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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: This is the Bloomberg Day Bak podcast. Good morning, It's Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: the sixteenth of December. I'm Caroline Hepget in London and.

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Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Caroline Brussels. Coming up today, How two Saudi

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Speaker 1: sisters have become powerbrokers, courted from Wall Street to World Capitals.

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Speaker 2: President Trump, who's the BBC for ten billion dollars over

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Speaker 2: the misleading edit of a documentary?

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Speaker 1: Plus a little less high End Why London's luxury home

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Speaker 1: market has had its worst year since COVID.

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Speaker 2: Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.

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Speaker 1: Two Saudi sisters have built one of the world's most

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Speaker 1: powerful family empires, amassing vast global holdings from US stocks

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Speaker 1: to prime real estate. Bloomberg's reporting has detailed their growing influence,

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Speaker 1: backed by deep ties to Wall Street and Saudi leadership,

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Speaker 1: and how it's making them central players in the Kingdom's

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Speaker 1: echo namic ambitions. In Brooks, teaba Adebayo has the story.

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Speaker 3: Sisters Lubna and Hutham came of age at a time

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Speaker 3: when Saudi women weren't permitted to drive and needed a

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Speaker 3: male guardian's permission to even get a passport, yet they

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Speaker 3: sit at the helm of a sprawling and secretive empire

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Speaker 3: valued at more than fifty billion dollars according to the

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Speaker 3: Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The success of the Duo Zolayan group

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Speaker 3: could put the families net worth even higher, with some

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Speaker 3: sources paying their fortune above one hundred billion dollars, in

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Speaker 3: the same league as magnates Bill Gates and Mukesh Ambarney,

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Speaker 3: but as the family's influence rather than their financial firepower,

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Speaker 3: which has earned them the respects of Wall Street bosses

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Speaker 3: seeking their advice on expanding into Saudi Arabia's economy. At

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Speaker 3: last month's White House banquet for Crown Prince Mohammad bin

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Speaker 3: Salman Lubna Oleyan was seated next to Elon Musk, aided

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Speaker 3: in part by their loyalty to the kingdom even during times,

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Speaker 3: the Alayans have become an indispensable national fixture, say those

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Speaker 3: within their circles in London. Do you added buyot Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 2: Now, US negotiators have offered more significant security guarantees to

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Speaker 2: Ukraine in a renewed bid to end the conflict with Russia.

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Speaker 2: According to a White House official, the Trump administration said

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Speaker 2: that it would provide strong Article five like assurances to

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Speaker 2: Kiev as part of the current deal to find a

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Speaker 2: diplomatic solution. Speaking yesterday, the US President claimed the conflict

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Speaker 2: is nearing resolution.

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Speaker 4: I think we're closer now, and they will tell you

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Speaker 4: that they're closer now. We had numerous conversations with President

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Speaker 4: Putin of Russia, and I think we're closer now.

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Speaker 1: Than we have been ever.

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Speaker 2: US President Donald Trump made those remarks after he talked

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Speaker 2: to a gathering of European leaders hosted by German Chancellor

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Speaker 2: Friedrich Mertz. Meanwhile, the new chief of Britain's Foreign intelligence

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Speaker 2: service m I six has accused Russia's President Verdamir Putin

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Speaker 2: of deliberately prolonging negotiations to end the war. In her

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Speaker 2: first public appearance in the role, Blaize metro Welli said

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Speaker 2: that the Kremlin is trying to subjugate Ukraine and NATO members. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 2: Ukraine said yesterday it's naval drones damaged a Russian submarine

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Speaker 2: in the Black seaport of Navarrosiysk, inflicting critical damage.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump is suing the BBC for at least ten

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Speaker 1: billion dollars over what he claims was a misleading edit

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Speaker 1: in their documentary last year. The edit gave the impression

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Speaker 1: the US President made a direct call for violence in

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Speaker 1: a speech ahead of the attack on the US capital

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Speaker 1: on the sixth of January twenty twenty one. Bloom Brooks

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Speaker 1: Ewan Parts has more.

