The head of Saudi Arabia’s $760 billion sovereign wealth fund kicked off the kingdom’s flagship investment conference — against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hamas — with a pledge to be a “catalyst for change”.
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With its large financial resources, Saudi Arabia is “open and willing to serve as a catalyst for change”, Al-Rumayyan said.
Executives have descended on Riyadh for this year’s Future Investment Initiative.
Organisers of this week’s event in Riyadh insist that the show will go on and that there have only been 10-20 cancellations as a result of the war, out of over 6,000 people planning to attend. Most of those were due to corporate travel policies changing, or travel insurance costs.
In his opening remarks, Al-Rumayyan, who is also the chairman of Aramco, said the oil giant and Neom plan to build a plant to make low carbon synthetic fuels, as the kingdom looks to invest in a transition away from fossil fuels. The plant, which will be small scale initially, is part of the kingdom’s attempts to diversify the oil dependent economy and invest in industries of the future.
Top Wall Street bankers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup Inc., CEO Jane Fraser and HSBC Holdings Plc head Noel Quinn, are due to speak later on Tuesday.
Other sessions later in the day will include Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser and the bosses of TotalEnergies, Engie and Vale. Oil trader Pierre Andurand and FIFA President Gianni Infantino are also due to speak.
‘10-year yields will probably top out at 5%’
The yield on 10-year US Treasuries will “probably” top out at 5 per cent, according to the head of one of the world’s largest asset managers.
“If you talk to our chief investment officer, she would say this is the time to start thinking about adding some duration,” State Street Corp. CEO Ron O’Hanley said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “I don’t think anyone can call the top, but when you look at the 10-year just touching a bit over 5 per cent, probably it is.”
Yields on 10-year treasuries exceeded 5 per cent for the first time since 2007 on Monday and then retreated. They have surged a full percentage point since early August as policymakers signalled rates will stay higher for longer. For now, officials in the Federal Open Market Committee see the continued run-up in borrowing costs as a feature of their bid to tame inflation rather than a drawback, as tighter financial conditions help cool economic growth.
Saudis need billions for power investment by 2030
Saudi Arabia will need to attract investment in the hundreds of billions of dollars this decade to expand renewable energy and natural gas-fired electricity to meet its generation capacity targets, according to the head of Riyadh-based ACWA Power Co.
The project will require building 60 to 80 gigawatts of power plants using renewable sources like wind and solar and about 30GW of gas-fired plants, ACWA Power CEO Marco Arcelli said in an interview in the Saudi capital. ACWA Power is mandated to take part in developing 70 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy needs.
Neom, DSV Form $10 billion JV for futuristic city
Neom said it is setting up a $10 billion venture with Danish freight forwarder DSV A/S to help develop Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship megaproject. The partnership will focus on providing logistics services for Neom in the coming years.
Neom is the biggest project in the Crown Prince’s plan to diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy. He wants the city to be a showpiece that will transform Saudi Arabia’s economy and serve as a test bed for technologies that could revolutionise daily life.
