-risk costs. Oil exports fell despite high prices, with logistics — not demand — as the main constraint. The 41.7% drop in machinery re-exports reinforces that disruption, since re-export trade depends on goods moving smoothly.

Plastics, rubber, and their articles were the largest non-oil export category, accounting for 20.7% of total non-oil exports, though the segment fell 12.8% y-o-y. Chemical products and allied industries followed at 19.2%, down 30.4% y-o-y.

On the import side, machinery and electrical equipment held the top position at 25.7% of total imports, down 20.4% y-o-y. Chemical products and allied industries followed at 11.2%, rising 30.5% y-o-y — the one major import line to grow during the month.

Who were our top trading partners? Japan was Saudi Arabia’s top export destination in June 2026, taking 13.2% of the Kingdom’s merchandise exports, followed by South Korea (11.5%) and China (9.4%). China led import sources at 22%, ahead of Switzerland (8.4%) and the US (8.3%).

Aramco is betting 90 years of data can unlock Saudi’s copper potential

Aramco expects its planned mining joint venture with Maaden to speed up the hunt for copper, the company tells EnterpriseAM on the tie-up earlier this month, when the two signed a shareholders’ agreement. The JV is still in formation, but Aramco says pairing its subsurface data with AI and high-performance computing to target the most promising ground for copper and valuable minerals would “accelerate the path to discovery.”

The pitch rests on what each side brings: Aramco says it holds one of the world’s largest geological and geophysical datasets for a single basin, built over 90 years of exploration, while Maaden supplies the mining expertise. Running that data through AI and advanced computing is meant to narrow the search faster and cheaper than conventional exploration, which matters across a target zone spanning roughly 10% of the Kingdom’s landmass.

Why it matters: Copper is the prize. The metal is critical to power grids, renewables, storage, and EVs, and domestic supply would feed the downstream industries Saudi Arabia wants to build.

But it will take time: A typical deposit takes around 16 years from discovery to production, so the JV’s real test is how much capital Aramco and Maaden commit to it, a figure neither company has disclosed.

IN CONTEXT- The Kingdom has raised its estimate of the value of its mineral resources to around SAR 9.4 tn, up from SAR 5.2 tn when it launched its mining strategy. S&P Global Energy had told us it saw a rapid rise in Saudi exploration spending over the past two years, from USD 54 mn in 2023, primarily on gold and copper, to USD 236 mn in 2025.

SRC raises USD 2.75 bn in a record GCC sukuk, Raff closes a USD 1.7 mn pre-seed

SRC raises USD 2.75 bn in a record GCC USD sukuk

Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) raised USD 2.75 bn through a dual-tranche international Sukuk, attracting USD 18.7 bn in orders, or 6.8x the offering, according to a statement from Bahrain-based Al Salam Bank, the joint lead manager and bookrunner for the move. The issuance is the largest international USD-denominated GCC Sukuk of 2026.

REMEMBER- The USD 1.25 bn 5.5-year tranche priced at T+85 bps, while the USD 1.5 bn 10-year tranche priced at T+95 bps. Strong demand allowed SRC to tighten pricing from initial guidance of more than T+115 bps for the 5.5-year tranche and T+125 bps for the 10-year tranche. The issuance carries government assurance.

Background: The PIF-owned mortgage refinancing company last accessed international markets with a USD 2 bn Sukuk in 2025, which was also around 6x oversubscribed. SRC has been buying mortgage portfolios from local banks to recycle capital into new home lending and aims to raise up to SAR 150 bn through international Sukuk by 2030.

Raff closes USD 1.7 mn pre-seed

Riyadh-based retail-tech platform Raff raised USD 1.7 mn in a pre-seed funding round, according to a press release (pdf). The round was led by Vision Ventures, with 500 Global, Palm VC, Oqal Group, and Salla co-founder Salman Butt also taking part.

Where will the money go? Raff will use the funding to expand across the GCC and build out its product and AI capabilities, with the aim of making it easier for consumer brands to manage distribution and move into physical retail.

