Saudi Arabia is no longer simply a market defined by capital deployment. It is becoming a market defined by how capital is structured, allocated, refinanced, protected and ultimately recycled.
That distinction matters.
As the Kingdom continues to attract institutional capital, develop its financial markets and support increasingly ambitious businesses and projects, the financing conversation is becoming more sophisticated.
Traditional bank lending remains fundamental. But it now sits alongside private credit, alternative lending, structured finance, institutional investment, special situations and an increasingly developed restructuring ecosystem.
For investors, advisers, banks and borrowers alike, the opportunity is therefore becoming broader — and more complex.
It is against this backdrop that the DDC Saudi Arabia Credit & Investment Forum returns to Riyadh on 7–8 October 2026.
The objective is straightforward: to put the people providing capital, deploying capital and advising around it in the same room.
Why Saudi Arabia, and why now?
Saudi Arabia’s transformation has created an extraordinary requirement for capital.
But the next stage of that transformation is not simply about raising more money.
It is about answering more difficult questions.
How should businesses finance growth?
Where does private credit sit alongside traditional bank lending?
How should institutional investors approach Saudi opportunities?
What happens when an existing capital structure no longer works?
How should investors think about recovery, restructuring and downside protection?
Where are the most compelling opportunities across real estate, corporate credit and special situations?
And how will Saudi Arabia’s domestic capital markets evolve as both local and international participation increases?
These are no longer theoretical questions.
They are increasingly part of day-to-day conversations between lenders, investors, corporates and advisers across the Kingdom.
That is why the Riyadh forum has been designed around credit and investment together, rather than treating them as separate markets.
Capital formation, deployment, refinancing, restructuring and recovery are all part of the same ecosystem.
Who can you expect to meet?
The value of a specialist event is ultimately determined by the people in the room.
DDC’s Riyadh forum is deliberately being built around a focused mix of investors, banks, advisers, asset managers, private-credit providers and senior decision-makers from the Saudi market.
Below is the current confirmed speaker and participant line-up. Each organisation name links directly to its website so you can explore the people and institutions you can expect to meet in Riyadh.
Confirmed speakers
- Amar Meher — Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
- Dr. Ahmed Mansour — CEO & MD, Private Department of H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalid Al Nahyan
- Markus Thomas — Senior Executive Officer, Centricus
- Simi Nehra — Head of Deal Advisory, Aldar Audit Bureau, Grant Thornton
- Mohsin Iqbal — Partner, Debt and Islamic Finance, Kirkland & Ellis
- Amir Ahmad — Partner, Reed Smith
- Emad Alsinan — Regional Head of Special Assets Management, Saudi Awwal Bank
- Hisham Ashour — Managing Partner, Haykala Advisors & Managers
- Martin Machon — Chief Executive Officer, APS Group
- Bassam Al-Mutairi — Head of Multi-Asset & Investment Solutions, SEDCO Capital
- Vaughn Weatherdon — Head of Transactions and Investment Management, King Salman Park Foundation
- Karim Labban — Senior Managing Director, Ankura
- Athan Attia — CEO, Dynamic Investments
- Dev Santani — Managing Partner, Brookfield Asset Management
- Turki Al Ahmari — Head of Special Assets Management, Banque Saudi Fransi
- Yaser Moustafa — Head of Emerging Market Private Investments, Janus Henderson Investors
- Joe Durkin — Senior Vice President, Burford Capital
- Saad Shabbir — Senior Director, Takamol Ventures
- Mirza Beg — Partner & Co-CIO, Ruya Partners
- Abdulrahman Hammad — Partner, Hammad & Al Mehdar Law Firm
- Ilias Kyriakopoulos — Managing Director, Aegis SK
- Omar Alireza — Principal - Private Credit, Merak Capital
- Onic Palandjian — Partner, Group RMC
- Biswajit Dasgupta — Chief Investment Officer, Asas Capital
- Thomas Vanhee — Partner, Aurifer
- Homam Hashem — CEO & Board Member, Kafalah
- Sharif Eid — Head of Private Credit, Amwal Capital Partners
