Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Moody’s came to Riyadh this week with a number for the next five years of PIF spending that lands roughly where the last five did, and a view that the sequencing of the giga-projects is what changes. The agency’s read on which developments sit comfortably and which depend on financing and execution, Neom included, leads this morning’s news well.
The sorting principle is how soon a project earns its keep. The sectors Moody’s flags as priorities — tourism, housing, mining, manufacturing, logistics, AI and digital infrastructure — are the ones that bring in revenue on something shorter than a decade, and the assets closest to finishing are the ones best placed to fund what comes after them.
That reordering is arriving at the same time as a wider financing mix. Saudi Arabia is now the Gulf’s largest source of private credit demand, in a regional market that is still tiny against the global total, and banks that lent heavily for several years have turned choosier. Where that leaves SMEs, whose share of bank lending sits well below the national target, is the part worth reading closely.
Shaking things up
Saudi Arabia will open the Future Investment Initiative (FII) to remote attendance, turning its flagship conference into a hybrid event so executives can take part without flying to Riyadh, Reuters reports, citing people it says are familiar with the planning. A crowd in the room is still expected for the 26-29 October gathering. One source said some delegates may fly into airstrips outside Riyadh, or into neighboring Gulf states, then drive to the capital.
REMEMBER- The workaround follows strikes on King Khalid International Airport, after which FII organizers had maintained the 26-29 October summit would proceed with “comprehensive security measures.” Few executives want to skip an event of FII’s stature, so firms are “deferring decision-making” to the last possible moment, Phil Miles, associate managing director at risk advisory Kroll, told the Financial Times. One senior banker expected a thinner foreign turnout and welcomed it, saying it’s “great for us! Less competition for face time.”
The pressure extends to the sports calendar: The Asian Tour said it is monitoring the security situation, with its season-closer, the PIF Saudi International, due at Riyadh Golf Club from 18 to 21 November, Reuters reports. The tour is in talks with partner Golf Saudi and will announce any schedule changes once it settles on a course of action.
The bigger test comes early next year, when the Kingdom hosts its first Asian Cup from 7 January to 5 February 2027, across eight venues, five of them in Riyadh. Football Australia said this week that its “experienced security team” is tracking developments, and that risk assessment is standard for every national-team camp.
The events business is counting the cost too. The past two weeks attacks have renewed questions about the resilience of Informa’s regional operation. The UK trade-show group, which partnered with the Kingdom through its Tahaluf joint venture in 2023, postponed 15 events worth USD 175 mn in revenue when the Iran war began, CEO Stephen Carter told the Financial Times. Those events had been coming back before the latest attacks.
Strained defenses
The Houthis have told shipping companies, workers, and civilians to clear Saudi airports and oil facilities, saying they will keep striking both in the coming days. The group claimed responsibility for recent attacks on Aramco’s Ras Tanura refinery and Dhahran facilities and King Khalid International Airport.
The coalition intercepted a cruise missile over Al Kharj Governorate and a ballistic missile launched at Riyadh. The Houthis also said that the Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on a state oil company facility in the Ras Isa port area of Hodeida, killing two people and wounding two others. Intercepting everything isn’t realistic, however, analysts tell the Independent, given the size of the Kingdom and the number of interceptors available. Former US ambassador Michael Ratney said Riyadh had assumed civilian targets such as airports were off-limits, and now has to respond without triggering a spiral.
Riyadh is seeking out wider regional support: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi, in the first visit by a foreign leader to the Saudi capital since the Houthi strikes on King Khalid International Airport, SPA reported. The visit comes after Egypt said it will back Saudi Arabia “without any reservation” as Riyadh taps regional allies, including the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, and others.
MEANWHILE- US President Donald Trump accused the Houthis of “purposefully trying to drive up oil prices” at Iran’s orders ahead of the midterm elections, saying, “I’ll be there after the Elections, and I will never forget.”
The China feed
Aramco’s China mega-refinery takes its first Saudi crude: Saudi Aramco and its Chinese partners have received the first Arabian crude shipment at their Hapco refining and petrochemical complex in Liaoning province, and commercial operations could begin in 1Q 2027, Bloomberg reports. The cargo arrived aboard the Kassab after loading at Saudi Juaymah port. The complex pairs a 300k bbl/d refinery with a capacity of around 1.6 mn tons of ethylene and 2 mn tons of paraxylene annually.
Aramco will supply most of the crude the refinery runs: The firm holds a 30% stake in Hapco alongside North Huajin (51%) and Panjin Xincheng (19%), and has the right to supply up to 210k bbl / d of crude to the complex.
Why this matters: The new capacity could help ease regional shortages of key inputs used in plastics, packaging, and polyester production, after the war disrupted Gulf petrochemical and naphtha exports. Before the conflict, naphtha shipments through Hormuz met 60-70% of Asia’s import requirements, according to S&P Global. Hapco’s paraxylene output could be particularly useful for China, which imported 9.6 mn tons of chemicals last year despite expanding domestic production.
Shale spending
US oilfield services firm National Energy Services Reunited (Nesr) plans to spend USD 1 bn on equipment over five years as it expands in Saudi Arabia, which accounts for more than half of its global business, CEO Sherif Foda told Asharq Business. Its biggest job in the Kingdom is Aramco’s Jafurah unconventional gas field, where it supplies hydraulic fracturing equipment and services. Foda puts Nesr’s Jafurah work at USD 3-8 bn over five years, on top of the equipment spending.
Foda’s benchmark for Jafurah is the US Permian Basin. Nesr aims to develop unconventional resources as efficiently as US operators or better, he said, adding that gas and condensate economics at Jafurah already match or beat the Permian’s — a point the US basin took around two decades to reach.
REMEMBER- Jafurah began production late last year and is the largest individual shale gas field outside North America. Aramco is investing more than USD 100 bn into the field over 15 years and is targeting 2 bn cubic feet of gas a day by 2030. That gas will let the Kingdom burn less oil in its power plants and export the crude it freesup, under the Liquid Fuel Displacement Program.
Nesr’s work with Aramco now reaches beyond gas into lithium. The two are developing a demonstration plant to produce 2k tons a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, using direct extraction technology to recover lithium from brine. Nesr announced the five-year, USD 200 mn agreement earlier this month, with production targeted for late next year.
Data point
SAR 960 bn — that’s the value of M&A agreements in Saudi Arabia in 3Q 2026, as the number of applications rose 7% y-o-y, Talal Al Huqail, Director of M&A at the General Authority for Competition, told Al Arabiya. Foreign companies accounted for 81% of approved applications, led by US firms (27%), followed by German firms (10%) and British firms (5.5%).
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The big story abroad
Two Singapore-registered container vessels were struck by “unknown projectiles” while crossing the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, according to a statement (pdf) by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. One of the vessels caught fire and sank, while the other, struck separately, sustained hull damage. No injuries were reported in either incident.
Anthropic’s 3Q revenue jumped 45% q-o-q to USD 16.8 bn, and the company was profitable on an adjusted basis, according to an investor who attended a pre-IPO meeting with its leadership, Reuters reports. Revenue came in at USD 4.7 bn in 1Q and USD 11.6 bn in 2Q, the source said, as Anthropic courts prospective investors ahead of its highly anticipated IPO.
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