JUNE | FEATURE
Crude
awakening
A $450m investment into the live industry
shows Saudi Arabia looking to diversify its
oil-dependent economy
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment
Fund (PIF) made a USD$450m
private investment into stocks
of Live Nation in May. The PIF is the
sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,
and one of the largest in the world –
estimated at USD$320bn.
The investment seems to signal that
the Saudi government is eyeing up the
live industry as a potential target for
diversifying its oil-dependent economy.
As Covid-19 has led to widespread
travel restrictions, the price of oil has
plummeted. At one point in April, the
value of West Texas Intermediate, the
benchmark price for US oil, dropped
below zero. That meant it was actually
costing oil companies just to store
barrels.
This presents an issue for Saudi
Arabia, which produces 12% of all
the world’s oil. The country has
already been making inroads to the
live industry since 2017, when the
government there established the
General Entertainment Authority
(GEA). The GEA is an arm of its Vision
2030 project, which aims to promote
Saudi Arabia as a regional power in the
Middle East.
The GEA staged Saudi Arabia’s first
ever performance with a female lead
character in January 2018, when it
partnered with Time Entertainment
and IMG Artists on a dance show called
Shadowland. It was also behind the
Jeddah World Fest, Saudi Arabia’s first
ever music festival, in 2019.
Some event industry suppliers in
the UK have offices in the Middle East,
aiming to capitalise on this building
momentum. Arena Group has a
base in Dubai, and because of this
regional expertise it was approached
by the Saudi Arabian General Sports
Authority to help it stage one of 2019’s
most high-profile sporting events. The
Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz ‘clash
on the dunes’ in Diriyah required the
company to build a 15,000-capacity
stadium structure from the ground up.
Terry Smith, Managing Director of
Arena Seating, was on site in Diriyah
during the build. He says that young
people in Saudi Arabia were excited by
the prospect of more events coming to
the country. “The younger generation
of Saudis are desperate to try and
remove the stigma that has come with
the country, and all the humans rights
issues,” he says. “Events give them an
opportunity to remove themselves
from that.”
Arena Group has itself seen recent
investment from Saudi Arabia. In
March a Saudi Arabian company called
TasHeel, which provides visa, travel,
concierge and other services, made a
£6m purchase of Arena stocks. Greg
Lawless, Chief Executive Officer of
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