LIV Golf recruits HSBC as its international banking partner
LIV Golf, the upstart league owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is building up in Europe with the signing of HSBC as its official international banking partner.
The three-year alliance with the London-based bank will start today with the LIV Golf Andalucia event at Real Club Valderrama in Spain.
HSBC has been a longtime sponsor of Europe’s DP Tour, which entered a strategic alliance in 2020 with the PGA, the established U.S. tour.
Under the agreement, HSBC said it will sponsor two of the league’s 13 teams, the Crushers GC and Majesticks GC.
HSBC will also become the presenting partner of LIV Golf’s “9 to Play” segment that will appear during every LIV Golf live broadcast and is seen in 120 international markets.
“HSBC’s track record in supporting and advancing the game of golf is inspiring and admirable, and we are proud to welcome them into LIV Golf’s growing roster of global partners,” LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said in a statement.
LIV Golf, which poached some of the PGA’s biggest names through $100 million-plus contracts, is currently in its fourth season.
The two leagues have been negotiating a merger unsuccessfully for the past two years.
President Donald Trump is one of LIV Golf’s most prominent fans and has hosted events at his golf resorts in New Jersey, Florida and Washington D.C.
Egypt intercontinental rail plan needs go-ahead for Saudi bridge
Egypt is aiming to link its expanding railway network with Asia and Europe, but it hasn’t yet been able to finalize plans to build a bridge to Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, it will use ships to bring cargo across the Red Sea, Reuters reports. Saudi’s King Salman first announced the bridge project in 2016, envisioning a road that would cross the Straits of Tiran to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
If completed, the route would compete with another notional rail project that would connect the UAE to Israel’s Haifa Port through Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Another project on the drawing board would run north from the Gulf through Iraq.
Novartis seeks to close gap with U.S. in Gulf drug approvals
Novartis, Europe’s second-largest drugmaker, is seeking to obtain broader rights from regulators to sell its newest medicines in the UAE and neighboring Gulf countries as soon as they are approved in the U.S.
Mohamed Ezz Eldin, a 25-year Novartis veteran who runs operations in the Gulf, said the Swiss company is also tapping into genetic data with partners from the region to develop new treatments for rare diseases and illnesses prevalent in the Middle East.
“Our key focus is ensuring that patients eligible for our medicines have access,” Ezz Eldin said in an interview with The Circuit. The Novartis executive, who is based in Dubai, signed a research partnership agreement this week with the Emirates Dermatology Association.
Among the company’s priority activities in the Gulf are development of advanced digital health technologies, AI-based diagnostics and nuclear medicine treatments for cancer, Ezz Eldin said.
The company is also working with the Emirati Genome Program, which analyzes genetic data collected from donors to conduct research with government health authorities and other pharmaceutical firms. Novartis is also supporting the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s Health, Endurance Longevity and Medicine cluster, known as HELM, in which the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund is a strategic partner.
The UAE, which aspires to become a regional center for biotech development, expects the genome program to yield insights into disease onset and progression, the impact on high-risk populations, and possible new treatments.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your priorities for growth in the Gulf?
Our key focus is ensuring that patients eligible for our medicines have access. We partner with authorities and societies to expand access to innovative medicines. We aim to ensure that every eligible patient can access our therapies and adhere to treatment. Access, bringing innovation to the UAE and the GCC, and patient education are core to what we do. In the UAE, patients have almost simultaneous access to medicines after FDA approval. Through partnerships with authorities, we ensure patient and disease awareness to support access.
What areas of research is Novartis engaged with in the region?
AI applied to research is one. One of our most important key performance indicators is how fast our innovative medicines and advanced therapies are available in the UAE. Recently, the UAE was the second or third globally to register and make available several of our medicines, such as cell and gene therapies. Advanced therapies like radioligand therapy for prostate cancer were available in the UAE almost simultaneously with the U.S. and Europe. Speed of registration, availability, reimbursement, and patient access are critical KPIs for us.
You’ve spoken about the importance of regional partnerships. Which organizations is Novartis working with?
Our partnerships extend across a broad spectrum. We are proud to partner with authorities across the Emirates in areas like disease awareness and patient support programs. We have a partnership with the Emirates Dermatology Society focused on disease awareness, education, and degeneration. We also partnered with the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi on drug establishment.