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Speaker 5: Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against the BBC was filed yesterday

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Speaker 5: in federal court in Miami. The US president says he's

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Speaker 5: suing the broadcaster for quote putting words in my mouth.

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Speaker 5: The Panorama documentary made it appear that Trump told his

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Speaker 5: supporters they should walk down to the Capitol and fight

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Speaker 5: like hell. In fact, he said they should cheer on

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Speaker 5: our brave senators and congressmen and women. The fight like

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Speaker 5: hell remark was from a much later part of the speech.

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Speaker 5: Trump's lawyer claims the incident is part of the BBC's

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Speaker 5: long standing pattern of manipulating President Trump's speeches. The BBC

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Speaker 5: has previously apologized the President but rejected his demands for compensation,

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Speaker 5: saying there is no basis for a defamation claim. In London,

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Speaker 5: I'm you in pots Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 2: The UK government has finalized a long awaited free trade

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Speaker 2: agreement with South Korea. As it continues to face on

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Speaker 2: popularity at home. The agreement is being branded as Britain's

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Speaker 2: fourth major trade deal this year, but the four hundred

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Speaker 2: million pound boost it's expected to create is considered too

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Speaker 2: small to boost Britain's GDP in any meaningful way. But

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Speaker 2: it's another foreign policy success for the Prime Minister Kirs Starmer,

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Speaker 2: despite his unpopularity amongst UK voters. He was asked yesterday

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Speaker 2: in Parliament if he could confirm where the speculation about

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Speaker 2: his leadership was even coming from his own team.

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Speaker 6: No, I'm not sure I can. It seems to be

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Speaker 6: pretty right. I mean in terms of the code, I

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Speaker 6: know exactly where it should be dealt with, but I

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Speaker 6: can say had on heart that none of it is

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Speaker 6: comes from me or is encouraged by me.

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Speaker 2: Kiss Huma last week also ruled out rejoining the EU

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Speaker 2: Customs Union, saying that it with jeopardized trade deals he

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Speaker 2: has agreed after Brexit, like the one with the United States,

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Speaker 2: but the US has reportedly suspended its Tech Prosperity deal

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Speaker 2: with the UK due to growing frustration at the implementation

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Speaker 2: of that trade deal.

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Speaker 1: A senior JP Morgan banker is urge the European Union

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Speaker 1: to follow the UK and scrapping its cap on bankers bonuses.

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Speaker 1: Mat tru Wards, the bank's EMA cohad says the Block

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Speaker 1: is an outsider now as other regions moved to roll

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Speaker 1: back regulations imposed after the financial crisis. His comments commas

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Speaker 1: the Trump administration is continuing to pressure the EU to

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Speaker 1: ease rules and other areas, including on technology. Speaking to Bloomberg,

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Speaker 1: the East Trade Commissioner pushed back against US claims that

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Speaker 1: Brussels preparing to water down its technology regulations. Marscheftovich says

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Speaker 1: it's untrue that American companies are being singled out.

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Speaker 7: What I heard from Secretary Latin and Amasauragreer was that

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Speaker 7: they wanted to be treated fairly. So we had a

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Speaker 7: lot of discussions. Are we aiming only at the US?

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Speaker 7: Company's clear answer is no, just look at the companies

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Speaker 7: which we are investigating or eventually Finny.

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Speaker 1: Marscheftovich was speaking after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Jamond last

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Speaker 1: week said that Europe has a real problem because it's slow,

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Speaker 1: bureaucracy risks driving away business investment and innovation.

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Speaker 2: And lastly, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange wants to extend its

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Speaker 2: trading to twenty three hours a day. The second largest

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Speaker 2: exchange in the US has asked its regulator for permission

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Speaker 2: to add an additional trading session on top of pre

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Speaker 2: market and postmarket trading. Supporters say that the move would

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Speaker 2: allow US markets to trade more internationally, whereas critics worn

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Speaker 2: a lack of downtime and periods of low volume trading

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Speaker 2: could make the market more volatile. Other exchanges have also

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Speaker 2: outlined their own path to extending trading hours on their venues,

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Speaker 2: including the New York Stock Exchange, which plans to offer

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Speaker 2: trading twenty two hours a day on weekdays.

