The key takeaways from FII Rome

FII Priority Europe wrapped on Friday at the Rome Cavalieri, having drawn more than 1.6k delegates to debate the continent's “strategic autonomy.”

Four threads ran through Rome: Aramco is moving to hedge its exposure to Hormuz; the gigaprojects are being openly triaged toward what can deliver; the IPO market has frozen with a queue forming behind it; and the Kingdom is pitching itself to global capital while complaining about the red tape.

Rigged terms?

The Kingdom used Rome to advertise itself as a source of patient capital. PIF Governor and FII Institute chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan said the fund will put roughly 140 prospects worth around EUR 10.4 bn in front of European partners through 2030, atop the EUR 98 bn PIF says it has deployed across Europe and the UK since 2017.

In the same breath, he named the obstacle: “Regulatory challenges are really hurting investors,” Al Rumayyan said, citing PIF, Aramco, and Sabic. Pundits read the remarks as aimed at the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, in force since July 2023, which lets Brussels probe whether foreign state backing distorts competition in European deals — a rule that directly hits sovereign-backed Saudi capital.

Aramco is hedging on Hormuz

Aramco is weighing a worldwide expansion of its oil storage after the Iran war disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Al Rumayyan said the oil giant is “thinking seriously of having larger storage facilities all over the world,” beyond its existing footprint in Asian markets including South Korea and Japan.

The logic is plain: Roughly a fifth of global oil moves through Hormuz, and the conflict exposed the risk of routing too much of Aramco's deliverability through a single chokepoint. Holding more crude in tanks near consumer refining hubs lets the company keep serving customers amid a closure it can’t control.

Gigaproject reset now being said out loud

Neom’s Deputy CEO Ryan Fawaz spoke at the summit's session on financing large-scale projects, saying the project's role is shifting from direct developer to infrastructure host — building the energy, water, digital connectivity and regulatory conditions that let private and international capital develop industrial and technology projects at scale. He described clean energy, green hydrogen, and AI data centers as the sectors where Neom’s land, power, and digital infrastructure give the Kingdom a genuine competitive edge for that model.

The green hydrogen project was his proof point, valued at USD 9 bn and debt-financed to the tune of USD 6.2 bn by international lenders with the balance in equity. Neom put in the platform and then outside capital came in behind it.

Speaking of Neom: Red Sea Global (RSG) is taking over the troubled Sindalah island resort — and its CEO confirmed it for the first time in Rome. John Pagano told Reuters the handover from Neom hasn't formally closed, but will, after which RSG will “assess how to complete it and bring it back to life.”

Sindalah is a sore stumble, a multi bn-USD development that has never opened to the public despite a 2024 VIP launch. The development was reportedly undone by shoddy finishing and a marina and site that inadequate pre-construction assessments left exposed to wind and waves, the newswire reports, citing unnamed sources. Neom's then-CEO Nadhmi Al Nasr was removed weeks after the launch.

Pagano attributed RSG’s delivery record to building expertise in-house rather than leaning on contractors. RSG has 14 resorts open, rising to 25 by end-August and 27 by year-end, and is adding a USD 400-500 a night tier after criticism that its initial USD 2k ultra-luxury pricing was prohibitive. Pagano was granted Saudi citizenship last year.

RSG was also among the few names to leave Rome with ink on paper, signing with Sequest to pilot durable carbon-removal technology inside the Red Sea destination — one of just three disclosed agreements, alongside Saudi ConTech-Redcon on construction tech and an ACWA Power-Telecom Italia Sparkle agreement to explore power and data-transmission cooperation. The values of the agreements were not disclosed.

A queue is forming outside the IPO market

Rome surfaced the companies waiting for the Saudi IPO pipeline to reopen, and Uber founder Travis Kalanick’s AI-and-robotics venture Atoms is one of the names. The company is ready to list on Tadawul but has no timeline, Kalanick told AGBI. “We tried to go public in the Saudi market in 1Q, but for obvious reasons — with the conflict, etc — we got to a place where it just wasn’t possible,” he said. The Capital Markets Authority hasn’t granted permission yet.

Atoms’ Saudi footprint sits mostly in what Kalanick calls “ecommerce for food,” including cloud kitchens, food robotics, and autonomous carriers. The company also works on autonomous vehicles and has a mining tie-up with Maaden.

Even the conference organizer is in the queue. Richard Attias & Associates, which produces the FII summits, has filed its listing request with the CMA, chairman Richard Attias confirmed to AGBI — though he played down the timing, calling an IPO “a very long process” with “no rush.”