Latest news with #Yasiral-Rumayyan
Middle East Eye
30-06-2025
- Business
- Middle East Eye
Saudi Public Investment Fund's profits plunge 60 percent
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund's net profits plunged 60 percent in 2024, reflecting inflation and lower energy prices along with struggles to complete some of the kingdom's flagship giga-projects. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has more than $1 trillion dollars in assets and generated just $6.9bn in net profits in 2024, according to results it released on Monday. PIF's gross revenue rose 25 percent compared to last year. The jump was added by investments in local Saudi firms maturing, like the Saudi National Bank. But the rise was not enough to offset higher interest rates and what PIF called 'impairments' on select projects. PIF is the main vehicle for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's bid to diversify his country's economy away from a reliance on energy. PIF has invested in local tech startups, sports, and luxury developments on the Red Sea. But for now, oil still accounts for roughly 61 percent of Saudi Arabia's revenue, according to its 2025 budget. PIF also generates money from owning shares in Aramco, the Saudi state oil company. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Saudi Arabia's spending benefited from higher energy prices after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But crude has since plunged to around $65 per barrel, despite the war between Israel and Iran. Saudi Arabia has had to scale back some of its more ambitious mega-projects like Neom. The futuristic development was originally billed as a $1.5 trillion project that would be 33 times the size of New York City and include a 170km straight-line city known as "The Line'. Instead of 1.5 million people living in the city by 2030, Saudi officials anticipate fewer than 300,000 residents. Meanwhile, only 2.4km of the city will be completed by 2030. In April, the Financial Times reported that the CEO of the futuristic city had launched a 'comprehensive review' of the kingdom's mega-project, signifying more belt-tightening to come with falling energy prices. Why Saudi Arabia can spend more money than it makes, even as oil prices drop Read More » Saudi Arabia has had trouble luring foreign investors to its programme, and PIF has had to carry the weight. The fund owns US stocks like Uber and Meta and has invested in overseas infrastructure projects with Blackstone. However, PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan said in October that the fund would focus more on the domestic Saudi market as it looks to advance the crown prince's Vision 2030 programme. Saudi Arabia has also turned to debt to finance its projects, which makes the kingdom's goals susceptible to rising interest rates. In January, the fund raised $4bn in an international bond sale, and in June rolled out a new special purpose vehicle to issue short-term debt. Saudi Arabia has seen solid demand for its debt among investors and has shown a willingness to run budget deficits. The kingdom's 2025 budget expects a fiscal deficit of $27bn or 2.3 percent of GDP. However, that number could rise. According to a report published in April by the Arab Gulf States Institute, if oil prices were to average $65 per barrel in 2025, the deficit would likely be around $56bn or 5.2 percent of GDP.
Reuters
11-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Senate subcommittee: PIF only negotiated with PGA to avoid discovery
April 11 - A report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused the Saudi Public Investment Fund of entering negotiations with the PGA Tour only due to the threat of discovery in their antitrust lawsuit. The report, released Friday, outlined the subcommittee's findings from an inquiry into the June 2023 "framework agreement" for a merger between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF's golf assets, namely LIV Golf. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), chair of the PSI, was among those concerned about "the Saudi government's role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution." But the subcommittee's investigation goes further back to before that shocking announcement, when LIV Golf was pursuing antitrust litigation against the PGA Tour for denying golfers the opportunity to play on both tours. "The Subcommittee's inquiry revealed that the first significant back and forth about a potential agreement between the PIF and the PGA Tour began with a renewed push from a representative of the PIF to broker a deal on April 14, 2023," the report said, "and that a key term of the initial Framework Agreement entered into by the PIF and the PGA Tour involved the dismissal, with prejudice, of pending litigation between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. "On April 7, 2023, a judge in the Northern District of California had ruled in that litigation that the PIF and its Governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, were subject to discovery and depositions by lawyers for the PGA Tour. This deposition would likely have revealed details of the PIF's operations and Governor al-Rumayyan's control over its commercial investments." Blumenthal went on to write that "U.S. defenses are inadequate to protect against increasingly sophisticated foreign influence efforts by Saudi Arabia and other malign actors and exposed loopholes within the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that allow foreign governments to escape accountability." The PGA Tour and the PIF have supposedly been in negotiations for some time now, though the PGA Tour has since acquired additional funding for its new for-profit endeavor, PGA Tour Enterprises, from a coalition of sports owners and investors called Strategic Sports Group. The PGA Tour and LIV have held meetings with President Donald Trump in recent weeks, which have not produced any material progress in the talks.