About the company: Founded in 2024 by Ali Al Qudah (LinkedIn) and Abdul Kareem Munla, the Riyadh-based platform connects consumer brands with retailers, handling distribution, inventory, order fulfillment, and payments in one digital place.

Abu Dhabi just took a third of a USD 24 bn LNG project 5k km from home

Abu Dhabi-backed Argentinian LNG project gets bumper financing package: JPMorgan and Banco Santander are leading a USD 14-15 bn financing package for Argentina LNG, a project in which Abu Dhabi’s XRG — Adnoc’s international investment arm — took a roughly one-third equity stake in June, Bloomberg reported Monday. A final investment decision is targeted for late November.

That makes it one of the largest project-finance packages assembled for a Latin American energy venture — and Abu Dhabi’s involvement is likely playing a role. Syndicates rarely commit at that scale to a single EM LNG venture without a credible anchor equity partner absorbing early-stage risk — and XRG’s one-third stake is the most obvious candidate for that role here.

About the project: The USD 24 bn project, set to become one of the world’s largest floating LNG facilities, will liquefy and export Argentine shale gas to Asian markets, with state-run YPF in the lead with a 36% stake, and Eni holding the final third stake.

The Asian offtake positioning is the signal. Japanese banks are structural players in the financing round, not by accident. XRG serves as the gateway to Asian markets that Argentine LNG needs to reach — the natural destination given the distance and logistics disadvantage against US Gulf Coast supply. The 12 mn tonnes per year of contracted capacity is being positioned to serve the same Japanese, Korean, and increasingly Chinese customers that historically anchored the Qatari LNG book. Abu Dhabi is buying optionality on the geography of the next decade of Asian gas demand.

The financing itself carries a signal about global project finance in the Warsh Fed environment. USD 15 bn of syndicated debt for an EM LNG venture is being arranged at a moment when the 30-year US Treasury sits near 19-year highs, when EM sovereign eurobond windows are effectively shut for distressed borrowers, and when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s fiscal intervention was rejected by the market inside 48 hours. The message: physical infrastructure with contracted Asian offtake and Gulf sovereign equity anchoring gets financed. Sovereign paper without those anchors does not.

That’s what makes the GCC angle worth re-underlining here. XRG isn’t a passive LP in someone else’s project — it is a co-anchor of a USD 24 bn asset explicitly designed to serve Asia, sitting outside the Middle East risk premium that has driven Qatari and Emirati LNG pricing for the past six months. The Aramco chokepoint premium reported in May argued that redundant infrastructure inside the region got repriced upward on Hormuz war risk. Argentina LNG is the same logic run outward. Gulf sovereign capital is now underwriting physical LNG capacity that hedges Gulf sovereign supply.

The precedent matters for what comes next in Gulf sovereign capital deployment. PIF’s 1Q pivot to four US-listed positions and its cut of international allocations from 30% to 20% were widely read as a defensive retreat. XRG’s Argentina LNG positioning suggests something different is happening in parallel: Gulf sovereign capital is not reducing international deployment overall, it is reallocating from US mega-cap equities toward physical infrastructure with strategic value that can be operated for decades.

Bottom line: Read this financing story as the clearest single data point in 2026 that Abu Dhabi’s sovereign capital is executing a strategy to be the counterparty of choice for global LNG buildouts that hedge against Middle East supply risk — including its own. The next question is who follows XRG into similar deals, and how quickly.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are mixed in early trading, with Japan’s Nikkei down 0.4% loss and South Korea’s Kospi remaining flat amid uncertainty over the US-Iran war and its economic fallout.

TASI	11,232	+0.5% (YTD: +7.1%)
MSCI Tadawul 30	1,513	+0.5% (YTD: +9.1%)
NomuC	21,622	-0.1% (YTD: -7.2%)
USD : SAR (SAMA)	USD 3.75 Sell	USD 3.75 Buy
Interest rates	4.25% repo	3.75% reverse repo
EGX30	55,277	+0.2% (YTD: +32.2%)
ADX	10,070	+0.2% (YTD: +0.8%)
DFM	5,835	-0.5% (YTD: -3.5%)
S&P 500	7,677	+0.3% (YTD: +11.9%)
FTSE 100	10,886	+0.3% (YTD: +9.6%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,456	+0.1% (YTD: +11.4%)
Brent crude	USD 88.58	-3.9%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.79	+0.7%
Gold	USD 4,720	+0.5%
BTC	USD 78,635	-0.2% (YTD: -10.3%)
Sukuk/bond market index	903.74	+0.0% (YTD: -1.7%)
S&P MENA bond & sukuk	150.93	+0.2% (YTD: -0.6%)
VIX (Fear gauge)	15.45	-2.5% (YTD: +3.3%)

