Investors Worldwide Size Up Palace Intrigue in Oil-Rich Kingdom
- 7 years ago
Investors Worldwide Size Up Palace Intrigue in Oil-Rich Kingdom
The crown prince and his father, King Salman, have also won praise from local and international business leaders for their promises to return the kingdom to the kind of religious moderation
that was more prevalent before a period of religious and sectarian unrest in 1979, when the royal family began to rely on conservative Islamic clerics to guarantee stability.
Speaking of Crown Crown Prince Mohammed, he said, “Once he has consolidated power, he will do what
he wants to do, which is to modernize the country and modernize Islam, which are all good things.
Officials promised that the public offering of the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, would go forward and
that the sovereign wealth fund would soon rank among the richest in the world with more than $400 billion in assets by 2020.
But late on Saturday, the kingdom showed its old face of palace intrigue, with the arrests of four ministers
and 11 princes, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire who is one of the country’s most public investment figures.
“It might have good consequences for stability maybe, or just the opposite,” said Dragan Vuckovic, president of Mediterranean International, an oil service company
that does business across the Middle East and North Africa.
In a tweet just hours before the arrests, President Trump said he would appreciate
it if the Saudi Aramco public offering took place on the New York Stock Exchange.
In that way, the arrests are viewed as a sign that the crown prince will be able to push through
his ambitious economic agenda, including selling off shares in the giant state oil company.
The crown prince and his father, King Salman, have also won praise from local and international business leaders for their promises to return the kingdom to the kind of religious moderation
that was more prevalent before a period of religious and sectarian unrest in 1979, when the royal family began to rely on conservative Islamic clerics to guarantee stability.
Speaking of Crown Crown Prince Mohammed, he said, “Once he has consolidated power, he will do what
he wants to do, which is to modernize the country and modernize Islam, which are all good things.
Officials promised that the public offering of the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, would go forward and
that the sovereign wealth fund would soon rank among the richest in the world with more than $400 billion in assets by 2020.
But late on Saturday, the kingdom showed its old face of palace intrigue, with the arrests of four ministers
and 11 princes, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire who is one of the country’s most public investment figures.
“It might have good consequences for stability maybe, or just the opposite,” said Dragan Vuckovic, president of Mediterranean International, an oil service company
that does business across the Middle East and North Africa.
In a tweet just hours before the arrests, President Trump said he would appreciate
it if the Saudi Aramco public offering took place on the New York Stock Exchange.
In that way, the arrests are viewed as a sign that the crown prince will be able to push through
his ambitious economic agenda, including selling off shares in the giant state oil company.