Saudi Arabia’s regional headquartering policy is yielding some newfangled definitions of a corporate territory.
Visa is the latest entrant, with the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar organized under a corporate office in Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman managed as a separate region out of Riyadh (both are nested under Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
The move from the US payments giant comes two years after the kingdom brought in a rule that any company wanting to bid for government contracts would have to set up their regional headquarters in the kingdom. In response to a request for comment, a Visa spokesperson said the move to split the Gulf in two is to “ensure we deepen our engagement with clients and partners who are shaping the future of commerce and support local payment priorities.” On Tuesday, the Saudi government said more than 700 international companies had set up their regional HQ in the country so far.