{"id":115322,"date":"2026-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/?p=115322"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:55:32","slug":"the-blows-keep-coming-for-consultants-in-riyadh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/05\/22\/the-blows-keep-coming-for-consultants-in-riyadh\/","title":{"rendered":"The blows keep coming for consultants in Riyadh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy FRIDAY, wonderful people. <\/strong>Well, maybe not so happy for our readers among the Big Four global consulting firms?<\/p>\n

Riyadh is putting new work for McKinsey, BCG, and other firms on pause<\/strong>, the Financial<\/a>Times<\/a> reports. It\u2019s the latest in a series of spending cuts and pauses that Mohammed bin Salman has accelerated since the outbreak of the war in the Gulf. <\/p>\n

The news comes as Saudi takes a page out of the Abu Dhabi playbook. <\/strong>Yeah, we know \u2014 them\u2019s fighting words these days. But that\u2019s how we\u2019re reading a report<\/a> that the PIF is looking to combine its ports, rail, and shipping assets into a single logistics platform. <\/p>\n

Saudi has until now been better known for ambitious greenfield gigaprojects<\/strong> rather than building corporate platforms with bulk. Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, has long built single-industry assets with scale, from ADQ\u2019s creation of AD Ports to the combination of more than two dozen defense firms into Edge and the more recent creation of L\u2019Imad as a sovereign investment platform. We\u2019re curious to see whether Saudi stops with logistics \u2014 PIF had earlier made noises about consolidation in construction and engineering, too.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re keeping an eye on this weekend: <\/strong>We\u2019re hoping to catch up on season two of the HBO medical drama The Pitt<\/a> \u2014 while keeping another window open to watch what Oman and Iran are doing with talks about a permanent toll on Hormuz, a move that\u2019s almost certain to draw fire from Washington. <\/p>\n

Finally, a sign of the times: <\/strong>Riyadh is shifting<\/a> this year\u2019s Esports World Cup tournament to Paris amid the \u201ccurrent regional situation.\u201d Last year\u2019s EWC hit viewership records, drawing 750 mn global viewers<\/a>, if you can believe it. \u2013Patrick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus: Oman and Iran are reportedly negotiating permanent tolls for the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2604],"tags":[2538,2805,2603,2645,2802],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-115322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opening-note","tag-enterpriseam","tag-ma-watch","tag-opening-note","tag-saudi","tag-sovereign-funds","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"91ce2861-b9c5-4926-b12a-d9fe9a853953","order":"1","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"The blows keep coming for consultants in Riyadh","related_issue":[115320],"teaser":"Plus: Oman and Iran are reportedly negotiating permanent tolls for the Strait of Hormuz"},"yoast_head":"\nThe blows keep coming for consultants in Riyadh - 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