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Saudi Research and Marketing Group Acquires Controlling Stake in 'Argaam'

Prince Badr bin Farhan with Ghassan al-Shibl, Rashid al-Owain and Islam Zween (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Prince Badr bin Farhan with Ghassan al-Shibl, Rashid al-Owain and Islam Zween (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Research and Marketing Group Acquires Controlling Stake in 'Argaam'

Prince Badr bin Farhan with Ghassan al-Shibl, Rashid al-Owain and Islam Zween (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Prince Badr bin Farhan with Ghassan al-Shibl, Rashid al-Owain and Islam Zween (Asharq Al-Awsat)

As part of its plan to expand its range of specialized content and develop digital publishing initiatives, Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) acquired a controlling stake in the Argaam Investment and Trading Company.

Argaam is a financial news portal that runs an online economic and financial information service and provides real-time updates on financial markets and macroeconomic trends in Saudi Arabia and the region.

SRMG acquired 51 percent of Argaam for $10 million in an attempt to expand its operations, at a time when Saudi Arabia is diversifying its economy and opening up to more foreign investments and as a part of the National Transformation Plan (NTP) 2020 and Vision 2030.

Following the acquisition, SRMG Chairman Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud said it will help pave the way to a “brighter future” for the digital content industry in Saudi Arabia. He added that Argaam was very successful in various fields, mainly because it was one of the most prominent digital experiments in creating content for finance, business, and market movement in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

He added that this acquisition will also help promote means of development and alleviate it into higher levels.

Sources at the group revealed that this acquisition was done based on several strategic elements including its compatibility with Argaam’s content platforms which will generate a comprehensive performance within an environment that will raise Argaam into international levels.

Managing director and chief executive of SRMG Ghassan al-Shibl pointed out that the acquisition of one of the most important economic websites in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world is a continuation of the group’s strategy to expand its specialized content portfolios in the world of finance, business, market economics and different media platforms.

Shibl added that Saudi Arabian data has become a “strategic commodity” for potential investors weighing their options on how to invest in the Kingdom.

The acquisition also reflects an anticipated rise in demand for information on Saudi Arabia’s economy and financial markets as the country ramps up non-oil growth and diversifies its economy under its Vision 2030 strategy, according to Shibl.

The acquisition comes after SRMG signed a deal with the New York-headquartered Bloomberg LP to launch Bloomberg al-Arabiya, a new multi-platform Arabic-language business and financial news service.

The agreement includes the publishing of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in Arabic as well as a 24/7 television and radio network. The Bloomberg al-Arabiya team will be headquartered in the Gulf, and managed by SRMG with support from Bloomberg.

Saudi Research and Marketing Group is one of the leading investment companies in the industry of media and publishing and other fields linked to it in the Middle East. Established in 1987, SRMG is based on an investing comprehensive approach.

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Honda and Nissan Start Merger Talks in Historic Pivot

Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President and Representative Executive Officer of Honda and Takao Kato, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint press conference on their merger talks, in Tokyo, Japan, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President and Representative Executive Officer of Honda and Takao Kato, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint press conference on their merger talks, in Tokyo, Japan, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
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Honda and Nissan Start Merger Talks in Historic Pivot

Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President and Representative Executive Officer of Honda and Takao Kato, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint press conference on their merger talks, in Tokyo, Japan, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President and Representative Executive Officer of Honda and Takao Kato, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint press conference on their merger talks, in Tokyo, Japan, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Honda and Nissan have started talks toward a potential merger, they said on Monday, a historic pivot for Japan's auto industry that underlines the threat Chinese EV makers now pose to some of the world's best known car makers, Reuters said.
The integration would create the world's third-largest auto group by vehicle sales after Toyota and Volkswagen. It would also give the two companies scale and a chance to share resources in the face of intense competition from Tesla and more nimble Chinese rivals, such as BYD.
The merger of the two storied Japanese brands - Honda is Japan's second-largest automaker and Nissan its no. 3 - would mark the biggest reshaping in the global auto industry since Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA merged in 2021 to create Stellantis in a $52 billion deal.
Smaller Mitsubishi Motors, in which Nissan is top shareholder, was also considering joining, the companies said. The chief executives of all three companies held a joint press conference in Tokyo.
"The rise of Chinese automakers and new players has changed the car industry quite a lot," Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told the press conference.
"We have to build up capabilities to fight with them by 2030, otherwise we'll be beaten," he said.
The two companies would aim for combined sales of 30 trillion yen ($191 billion) and operating profit of more than 3 trillion yen through the potential merger, they said.
They aimed to wrap up talks around June 2025 and then set up a holding company by August 2026, at which time both companies' shares would be delisted.
Honda has a market capitalisation of more than $40 billion, while Nissan is valued at about $10 billion.
Honda will appoint the majority of the holding company's board, it said.
Combining with Mitsubishi Motors would take the Japanese group's global sales to more than 8 million cars. The current No. 3 group is South Korea's Hyundai and Kia .
Honda and Nissan have been exploring ways to bolster their partnership, including a merger, Reuters reported last week.
The two companies said in March they were considering cooperation on electrification and software development. They agreed to conduct joint research and widened the collaboration to Mitsubishi Motors in August.
Last month, Nissan announced a plan to cut 9,000 jobs and 20% of its global production capacity after sales plunged in the key China and U.S. markets. Honda also reported worse-than-expected earnings due to declining sales in China.
Like other foreign carmakers, Honda and Nissan have lost ground in the world's biggest market China to BYD and other local brands that make electric and hybrid cars loaded with innovative software.
In a separate online press conference with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Monday, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn said he did not believe the Honda-Nissan alliance would be successful, saying the two automakers were not complementary.
Ghosn is wanted as a fugitive in Japan for jumping bail and fleeing to Lebanon. His 2018 arrest for financial wrongdoing pitched Nissan into a crisis.
French automaker Renault, Nissan's largest shareholder, is open in principle to a deal and would examine all the implications of a tie-up, sources have said.
Taiwan's Foxconn, seeking to expand its nascent EV contract manufacturing business, approached Nissan about a bid but the Japanese company rejected it, sources have told Reuters.
Foxconn decided to pause the approach after it sent a delegation to meet with Renault in France, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
Shares in Honda ended the day up 3.8%, Nissan rose 1.6% and Mitsubishi Motors gained 5.3% after the news reports on the details of the planned merger, while the benchmark Nikkei closed up 1.2%.