- Robbie Harris — Managing Director - DPG Europe, Deutsche Bank UK
- Elie Fakhoury — Senior Managing Director, Teneo
- Dan Farrell — Founder & CEO, Privos Capital
- Fesel El Chybany — Head of Special Assets Management, Bank AlJazira
Confirmed participants
- Viliam Perát — Investor Relations Director, APS Holding
- Viktor Tóth — Chief Investment Officer, APS Investments
- Mohammed Abdulkarim — Associate, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding
- Seraj Aljuhani — Director, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding
- Feras Zarea — Associate Director, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding
- Abdulaziz Al Dabbagh — Analyst, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding
- Mahmoud Omar — Associate Director, Sulaiman Al Rajhi Holding
- Ibrahim Mahmassani — Managing Director, Ankura
- Christine Burke — Saudi Bureau Chief, Bloomberg
- Martyn Rogers — Partner / Co-Office Managing Partner, Riyadh, Ashurst Perkins Coie
- Reina El-Ali — Managing Associate, Grant Thornton
- Fares Bardeesi — Board Member & CEO, Sukna Capital
- Sukhdev Hansra — Head of Asset Management, Sukna Capital
- Prashan Patel — Partner, Asset Recovery & Insolvency, Grant Thornton UK
- Nick Wood — Partner, Insolvency & Asset Recovery, Grant Thornton UK
- Mohammad Alkhowaiter — Chief Operations Officer, Kafalah
- Lina Mahmassani — Assistant Director, Deloitte
- Abdulwahhab Abed — CEO, SEDCO Capital
- Taimoor Labib — Founding Partner, Affirma Capital
- Vikas Papriwal — Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting
- James Long — Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting
- Kowther Bouali — Manager, Financial Advisory, Teneo
- Mike Davis — Senior Managing Director | Head of Debt & Capital Advisory, Middle East, Teneo
- Delwar Hossain — Partner, Banking & Finance, Baker McKenzie
- David Beckett — Partner - Head of Origination, SC Lowy
- Rummana Hasan — CMO, Haykala Advisors & Managers
- Alex Tai — Executive Chairman, The Black Circle
- Ahmed Raji — Senior Relationship Manager (MENA), The Black Circle
- John Jones — Director of Business Development, ShoreVest Partners
- Fayaz Ali — CEO, AL FAYA Capital
- Munir Adubais — Board Member, AL FAYA Capital
- Kaan Masatci — Unit Manager for Financial Investments, Invest in Türkiye
- Cüneyt Saricimen — Country Advisor for Saudi Arabia, Invest in Türkiye
- Yaseen K. Khayyat — Khayyat Law
- Osama Al-Farsi
- Anmar Algharifi — Partner, Reed Smith
- Mohammed Alammar — Partner, Reed Smith
- Mohammed Basama — Partner, Reed Smith
Confirmed at the time of publication. The participant line-up continues to develop as the forum approaches.
The wider audience is being developed around the same principle.
DDC is targeting a balanced mix of investors, advisers and banks/servicers, rather than allowing the event to become dominated by one part of the market.
That matters because some of the most productive conversations occur between people who would not normally sit on the same side of a transaction.
A bank may meet a private-credit provider capable of solving a financing requirement it cannot address alone.
An investor may meet an adviser with access to an off-market situation.
A corporate may meet a lender whose mandate fits its next stage of growth.
A restructuring specialist may meet the capital provider required to finance a turnaround.
And an international investor looking at Saudi Arabia for the first time can meet people who understand the local market in detail.
A programme built around the questions the market is actually asking
Across two days, the forum will look beyond headline investment themes and focus on the practical issues shaping the next phase of Saudi credit.
Discussions will include the continuing evolution of the Saudi credit market, private-credit deployment, institutional allocation, real estate finance, special situations, restructuring and the relationship between international capital and domestic opportunity.
A central theme will be how the market is maturing.
As more capital enters a market, underwriting becomes more important.
As financing structures become more sophisticated, documentation and downside protection matter more.
As companies grow, refinancing requirements increase.
And as a credit market matures, restructuring and recovery inevitably become part of the investment conversation.
That is not a sign of weakness.
It is one of the characteristics of a functioning credit ecosystem.