BBC News
17-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'It is very difficult to separate the success of the club from the ownership'
Newcastle United supporters group NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing (NUFCFAS) say the club's Carabao Cup win on Sunday will be "tainted" for some due to the success coming under their current Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) led the takeover of Newcastle United in 2021 and the Gulf kingdom has been accused of 'sportswashing' in recent years after investing in sport and using high-profile events to improve its international Arabia has been criticised for its human rights violations, women's rights abuses, the criminalisation of homosexuality, the restriction of free speech, environmental record and the war in chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan - the governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia - was on the pitch after the match celebrating the club's first domestic trophy for 70 issued a statement on Monday raising questions about the club's it, the group said: "At the final we had the spectacle of Yasir al-Rumayyan holding the Carabao Cup aloft. Due to lack of scrutiny by the media, most fans will be unaware that the Newcastle United chairman is also a sitting Saudi minster and a right-hand man of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."Fans of other clubs, while happy for our fans for winning our first domestic trophy in 70 years, are also pointing out that it comes at a price."We know that it should be a great day for the city of Newcastle and many will feel that way but for us it is unfortunately tainted by the ownership of the club."When we see the chairman celebrating with the trophy, it is very difficult to separate the success of the club from the ownership."John Hird, a founder of Newcastle supporters group NUFCFAS, also reflected on the Magpies' EFL Cup victory with his own personal statement."I was born a Toon fan," he said. "I remember my dad crying his eyes out after he came back from the Fairs Cup win in 1969. I still have the scrap book of the cup run he made me."I and many other Newcastle fans were fans long before the Saudis took over the club."We'll still be fans long after they've been forced out and we will have stayed true to our values and working-class traditions of solidarity."
The Guardian
24-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Newcastle ‘summit meetings' will finalise plans to strengthen Howe's team
The future of Newcastle United is set to be shaped by a series of so-called 'summit meetings' staged in the Northumberland countryside this month. While the club's chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan will this week scrutinise plans to either rebuild St James' Park or move to a new build stadium in nearby Leazes Park, a recruitment forum held last week began formulating blueprints for the summer transfer market. After a dearth of transfer activity in the past three windows, Eddie Howe, the manager, should be able to sign a new centre half, a right winger, a central striker and a goalkeeper during the close season while keeping star names including Sweden's Alexander Isak. Al-Rumayyan and colleagues from Newcastle's majority owners, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund have flown to the north east from Riyadh in order to consider recommendations regarding the stadium's fate made by the club's UK-based executives, most notably the chief operating officer, Brad Miller. It is then thought that Al-Ramayyan – who, flanked by a detail of heavy duty bodyguards watched Newcastle's 4-3 home win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday – will return to the Middle East to consider those options. Then, following a consultation with the club's nine-person, fan advisory board, a public announcement will be made at some point next month. More immediately, proposals for a new training ground will also be considered during this week's discreet gathering somewhere in Northumberland – Maften Hall Hotel has been mentioned as a likely venue but directors have previously met at Close House Hotel and Alnwick Castle. The identities of players who could potentially inhabit that new weekday base were the subject of recruitment talks in Northumberland last week when the attentions of Newcastle's senior boardroom management turned to the need to refresh Howe's squad this summer. Howe is adamant he wants to retain his four 'stars' – Isak, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimarães and Anthony Gordon. If the fulfilment of that desire could yet hinge on whether the team – currently fifth in the Premier League – qualifies for next season's Champions League there is confidence the club are now well placed to not only keep their top players but restock Howe's squad while remaining on the right side of profit and sustainability rules. Newcastle's manager has complained of an times, slightly 'stale' senior group, this season as he copes with the consequences of not having been able to sign a first team ready player in any of the past three transfer windows. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Now though the January exits of high earners Miguel Almirón and Lloyd Kelly for a combined sum in excess of £25m allied to the likely departures of, among others, Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier this summer are understood to have balanced the books to the point where Howe will shortly be able to replenish his first-team pool. Although targets have not been finalised and depend on whether this season's Carabao Cup finalists qualify for the Champions League, particularly players are the subject of intense scouting on Newcastle's part. Those currently under such scrutiny include the Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford, the Crystal Palace and England centre half Marc Guehi, the Bournemouth defenders Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi, the Lille striker Jonathan David and the PSV and Bournemouth wingers Johan Bakayoko and Antoine Semenyo, respectively. With the much-heralded Isak contracted to Newcastle until 2028, Paul Mitchell, Newcastle's sporting director, is confident of keeping a striker who has scored 50 goals in 76 Premier League appearances on Tyneside but is expected to attempt to inflate an already stratospheric price tag by shortly opening talks with Isak's representatives over a contract extension.
