The Scoop
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will host a glitzy 90th anniversary celebration in Riyadh on Sunday, joined by Saudi ministers and the head of the country’s state-controlled oil giant, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the close links between the US bank and key Saudi institutions.
The CEO of the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization is also planning to be in Riyadh to speak at the Future Investment Initiative conference on Tuesday, the flagship event backed by Saudi’s nearly $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund.
Joining him at the JPMorgan party, which will also mark the opening of the bank’s new regional headquarters for its Saudi operations, will be Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, who sits on JPMorgan’s international advisory council, according to the people familiar. Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih, a former member of the JPMorgan advisory council, is invited to attend along with Mohammed al Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, the people said.
“As we celebrate more than 90 years of doing business in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are excited to continue to build on our legacy, invest in the future, and work alongside our clients and partners to unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation,” Bader Alamoudi, JPMorgan’s senior country officer for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said in a statement to Semafor.
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JPMorgan’s history in the kingdom runs deep. The bank helped US oil companies finance operations in the 1930s that eventually led to the creation of Aramco, and played a pivotal role two decades later in the formation of Saudi Arabia’s central bank, which today holds around $130 billion in US Treasurys. More recently, the firm advised the government on many of its international bond sales and helped finance the sovereign wealth fund’s $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts.
Dimon himself was personally involved in pitching Aramco’s debut international bond offering in 2019, and the bank had a lead role on the oil producer’s record-breaking IPO later that year.
Several JPMorgan alumni now hold top roles in the kingdom, including Mohammed Al Tuwaijri, an adviser at the Royal Court and former economy minister, and Rayan Fayez, deputy CEO of NEOM, the potentially $1 trillion new city being built in the kingdom’s northwest.
Notable
- JPMorgan has been beefing up its presence across the Middle East and is looking to add 100 staffers in the region, Bloomberg reported.