Could Aramco sell off its sulphur business?

Good morning, friends. We start off the week with a dive into what went down during FII Priority Europe — the biggest headlines include Aramco moving to hedge its exposure to Hormuz and the Kingdom is pitching itself to global capital.

PLUS- Economists slashed Saudi Arabia’s 2026 growth forecast, but the Kingdom is expected to lead the Gulf’s recovery next year.

BUT FIRST- Hormuz is closed again, Iran says. Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the strait of Hormuz shut yesterday, citing Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon and what it called US violations of commitments to establish a ceasefire. Lebanese state media reported 20 people killed by Israeli strikes yesterday, hours after the truce took effect. Israel says it is not party to the Iran-US deal.

This followed a window when the waterway was open. US Central Command claimed that 55 merchant ships moved vital cargo and over 17 mn barrels of oil through Hormuz yesterday and that US forces remain committed to keeping the shipping lane open. The strait had officially opened on Thursday, hours after the US and Iranian presidents digitally signed a 14-point MoU to end the war, Reuters reports. During that period, three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying 6 mn bbl of crude sailed through.

The talks are pressing ahead regardless. Iran’s delegation — led by chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and including Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi — landed in Switzerland on Saturday. US Vice President JD Vance is currently on his way, with negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff already on the ground.

Aramco’s monetization pipeline grows

Aramco is weighing the sale of a stake in its sulphur business — code-named project Yellowstone internally — with assets centering around storage and export terminals in a transaction that could raise up to USD 7 bn, Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources. The company invited banks to pitch last month, the newswire said, but is still reviewing which assets to include. A launch is not expected before next year.

The bigger picture: The sulphur sale is one piece of a broader asset monetization push that could raise up to USD 50 bn from Aramco’s infrastructure portfolio — including oil export terminals (up to USD 25 bn), its headquarters real estate campus (c. USD 10 bn), and water infrastructure assets linked to crude operations (c. USD 500 mn, code-named Project Hydro). The oil terminal process is on hold pending an easing of regional tensions, likely in 2H.

Aramco has been running this process since mid-2025, when it began exploring asset sales in May of last year to raise funds for Jafurah’s build-out, followed by a USD 4 bn power plant sale process in July. The most significant transaction to date was the USD 11 bn lease-and-leaseback of its Jafurah gas processing facilities to a BlackRock-led consortium in August — a template it is now replicating across its infrastructure portfolio.

Is Newcastle scoping investors?

Newcastle United eyes capital injection for stadium expansion: PIF-owned Newcastle United held exploratory talks with KKR-owned Arctos Partners over a potential minority investment to fund the redevelopment of St. James’ Park stadium or a GBP 1 bn new 70k-seat build, Bloomberg reports, citing sources in the know. The talks are in an early stage and may not result in an agreement. Newcastle has also approached other sports investors.

Any stake sale would take the form of new investment, not an existing shareholder selling down, the sources said. PIF holds 85% of the Premier League club while Reuben Brothers holds the remaining 15%. Arctos already holds minority stakes in Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool’s parent company Fenway Sports Group, structured to stay within UEFA’s multiclub ownership rules.

Why this matters: Newcastle seeking outside capital rather than relying on PIF to write the full cheque fits a pattern. PIF’s broader 2026-2030 strategy has pivoted toward private-sector co-investment, and the LIV Golf funding halt earlier this year made clear that its sports spending has limits. Newcastle, unlike LIV, sits within those limits but the funding model appears to be changing.

Lebanese exports return to Saudi

Lebanese exporters have officially returned to Saudi shores, with the first shipping container departing from the Port of Beirut for Jeddah yesterday after a five-year hiatus, according to a statement on X by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. New scanning protocols are now in place at the ports of Beirut and Tripoli, allowing authorities to flag any suspicious cargo as it moves through Beirut.

REMEMBER- The Kingdom lifted a ban on Lebanese imports earlier this month in response to requests from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Salam, which is expected to help revive the Lebanese economy. The ban was first introduced in 2021 in a bid to clamp down on drug smuggling through shipments including food and furniture.

Data point

SAR 304 bn — these were the revenues from tourism in 2025, the highest on record and 7% up from the figure seen a year earlier, according to data (pdf) from the Tourism Ministry. Total visitor numbers climbed 5.8% y-o-y to 123 mn, with the sector now directly contributing 5.2% to national GDP.

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The big story abroad

The latest on the US-Iran negotiations is dominating the front pages this morning, with representatives from both sides meeting in Switzerland today to discuss a permanent resolution to their nearly four-month conflict and a nuclear agreement. We have more on the negotiations and where things stand with the Strait of Hormuz in the news well, above.

Is Starmer stepping down? UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer could resign as soon as tomorrow amid a recent and drastic loss of popular support, a government source tells The Telegraph. Pressure has mounted especially after Starmer’s chief rival from his own party, Andy Burnham, secured a parliamentary seat that clears his path to launch a formal leadership challenge.

Is the world turning against AI players? The Wall Street Journal is out with a piece on the far-from-rosy outlook of the US’ highly anticipated IPO lineup of its major AI players. It seems that although investors are eager to throw money at AI, the political and societal backlash is moving fast enough to potentially derail these massive public market debuts.