RIYADH: Riyadh-based fintech startup Lamaa has secured a $5.5m investment from Saudi Aramco’s entrepreneurship arm Wa’ed and Raed Ventures Arab News reported. The deal represents one of the largest seed funding rounds in Saudi Arabia. Lamaa provides financing solutions, such as supply chain finance and Buy Now Pay Later schemes, for small and medium enterprises. Wa’ed and … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia issued licenses to 16 fintech companies in the third quarter of 2021, Sabq quoted Saudi Central Bank governor, as saying at an event. Fahad Almubarak said 13 of those companies work in the field of payments and electronic wallets, and three firms are engaged in insurance and finance sector. Saudi Arabia witnessed a 37 … Read more
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s budget airline flyadeal aims at nurturing and promoting local women talent, as it is doubling its fleet by the end of the next year, its chief commercial officer told Arab News. Ahmed Albrahim said the low-cost airline’s fleet contains 15 A320 narrow-bodies, and it will continue to receive more aircraft of the A320 … Read more
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco is marking the start of its development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field on November 29, 2021, Arab News reported. The Saudi-listed firm claims it to be the “largest non-associated gas field” in the kingdom. The move is part of the kingdom’s push to commercialise its unconventional resources and expand Aramco’s … Read more
RIYADH: The M3 monetary aggregate, known as “broad money”, posted an annual growth rate of 7.9 per cent in October, having decelerated slightly from the September value of 8.4 per cent, Arab News quoted the data published by the Saudi Central Bank. On a monthly basis, the M3 indicator grew SR10.6 billion ($2.8 billion) in October, or … Read more
RIYADH: The value of point-of-sale transactions in Saudi Arabia reached SR40.5 billion ($10.8 billion) in October, up 1.2 per cent, compared with the previous month, Arab News quoted the Saudi Central Bank, as saying. Some of the sectors that helped drive the increase were restaurants and cafes, hotels, food and beverages, clothing and footwear. For … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s top gamers have begun battling it out for a share of a SR4 million ($1.1million) prize pot at the kingdom’s e-League Champions event, Arab News reported. Winners from two other e-sports events held this year have come together for a final competition in Riyadh’s Media City, which kicked off on Friday, November 26 and … Read more
RIYADH: Venture capital impact investment in Saudi Arabia reached a new high in 2021 in both total number of transactions and capital deployed, Arab News quoted a report produced by MAGNiTT and Saudi Aramco. Impact investments are those aimed at generating a measurable social and environmental benefit alongside a financial return. Impact funding in the kingdom up … Read more
Saudi Arabia is making the transition to a more diversified economy, after being reliant upon oil for much of the past century, a trend sparked by Vision 2030 as well as commitments made at the COP26 Summit last month, Arab News reported. While corporate giants such as Aramco and Sabic continue to dominate the economy, a culture … Read more
RIYADH: No Saudi banks were lost during the financial crisis of 2008/9 and the financial sector is again in a strong position as it faces the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Saudi Central Bank Governor Fahad Almubarak. The central bank, also known as SAMA, has been and continues to be strict in … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia, which reported last month a surplus in its first quarterly budget surplus since the first quarter of 2019, is applying restraints on spending even, as oil prices are trading near multiyear high, Arab News reported. The Saudi Ministry of Finance has started to apply the spending cap regardless of the oil price and revenues, … Read more
RIYADH: Foreign inflows in the Saudi capital market since 2019 have reached nearly SR135 billion ($35.98 billion), despite the kingdom being at an early stage in dealing with external investors, Arab News quoted Capital Market Authority chairman Mohammed ElKuwaiz, as saying. Opening the market for foreign investment supports diversification of funding sources for listed companies, ElKuwaiz said, … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is preparing 160 privatisation deals and intends to announce more of these operations next year, Arab News quoted Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, as saying. Speaking at the Financial Stability Conference, Al-Jadaan said while the Al-Jadaan will not be fully privatiSed as a service provider, parts of it, such as radiology, could be. He … Read more
