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Saudi Arabia to Merge Red Sea Project with Amaala

Saudi Arabia intends to raise up to 10 billion riyals (USD 2.67 billion) next year for the Amaala project. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia intends to raise up to 10 billion riyals (USD 2.67 billion) next year for the Amaala project. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
    Milan, Dubai - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Saudi Arabia to Merge Red Sea Project with Amaala

Saudi Arabia intends to raise up to 10 billion riyals (USD 2.67 billion) next year for the Amaala project. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia intends to raise up to 10 billion riyals (USD 2.67 billion) next year for the Amaala project. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

John Pagano, CEO of the Red Sea Development Company and the Amaala project - two prominent pillars of the tourism transformation within the Kingdom Vision 2030 - revealed that Saudi Arabia intends to raise up to 10 billion riyals (USD 2.67 billion) next year for the Amaala project, one of the largest resort tourism projects in the world.

Amaala and the Red Sea projects, which are being built on the Red Sea coast, are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify the Kingdom’s economy by promoting new sectors such as tourism. The two projects are also environmentally friendly and will rely on renewable sources of energy.

The planned “green” financing for the Amaala project would follow a larger loan raised earlier this year for the Red Sea Project.

“We will come to the market probably sometime next year with a financing for Amaala specifically related to the first phase of the project,” Pagano told Reuters on Tuesday.

He said the loan was likely to be between 5 and 10 billion riyals and follows the 14 billion riyals raised by The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) earlier this year, Reuters reported.

According to the agency, the Red Sea project loan was provided by four Saudi banks to finance 16 new hotels. The Amaala financing will be for nine hotels in the first phase of the project, Pagano said, adding the plan is to open those facilities in 2024.

Meanwhile, Amaala Company reported that it had awarded more than 230 contracts with a total value of 3.6 billion riyals (one billion dollars) for local and international companies.

In a statement on its official Twitter account, the company said that 78% of the contracts were awarded to Saudi companies as part of its commitment to Saudi Vision 2030 and its contribution to supporting the Saudi economy.

Amaala and The Red Sea Project, wholly owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, will most likely merge into the Red Sea Group by the end of this year.

“The coming together of the two organizations is a natural evolution,” Pagano said.

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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, as President Joe Biden steps up actions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
The move, which wields the department's most powerful sanctions tool, effectively kicks Gazprombank out of the US banking system, bans its trade with Americans and freezes its US assets, Reuters reported.
Gazprombank is one of Russia's largest banks and is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has been urging the US to impose more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe.
The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kyiv to use US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on the war's 1,000th day.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium Russian banks to curtail the country's connections to the international financial system and prevent it from abusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for the war. It warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain correspondent relationships with the targeted banks "entails significant sanctions risk."
"This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and fund and equip its military," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "We will continue to take decisive steps against any financial channels Russia uses to support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine."
Gazprombank said Washington's latest move would not affect its operations. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Along with the sanctions, Treasury also issued two new general licenses authorizing US entities to wind down transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and to take steps to divest from debt or equity issued by Gazprombank.
Gazprombank is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury said. The Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers, including for combat bonuses, and to compensate the families of its soldiers killed in the war.
The administration believes the new sanctions improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield and ability to achieve a just peace, a source familiar with the matter said.
COLLATERAL IMPACT
While Gazprombank has been on the administration's radar for years, it has been seen as a last resort because of its focus on energy and the desire to avoid collateral impact on Europe, a Washington-based trade lawyer said.
"I think that the current administration is trying to put as much pressure and add as many sanctions as possible prior to January 20th to make it harder for the next administration to unwind," said the lawyer, Douglas Jacobson.
Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said they were studying the impacts of the new US sanctions.
Trump would have the power to remove the sanctions, which were imposed under an executive order by Biden, if he wants to take a different stance, Jacobson said.
After Russia's invasion in 2022, the Treasury placed debt and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms, including Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural Bank.
The US Treasury has also worked to provide Ukraine with funds from windfall proceeds of frozen Russian assets.