Saudis sign deals for over 100 planes as Paris Air Show opens

AviLease has signed a deal for up to 77 Airbus planes, announced as the Paris Air Show opened at Le Bourget on Monday.

The global aircraft lessor backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund signed up for an initial 30 A320 Neo jets and 10 A350F freighters, which could increase to 55 A320 Neos and 22 A350Fs.

Riyadh Air, Saudi’s new national carrier, also backed by the sovereign wealth fund,  announced an order of 25 A350-1000 aircraft at the event on Monday.

Meanwhile, Royal Air Maroc is nearing a major fleet renewal deal with Boeing as it moves to quadruple its fleet by 3030 ahead of co-hosting the World Cup.

The deal could include more than 70  787s and 737 jets, Reuters reports. The airline is also planning a smaller order for 20 Airbus A220s, its first Airbus deal in nearly 25 years.

The Paris Air Show opened against a somber backdrop following last week’s Air India crash and disruptions caused by rising tensions between Israel and Iran.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Commercial Airplanes chief Stephanie Pope have cancelled their trip to Paris, with Boeing scaling back its presence to focus on the India crash probe.

Boeing’s branding remained highly visible at the show, including a gleaming Riyadh Air 787 parked behind its chalet at Le Bourget, Reuters reported.

Flynas IPO oversubscribed by nearly 100 times before trading

The $1.1 billion IPO for Saudi Arabia’s Flynas low-cost airline has reached the runway and is ready for take-off after the offering to institutional investors was nearly 100 times oversubscribed.

The carrier, whose largest shareholders are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holdings and the government’s Public Investment Fund, is the latest in a slew of IPOs for Saudi companies that have also encountered high demand, including Umm Al-Qura construction, which raised more than $500 million in March.

Flynas shares, which will start trading on Riyadh’s Tadawul Stock Exchange May 28, were set on Wednesday at 80 riyals apiece, the top of the range given by the IPO’s investment bankers.

Proceeds from the offering are slated for expanding Flynas’ fleet by 225 planes and launching several new flight hubs. The budget airline flies to 59 destinations and is popular with Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and expat workers from India, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Flynas is not alone among Gulf airlines interested in going public. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, owned by the ADQ sovereign wealth fund, is actively preparing for an IPO while Emirates and Qatar Airways have been mulling share sales for years.

Still waiting to stretch its wings is Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier wholly owned by the PIF, which plans to start flying its stylish royal blue jetliners this year in the fourth quarter.

Trump moves on to Qatar after bounty of deals in Saudi Arabia

U.S. President Donald Trump took his Middle East dealmaking tour to Qatar today after a summit meeting in Riyadh with leaders of the six Gulf states that focused in part on promoting more investment in American military hardware and artificial intelligence.

The visit to Qatar’s capital of Doha continued to generate criticism from Democrats in Congress over Trump’s intention to accept a gift from the Qatari government of a refurbished $400 million plane that would temporarily replace Air Force One.

Arriving in the early afternoon after a short flight from Saudi Arabia, Trump landed at Hamad International Airport in Doha and was met by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim, who was waiting on a yellow carpet to symbolize the desert peninsula’s sandy terrain.

Tomorrow, the President will meet Qatari business leaders for breakfast and greet U.S. soldiers at the Al Udeid U.S. Air Base, before taking off for the UAE.

In his two-day visit to Riyadh, Trump lavished attention on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said he would try to meet the President’s challenge for investing $1 trillion in the U.S. over the next four years.

At a Saudi-U.S. business conference in Riyadh, Trump and MBS held court with a constellation of billionaires, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio.

From the Saudi business world, the conference featured Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman of Islamic Development Bank; Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital; Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO of Lucid; John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global; Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power; Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air; and Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.

The Saudi Crown Prince wrapped up the day by bringing Trump for a tour of Diriyah, the ancestral home of the Al Saud royal family, which was led by Inzerillo. The site is undergoing a massive renovation as one of the multibillion megaprojects undertaken by the kingdom, along with the 100-mile long Neom city on the kingdom’s west coast and the Al Mukkab skyscraper cube in Riyadh.

Among the biggest issues discussed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday was the extent to which the Trump administration would lift sanctions on AI semiconductor chips that are being eagerly sought by the Gulf states.

