THIS MORNING: Riyadh, Abu Dhabi could be mending fences

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We’re closing out the month with signals that Saudi Arabia’s fracture with Abu Dhabi is also on its way to being closed out. UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Riyadh yesterday as the Houthis continued to take ground in southern Yemen — the same area Saudi Arabia and the UAE stopped seeing eye-to-eye on nine months ago.

Tellingly, the statements following the visit took note of the “brotherly bilateral relations” between the two countries. The other detail to pay attention to: Sheikh Mansour visited at the invitation of Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman rather than the Foreign Ministry, which is indicative of which file is being repaired first.

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Todd has held a series of senior leadership roles across HSBC, including CEO of Brunei for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, CRO for Asia-Pacific overseeing 11 markets, and COO for Risk across all Asian markets. He also served as head of retail banking and marketing at HSBC Bermuda, and began his career with HSBC in Canada. Prior to HSBC, Todd worked at Royal Bank of Canada across a range of business and functional roles.

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Mending fences, at last?

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi may be looking to put their differences aside to face the regional tensions. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Riyadh yesterday with UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in what was the first public visit to Saudi Arabia by a senior Emirati official since January. The two discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, SPA reports.

Defense was a key part of talks between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi: Al Nahyan met separately with Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and discussed areas of “mutual interest” and boosting cooperation between the two countries, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

The elephant in the room: The talks follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sit-down with Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the UAE on Sunday, where discussions reportedly centered on Iran. Against that backdrop, the renewed Saudi-Emirati engagement could point to closer coordination as regional tensions mount.

The renewed Houthi offensive appears to have accelerated efforts to repair ties, as Riyadh seeks allied support for air defense and to manage the maritime threat. Saudi commentator Ali Shihabi said Prince Khalid’s invitation was “a big gesture” showing greater coordination on Yemen, while noting that the UAE was unlikely to return to the war. Riyadh instead wants Abu Dhabi to manage southern factions and prevent them from weakening the anti-Houthi front.

REMEMBER- The two countries experienced their biggest rift in many years, with disputes over Yemen escalating since December 2025, followed by the UAE’s withdrawal from Opec and reported delays and additional scrutiny on some bank transfers between the two countries. These disagreements made it difficult to arrange a unified GCC response to the regional conflict.

Saudi resumes Yanbu loadings

Saudi Arabia has resumed crude loadings from its Red Sea port of Yanbu, after restarting operations on its East-West pipeline, after being shut earlier this month following drone attacks, Reuters reports, citing trade sources. The Kingdom began loading nearly 10 mn bbl of crude at Yanbu and nearby Al Muajjiz, satellite imagery captured on 27 September showed.

BACKGROUND- Kpler expects a return to the pre-attack flow rate of around 5.5 mn bbl / d to take another month. Yanbu crude inventories rose by around 1 mn bbl on 22 September, the first increase since the attack.

Al Khafji’s lane

The Eastern Province’s hotel supply is stacking up at the top end, and that’s where Al Khafji has to find its lane. The Dammam metro area (Dammam, Dhahran, and Al Khobar) already holds 13.9k hotel keys, with another 8.1k under planning or construction across the wider province — and roughly 63% of that pipeline is luxury or upper-upscale, Knight Frank’s Oussama El Kadiri, who leads the firm’s hospitality, tourism, and leisure advisory, tells us. That concentration at the top leaves room in other segments, he says.

Al Khafji’s planned 1.4k keys would be a meaningful addition to regional supply, El Kadiri says, and the concentration at the top end creates an opening for a more diversified offering that combines leisure, family, and midscale / upscale products. He says the keys should be phased progressively against demonstrated demand, and assess demand for the project’s 16k housing units separately — factoring in permanent residents, workforce needs, and second homes. The keys and housing sit behind PIF’s new Gulf Coast Development Company, which is developing Al Khafji.

PIF trims its women’s golf game

The women’s side of golf hasn’t escaped the PIF axe. The fund is shrinking its women's PIF Global Series into a single tournament next year — the USD 4 mn “Championship” on the Ladies European Tour — down from the five events, with a USD 15 mn pool, it ran in 2026, Reuters reports. Golf Saudi, meanwhile, framed the shake-up as a move that “strengthens” the women's game in the Kingdom and pledged a multi-year tie-up with the tour's Order of Merit.

Part of a wider golf pullback: This trim follows the PIF’s decision to stop bankrolling LIV Golf once the 2026 season ends. LIV has since gone hunting for outside backers to fund its operations for next year, with the league targeting USD 250–350 mn for its next phase.

What's next: The Championship is set for 22-25 July 2027, with the host venue still undecided, and will feature on both the Ladies European Tour and LPGA calendars.

Stick to the plan

Key Opec+ nations are expected to maintain current oil output limits for October during their upcoming weekend meeting, Bloomberg reports, citing two delegates to the bloc. The update matches previous expectations projected for the bloc’s October output decision. The group is expected to delay resuming the additional tranche of output suspended in 2022 until at least year-end.

ICYMI: OPEC+ approved a sixth consecutive quota hike for September of 188k bbl / d, continuing identical quota hikes for August, July, and June.

Mobi Industry goes for Tadawul

Mobi Industrial has applied to graduate to the main market. The fertilizer manufacturer submitted a request to move from the Nomu parallel market to Tadawul’s main market three years after its board first approved the transition in 2023, it said in a Tadwul disclosure.

Data point

SAR 59.5 bn — that’s the Kingdom’s services exports in 2Q 2026, down 16.5% q-o-q, according to Gastat’s latest report (pdf). Services imports, meanwhile, rose 8.4% q-o-q to SAR 120.8 bn.

The drivers: Travel services led exports at 56.8% of the total, or SAR 33.8 bn, with personal travel making up 93.9% of that. Transportation ranked second at 17.6% (SAR 10.5 bn), of which air transport was 39%. On the import side, transportation took the largest share at 28.2% (SAR 34.1 bn), followed by travel at 20.7% (SAR 25 bn).

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The Egyptian government locked in enough LNG and crude to carry the country through peak demand this summer, and the real question now is who pays for it and for the rebuild ahead.

PowerTrip, our new four-part signature series, follows the money behind an energy sector that went from exporting gas to importing it in just five years.

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The big story abroad

Some of the world’s most powerful tech CEOs met US President Donald Trump at the White House, where the executives signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, referring to AI, to adopt safety regulations. The agreement includes internal controls to monitor AI models during training and deployment in critical areas like cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats, along with audits by external parties to conduct assessments. Among the signees are the chiefs of Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, XAI, and Anthropic.

AI safety concerns take their toll: Open AI CEO Sam Altman said that the startup will not go ahead with its public listing until it can confidently guarantee its safety practices. This follows a lawsuit filed against OpenAI by a public interest law group over an incident in which the startup's AI agents allegedly went rogue and “knowingly” accessed tech company Hugging Face despite lacking permission.

Scaling back. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to announce a 20% reduction in general and admiral positions during an address to service members today. The cuts will double the 10% reduction ordered last year and must be completed by the start of next year, officials said.