The Scoop
Richard Attias & Associates, the organizer of Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference, will “definitely” go public in Riyadh next year, according to the firm’s namesake founder.
“We are in the IPO readiness process,” Attias told Semafor. “It will happen in 2026, definitely.” He expects to have a clearer view of the firm’s valuation by the end of the year but declined to provide financial details.
The company, majority-owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, has offices in Beijing, Dakar, Dubai, New York, and Paris. Since launching the first Future Investment Initiative (FII) in 2017, it has consistently brought the world’s biggest names in business and finance to Riyadh each October, and has expanded to smaller editions in Brazil, Europe, and the US.
Beyond business summits, it also organizes cultural and sporting events like the opening of the men’s soccer Africa Cup of Nations and the Mayor’s Summit during the COP21 climate conference in Paris.
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Public Investment Fund has owned a stake in Richard Attias & Associates since 2019, through its subsidiary Sanabil that focuses on venture capital investments.
The fund’s chairman and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said PIF should sell shares in companies it controls as they grow and reinvest the proceeds in new ventures. PIF is working on several IPOs that could occur over the next year including cybersecurity firm Saudi Information Technology Co. and Saudi Global Ports. That’s on top of a slew of private sector firms also planning share sales.
Attias was a former executive producer of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos from 1996 to 2008. His eponymous firm helped launch FII, and he has presided over its summits, including the Miami edition in February that was attended by US President Donald Trump.
FII may pull in at least $90 million annually — $2 million from each of 35 partners and $15,000 from 1,300 individual members, according to an Attias interview with AGBI last year. The firm hasn’t publicly disclosed its accounts.
Notable
Richard Attias & Associates hired investment bank Evercore to work on IPO preparations earlier this year, Bloomberg reported.