Nvidia, the world’s biggest semiconductor maker, agreed to supply its most advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia’s Humain, a company created to push that country’s AI infrastructure efforts, Bloomberg reports. Humain will get “several hundred thousand” of Nvidia’s most advanced processors over the next five years, starting with 18,000 of its cutting-edge GB300 Grace Blackwell products and its InfiniBand networking technology.

Huang saw his personal net worth surge to approximately $120 billion over the day, up from $80 billion a year ago, driven by soaring demand for the company’s AI chips that has fueled a sharp rise in its stock, Reuters reports.

AMD, Nvidia’s nearest rival in AI accelerators, will provide chips and software for data centers “stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States” in a $10 billion project, Humain and AMD said.

Also, Saudi VC firm STV launched a $100 million AI fund backed by Google to invest in MENA startups, as part of a broader set of tech-focused U.S.-Saudi agreements announced during President Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Bloomberg reports. And Saudi Arabia agreed to authorize the use of Musk’s Starlink service for aviation and maritime shipping, the SpaceX founder announced.

MBS tells Trump in Riyadh he’ll try to invest $1 trillion in U.S.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump and a solid portion of the world’s business elite on Tuesday that he hopes to fulfill his pledge to invest $600 billion in the U.S. and might even hit the $1 trillion mark sought by the White House.

In turn, Trump praised MBS as a visionary leader and hailed the U.S.-Saudi alliance as a profitable enterprise for both sides as the two spoke at a business conference in Riyadh and the president kicked off a four-day swing through the Gulf that will also take him to Qatar and the UAE.

“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi leader said in a speech at the capital city’s King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. “We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.

A good chunk of that commitment will come from an agreement to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, which the White House called “the largest defense cooperation agreement” that the U.S. has ever signed.

Trump beamed as he followed MBS onstage to address an audience that included Tesla founder Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and hundreds of other corporate leaders, investors and government officials from the two countries.

The President thanked MBS for setting the $1 trillion goal and talked for close to an hour about his affection for the kingdom, ticking off several of the deals signed by the two countries during the day.

“So, number one, I like visiting with you, and we’ve known each other very well, and I really believe we like each other a lot and, number two, for the United States, we’ve brought tremendous investment in and tremendous jobs, and we continue to service your great country very well,” Trump said.

The U.S. leader also said he maintains a “fervent hope” that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel, as the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco did in 2020, though he added, “you’ll do it in your own time.”

Earlier in the day, the Saudi Crown Prince took the unusual step of greeting Trump in person when the president landed on a flight from Washington at King Khalid International Airport outside Riyadh.

Unlike former President Joe Biden’s tense visit and cautious fist bump in 2022, MBS stood on the tarmac and patiently watched Trump descend from Air Force One onto a royal purple carpet. The two shook hands and Trump gave the prince a warm shoulder tap before they strode together to the waiting motorcade.

The greeting underlined the intentions on both sides to make Trump’s first regional trip in his second term a public success and broadcast the closeness of the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

Inside the Al-Yamamah Palace where a lavish reception and lunch were held, both leaders were accompanied by top Cabinet ministers and a roster of business leaders, with Trump’s entourage including Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Conversations at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum – held at the same site beside the marble-lined Ritz-Carlton Hotel as the annual Future Investment Initiative conference – were focused on concrete dealmaking and illustrated the seriousness in both countries to make the most of the rare event, said Tally Zingher, Managing Director of the U.S.-headquartered boutique advisory firm Blue Laurel.

“Being here allows me to listen and observe firsthand how the Saudis are articulating their priorities and how those priorities have already manifested into concrete opportunities for U.S. companies,” Zingher told The Circuit.

Among the headliners addressing the conference were Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Minister of Investment; Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance; Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy; Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Minerals and Faisal Alibrahim, Minister of Economy & Planning.

The U.S. delegation was headed by Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury; Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce; and David Sacks, the White House Special Advisor on AI and Crypto.

From the Saudi business world, the conference featured Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman, Islamic Development Bank; Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital; Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO of Lucid; John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global; Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power; Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air and Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.

U.S. financiers at the forum included Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff and BDT & MSD Partners’ Dina Powell McCormick.

From the U.S. tech industry, Palantir’s Alex Karp joined the forum as well as Alphabet/Google’s Ruth Porat, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, IBM’s Arvind Krishna and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.

