Saudi Budget Deficit Threatens Liv Golf - Messi Now A Billionaire

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> Rotus Preforus Good morning everybody.

[00:00:15]Good morning everybody. Good morning our dear family. This is the global business report. Fantastic global business report. Business [laughter] report here on the morning show.

[00:00:22]>> Well, that's brief though. Yeah, very very brief. Uh look, there's nothing to see here. Oil prices are still high.

[00:00:26]There's stumbling blocks in the latest discussions between uh the US and uh Iran. We understand that Iran and Oman cuz the with the Strait of Hormuz to the north is Iran, to the south is Oman.

[00:00:37]They are in talks um to permanently instill a toll to collect money. Iran, of course, wants to rebuild. Um I mean, the Iranian ambassador to France uh pretty much said that in no no uncertain terms, Iran and Oman must mobilize all their resources both to provide security services and to manage navigation in the most appropriate uh manner as Mohammad Amin Nejad. So, that's essentially what they're doing. They're saying that look, everybody has to pay uh their fair share. Uh from there, I think we're going to go to the uh Trump and I can play this back-to-back. Both Trump and Marco Rubio, second US Secretary of State, both rejected the idea of a toll.

[00:01:15]Let's play it back-to-back, both of them. Well, we want it open. We want it free. We don't want tolls.

[00:01:21]Uh it's international. It's an international waterway and they're not charging tolls.

[00:01:27]Well, we've always said a tolling system in the straits would be unacceptable, but we don't just say that, the world has said that. We have a resolution right now in the United Nations. We're trying to take it to the Security Council. It's sponsored by Bahrain. It has over 100 something It is the highest number of co-sponsors in the history of the Security Council that signed on to our resolution. We were in China last week. We mentioned this about the tolling. They're against it. No one in the world is in favor of a tolling system. It can't happen. It would be unacceptable. It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that. So, it's a threat to the world if they were try to do that. And it's completely illegal, by the way.

[00:02:02]All right. You can Look, the UK economy man, 24 billion deficits budget deficits.

[00:02:09]They've tried to you know, they've pressured to remove subsidies to the cap in energy prices. That's what kept inflation from spiraling last month.

[00:02:19]25% growth there. I mean, they're just in trouble. It's the largest deficits in the UK since since COVID. Retail sales also plunged as well. Individuals, people pulling back. Look at that. One in negative 1.3%. Our forecast was 0.6.

[00:02:33]Biggest fall in a year was 1.4 May of last year. The March number was actually revised upwards to 0.6. So, it's just a really dire situation with Keir Starmer and everything that's going on there.

[00:02:43]This is the chief economist essentially saying that individuals in the UK pulled back on fuel purchases because they stocked up in March. And essentially, that's the reason why you had a big drop there. And the only Conversely, 23% jump in fuel largest since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. So, I have a friend who I've called who says he's not even going out this weekend because things are just so expensive. It's just UK, really big problems there.

[00:03:10]Kevin Warsh is going to be confirmed today 4:00 p.m. UK time incoming Fed chair. The bond yields are not going to allow this gentleman to cut interest rates anytime soon. In fact, now people are talking about a rate hike in the United States and that's not what President Trump wants. What else is going on? Oh, yeah. LIV Golf. This is as a result and we talk about a you know, big budget deficits in the UK. Saudi Arabia posted a 33.5 billion dollar budget deficit for Q1 because of the impact of the Iran war. Biggest one since 2018. And now they're having to pull back on different investments around the world. LIV Golf was something they've spent about 5 billion dollars on over the last 4 years promoting a new golf league trying to expand Saudi investment or influence across the world. This is on the PIF, the Public Investment Fund. And as a result of that budget deficit, we understand they've now pulled funding from it. It could be facing bankruptcy. They're now looking for alternative funding. We understand the Saudis are even cutting back on spending on consultants and things. So, this Iran war is really impacting a number of nations around around the world.

[00:04:14]We have a new billionaire in sports, Lionel Messi, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and four And there's one particular YouTube play YouTube viewer that I go back and forth with on investment. He knows himself.

