Saudi Arabia

One of the Middle East's longest-running debt disputes edged closer to being resolved on Thursday when Saudi Arabian family conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) presented a revised restructuring plan. AHAB has around 22.5 billion riyals ($6 billion) of claims against it after the hospitality, food and real estate group collapsed in 2009 along with Saad Group, a separate Saudi business empire led by Maan al-Sanea. Since then, the two groups have conducted a high-profile battle in the courts over who was to blame.

Saudi Arabia is considering selling shares in refining ventures with foreign oil firms but would not offer a stake in the crude oil exploration and production operations of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, sources familiar with official thinking said, Bloomberg News reported. Some Aramco managers have been informed that the company is looking at listing shares in "joint downstream subsidiaries" at home and abroad, the sources said. One option is to create a holding company that would group together Aramco's stakes in the downstream subsidiaries, one source said.

Saudi Arabia is considering selling shares in its state-owned oil company, a move that comes amid a broad privatization effort afoot in the kingdom, but also at a vulnerable time for Riyadh because of tumbling energy prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. Any move to list shares in Saudi Arabian Oil Co., better known as Saudi Aramco, would almost assuredly be limited in scale, and could exclude its strategic production assets altogether.

Saudi Arabia today unveiled spending cuts in its 2016 budget, subsidy reforms and a call for privatizations to rein in a yawning deficit caused by the prolonged period of low oil prices, the Financial Times reported today. The Gulf kingdom has kept oil production at high levels in an attempt to force out higher-cost producers, such as shale, and retain its market share. But this year’s deficit ballooned to 367bn Saudi riyals ($97.9bn,) or 15 percent of gross domestic product, as oil revenues fell 23 percent to Sr444.5bn.

Saudi insolvency law has for some time been something of an unknown quantity for non-Saudis, The National Law Review reported. A wide-ranging reform is due to take effect in 2016, which will express elements of the rescue culture and is likely to make restructurings more common. Increased certainty in the outcome of insolvencies will benefit both Saudi businesses and domestic and foreign creditors alike.

Saudi Arabia has decided to tap international bond markets for the first time, in a sign of the damage lower oil prices are inflicting on its public finances, the Financial Times reported. Saudi officials say the kingdom could increase debt levels to as much as 50 per cent of gross domestic product within five years, up from a forecasted 6.7 per cent this year and 17.3 per cent in 2016. Work on finalising the bond programme is likely to start in January, according to a senior official.

The IMF has asked Saudi Arabia for more details of its plans to deal with its ballooning fiscal deficit, warning the world’s biggest oil producer could deplete its financial reserves within five years unless it builds on efforts to balance the budget, the Financial Times reported. Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s regional director, pressed Riyadh to outline details of its proposed spending cuts and clarify its position on additional revenue generation measures such as taxes, as it deals with a fiscal deficit hovering around 20 per cent this year and next.

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn tens of billions of dollars from global asset managers as the oil-rich kingdom seeks to cut its widening deficit and reduce exposure to volatile equities markets amid the sustained slump in oil prices, the Financial Times reported. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency’s foreign reserves have slumped by nearly $73bn since oil prices started to decline last year as the kingdom keeps spending to sustain the economy and fund its military campaign in Yemen.

A Geneva prosecutor has closed a six-year investigation into a criminal complaint by Saudi Arabia's Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) against Maan al-Sanea and two units of his Saad Group, the prosecutor's office told Reuters. Family conglomerate AHAB and separate Saudi business empire Saad Group collapsed in 2009 and have since been battling in multiple jurisdictions over who was to blame for the issues which affected their respective groups, including the default on bank debts worth billions of dollars.

Saudi Arabian family conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) is offering creditors a minimum return of 28 cents on every dollar owed under an enhanced proposal to end one of the Middle East's largest ever debt restructurings. The group with interests in hospitality, food and real estate among others, collapsed in 2009 along with Saad Group, a separate Saudi business empire led by Maan al-Sanea. Since then, the two have been battling over who was to blame for the issues affecting their conglomerates.