Established foreign firms hold their Saudi footprint while new setups wait for clarity

Multinationals operating in Saudi Arabia are staying put despite the recent attacks, with the hesitation showing up instead in new setup decisions as risk teams wait for more clarity before committing, Zaid Al Mashari, co-founder and group CEO of Riyadh-based consultancy and business support company Proven Arabia, tells EnterpriseAM. “I don't see really anybody leaving,” Al Mashari says, adding that none of the multinational clients he works with have pulled staff or scaled back in the Kingdom. He expects demand for new setups to pick up again once the picture clears, with Saudi Arabia remaining the region’s main base.

Clients in the sectors most exposed to flight disruption — including event management — have taken a hit but are holding on, Al Mashari says. This impact has been most visible as the Houthis target Saudi airports, ports, and oil facilities. The largest barrage came last Sunday, when the group said it targeted Riyadh’s airport, Aramco facilities, and the King Abdullah Financial District. The Energy Ministry said debris from an attempted attack caused minor damage to an Aramco building in Riyadh.

Proven has handled company setup, Saudization, corporate immigration, and payroll compliance for foreign firms entering the Kingdom since 2009. Global corporate services firm TMF Group, a long-time partner, acquired that division in 2023 as it built its Saudi presence. Al Mashari continues to work with multinational clients on their workforce planning in the Kingdom. The group employs 700-800 people across offices in Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait, Egypt, India and, most recently, Hong Kong.

Proven runs an IT unit covering enterprise automation, robotics, and its own AI product, Sanad, plus a smart energy system that Al Mashari says cuts electricity bills at labor camps and schools by up to 30%. It also manages some 35 labor camps in Dubai housing 30k workers. The company now exports Saudi-built services to the rest of the Gulf, Al Mashari says. Multinationals it served in Riyadh asked it to follow them into Dubai and Kuwait.

Demand to set up in the Kingdom has come mostly from UK, Indian, and US firms, with Chinese companies a fast-growing recent addition, Al Mashari says. Many international firms are also moving in from Dubai, most of them landing in Riyadh.

What these new-entrance companies want from the process has changed. Where foreign firms used to look for a Saudi partner to navigate setup, they now establish independently and ask for the full compliance cost up front, from government fees to Saudization and withholding tax.

The wage floor: Most of the multinationals Al Mashari works with already pay Saudi staff SAR 7-8k (USD 1,870-2,130) a month, well clear of the Kingdom’s Saudization threshold, he says. The minimum a Saudi employee must earn to count fully toward a company’s Nitaqat quota rises from SAR 4k to SAR 5k on 25 April 2027, and to SAR 6k a year later. Saudi employees paid below the floor count as only half a hire.

Proven runs an internal simulator against every new regulation to map where Saudi hires should sit. “If you treat Saudization as a capability, not as a cost, you will win the market,” Al Mashari said. Finding qualified Saudis is no longer the hard part, he tells us. Proven’s engineering and IT teams include fresh graduates hired from Taif and Hail who built the company's internal platform.