With planemakers and defense contractors set to reap billions in Saudi deals, the conference featured Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, Lockheed Martin’s Michael Williamson, Honeywell’s Ken West and Halliburton’s Jeff Miller.

Among other speakers at the summit, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is a perennial fixture at the FII conference and hosted a spinoff conference in his city last February, where Trump spoke. Also appearing was Gianni Infantino, President of world soccer’s governing FIFA organization, after Saudi Arabia was picked to host the 2034 World Cup.

The Daily Circuit: UAE’s new business & philanthropy envoy + $1.4B Saudi opera contract

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at the award of a $1.4 billion contract to build a new Saudi opera house, ADNOC’s 15-year LNG deal in China, Riyadh Air’s classy cabin design and Australian driver Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But first, the UAE creates a new post to strengthen its international business reach.

The UAE is tapping an oil company executive to integrate private sector business and philanthropic activities more deeply into its foreign policy.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, announced the appointment of Badr Jafar today to a newly created post as Special Envoy for Business and Philanthropy.

Jafar, 45, a Cambridge-educated native of the Sharjah emirate, is CEO of Crescent Enterprises – which has broad interests in energy, ports, logistics and finance – and President of its Crescent Petroleum unit.

“By fostering significant partnerships and unlocking new avenues for investment and innovation, this role [for Jafar] reinforces the UAE’s position as a dynamic hub for economic diplomacy, sustainable finance, and social progress,” the government said in a statement.

Creating the new post is part of an effort to strengthen the UAE’s diplomatic influence by embedding business and philanthropy into its international engagement, the government said.

“By bridging the efforts of government, business and philanthropy, we can accelerate sustainable development and create lasting prosperity for all,” Jafar said.

Welcome to the Daily Circuit. Kindly let us know your thoughts and feedback by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at [email protected]. 

The UAE is making “very good and tangible progress” towards securing access to cutting-edge chips currently under U.S. export restrictions, according to Peng Xiao, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s G42 artificial intelligence firm. “We’d like to continue to double down in the U.S. even more,” Xiao told Bloomberg. “We have our conditions of course. We want it to be a mutually beneficial relationship.” Last month, the UAE pledged to invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over a decade after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser, who leads many of the country’s largest companies, including chairing tech firms G42 and MGX. The commitments include funding from MGX towards the $100 billion AI infrastructure venture unveiled by Trump in his first week in office. 

AUTO ALLIANCE

Saudi Aramco is teaming up on a new technology venture with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD. Aramco’s tech subsidiary signed a joint development deal with BYD to collaborate on making electric cars that are more energy-efficient and reduce carbon emissions. Saudi Arabia has made EVs a priority in its national industrial planning, with a goal of increasing adoption from 1% to 30% in five years. The Public Investment Fund is the majority shareholder in California-based Lucid Motors. The deal with BYD comes less than two weeks after Elon Musk’s Tesla launched in the kingdom. The Public Investment Fund is also the majority shareholder in California-based Lucid Motors.

📷 Photo of the Day

The Daily Circuit: Global dealmakers back in Gulf + Acwa’s Uzbeki contract

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at the plunge in Gulf stock prices triggered by U.S. trade tariffs, a regulatory nod for Riyadh Air’s take-off later this year, Acwa Power’s wind deal in Uzbekistan and Qatar’s Hit Show winning the $12 million Emirates Dubai World Cup horse race. But first, conference halls in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are back to business.

Investors are pouring back into the UAE after the monthlong Ramadan break as temperatures warm up and the AIM Congress kicks off the Middle East’s spring dealmaking season.

Presidents, cabinet ministers, central bank governors and CEOs took to the ADNEC Centre podium today to address some 20,000 registered participants at the global investment conference.

In opening remarks, Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, the UAE Minister for Foreign Trade, said the Emirati government will intensify its focus on artificial intelligence, improved infrastructure and clean energy.

“This is our investment model – to find long-term opportunities in high-potential markets and help transform them into a sustainable engine of growth,” Al Zeyoudi said.

Also appearing onstage at the opening session were Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic of the Congo, Armenian President Vahagn Garniki Khachaturyan and Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the Arab League.

In Dubai, meanwhile, more than 40,000 industry professionals from 90 countries are meeting at the Middle East Energy Conference in the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Welcome to the Daily Circuit. Kindly let us know your thoughts and feedback by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at [email protected].

