Vision Invest Underprices Rivals on the Riyadh-Qassim Pipeline

Vision International Investment Company is the preferred bidder for the 859 km Riyadh-Qassim independent water transmission pipeline, at 2.627 riyals per cubic metre ($0.70). Saudi Water Partnership Company named it on December 23, 2025, after three bids landed on September 17. Vision Invest filed alone and came in 19.5% below the reserve bid.

The same developer had been reserve bidder, with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), on the other Qassim pipeline and lost on price. This time it left the partners at home and cut the tariff.

Vision Invest’s Solo Bid Takes the Evaluation

SWPC posted the preferred and reserve bidder costs once technical and financial scores were in. Vision International Investment Company, which trades as Vision Invest, is a Riyadh development and investment holding company chaired by Mohammad Abunayyan. Its published sectors include power, water desalination, industrial gases, logistics and wastewater. It was the only bidder that did not arrive as a consortium.

The reserve group is Lamar Holding of Bahrain, Etihad Water and Electricity Company of the UAE, and China’s Shaanxi Construction Engineering Group Corporation Limited, at 3.262 riyals per cubic metre. A four-firm Saudi group of Al Jomaih Energy and Water, Alkhorayef Water and Power Technologies, Al Bawani Capital and Buhur for Investment Company came third at 3.324 riyals, 21% above Vision Invest.

RIYADH-QASSIM BID RESULTS

SWPC called the line a boost to drinking water in Riyadh and Al-Qassim, with two-way flow to match ministry plans to join regions. The offtaker will buy transmission under a build, own, operate and transfer model for 35 years from commercial operation, which it has set in the first quarter of 2030.

The Group That Already Owns the Eastern Line Came In Last

Al Jomaih’s third-place tariff is the turn. That group already holds the other private pipe into Qassim. On November 11, 2024, SWPC named Al Jomaih Energy and Water, Nesma Company and Buhur for Investment preferred bidder for the 587 km Jubail-Buraydah independent water transmission pipeline, at 3.59468 riyals per cubic metre. Vision Invest and TAQA were reserve on that job, at 5.04214 riyals.

The eastern deal was signed on March 4, 2025, at SAR 8.5 billion (USD 2.26 billion). Aljomaih Energy and Water holds 45% of the project company, Stream Water Transmission Company, with Buhur at 35% and Nesma at 20%. Financial close followed in October 2025, with a 100% Islamic package from Al Rajhi Bank, the National Infrastructure Fund, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Saudi Awwal Bank, the Arab Energy Fund, First Abu Dhabi Bank, the Saudi Investment Bank and Bank AlJazira. Commercial operation is due in 2029. The line will move 650,000 cubic metres a day of desalinated water, with 1,634,500 cubic metres of storage and reverse flow via Al-Qulayib.

This milestone represents a major step forward in developing the Kingdom’s first independent water transmission project, linking the Eastern Province with the Qassim Region, with the added capability of reverse pumping.

Aljomaih Energy and Water Company, financial close statement, October 31, 2025

Buhur sat in both Qassim bids. On the eastern line it is a 35% owner. On Riyadh-Qassim it sat with Al Jomaih, Alkhorayef and Al Bawani and still came in most expensive. Alkhorayef, which is building the first private transmission line on the Red Sea with Spain’s Cobra group, did not drag that Saudi group under Vision Invest’s solo number either.

Vision Invest had a water PPP on the books before this evaluation. With TAQA and Gulf Investment Corporation it reached financial close on May 16, 2024 on the Juranah strategic water reservoir near Makkah, 2,000,000 cubic metres of strategic tanks and 500,000 cubic metres of operating tanks, on a 30-year transfer. That was storage. Riyadh-Qassim is a transmission concession, longer than Jubail-Buraydah, filed without those partners.

What the 859 km Pipeline Will Carry

The Riyadh-Qassim independent water transmission pipeline is an 859 km potable line sized for 685,000 cubic metres a day, with two-way flow so water can move between the capital and Al-Qassim either way. SWPC says the works add six strategic tanks in Riyadh holding 1,020,000 cubic metres and 32 operating tanks along the route holding 571,000 cubic metres, 1,591,000 cubic metres of storage in total. Solar plant is in the design, with the grid still on the line.

PROJECT SCOPE ON THE RFP

• Transmission: 859 km of potable pipeline rated at 685,000 cubic metres a day, built for two-way flow between Riyadh and Al-Qassim.
• Riyadh storage: six strategic tanks with a combined 1,020,000 cubic metres.
• Route storage: 32 operating tanks holding 571,000 cubic metres along the alignment.
• Power: solar plant to cut grid draw, with the network kept as backup.
• Contract: 35-year build, own, operate and transfer from the commercial operation date.
• First water: commercial operation set for the first quarter of 2030.