Across different therapy areas, we focus on access to innovation, patient support programs, disease awareness, and other activities. We recently expanded our clinical research activities here. We are proud to have evidence generation, real-world evidence studies, and clinical trials. We also partnered with the DOH on the genomic project they are running.
What does Novartis’ genetic research in the Gulf entail?
We are in a collaborative phase with the Department of Health and other global pharma companies to identify research questions that we can solve together. Initially, we are assessing the linkage between genomic profiling, electronic medical records, and biobank data. After this phase, we aim to launch individual research projects to understand disease onset, high-risk populations, and disease progression, with the goal of prevention and individualized treatment.
Emirates seeks to expand its routes, increase the use of sustainable fuel
Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle East, is pushing to expand its routes to Europe, Asia and Africa, while coping with delays in new aircraft deliveries from Boeing and Airbus.
In an interview with The Circuit, Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy President, said the UAE flag carrier is also focused on increasing its use of reduced-carbon Sustainable Airline Fuel (SAF), though supplies remain low.
“While SAF remains a priority for us, it is currently too expensive, costing two to three times more than conventional jet fuel,” Kazim said during the interview last week on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “However, we are committed to being part of the solution and will adopt SAF wherever it becomes commercially viable.”
Kazim, a 33-year veteran of the Dubai-based airline, has served in posts across the Middle East and Africa, including in Iran. Working beside Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the airline’s Chairman and CEO, and Emirates President Tim Clark, Kazem has led fleet planning, market expansion, governmental relations and a range of other tasks at the carrier.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
The Circuit: What are some of the challenges you face as Emirates plans for future growth and new destinations?
Adnan Kazim: There is a lot of volatility in the global market, including currency devaluations and fluctuating fuel prices, but we are managing these challenges effectively. When entering new markets, our decisions are based on demand, stability, and the value these destinations bring to our network and to Dubai.
A key part of our strategy is connecting people to Dubai. Major events hosted in the city, such as those involving 150 participating countries, align with our role in bringing travelers from across our network. Dubai’s tourism sector is thriving, with 18.7 million tourists recently reported, reflecting the success of the city’s strategy and our contribution to it.
Sustainable fuel is becoming a more significant focus in aviation. How is this affecting Emirates commercially?
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a core part of our strategy. We have committed $200 million to research and development in sustainability. However, SAF is not yet a commercially viable option due to its limited availability. Currently, only a few airports, such as Singapore, Amsterdam, Norway, and London Heathrow, supply SAF and in very small quantities. The challenge lies in the lack of refineries producing SAF at scale, making it difficult to integrate it into our operations.
While SAF remains a priority for us, it is currently too expensive, costing two to three times more than conventional jet fuel. However, we are committed to being part of the solution and will adopt SAF wherever it becomes commercially viable.
What can the industry do to address the cost of SAF and implement more sustainable practices?
A: Right now, the high cost of SAF is largely due to its scarcity and the limited number of refineries producing it. In the future, as production scales up and availability increases, we expect prices to stabilize. However, this requires collaboration between governments, academic institutions, and oil companies to build the necessary infrastructure and supply chains. It’s not just an airline issue—it requires a collective effort to create a sustainable future for aviation.
How is Emirates managing its expansion plans?
Our expansion strategy includes not only new routes but also increased frequencies on existing routes. We are particularly focused on growing our presence in Asia, Europe, and Africa as part of our financial year plans starting from April 1.
In 2024, we expanded into several new destinations, including Bogotá (via Miami), Adelaide (our fifth destination in Australia), Edinburgh in the UK, and Nampink (via Singapore). We also resumed flights to Lagos, Nigeria, and increased frequencies to 15 additional destinations. This growth trajectory will continue, with more destinations and frequencies to be announced in due course.
Saudi LEAP conference chalks up $14.9 billion in new investments
Saudi Arabia kicked off its LEAP25 conference with a flurry of billion-dollar deals and a campaign to rebrand the kingdom as a cauldron of tech innovation on par with Europe.
Opening the annual LEAP event in Riyadh on Sunday night, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha ticked off a series of investments worth $14.9 billion that were due to be signed this week.
