The government of Saudi Arabia has started to repay dues to contractors, as quoted by Ibrahim Al-Assaf in a TV interview. 30-40% of the outstanding dues will be paid before year-end and the balance in 2017. Al-Assaf said that payments “have been regularised and will rise in the coming period”, adding that the delays are due to “technical reasons.” This follows the news out recently that the government has started paying Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). We note that the feedback we are getting from management regarding the matter remain negative, with the improvement limited to a small portion of the outstanding payments. Challenges within the process of approving bills by the government and the consultants have been manageable, but processing those bills to pay orders to the Ministry of Finance has been the challenging part. A resolution of the latter would result in major relief to the company’s receivable issue, which remains outstanding. (Bloomberg, Mai Attia, Sara Boutros)