Wall St titans skip Riyadh, still come to Gulf
Houthi attacks forced the postponement of FII, but the likes of BlackRock’s Larry Fink made the trip anyway.
While Wall Street's top executives typically gather in Riyadh for the annual Financial Innovation Forum, this year they remained in the Gulf region due to Houthi attacks that forced the postponement of FII. Prominent figures such as Apollo's Marc Rowan, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, and KKR's Scott Nuttall traveled to Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, where they engaged in discussions with The National, the newspaper owned by the UAE's vice president.
Rowan and Schwarzman highlighted potential opportunities in the region, notably driven by the ongoing war. Rowan predicted that Gulf states would invest $1 trillion in fortifying infrastructure and constructing alternative transportation routes, while Schwarzman anticipated a "very substantial construction boom" as countries relocate vulnerable infrastructure below ground.
Written by urgent.news from Semafor's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
