• Saudi Ministry of Investment has granted US investment bank Goldman Sachs a license to set up its regional headquarters in Riyadh.
• The deal marks the first Wall Street bank to open a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia, in compliance with the Kingdom's ultimatum for foreign firms to set up their Middle Eastern base there.
• Under Saudi laws, which came into force this year, companies with state contracts must have a regional headquarters in the kingdom with a minimum of 15 employees.

Source: Zawya

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has become the first Wall Street bank to take a step toward complying with Saudi Arabia’s ultimatum for foreign firms to set up their Middle Eastern base there, according to Bloomberg.

The investment bank received a license recently from the kingdom’s Ministry of Investment to set up its regional headquarters in Riyadh, according to people familiar with the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear how many staffers would move to Saudi Arabia and how much of Goldman’s regional operations would ultimately be based in the kingdom.

Under Saudi laws, which came into force this year, companies with state contracts must have a regional headquarters in the kingdom with a minimum of 15 employees.

Goldman currently has offices in Doha, Riyadh and Dubai.

The kingdom first announced Project Regional Headquarters in 2021, and the country saw the arrival of foreign firms complying with the new rules ramp up last year.