Mouwasat faces SAR 335.4 mn lawsuit over a disputed hospital stake transfer

Mouwasat Medical Services is facing a SAR 335.4 mn lawsuit over the transfer of a 32.42% stake in Jeddah Doctors Company to Mouwasat, where it already holds 51% of the hospital operator, it said in a Tadawul filing. The suit, filed by Doctors Company for Medical Projects at the Commercial Court in Dammam, seeks to transfer 5.63 mn shares to Mouwasat. The company said no sale agreement has been signed, it is taking legal measures to defend its interests, and the potential financial liability remains undetermined.

Skopje courts Riyadh

North Macedonia plans to open an embassy in Riyadh in early 2027 as it looks to attract Saudi investment and build closer ties with the Kingdom, Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski told Arab News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Dubai. The two countries are looking at opportunities in energy and ICT, with plans to bring their chambers of commerce together to identify potential deals.

Trade between Saudi Arabia and North Macedonia remains modest and heavily skewed toward Saudi imports. The Kingdom imported SAR 32.6 mn worth of goods from the Balkan country in 2025, up 14.1% y-o-y, according to Data Saudi. Saudi exports to North Macedonia, meanwhile, totaled just over SAR 570k.

From berth to border

CEVA Almajdouie is teaming up with Port of Neom to move cargo inland. The logistics venture of CMA CGM and Saudi Arabia’s Almajdouie group has signed an MoU with the Red Sea port at Oxagon to pair its sea terminals with CEVA’s cross-border trucking, bonded warehousing and customs clearance, with the aim of carrying freight from the quay into Saudi Arabia and on to Egypt, the GCC, Iraq and Europe, it said in a statement. It would span containers, RoPax, bulk and heavy-lift project cargo. The agreement is early-stage, with no volumes or value attached.

REMEMBER- An existing Europe-Egypt-Gulf corridor already uses trucking and ferry services to move European cargo through Egypt and Neom into GCC markets. We reported in April that the route was already serving markets including the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and Oman.

Rules for rent-a-boat

The Saudi Red Sea Authority has issued a licensing regime governing who can rent out leisure vessels in the Kingdom’s Red Sea territorial waters — small craft up to 10 tons and 11 metres — requiring owners to put their boats to work through licensed marine-tourism operators or tourist marinas rather thn renting privately, according to Umm AlQura.

How to apply: Operators will apply through the authority’s Rasa platform for 12-month licenses, with trips cleared via Zawl sailing permits and no-objection sign-offs from Neom and Red Sea International where their waters are involved.

The rules take effect 180 days after publication in the Official Gazette, with a 365-day grace window for operators already in the water.