The heads of Blackstone Group and BlackRock are the latest global business leaders to cancel plans to attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of a prominent government critic in Turkey, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Neither Blackstone chief executive officer Steve Schwarzman nor BlackRock CEO Larry Fink will now attend the event, dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” the people said, asking not to be identified. Executives including JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Jamie Dimon and Uber Technologies Inc’s Dara Khosrowshahi have also dropped out.
A year ago, BlackRock’s CEO was one of the attendees, publicly praising the direction of the Saudi economy.
The firm received local arranging and advising licenses earlier in 2018.
JPMorgan spokesman Joe Evangelisti said the CEO won’t attend the conference in an emailed statement. He declined to comment on Dimon’s reason.
Turkish officials allege Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who lived in self-imposed exile, was murdered in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul after entering the building on October 2. They now say they have audio and video recordings that show a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate before killing him and dismembering his body, the Washington Post reported. Saudi officials say Khashoggi left the building unharmed.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered the Saudi public prosecutor to investigate the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi official told Bloomberg today. The probe could result in people being held accountable if the evidence warrants it, the official said.
The finance-industry executives join a range of business leaders to back away from the three-day Future Investment Initiative event, which is intended to showcase Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s modernisation plan for the desert kingdom. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is also facing calls to skip the conference scheduled for October 23-25 in Riyadh.
“Whilst it is disappointing that some speakers and partners have pulled out, we are looking forward to welcoming thousands of speakers, moderators and guests from all over the world,” a spokesperson for the Future Investment Initiative said in an emailed statement.
Herman Narula, CEO of startup Improbable Worlds, won’t be attending, according to spokesman Daniel Griffiths. Improbable last year raised $502mn from investors led by SoftBank Group Corp, whose planned $100bn Vision Fund is backed by Saudi Arabia and other investors.
Ford Motor Co chairman Bill Ford cancelled a multi-stop trip to the Middle East including a planned appearance at the investment conference, Reuters reported, citing the company.
Billionaire Richard Branson sees the case as a potential game-changer for companies doing business with Saudi Arabia, halting Virgin Group’s talks for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to invest in a space venture.
“What has reportedly happened in Turkey around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi government,” he said last week. The event, unofficially tagged with the “Davos” title, features chief executives like Siemens AG’s Joe Kaeser - whose engineering behemoth is a “strategic partner” for the conference - and HSBC Holdings Plc’s John Flint.
The gathering is co- hosted by the kingdom’s massive sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and the crown prince, who gave a speech at the event last year and took selfies with attendees. Uber got a $3.5bn investment from the PIF two years ago.
Siemens’ head of financial media relations, Philipp Encz, said that for now there are no changes to Kaeser’s plans, but the company is “following the situation closely.”
Schwarzman (left) and Fink: Latest global business leaders to cancel plans to attend Saudi investment meet.