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Speaker 1: Those are your top stories on the markets. The MSCI

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Speaker 1: ASA Pacific Index one point four percent lower this morning.

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Speaker 1: Eurostocks fifty features are also down by six tenths of

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Speaker 1: one percent. Wall Street features in the red as well.

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Speaker 1: The tenure Treasury yield as downabasis point at four point

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Speaker 1: one seven percent.

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Speaker 2: Now in a moment will bring you more on the

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Speaker 2: deep dive reporting Bloomberg has done into the sprawling and

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Speaker 2: secretive Olian group in Saudi Arabia and why it's been

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Speaker 2: a very bad year for luxury homes hit in London.

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Speaker 1: But other store we have been reading this morning, as

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Speaker 1: we're soldiering through the dark days of winter in northern Europe,

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Speaker 1: thinking about where we might be planning to go next year.

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Speaker 1: What Bloomberg Pursuits have you covered with their list of

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Speaker 1: where to go in twenty twenty six. Some a mix

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Speaker 1: of familiar places perhaps that are coming back onto the

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Speaker 1: travel agenda, but also some places that you may not

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Speaker 1: have had many friends have already visited, frankly if you

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Speaker 1: have well traveled people in your life. So in Europe,

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Speaker 1: there's the likes of Sardinia, Corsica, Vienna, the Hebrides in Scotland,

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Speaker 1: also the Peloponnese Mountains in Greece as well among their

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Speaker 1: list of recommendations too. So each destination comes with some

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Speaker 1: luxury accommodation suggestions in case you're dreaming in that direction,

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Speaker 1: and also helpful seasonal guides on when to go. For example,

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Speaker 1: they don't recommend going to the Hebrides between January and April.

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Speaker 1: I think mainly because it's very dark.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, that maybe is pretty local to ak I

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Speaker 2: am only a few hours away. I love it. High

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Speaker 2: end hotels for under five hundred dollars a night is

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Speaker 2: sort of one of the key aims. The photographs are

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Speaker 2: just absolutely stunning. I mean, Sardinia is a definite. Yes,

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Speaker 2: the lone Star state, Texas. I don't know it very well.

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Speaker 2: I'd love to go there, but yeah, the Scottish hebrides

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Speaker 2: definitely to be avoided, I think at this time of

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Speaker 2: the year anyway.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'd like to go further down the line.

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Speaker 1: So I'm having this in my back pocket for the

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Speaker 1: travel planning conversations over the holiday period. You'll find it

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Speaker 1: the story on Bloomberg dot Com. We'll put a link

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Speaker 1: to in our podcast show notes as well.

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Speaker 2: Okay, let's bring you more now on our top story,

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Speaker 2: the Saudi family Empire with global reach that's emerging as

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Speaker 2: a major force in international finance. Lubna and huttem Oliyan

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Speaker 2: have transformed their families conglomerate into a fifty billion dollar

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Speaker 2: force with influence stretching from Wall Street to read at

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Speaker 2: our Middle East Economics and Government reporter aber abu Omar

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Speaker 2: joins us now for more good to speak to you. First,

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Speaker 2: he tell us about the Early End Group and where

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Speaker 2: it is invested and how it grew to this size.

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Speaker 8: Hi, good morning, So yes, Ala Layan group is headed

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Speaker 8: by two sisters that we mentioned in the story, Lumna

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Speaker 8: and Hatham, that are in their early seventies. They've taken

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Speaker 8: the business from their father, sulay Man, who had started

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Speaker 8: Da Layan Group after actually mortgaging his house for eight

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Speaker 8: thousand dollars back in the forties and starting the business

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Speaker 8: in nineteen forty seven. So let me just run you

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Speaker 8: through some of the numbers that perhaps tell the story

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Speaker 8: of how influential the group is.

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Speaker 9: Their US stock portfolio is close.

