Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia banned imports from Lebanon and, along with three other Gulf states, expelled its ambassador following remarks by an official about the war in Yemen, as long-simmering tensions over Iran’s influence in Lebanon spill over and threaten to damage its already disastrous economy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Saudi Arabia reached an agreement with one of the world’s biggest bond clearing systems to settle transactions in its debt market, Bloomberg News reported. The deal between the kingdom’s Securities Depository Center Company, known as Edaa, and Brussels-based Euroclear Bank will give foreign investors access to the sukuk and bond market within the Saudi Exchange. Under the terms of an agreement signed at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, the link is expected to become operational in March 2022, according to a statement on Wednesday.

A Saudi court on Sunday issued a final order on the restructuring of the Algosaibi family’s conglomerate AHAB, putting a formal end to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest and longest debt disputes, Reuters reported. AHAB filed for a financial restructuring in 2019 under the framework of Saudi Arabia’s bankruptcy law, introduced the previous year to make the kingdom more investor-friendly. The Dammam commercial court on Sunday issued the final ratification order for the AHAB restructuring, which is now unappealable, Simon Charlton, chief restructuring officer at AHAB, told Reuters.

BNP Paribas SA and Citigroup Inc. are among global banks that are finally set to see some of their loans be at least partially repaid after getting caught up in one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest corporate defaults, Bloomberg News reported.In the first major test for the kingdom’s new bankruptcy law, Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co., which has been locked in legal battles and negotiations with creditors over $7.5 billion of debt since 2009, had its proposal to restructure the obligations ratified by a Saudi court, Simon Charlton, Algosaibi’s chief restructuring officer said.

Saudi Arabia is set to impose one of the world’s most sweeping vaccine mandates in an attempt to combat hesitancy toward the Covid-19 shots in the kingdom, as governments globally try to confront a new surge in cases of the Delta variant, the Wall Street Journal reported. People in Saudi Arabia will need to show proof on a mobile app that they have received at least one vaccine dose to enter public and private institutions beginning Sunday, including schools, shops, malls, markets, restaurants, cafes, concert venues and public transportation. From Aug.

After more than 12 years of back and forth between the Algosaibi family’s conglomerate AHAB and its creditors, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest debt disputes is set to finally reach a resolution, Reuters reported. A debt restructuring proposal was submitted to the Dammam commercial court this week after approval from a creditor committee, Simon Charlton, chief restructuring officer and acting chief executive of AHAB told Reuters on Thursday.

OPEC+ ministers called off oil output talks on Monday after clashing last week when the United Arab Emirates rejected a proposed eight-month extension to output curbs, meaning no deal to boost production has been agreed, Reuters reported. Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had called for "compromise and rationality" to secure a deal after two days of failed discussions last week. But four OPEC+ sources said there had been no progress.

Saudi Arabian oil group Aramco is in talks with banks for a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issue, two sources said, seeking to raise money ahead of large commitments for its major shareholder, the Saudi government, Reuters reported. Aramco was widely expected to become a regular bond issuer after its debut $12 billion bond deal in 2019 was followed by an $8 billion, five-part transaction in November last year.

A debt restructuring proposal designed to prevent the collapse of construction giant Saudi Binladin Group may face more scrutiny from creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The lenders that want a bigger say in the process have held discussions with Rothschild & Co. and may decide to appoint the investment bank in the coming weeks. Talks are ongoing, and no final decisions have been made. Creditors may also choose to hire another adviser or none at all. While it’s not unusual for creditors to seek an independent counsel, they are acting almost a year after Binladin hired Houlihan Lokey Inc.