Private credit becomes part of the mainstream
Private credit will naturally be one of the major themes in Riyadh.
Across global markets, borrowers are increasingly looking beyond a binary choice between bank debt and equity.
Saudi Arabia is beginning to see the same development.
For some borrowers, private capital can provide greater flexibility around structure, tenor, security and speed.
For investors, it can offer access to situations that do not fit conventional public-market or banking strategies.
But private credit also requires discipline.
The most important questions are often not simply about yield.
They concern underwriting. Security. Documentation. Governance. Covenants. Exit options. Recovery. And what happens if the original investment thesis proves wrong.
These are precisely the conversations DDC wants to bring into the open in Riyadh.
Real estate, restructuring and special situations
Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary level of development activity also makes real estate impossible to separate from the wider credit discussion.
Hotel projects, residential development, logistics, commercial real estate and large-scale mixed-use projects all create financing requirements.
But real estate credit is rarely simply about providing money against an asset.
Valuation matters. Cash flow matters. Construction risk matters. Sponsor quality matters. And refinancing risk matters.
The forum will therefore bring real estate into the wider conversation around credit and investment rather than treating it as an isolated asset class.
The same applies to restructuring and special situations.
As the Saudi market grows, there will inevitably be situations where businesses need to refinance, recapitalise or restructure.
Some will require new money. Others will require amendments to existing debt. Others may create opportunities for investors prepared to provide capital where conventional lenders cannot.
Understanding those situations early can make the difference between value preservation and value destruction.
Why attend in person?
There is no shortage of information available online.
The reason to attend an event like this is not simply to hear information that could be found elsewhere.
It is to understand who is actually active.
Who is deploying capital? Who is raising it? Who has appetite for Saudi risk? Who is looking for international partners? Which banks are open to new structures? Which investors are looking for special situations? Which advisers are seeing transactions before they become widely marketed? And which businesses are beginning to think about refinancing or restructuring?
Those questions are often answered through conversations rather than presentations.
That is why DDC deliberately keeps its forums relatively focused.
The objective is not to put thousands of people into an exhibition hall.
It is to create an environment in which the people present can actually meet each other.
Curated meetings, not accidental networking
The event also extends beyond the stage programme.
DDC works with participants before and during the forum to identify potentially relevant introductions and curated one-to-one meetings.
That might mean connecting an investor with a Saudi opportunity. Introducing a lender to a borrower. Connecting an adviser with an investor entering the market. Or putting two organisations together where there is a realistic possibility of doing business.
The distinction is important.
Networking should not rely entirely on accidentally standing next to the right person during a coffee break.
Where we see a reason for two organisations to speak, we want to help make that conversation happen.
A room designed around decision-makers
There are plenty of conferences where attendees spend two days collecting business cards.
That is not what DDC is trying to build.
The ambition for Riyadh is a room where participants can understand the market, test their thinking and identify people with whom there may be a genuine commercial reason to continue the conversation afterwards.
That means bringing together senior people from different sides of the capital structure.
Banks. Institutional investors. Private-credit managers. Family offices. Corporates. Advisers. Restructuring specialists. Law firms. Servicers. And international investors looking at Saudi Arabia.
The value comes from the overlap.
Saudi Arabia’s next credit cycle is already beginning
Saudi Arabia remains one of the most closely watched investment markets globally.
But its next stage may look quite different from the last.
The discussion is shifting from simply how much capital can be deployed to more sophisticated questions around where capital should go, how it should be structured, how risk should be priced and what happens when investments do not follow the original plan.
That evolution creates opportunity across the entire credit ecosystem.
For investors, it creates new strategies.
For banks, new partnerships.
For advisers, increasingly complex mandates.
For corporates, a broader range of financing options.
And for the market as a whole, a deeper and more sophisticated financial infrastructure.
Those are the conversations we want to have in Riyadh.
And, more importantly, those are the people we want to bring together.
Saudi Arabia Credit & Investment Forum 2026
7–8 October 2026
Narcissus Hotel & Spa, Riyadh
Two days of discussions, meetings and relationship-building across Saudi Arabia's evolving credit and investment market.
ALL SESSIONS IN ENGLISH
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