RIYADH: Hotel operator Marriott International has signed an agreement with Saudi’s Sela Sport Company to develop two new luxury hotels in Saudi Arabia, Arab News reported. The St Regis Riyadh and The Jeddah Edition are expected to open in prime city locations in 2022. The former is to be located at the entrance of the Diplomatic Quarter … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi General Authority for Competition has approved the acquisition of Saudi’s fast-food chain Kudu Food and Catering Co by Tahalof Al Tamm Investment Co, Arab News quoted the authority’s Twitter account. The authority has approved 101 acquisitions since the beginning of 2021, which is the highest number of approved acquisitions within one year the authority achieved … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Development Fund has said it had deployed SR2 billion ($533 million) on tourism projects worth a total of around SR6 billion since its establishment last year until the end of September this year, Arab News reported. The remaining SR4 billion for the projects have come from the private sector, the fund said in … Read more
MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia’s holdings of US Treasury securities recorded slight change in September, Arab News reported. The total value of the securities held by Saudi residents stood at $124.3 billion as of the end of September, up 0.2 percent from $124.1 billion in August, according to the latest data from the US Department of Treasury. … Read more
Saudi Arabia held its position as the biggest supplier of crude oil to China for an 11th month in a row in October, with volumes up 19.5 per cent from a year ago, Arab News quoted Customs data, as showing. Saudi oil arrivals totalled 7.1 million tonnes, or 1.67 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the … Read more
RIYADH: Top Saudi real estate developers have formed a tripartite alliance to establish a housing project in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The alliance will build 580 villas spread over 300,000 sq. m. Al-Othman Group, Tamimi Real Estate, Isam Khairi Kabbani allied under Tilal Properties will develop the project in Aljwan, north of Riyadh. The project … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s launch of its first women’s football league on Monday will clear the way for girls who dream of turning professional — and maybe even playing in a World Cup. Long condemned for harsh restrictions on women, Saudi Arabia lifted a decades-old ban on female footballers only a few years ago, and it is now aiming … Read more
CAIRO: Saudi Arabia has limited permits for performing Umrah or lesser pilgrimage for overseas Muslims aged 18 to 50 years, Gulf News reported. Overseas pilgrims are also required to be fully inoculated against the Covid-19 before travelling to the kingdom, with vaccines recognised in Saudi Arabia and to present an officially endorsed vaccination certificate to obtain an … Read more
RIYADH: Kitopi, the world’s leading managed cloud kitchen platform, has invested in multiple regional food and beverage groups as part of its next phase of growth, according to a company statement. The Dubai-based company has begun initial investments in Cloud Restaurants (famous for Go! Greek and Go! Healthy), Leap Nation (famous for Tawook Nation and … Read more
LONDON: A regulator on Thursday said it had opened a formal probe into donations received by a Saudi tycoon’s charitable trust which were intended for Prince Charles’ foundation. The Charities Commission, which registers and oversees charities in England and Wales, said it had been in contact with the Mahfouz Foundation since media reports in September. Saudi … Read more
RIYADH: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, founder and chairman of the Board of Mohammed bin Salman Misk Foundation, has announced the launch of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Non Profit City, the first non-profit city in the world, to be a model for the development of the non-profit sector globally and an … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate Development Fund launched a programme to help real estate developers obtain funding from different financial institutions, Arab News reported. The Tatweer programme aims at supporting real estate developers to increase the supply of housing units to meet the market demand and contribute to achieving the target of Saudi Vision 2030 … Read more
RIYADH: The Saudi oil giant Aramco asked companies to send their technical and financial offers for a water desalination plant project in the Jafurah gas field, with a capacity of around 100,000 cubic metres/day, a banking source told CNBC Arabia. This reflects the company’s latest step to move forward in developing the field and to contribute … Read more
RIYADH: Irish businesses visiting the kingdom this week have been discussing Irish-Saudi trade worth over $1 billion/annum, as well as potential new investment opportunities in food, agriculture, and financial technology, Arab News reported. A trade delegation was briefed on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Federation of Saudi Chambers of Commerce on investment opportunities that … Read more
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Export-Import (EXIM) Bank helped the businesses export to 50 countries by the end of September, with food, iron and steel, and plastics products leading the way, Arab News reported. EXIM announced it had approved 89 finance requests, up from 81 by mid-August, with a total value exceeding SR8.95 billion ($2.3 billion). The … Read more