Al-Swaha attributed the kingdom’s tech growth to the Vision 2030 roadmap introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017 to diversify the economy and wean it off its longtime dependence on oil sales.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Al-Swaha said. “As a tech force, as His Royal Highness said, this region is the new Europe.” Based on the number of startups gestating in the kingdom, he said, Saudi Arabia would be the fifth largest tech hub if it were located in the EU zone.
Touted as the biggest tech exhibition in the world, LEAP25 attracts many of the major biggest players, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Cisco, SAP, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and Huawei.
More than 1,800 international and local exhibitors, including 680 startups, are populating the exhibition floor at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center.
Among the deals announced at the event, Groq, a U.S.-based artificial intelligence firm, said it will invest $1.5 billion in a project developed with Saudi Aramco to launch the world’s largest AI inferencing data center in Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports.
U.S.-based Databricks pledged to invest $300 million over the next three years to upskill Saudi citizens, build the company’s business in the kingdom, and contribute to the local digital economy. SambaNova, another U.S. software firm, agreed to invest $140 million to build advanced AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
Tara Brady, President of Google for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said the company will contribute $70 billion to the kingdom’s economy over the next 10 years.
Saudi Aramco raises oil prices slightly in Asia, slashes in Europe
Saudi Arabia is cautiously bullish on Asia’s appetite for oil while it tries to stoke demand in Europe.
That’s the takeaway from state-owned Aramco’s decision to raise the price of its Arab Light crude to Asia for the first time in three months – an increase of 20 cents to $2 a barrel above the regional Oman-Dubai benchmark, Bloomberg reports. At the same time, the world’s biggest oil company slashed prices in Europe by $2.75, its biggest reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The moves come days after OPEC+ signaled it would make no changes to oil supplies this month and maintained its tentative plans to let member-countries start increasing production next quarter.
In contrast to its rivals whose stock prices are hitting record highs this year, Aramco is down 17%, the worst performance among the world’s 10 biggest oil companies by revenue, a reflection of its production cuts. PetroChina, by contrast, is up 24% while Exxon Mobil has gained 17% and Shell has risen 4.6% since the beginning of 2024.
Masdar chases European green energy projects after Endesa deal
UAE renewables company Masdar says it will continue to chase green energy projects in Europe, where high interest rates and rising debt costs are pushing utilities to sell stakes in wind farms and solar plants.
Masdar, which is owned by Mubadala, ADNOC and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., has a goal of reaching 100 gigawatts of capacity in its portfolio by 2030 and has been quick to pounce on European projects that will help it rapidly scale up.
Last week it reached an $885 million agreement with Madrid-based Endesa to buy a 49.9% share of 48 solar farms with 2 gigawatts of capacity.
And in June it agreed to buy a majority stake in Greece’s biggest renewables company Terna Energy, in a deal that valued the company at $3.4 billion.
Masdar CFO Mazin Khan told Reuters that “normalization” of asset prices had created big opportunities in Europe and the Endesa deal was just a first step in its investment plans.
Shell, BP, Total, Mitsui sign up as partners in ADNOC gas project
Chief executives from three of Europe’s largest energy companies and a top Japanese conglomerate came to Abu Dhabi this week to sign agreements backing state-owned ADNOC’s ramped-up efforts to sell liquified natural gas.
Each of the firms – Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and Mitsui & Co. – will take a 10% interest in ADNOC’s Ruwais LNG plant, a project scheduled to begin production in 2028 as spending on gas as a cleaner alternative fossil fuel to oil is projected to rise. Payments were not disclosed.
Signing the contracts to take part in the LNG venture on Wednesday were Murray Auchincloss, CEO of BP; Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell; Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies; and Kenichi Hori, President and CEO of Mitsui, according to a UAE government statement.
The executives were hosted by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed in a sit-down at the beachside Qasr Al Shati palace. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, signed the agreements with the other executives during a separate meeting with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
“As natural gas demand continues to increase, this world-class project will enable us to provide more lower-carbon gas to meet growing demand today while helping the world transition to a cleaner energy future,” said Dr. Al Jaber, who continues to serve as President of COP 28, the United Nations climate conference that was held in Dubai last December.