THE CLOSING BELL: TADAWUL-

The TASI rose 0.5% yesterday on turnover of SAR 6.1 bn. The index is up 7.1% YTD.

In the green: Al Kathiri Holding (+9.5%), Morabaha Marina Financing (+6.7%), and Saudi Printing and Packaging (+6.7%).

In the red: Saudi Research and Media Group (-3.8%), AFG International (-3.5%), and Al Yamamah Steel Industries (-2.6%).

THE CLOSING BELL: NOMU-

The NomuC fell 7.2% yesterday on turnover of SAR 51.9 mn. The index is down 7.2% YTD.

In the green: Digital Research (+15.1%), Asas Makeen Real Estate Development and Investment (+9.6%), and Arabian Plastic Industrial (+8.6%).

In the red: Bena Steel Industries (-9.5%), Dkhoun National Trading (-9.2%), and Itmam Consultancy (-9.1%).

CALENDAR

AUGUST

30 August-1 September (Sunday-Tuesday): Saudi Paper and Packaging Expo, Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center.

31 August-3 September (Monday-Thursday): Leap Tech Conference, Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Center - Malham.

SEPTEMBER

8-10 September (Tuesday-Thursday): The WTM Spotlight Riyadh, Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center (RFECC), Riyadh.

15-17 September (Tuesday-Thursday) The Global AI Summit, King Abdulaziz International Convention Center, Riyadh.

23 September (Wednesday): Saudi National Day.

28 September-1 October (Monday-Thursday): The International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV), Prince Sultan University, Riyadh.

OCTOBER

25-26 October (Sunday-Monday): The Global Proptech Summit, Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh.

26-28 October (Monday-Wednesday): ACHEMA Middle East, Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center.

26-29 October (Monday-Thursday): The Future Investment Initiative, King Abdulaziz International Conference Center, Riyadh.

28-29 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Procurement and Supply Chain Futures Forum, Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh.

28-29 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Real Estate Supply Chain Forum, Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh.

30 October-1 November (Friday-Sunday): The New Global Sport Conference, Sofitel Hotel & Convention Centre, Riyadh.

NOVEMBER

11-12 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Aluminum Arabia, The Arena, Riyadh.

16-19 November (Monday-Thursday): Cityscape Global, Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre (Malham), Riyadh.

29 November-1 December (Sunday-Tuesday): The UN Trade and Development Global Supply Chain Forum, Riyadh.

29 November-1 December (Sunday-Tuesday): The Global Logistics Forum, King Abdulaziz International Convention Centre, Riyadh.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2026:

2H: Sabic’s USD 6.4 bn Fujian project in China to start production;
November: The Esports Nations Cup, Riyadh;
The World Economic Forum’s Global Collaboration and Growth Meeting, Jeddah;

2027

FEBRUARY

1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): Energy Regulators Regional Association annual conference, Riyadh.

MARCH

21-25 March (Sunday-Thursday):The World Water Forum, Riyadh.

22–24 March (Monday-Wednesday): Capital Markets Forum, Four Seasons Hotel, Riyadh

APRIL

26-29 April (Monday-Thursday): World Energy Congress, Riyadh.

JUNE

1-3 June (Tuesday-Thursday): The Saudi Entertainment and Amusement Expo, Riyadh Front Exhibition and Conference Center.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

The Ocean Race finishes in Amaala on the Red Sea;
Riyadh-Kudmi transmission line to be completed;
Aero Middle East and Sand & Fun takes place in Thumamah Airport, Riyadh.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2Q 2027:

The Hail Region Water Networks Project is expected to be completed.

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