Thank you for your continued support in 2024. With each year that passes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we repeat that it has been another extraordinary year, and this year is no exception.
Using superlatives or descriptions such as ‘renaissance’ seems to be the norm when describing economic growth, and transformation in Saudi, but for those of you that we have met either here in Riyadh or around the world you know what we mean when we say Vision2030 is well underway.
The AEI business model of supporting foreign businesses to enter, establish and expand into the Saudi market remains unchanged, but the tactical practical advice that over 2,300 clients have received from our team of experts is unique. We were very proud to have two of our clients take to the floor at our City of London VI networking event in November and tell a packed house as part their respective investor’s journey that AEI was integral to their success.
As we close the calendar year, the announcement of the 2034 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup to be hosted in the Kingdom is perhaps the jewel in the crown for the Saudi people. This significant event has a ten-year runway for the international supply chain, but there is also the Asian Football Cup in 2027, the Asian Winter Games in 2029, and Expo in 2030 which are all enormous opportunities. Given that AEI supports creatives, architects, consultancies, tech firms, property business, manufacturers to name just a few we are very excited to assist many more clients and be a part of the mutual prosperity agenda between continents.
For us the year started with a bang when as guests at the F1 in Jeddah we signed an MOU with the Ministry of Investment, the principal stakeholder for any business entering the Kingdom. The sporting theme continued when we moderated panels at Silverstone in the UK, and then were panellists at the World Football summit here in Riyadh. We also had multiple webinars with three new channel partners from around the world, showcased at important G2G events such GREAT FUTURES, and supported trade missions from US to Belgium, Monaco to Kazakhstan.
The year has ended on a high where amongst a brand refresh, maintaining our ISO9001 status, and increasing our capacity with 27 new staff and we can report the following:
Sales $36m: up 20%
25 Financial Admin Service clients: up 1,150%
32 Registered Office clients: up 540%
40 People Services clients: up 18% - managing over 110 employees
45 Back Office clients: up 50% - managing over 800 employees
50 Entity Establishments in process: up 25% - the quickest being 98 days first contact to first contract
99% occupancy at the AEI compound ARC
In 2025 we are looking forward to rolling out a workflow management tool to integrate with our CRM and accounting platform, conducting a Far East business development tour, and landing some important multinational clients.