Taking place on 7–8 October 2026 at the Narcissus Hotel & Spa Riyadh, the Saudi Arabia Credit & Investment Forum is designed around a simple objective: to bring the institutions shaping the Kingdom’s credit and investment markets into the same room as serious international capital, expertise and long-term partners.
As Saudi Arabia continues to attract institutional capital and develop new financing channels, the conversation is increasingly moving across the full credit lifecycle — from origination and deal sourcing through structuring, execution and portfolio monitoring to restructuring, recovery and exit.
“This forum is about far more than bringing an international audience to Riyadh. We want to create a room that genuinely reflects the Kingdom’s own financial ecosystem — Saudi banks, investors, asset managers, family offices and advisers sitting alongside international institutions that are serious about building long-term relationships in the market.”
Kunzmann added that DDC’s aim is to turn international interest in Saudi Arabia into practical relationships and opportunities.
“Saudi Arabia is already attracting enormous international attention. Our objective is to help turn that interest into meaningful conversations — around capital, partnerships, financing structures, restructuring expertise and ultimately transactions. If people leave Riyadh having established relationships they can build on for years, then we will have achieved what we set out to do.”
From capital deployment to the full credit lifecycle.
Day One begins with Saudi Arabia’s Evolving Credit Market and Its Role in Global Investment, examining the transition from traditional bank lending towards a deeper institutional market, regulatory development and the pathways through which domestic and international capital can participate.
The programme then moves into one of the most important questions facing a maturing credit market: what happens when investments become stressed. Amir Ahmad, Partner at Reed Smith, will lead the Spotlight Session Navigating Cross-Border Restructuring & Private Credit Deployment, looking at corporate health, restructuring mechanics across the GCC and international markets, private-credit deployment and the development of the Saudi restructuring ecosystem.
The wider economic outlook will be examined in The Saudi Economy: What Comes Next?, while a dedicated masterclass on Structuring Private Credit Funds for GCC Allocators will explore fund structures, regional regulatory considerations and the requirements of sophisticated GCC investors.
Origination, execution, monitoring and recovery.
A central feature of the first day is a three-part examination of the private-credit lifecycle. Origination & Deal Sourcing will focus on identifying proprietary transactions and building local origination networks. Execution, Workout & Value Recovery moves into structuring, downside protection, creditor rights and recovery. Performance, Monitoring & Exit Strategy then addresses early-warning systems, portfolio surveillance, refinancing and realising returns.
The approach is deliberate: private credit is being discussed as an investment discipline across its entire lifecycle, not simply as another source of financing.
The institutions shaping Saudi Arabia’s market will be in the room.
One of the defining characteristics of the Riyadh forum will be the depth of Saudi representation. Senior leaders and representatives from SNB / Alahli Capital, Arab National Bank (ANB), Saudi Awwal Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Bank AlJazira, SEDCO Capital, Kafalah, King Salman Park Foundation, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding, Sukna Capital, Takamol Ventures and Merak Capital will be joined by other Saudi institutions, investors and market participants.
That is why the audience matters as much as the stage. The objective is not to discuss Saudi Arabia from a distance, but to put the institutions actively allocating capital, originating credit, managing assets, dealing with stressed situations and developing the Kingdom’s financial markets at the centre of the conversation.
Confirmed Saudi banking and investment-market speakers include Emad Alsinan of Saudi Awwal Bank; Turki Al Ahmari of Banque Saudi Fransi; Fesel El Chybany of Bank AlJazira; Bassam Al-Mutairi of SEDCO Capital; Homam Hashem of Kafalah; Vaughn Weatherdon of King Salman Park Foundation; Saad Shabbir of Takamol Ventures; and Omar Alireza of Merak Capital.
They will be joined by international investors and private-market specialists including Markus Thomas of Centricus, Dev Santani of Brookfield Asset Management, Yaser Moustafa of Janus Henderson Investors, Sharif Eid of Amwal Capital Partners, Mirza Beg of Ruya Partners, Biswajit Dasgupta of Asas Capital, Robbie Harris of Deutsche Bank, Martin Machon of APS Group and Joe Durkin of Burford Capital.