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Speaker 8: To thirteen billion dollars in comparison to the Saudi Sovereign

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Speaker 8: Wealth Fund the PIF, it holds about nineteen billion dollars

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Speaker 8: in stock. In US estakes now, the ala Yans have

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Speaker 8: about a billion dollars in black Rock, about one point

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Speaker 8: five billion dollars in JP Morgan, and some stocks as

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Speaker 8: well in out Bit and Microsoft. They also had a

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Speaker 8: major share in Credit Swiss before it's collapse. Domestically, they're

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Speaker 8: involved in real estate, private equity, and they bottle Coca Cola.

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Speaker 9: They're involved in Oreo and Colgate.

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Speaker 8: But perhaps what tells you what alludes to the sister's

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Speaker 8: influence the most is the fact that we start out

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Speaker 8: the story by mentioning how Lubna was sat next to

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Speaker 8: the world's richest man, Elon Musk, during the banquet that

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Speaker 8: President Donald Trump had hosted for Cramp Prince Mohammed bin

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Speaker 8: Salman in November when he visited Washington, DC. A select

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Speaker 8: number of women were attending and she was one of them.

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Speaker 8: So she's quite influential as the chairperson of Alayan.

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Speaker 9: Her sister, we know, is the chairperson of the shareholder's board.

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Speaker 8: But together they are at the helm of one of

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Speaker 8: the most powerful Saudi families and also one of the

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Speaker 8: most influential Saudi conglomerates.

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Speaker 1: And it's also interesting, of course that the Aleian sisters

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Speaker 1: built this business environment in a landscape that's traditionally been

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Speaker 1: dominated by men in Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 8: Correct, And you know, I was just talking about this

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Speaker 8: and Lubna, as a matter of fact, we had seen

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Speaker 8: her during the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia during October,

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Speaker 8: where she was sat with the likes of Larry Fink

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Speaker 8: and David Solomon. During the first panel, she was talking

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Speaker 8: about her experience as a woman at the helm of

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Speaker 8: a major company in Saudi Arabia. And definitely it is

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Speaker 8: the case that she started and her sister started, you know,

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Speaker 8: being of the helm of this huge company during a

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Speaker 8: time where Saudi women were not even allowed to attain

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Speaker 8: a passport without a male guardianship, and so they had

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Speaker 8: to go through that and turn it into what it is.

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Speaker 8: But you know, one thing that I also want to

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Speaker 8: bring to the table here is the fact that the

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Speaker 8: two sisters and the family in particular has been quite.

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Speaker 9: Close to the Saudi royal class.

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Speaker 8: During the twenty seventeen jailings of prominent business people and

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Speaker 8: officials at the Ritsk Carlton in Saudi Arabia, the family

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Speaker 8: seemed to go away from that. The family did not

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Speaker 8: were not affected by that. During the twenty eighteen killing

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Speaker 8: of colonist Jamal Kashuji, Lugna came out during the fai

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Speaker 8: of that year and said that the killing goes against

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Speaker 8: the DNA of the Saudi people, and so they've stuck

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Speaker 8: very close to the royals in the kingdom.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is an absolutely fascinating story about their wealth,

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Speaker 2: how they've amassed and their influence. A bit about Oma.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being with us. That is

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Speaker 2: our Middle East Economics and Government reporter on the rise

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Speaker 2: of the Olayan group. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg

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Speaker 2: Day Baqube coming up after this.

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Speaker 1: In London's luxury property market is on track for its

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Speaker 1: worst year since twenty twenty after a series of tax

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Speaker 1: measures put off wealthy buyers. Data from the property company

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Speaker 1: LNRAS shows it's the second year since twenty eleven with

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Speaker 1: no sales above fifty million pounds recorded. Our ASAJA real

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Speaker 1: estate reporter Damian Sheppard joins us now for more. Damian,

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Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Can you put this in

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Speaker 1: context for us?

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Speaker 4: Then?

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Speaker 1: What does a good year look like for luxury property

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Speaker 1: in London and how does twenty twenty five compare.