While new U.S. trade tariffs came out at the low end for Gulf countries, benchmark stock indexes across the region plunged by the widest margins since 2020. Amid depressed oil prices and fears of a global trade war, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Index dropped 6.1% on Sunday, with similar slides in Qatar and Kuwait. The losses continued today, with the Dubai Financial Market General Index down more than 6% and the Abu Dhabi Securities General Index slumping 4.5%. Shares of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, have fallen more than 7% since President Donald Trump’s announcement last week, losing some $90 million in market capitalization. The tariffs range from 10% on Gulf exports to the U.S. to 20% from countries in the European Union and 34% from China.

TAKING OFF

Riyadh Air crossed a threshold as it prepares to begin operating in 2025 as Saudi Arabia’s primary international carrier. The airline, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund, announced on Sunday that it received approval to fly from the General Authority of Civil Aviation. “Establishing an airline of this scale is a monumental task, but the process is progressing smoothly,” Saudi Minister of Transport and Logistics Saleh Al-Jasser said at a ceremony presenting the approval certificate. “We are now in the final stages, with the next step being the launch of the first flight before the end of this year.” Riyadh Air, which will take over many passenger routes from Saudia, plans connections to more than 100 international cities by 2030.

🏇 Fast Track: Qatar’s Hit Show, ridden by jockey Florent Geroux, won the $12 million Emirates Dubai World Cup horse race at Meydan Racecourse on Saturday. U.S. thoroughbred Mixto came in second place, trailed by Japan’s Forever Young, winner of the Saudi Cup in February.

📷 Photo of the Day

French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Wahab El-Sisi walk through Cairo’s Khan El-Khalili district on Sunday night at the beginning of a three-day visit.

Riyadh Air gets flight approval as it prepares for late 2025 debut

Riyadh Air crossed a threshold as it prepares to begin operating in 2025 as Saudi Arabia’s primary international carrier.

The airline, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund, announced on Sunday that it received approval to fly from the General Authority of Civil Aviation.

“Establishing an airline of this scale is a monumental task, but the process is progressing smoothly,” Saudi Minister of Transport and Logistics Saleh Al-Jasser said at a ceremony presenting the approval certificate.

“We are now in the final stages, with the next step being the launch of the first flight before the end of this year.”

Riyadh Air, which will take over many passenger routes from Saudia, plans connections to more than 100 international cities by 2030.

Abu Dhabi’s Multiply eyes $1B divestment from PAL Cooling

Abu Dhabi’s Multiply Group may be getting ready to divest from its PAL Cooling unit, which keeps the UAE capital’s skyscrapers at tolerable temperatures under the Gulf’s sizzling sun.

The firm, a unit of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s International Holding Co., could raise as much as $1 billion if it’s put up for sale, Bloomberg reports.

PAL’S cooling technology involves pumping chilled water into buildings from centralized plants.

Multiply is working with Standard Chartered on the sale, which is at an early stage and has drawn interest from both regional and international investors, the news agency said.

Multiply went public more than three years ago and has investments in companies ranging from Getty Images to Rihanna’s lingerie company.

The Daily Circuit: Aldar builds Expo towers + Riyadh Air’s Madrid stadium

Today in the Daily Circuit, we’re looking at a potential $2 billion of Saudi investment in Pakistan, the renaming of a Madrid soccer stadium for sponsor Riyadh Air, a possible deal involving BlackRock and Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund and a $1.5 billion financing package for the rail project linking the UAE and Oman. But first, Aldar tries to lure city dwellers to its new tower complex in the Dubai suburbs. 

Three years ago, the pandemic-delayed Expo 2020 drew virtually every country on the planet to set up a pavilion at Dubai’s sprawling fairgrounds. Now Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest real estate developer, is pouring half a billion dollars into the site and catering to the home crowd.

Known these days as Expo City and neighboring the new Dubai World Central airport, the location will soon sprout six towers filled with luxury apartments, corporate offices and specialty retailers, Aldar said in a statement on Wednesday.

The $476 million project, a joint venture with government-administered Expo City Dubai, will be built on a plot measuring 1.1 million square feet, and managed by Aldar through its completion. The Expo 2020 site also hosted the COP28 climate conference last year.