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Newcastle's £1.6bn decision: owners fly in to decide St James' Park future
They are early drafts and were circulated between only a chosen few but senior Newcastle United executives have been scrutinising architects' drawings of both a Plan A and a Plan B. These currently secret documents relate to a potential redevelopment of St James' Park and the possible construction of a 70,000-capacity stadium in nearby Leazes Park. The consensus is that the former option would take at least five years to complete and the latter a minimum of seven. If such timelines might disrupt St James' Park's status as a Euro 2028 venue, a new ground could conceivably double match‑day revenue and help the club remain on the right side of Premier League spending rules. The next step is for Newcastle's owners, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), to scrutinise the blueprints and choose between options A, B and even C. The final one would involve doing nothing structural and merely giving St James' a thorough makeover roughly equivalent to a homeowner opting to install a new kitchen and bathroom but stopping short of an extension. A Saudi delegation is due to fly into Tyneside from the Middle East to watch Eddie Howe's team in action before hearing the recommendations of UK-based directors amid the seclusion of the Northumberland countryside. Sunday's home match against Nottingham Forest has been pencilled into assorted diaries alongside an alternative date nearer the team's Carabao Cup final against Liverpool in March. Whenever Newcastle's inscrutable chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, touches down at Newcastle airport – and his travel plans tend to be kept deliberately opaque – the initial phase of the infrastructure project the club's chief operating officer, Brad Miller, was hired to oversee is clearly reaching its end. There are suggestions that the Tyneside-based executives, led by Miller, might be leaning towards the new build but conflicting rumours are doing the rounds, with some individuals convinced PIF will look at the costs involved – roughly up to £800m to redevelop Newcastle's city-centre home and almost double that to start from scratch – and opt to concentrate on building a state-of-the-art training ground they have long craved instead. Although no formal talks with stakeholders have been initiated, let alone planning permission applied for, Populous, the architects responsible for Tottenham's stadium, have drawn up advanced plans for a new weekday HQ. Two sites, one at Woolsington, near Newcastle airport, and the other adjacent to the city's racecourse in Gosforth Park are in contention. Yet if there are no arguments about the need to replace the club's presently cramped training base in suburban Benton, no one knows whether the Saudis will deem expanding St James' Park from its present capacity of just over 52,000 to 60,000 worth the time and money. Given that expanding the Gallowgate End of the stadium would entail building over an underground Metro station and that the East Stand backs on to a row of Grade I-listed Georgian terrace houses, redevelopment would be far from straightforward. Throw in the detail that surrounding roads offer essential access to one of the city's main hospitals, the Royal Victoria Infirmary, and that an apparent 'ransom strip' of land behind the East Stand was bought, mysteriously, for £180,000 by a local businessman last spring, and the complications grow. Not that a new-build home would be any simpler, even if it was, as has been seriously considered, built partially on the Leazes End area of the St James' Park footprint backing on to Leazes Park. As part of Newcastle's Town Moor – a vast green expanse larger than London's Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined where cattle still graze – the park is subject to a conservation order. Indeed, there are very real doubts that planning permission would be granted for construction on the edge of a treasured 'green lung' separating the city centre from the affluent suburbs of Gosforth and Jesmond. There was talk of another possible stadium site, five miles to the north in Gosforth Park on land owned by the club's minority shareholders, Reuben Brothers, but that appears to have been dismissed in favour of retaining Newcastle's iconic central location, a long goalkick away from shops, restaurants and hotels. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Back in 1968, the club obtained planning permission for a £1m new stadium in Gosforth Park, to be built along the lines of Rome's Stadio Olimpico. It never happened with some observers convinced the idea was used as leverage to persuade the city council to extend St James' Park's lease to 99 years. Whatever the precise reason, Newcastle remained in the home originally converted from grazing land for Town Moor cattle when, in 1880, St James' Park was set aside for sporting use by the city's Freemen. It is understood the site still cannot be used for property development. If that could act as a disincentive to relocation, Miller – a chartered surveyor previously involved with expansion projects at East Midlands, Stansted and Manchester airports – has told the club's nine-person fan-advisory body a new ground could double match-day revenue. In 2022-23 that income stream was worth £37.9m to Newcastle. In contrast, Manchester City made £72m, Arsenal £103m, Tottenham £118m and Manchester United £136m. Yet although St James' Park is invariably sold out and thousands of fans are regularly disappointed in their quest for tickets, the north-east's demographics suggest there is a limit to the number of expensive corporate boxes Newcastle could sell. Perhaps significantly, during a fan consultation in 2023 respondents were asked if they would like their match-going experience to be accompanied by, among other luxuries, sushi, prosecco and heated seats. Were executives misreading their audience? In many ways, a victory for Manchester City in their tussle over associated party transactions with the Premier League could yet provide the Saudis with an easier way of boosting revenue streams. Moreover, redeveloping St James' Park – and perhaps even building a new arena in Leazes Park – would necessitate a move to a temporary home. With sharing Sunderland's Stadium of Light already ruled out on security grounds and the idea of regular 240-mile round trips to Edinburgh's Murrayfield scotched by Miller, the only feasible alternative is the 90-mile round trip to Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium. At a moment when they are believed to be attempting to purchase a 49% stake in Newcastle airport, the Saudis will have much to ponder as they pore over Miller's proposals. Although their final decision could be made public as early as next month, the debate surrounding the planning process threatens to become almost as heated as that involving Heathrow's third runway.