[00:04:27]This is your blueprint for making money.

[00:04:29]His salary from Inter Miami, TV revenue sharing deals, real estate holdings. He also has holdings in a restaurant chain in Argentina. So, he's now joined Cristiano Ronaldo, who was the first billionaire from football crossing that milestone. All right. To end, look, it's it's Friday. Who's going to the movies?

[00:04:48]I you know, I find I know that complain about this in the past. Nollywood still has a cost transport cost transparency problem. In terms I can't analyze a film and know whether it's successful. This movie, The Return of Arinzo, as of the 14th, according to Scene, which is the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria, has made 347 million naira so far at the box office. Is that success?

[00:05:12]We don't know. Why? Because they don't know how much it cost to make. As an example, look at what Okay, this is obsession. I literally just saw this yesterday. This film cost just $750,000 to make cuz an independent film. It was screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

[00:05:29]Focus Features, look at that, they bought it for 15 million. That is now a purchasing cost for Focus Features, which is out there in the news. The marketing for this movie is estimated to be anywhere from half the production cost. That's the rule of thumb, right?

[00:05:42]So, you're looking at maybe, you know, 25 million total cost. It made 14 million at the box office last week. So, they've almost made back their production cost. It's just now uh marketing. Um same same story with uh okay, then on the other side in the gray. This is a $50 million movie made from uh by Guy Ritchie. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and uh Henry Cavill who played Superman. It's a bomb. It failed.

[00:06:05]How do we know that? Because you know the production cost is 50, estimated marketing of 25, that's a $75 million total cost. It only made 2.9 million at the US box office and 5.2 overall.

[00:06:15]That's 8.1. It's a flop. We know it's a flop. Michael is on its way now to 800 million. Michael cost 200 million to make. So, we've got a filmmaker coming on the global business report to talk about it. It just continues to be an issue in terms of transparency. And Nigerian stocks rebounded yesterday with still up 60% year to date. So, try and be like Lionel Messi. Invest, spread out your income, and build, build, build.

[00:06:37]And he's one of the greatest footballers of all time. I think So, we diversify, diversify.

[00:06:44]>> [laughter] >> I would say it would be about going to be about 80 uh percent year to date at the end of the year. Okay, you're forecasting 80?

[00:06:50]No, I'm saying even more than that. NGX maybe stock market. It could be.

[00:06:54]>> Because because if September comes >> And Dangote And Dangote comes in Man.

[00:06:58]You know what? Let me just quote Green Day.

[00:07:01]>> [laughter] >> It's going to be like wake me up when September >> [laughter] >> Kevin Kevin Marsh, I I you know, goodness, the markets have spoken before you even had a chance to see him get sorted. [laughter] He is I don't envy him at all because we already know that the biggest challenge up against him is credibility. Because everybody thinks he's just Donald Trump's stooge who's going to come in and do as the puppet master does or rather act like a jukebox. Trump will put some money in and he dances, right?

[00:07:33]Yeah, he plays the tune. So, you know, the wealthiest Fed chair in history, I believe, and also one of the most contentious votes uh that brought him in. and now inflation is up, the numbers are not looking good. Donald Trump wants a rate cut.

[00:07:48]I wonder what Polly Market is going to say. Polly [laughter] Market is going to say.

[00:07:53]Listen, isn't it interesting that it takes going to America for footballers to really make the big bucks? Very, very interesting. Before I had mentioned that before during the break that first it was the likes of David Beckham and then we saw the same with Cristiano Ronaldo even though he's now in Saudi Arabia.

[00:08:10]And now we see Messi joining forces.

[00:08:12]It's very, very interesting because you know already footballers, especially when they play in the big leagues, are already incredibly wealthy but it just seems as to skyrocket once they I heard he has a deal with Apple. I don't know they haven't couldn't find out what the numbers are. So they just in America there's just such deep markets, so many deals.

[00:08:28]Oh yeah.

[00:08:29]Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And here he can even buy an equity stake in Inter Milan.

[00:08:34]The same the same deal they gave Beckham. All right.

[00:08:37]All right, thank you so much for this.