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‏NEOM Meets with Business Community in the United States

NEOM concluded a series of "Discover NEOM" events with investors and business partners in the United States. (SPA)
NEOM concluded a series of "Discover NEOM" events with investors and business partners in the United States. (SPA)
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‏NEOM Meets with Business Community in the United States

NEOM concluded a series of "Discover NEOM" events with investors and business partners in the United States. (SPA)
NEOM concluded a series of "Discover NEOM" events with investors and business partners in the United States. (SPA)

NEOM has concluded a series of "Discover NEOM" events with investors and business partners in the United States as part of its ongoing efforts to highlight the project’s latest developments and explore investment opportunities, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

CEO of NEOM, Nadhmi Al-Nasr said: "We came to the United States to explore the significant market opportunities that NEOM presents to American corporations, to showcase the great progress NEOM has made and to discuss how we can best support the collaborative international effort to address global challenges."

"The events were attended by over 700 business, financial, investment, environment and sustainability, technology and manufacturing leaders. NEOM looks forward to the meaningful partnerships that will be forged out of our US visit and the investment opportunities it will bring to NEOM and Saudi Arabia supported by the guidance of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."

During the US visit, NEOM held a special event at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC to honor students on NEOM’s scholarship program, in the presence of the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud. The event celebrated students from NEOM and Tabuk in a show of support, motivation and empowerment, reflecting the Saudi leadership’s belief in its youth as today’s partners and tomorrow’s leaders.

‏"Discover NEOM" is the name for a series of world events that included a similar event held in London late last year to showcase NEOM and explore investment opportunities with potential partners from all sectors. NEOM plans to expand its events to reach more destinations all over the globe.

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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Lebanese officials hope to meet international bondholders to talk about restructuring debt in the next 12 months but are not planning any meetings at the World Bank/IMF Spring meetings next week, finance minister Yassin Jaber said on Tuesday.

Jaber spoke to Reuters just days before travelling to Washington for the Spring meetings - one of the biggest gatherings for financial policy makers and investors - where Lebanon will seek to show it has made progress on economic reforms to address the underlying causes of its financial crash.

Lebanon's economy began unravelling in 2019 after years of corruption and profligate spending by the country's ruling elite, and tipped into a sovereign default on its $31 billion of outstanding international bonds in March 2020.

Asked whether he planned to meet international bondholders in the next year, Jaber said, "definitely, definitely, this is as they say the elephant in the room."

"You can't escape it in the end. Lebanon is keen to resolve this issue, God willing," he said.

But the country needed to make progress on reforms - including reforming the banking sector and boosting government revenues through reforms to tax systems and customs collection - before it could start talks, Jaber said.

"We wanted, first of all, to do our homework, to put the whole reform process on the right track to get started. You can't have a house in total disorder and then say, 'I want to negotiate,'" he said.

The Lebanese delegation to the spring meetings will be the first outing at an IMF/World Bank meeting for Lebanon's new government, which took the reins in February and pledged to seek a new IMF programme. Jaber said it would be the first time a Lebanese finance minister attends in more than a decade.

Economy Minister Amer Bisat is scheduled to give an outlook on Lebanon's economy at a JPMorgan investor conference held on the sidelines, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The creditor group - which includes the heavyweight funds Amundi, Ashmore, BlackRock, BlueBay, Fidelity and T-Rowe Price as well as a group of smaller hedge funds - has recently appointed a financial advisor in preparation for debt talks.

Shortly after the bondholder group originally formed in 2021, it said it held a "blocking stake" of more than 25% across a number of Lebanon's bonds, making it a critical player in any debt restructuring.

The chunk of the bonds are also held by domestic commercial banks or the Lebanese central bank, which bought $3 billion of debt directly from a previous government in 2019.

Lebanon's bonds trade at deeply distressed levels of around 15-16 cents in the dollar. However, that is a sharp uptick from the single digits they traded in before Israel's military campaign badly weakened Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, long viewed as an obstacle to overcoming Lebanon's political paralysis.

In January, Lebanon's cabinet extended the statute of limitations on legal action over Eurobonds for another three years. Jaber said the move "reassured the bondholders".