The restructuring, legal and advisory community is also strongly represented, including senior participants from Grant Thornton, Reed Smith, Kirkland & Ellis, Norton Rose Fulbright, Ankura, Teneo, FTI Consulting, Baker McKenzie, Deloitte, Ashurst Perkins Coie, Haykala Advisors & Managers, Hammad & Al-Mehdar Meysan and SC Lowy.
“Success for us is not measured simply by how many people are in the room. It is about whether we have the right people in the room. That is why you will see leaders from institutions such as SNB, ANB and some of the Kingdom’s leading banks and investment organisations joining us alongside major international investors, private-credit managers and advisers.”
“We want the people coming into Riyadh to be meeting the institutions that are actually shaping the Saudi market — and we want Saudi participants to have direct access to international capital, expertise and relationships that can be useful to them. It has to work in both directions.”
Distressed credit and restructuring move into focus.
Day Two takes the discussion further into special situations, stressed credit and recovery. Special Situations & Distressed Credit in the GCC: Pricing Risk in a Mature Market will examine financing gaps, corporate stress, opportunistic capital and asset-backed recovery strategies.
It will be followed by Restructuring, Insolvency Reform & Recovery Frameworks, focused on the practical application of Saudi Arabia’s restructuring regime, including consensual and out-of-court solutions, creditor protection, enforcement and the relationship between Saudi frameworks and international restructuring centres.
A mature credit market needs the infrastructure not only to originate and deploy capital successfully, but also to identify problems early, restructure viable businesses, protect creditor rights and recycle capital when investments become stressed.
Connecting Saudi Arabia with international capital.
Cross-border capital flows form another major part of the second day. Long-Term Horizon: The Next Wave of Global Capital Flow will examine large-scale infrastructure and industrial financing and Saudi Arabia’s growing position as both an importer and exporter of institutional capital.
The US-GCC Capital Corridor: Purposeful Cross-Border Asset Allocation will look at how private-market products can be structured for GCC institutions and family offices, while Global Benchmarks: Distressed Debt, NPLs, and BRICS vs. Europe will compare approaches to distressed credit and secondary markets across established and developing jurisdictions.
The programme closes with a discussion on How Sustainable is Sustainability? Green Premium vs. Real Returns, bringing the conversation back to the relationship between investment discipline, long-term policy objectives and returns.
A deliberately focused room.
DDC’s Riyadh forum is designed around a concentrated audience rather than scale for its own sake. Investors will sit alongside banks; private-credit managers alongside family offices; restructuring specialists alongside legal advisers; and Saudi market participants alongside international institutions actively looking at the Kingdom and wider GCC.
“For us, this is about creating something genuinely useful for the Kingdom. We are not interested in simply assembling a long list of logos. We want senior people who can make decisions, originate opportunities, allocate capital and build partnerships. The quality of those conversations is ultimately what will determine whether the forum succeeds.”
“The Kingdom does not need another conference built around people flying in, talking at the market and flying out again. We want Saudi voices at the centre of the programme, international participants coming with a genuine interest in the Kingdom, and conversations that continue long after the event itself.”
Kunzmann says the intention is to establish Riyadh as a recurring meeting point for the community, rather than a one-off destination.
“Our ambition is to build this into a long-term meeting point between Saudi Arabia and the international private-markets community. Riyadh is not a one-off destination for DDC. We want to grow with the market, listen to what Saudi institutions need and create a platform that becomes increasingly valuable to the Kingdom every year.”
The conversations DDC will bring to Riyadh.
As Saudi Arabia’s financial markets continue to evolve alongside Vision 2030, the question is increasingly moving from whether institutional and alternative capital will play a larger role to how that market will develop: how private credit will be structured; where proprietary opportunities will emerge; how risk will be priced; what happens when borrowers encounter stress; how creditors recover value; and how Saudi capital connects with international private markets.
Saudi Arabia Credit & Investment Forum 2026
7–8 October 2026
Narcissus Hotel & Spa Riyadh
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
ALL SESSIONS IN ENGLISH
Registration remains open for institutional investors, banks, asset managers, family offices, private-credit professionals, advisers and other senior market participants.
Explore the programme, speakers & participating organisations →
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