Saudi Arabia has decided not to hold its flagship Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in person next week, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The event will instead be held fully online or postponed, the Journal reported. The FT said a final decision on the format was expected within days.
CNBC reported that the conference, which had been scheduled for October 26, has been postponed until 2027. Bloomberg News also reported that Saudi Arabia had scrapped in-person attendance.
Either option would mean executives and officials will not have to travel to Riyadh next week, the Journal said.
The reports follow an escalation of missile and drone attacks on the kingdom by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement. A Houthi attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10 killed at least 12 people and injured more than 300, according to CNBC.
Semafor reported earlier on Monday that big banks and private equity firms had privately relayed safety concerns about attending to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is the main backer of FII and the majority shareholder of the company that organizes it.
The FII Institute had not announced a change to the event on its website by Monday evening.
The annual conference, often called “Davos in the Desert,” typically draws heads of state and executives from the world’s largest banks, asset managers and energy companies.