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Speaker 10: Yeah, I think London's super prime brokers have probably forgotten

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Speaker 10: what a good year looks like in London's luxury property market.

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Speaker 10: We're probably rewinding over a decade now to the peak

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Speaker 10: of the high end London market. And to put this

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Speaker 10: into context for you, twenty twenty four. So last year

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Speaker 10: was a very bad year in London's luxury property market,

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Speaker 10: but we still saw at least four deals over over

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Speaker 10: fifty million pounds and one of those was nearly one

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Speaker 10: hundred and fifty million pounds. And now you look at

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Speaker 10: twenty twenty five, the biggest deals have hovered around the

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Speaker 10: forty million pound mark. Non Doms have been leaving, but

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Speaker 10: the majority of them haven't sold because they don't want

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Speaker 10: to swallow the big discounts that they'll need to agree

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Speaker 10: to to get their home and sold to a buyer.

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Speaker 10: So it's been a rough year out there for the

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Speaker 10: top end.

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Speaker 2: What has driven the sentiment down among those wealthy buyers.

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Speaker 10: Well, it began at the end of twenty twenty four

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Speaker 10: when the Labor government came in. They got underway with

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Speaker 10: their tax hiking by hiking stamp duty on second homes

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Speaker 10: pretty early on into their reign. This year we've seen

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Speaker 10: the end of a system that allowed non doms to

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Speaker 10: avoid taxes on their overseas earnings. We then had all

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Speaker 10: sorts of speculation in the long wait for the UK

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Speaker 10: budget at the end of November, which caused uncertainty and

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Speaker 10: led to a big slump in transactions. And then when

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Speaker 10: the budget finally came around, we saw a mansion tax

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Speaker 10: for homes over two pounds. So it's really felt like

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Speaker 10: the top end of the market has been hammered in

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Speaker 10: so many different ways, and you know, all of those

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Speaker 10: headwinds have sort of come together to just lead to

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Speaker 10: a big dip in transactions and therefore none of these

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Speaker 10: mega deals that we've seen in previous years.

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Speaker 1: What do the signals look like for the coming year

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Speaker 1: in this part of the market. Are things likely to improve?

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Speaker 10: I think, you know, we might see a pick up

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Speaker 10: in transactions in the spring. I think one of the

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Speaker 10: big problems this year was the uncertainty leading up to

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Speaker 10: the UK budget. The one thing that buyers and sellers

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Speaker 10: in this market need is just clarity around what the

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Speaker 10: tax situation is and sort of the environment that they're

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Speaker 10: looking to trade in. So now that we've had the budget,

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Speaker 10: there should be some more clarity to get things going again.

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Speaker 10: But one of the big problems here that we'll see

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Speaker 10: in twenty twenty six as well is this huge disparity

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Speaker 10: between buyer and seller expectations. There's even more repricing to

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Speaker 10: be done now for homes over two million pounds with

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Speaker 10: the mansion tax, so we'll probably see about another five

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Speaker 10: percent come off of those homes next year. So it

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Speaker 10: depends whether vendors are willing to accept that their home

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Speaker 10: is quite simply not worth what they wanted to be.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting. Well, look, just thinking back to this year,

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Speaker 2: what are some of the biggest home sales in London

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Speaker 2: that have actually happened.

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Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean there's despite the downturn, there's still some

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Speaker 10: some sort of fun deals to dig into. So one

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Speaker 10: of the big ones this year that caught the attention

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Speaker 10: of the public was Star Wars creator George Lucas purchasing

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Speaker 10: a forty million pounds mansion in North London. That's one

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Speaker 10: of the biggest this year. We also saw other big

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Speaker 10: deals from Silicon Valley investor Matt Kohler and a member

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Speaker 10: of the Thompson Royce's family too, that was a flat

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Speaker 10: in Mayfair. So there's been some biggies, but yeah, nowhere

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Speaker 10: on the level of previous years and the one hundred

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Speaker 10: and fifty million pound deal we saw in twenty twenty four.

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