Bloomberg reported last week that Saudi Arabia was scaling back its flagship construction project known as Neom. This won't have come as too much of a surprise to veteran kingdom-watchers.
Tip style
Value
Risk rating
Medium
Timescale
Medium Term
Bull points
- Sharp increase in earnings in 2023
- Excellent margin progress in the US
- Consistent dividend payer
- Balance sheet improvements
Bear points
- Uncertainty around Saudi Arabia mega-project
- Problems in the Nordics
- Earnings expected to weaken this year
The end goal for Neom’s first project, The Line, remains the same: a “vertical city” in the Tabuk region straddled by mirror-clad skyscrapers that will be 170km in length. However, only 2.4km of this is likely to be finished by 2030, the news agency said.