Aldar is counting on the soaring demand for property in Dubai that has provided incentive for developers to reach beyond the city’s packed downtown area and led many residents to move to more affordable areas in the UAE.

MARKET HEADWINDS

Wall Street’s recent love affair with the Gulf is facing a rough patch. While bankers and venture capitalists have been flocking to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to tap into sovereign wealth funds and other sources of capital, escalating tensions between Iran and Israel are adding a new level of uncertainty to developing deals, Bloomberg reports. The conflict cuts close for those doing business with GCC states that sit just across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, which attacked Israel last week with more than 200 missiles on a trajectory that overflew neighboring Iraq and Jordan. HSBC analysts published a report on Gulf markets last week saying, “We love the structural story, but a combination of heightened geopolitical risk and low oil prices is creating near-term headwinds.”

PROJECT PAKISTAN

In a bid to finalize $2 billion in proposed deals, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih is midway through a three-day trip to Pakistan. His visit comes ahead of next week’s conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian regional alliance founded by China and Russia. Pakistan has been trying to strengthen trade, energy and defense ties with Saudi Arabia as it seeks to emerge from an economic crisis that has emptied foreign exchange reserves and pummeled its currency. Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar was quoted by Saudi Arabia’s Arab News as telling a cabinet meeting that the two countries are on a path to forge ever closer strategic cooperation.”

💲 Sovereign Circuit

Public Investment Fund: Riyadh Air, the new Saudi national airline backed by the PIF, signed a nine-year sponsorship deal with Atlético de Madrid that includes renaming the team’s soccer stadium “Riyadh Air Metropolitano.”

Kuwait Investment Authority: BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and the KIA, the world’s sixth-largest sovereign wealth fund, are exploring potential cooperation on investments, Kuwait’s Al-Rai newspaper reports.

Mubadala: Hafeet Rail, a joint venture between Mubadala, Oman Rail and Etihad Rail, has secured $1.5 billion in financing from a consortium of banks to build the new train route linking Oman and the UAE. 

International Holding Co.: Ghitha Holding, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi-based IHC, will acquire a 70% stake in Fujairah’s International Food Industries for $11.2 million. 

↪↩ Closing Circuit

⛽ Gas Exploration: Chevron will start drilling an exploratory gas well at its Nargis concession area off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast with an estimated investment of $150 million, Asharq Business reports.

🕹️ Crypto Games: PiP World, a blockchain gaming and education platform in Dubai, raised $10 million in seed funding from London-based Exinity.

🏛️ Kazakh Banking: Qatar’s Lesha Bank has acquired the entire share capital of Bereke Bank in Kazakhstan for $135 million.

🕌 Islamic Assets: GFH Financial, a Bahrain-based financial group, received shareholder approval for the issuance of $500 million of Islamic bonds.

🗼Tower Power: Dubai developer Union Properties announced its $315 million Takaya project, overlooking Dubai Autodrome in Motor City.

🤖 Security Seed: Prime Security, an Israeli AI computer security startup, raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Foundation Capital.

💰 Tech Bonds: Ooredoo, Qatar’s telecom company, raised $500 million through an oversubscribed 10-year international bond issue.

Circuit Chatter

📜 Job Insurance: Saudi Arabia has launched an insurance service that will cover unpaid wages for up to six months and provide travel assistance for expatriates to return home in case their company defaults.

💼 Gulf Foothold: Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer has opened an office in Bahrain’s World Trade Centre as part of its Middle East expansion strategy.

🤝 Group Holding: Kuwait’s NI Group, which produces building materials, plans to fully acquire Bahrain’s Foulath Holdings, with board discussion scheduled for next week.

🚰 Water Savings: The emirate of Sharjah reduced water consumption by 40% at its Meliha farms by using data to select resilient wheat seed varieties, monitor crop yields and assess irrigation needs.

🍔 Food Shop: Spinneys supermarket chain plans to build a large processing facility within the UAE’s Food Tech Valley, a government-led initiative to build a sustainable food ecosystem, under a 27-year agreement.

🌍 Power Circuit

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has recovered from an inflammation of his lung and was released on Wednesday from the hospital where he underwent medical tests, the Saudi News Agency reports.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Riyadh on Wednesday. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan also attended.

Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister is visiting both Qatar and Kuwait to hold talks with officials and meet with investors, Anadolu Agency reports.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Supreme Space Council, witnessed the signing of an agreement between the UAE Space Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to provide services for the launch of the “Mohammed Bin Rashid Explorer” spacecraft aboard the H3 rocket in 2028.

➿ On the Circuit

Ratan Tata, the former chairman of Tata Group who elevated the conglomerate to global prominence through high-profile acquisitions, has died at 86.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, CEO of ADNOC, chairman of Masdar, and COP28 President, said on Thursday that the COP 29 summit in Azerbaijan must “provide the means” to put the green ideals agreed to in Dubai last year into practice.

Julie Young has been appointed as an advisor for GEMS education group to support its American curriculum schools and advise on the use of technology across all GEMS schools.

Jon Brook, a PGA veteran, has been appointed as the General Manager of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Links, the 18-hole golf course on Shura Island.

Amir Hayek, Israel’s first ambassador to the UAE, is concluding his term in Abu Dhabi, where he helped establish a free-trade pact between the two countries. Posting on X, Hayek called the experience, “three unforgettable years marked by milestones, challenges, and the bright spark of hope.”

🎶 Culture Circuit

🎞️ Hollywood in the Desert: Saudi Arabia is courting Hollywood and the international film industry to use its vast desert locations and generous sources of funding as a Mideast center for movie-making. Greeting a start-studded crowd at the opening of  Saudi Film Confex in Riyadh on Wednesday, Prince Badr bin Abdullah, Minister of Culture, invited studios and production houses to set up shop. “We seek to make the Kingdom a regional and international hub for film production, as well as to empower talents, and open up horizons for strategic partnerships,” he said.

Photo of the Day

🗓️ Ahead on The Circuit

Oct. 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Season. The Saudi capital’s annual festival kicks off with a nighttime concert featuring R&B queen Ciara and hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes. Riyadh Season grounds.

Oct. 14-18, Dubai, UAE: GITEX Global. One of tech’s biggest events, the UAE conference brings companies from around the world to showcase their latest innovations. Dubai World Trade Center.

Oct. 15-17, Dubai, UAE: Aviation Future Week. Conference brings together UAE ministers, senior government officials and leaders from the aviation, aerospace, air freight and other related industries. Museum of the Future.

Oct.22-24, Dubai, UAE: Dubai Helishow. Conference features innovations in hybrid and electric helicopters, AI integration, UAV combat operations, and civil aviation. Skydive Dubai.

Oct. 29-31, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Future Investment Initiative Conference, 8th Edition. More than 6,000 global participants registered, including world leaders, policymakers CEOs and investors. King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center.

Nov. 5-7, Dubai, UAE: EMEA Stakeholder Conference, This invitation-only event brings together over 700 leaders from across the hotel and real estate industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Lapita Dubai Parks and Resorts Autograph Collection.

Nov. 12-13, Abu Dhabi, UAE: CyberQ: Security in the Quantum Era. Conference brings together international experts, policymakers and industry players to discuss challenges of the quantum age of cybersecurity. ADNEC.

Boeing pledges Riyadh Air order will be ready for 2025 launch

Amid Boeing’s global travails ranging from delays in the delivery of its new generation airliners to lawsuits from the mid-flight blowout of a cabin door, the world’s No. 2 planemaker is determined not to lose Saudi Arabia.

Peter Bellew, chief operating officer of Riyadh Air, says Boeing executives have sought to assure the kingdom’s new flag carrier that the first aircraft in its fleet of purple-hued 787 Dreamliners on order will arrive in time for the airline’s projected launch in the summer of 2025.

“We have to take them on their word,” Bellew told The National in an interview on the sidelines of the U.K.’s Farnborough International Airshow that was published on Wednesday.

“They are aware we’re a startup and we don’t have older or leased aircraft to fall back on,” he said, adding “We’re in close contact with them constantly.”

Riyadh Air, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund, is a key element in Saudi Arabia’s plan to open the kingdom to visitors and attract international business.

With chic designer uniforms unveiled on a Paris runway last month, Bellew expects to hire more than 700 pilots and 3,000 cabin crew over the next two years.

Also generating pressure on Boeing is the competition for Riyadh Air’s second order which Bellew suggested is still a toss-up between the U.S. planemaker and the industry leader, Europe’s Airbus.