Pipe mills already treat the route as one of the longest potable water lines in the region, a large-diameter order that follows the award rather than leading it. The public argument over the 2.627-riyal price was thin, which is normal for a BOOT tariff fight that lives in lender models more than in street debate.

Three Tariffs on Three Independent Water Lines

SWPC has now run three independent water transmission tenders since the Rayis-Rabigh prototype. The published levelized costs are not a clean like-for-like, because length, volume and terrain differ, but they are the prices the offtaker put on the record.

SWPC INDEPENDENT TRANSMISSION LINES

Rayis-Rabigh is the short coastal connector, 150 km, 500,000 cubic metres a day, a 13 MW solar field, and a published cost of 2,415 million riyals. SWPC said in November 2025 that construction was 73% complete. Tedagua, part of Cobra, said on September 9, 2026 that the line had entered preliminary testing. Commercial operation has been held in 2026. Vision Invest’s 2.627-riyal number on a line more than five times that length is the figure SWPC has now accepted as preferred, still well below the 3.59468 riyals it signed on Jubail-Buraydah.

Qassim Becomes a Two-Pipeline Junction

If both inland lines reach operation, Al-Qassim sits on two private, reversible pipes. Jubail-Buraydah brings desalinated water west from the Eastern Province. Riyadh-Qassim ties the region to the capital’s system, 859 km, and can run either way. SWPC’s 2024 seven-year statement put the pair at 1.34 million cubic metres a day and 1,446 km of independent transmission, then still listed both as under tendering.

That layout is the interconnect the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has been writing into regional plans, and it sits inside the National Water Strategy 2030. Two-way flow is the operating idea: surplus in one region can be pushed to the other without building a third spine. Khaled Al-Quraishi, chief executive of SWPC, said at the Jubail-Buraydah signing that the eastern line would improve transmission efficiency with lower electricity use and operating costs. The Riyadh-Qassim design repeats the reverse-flow feature and adds solar on the same logic.

The offtaker is a Finance Ministry company that buys desalinated, treated and untreated water and runs the private tenders. Local developers have been winning the transmission book. Rayis-Rabigh is a Saudi-Spanish split. Jubail-Buraydah is all Saudi. Riyadh-Qassim’s preferred name is a Saudi holding company that bid with no foreign equity on the form.

From 31 Suitors Down to One Preferred Name

Interest was wide, then the live field shrank to three packets. SWPC said 31 companies, 19 of them Saudi, came in at the interest stage. The request for proposals went to the pre-qualified list on July 4, 2024. A later extension pushed the filing date, and SWPC then recorded three bids from the private sector on September 17, 2025. Vision Invest was the only solo filer among the three private bids received in September.

HOW THE FIELD NARROWED

1. December 20, 2021: SWPC says 31 companies, including 19 Saudi firms, file expressions of interest.
2. July 4, 2024: The request for proposals goes out to pre-qualified bidders, with commercial operation then described for 2029.
3. August 2025: The filing deadline is extended.
4. September 17, 2025: Three bids land, two consortia and Vision Invest alone.
5. December 9, 2025: Amer Alrajiba, SWPC’s chief planning officer, says the project is to reach financial close in 2026.
6. December 23, 2025: SWPC names Vision Invest preferred bidder and the Lamar group as reserve.

The commercial operation date on the September notice is the first quarter of 2030, later than the 2029 date on the 2024 request. Preferred bidder is not a signed water transmission agreement. On Jubail-Buraydah, SWPC named a preferred group in November 2024, signed in March 2025, and closed financing in October 2025, about 11 months from the evaluation to close.

Financial Close Remains the 2026 Test

Alrajiba’s 2026 close date was given two weeks before the preferred name was public. Through early October 2026, SWPC had not posted a water transmission agreement or a financial close for Riyadh-Qassim. Vision Invest still has to turn a 2.627-riyal evaluation into a financed project company, and the reserve group remains the fallback if that work stalls.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Preferred name: Vision International Investment Company at 2.627 riyals per cubic metre.
• Reserve group: Lamar Holding, Etihad Water and Electricity and Shaanxi Construction Engineering Group at 3.262 riyals.
• Contract form: 35-year build, own, operate and transfer from commercial operation.
• Target first water: the first quarter of 2030, on SWPC’s September 2025 notice.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Signing date: no water transmission agreement has been posted for Riyadh-Qassim.
• Financial close: targeted for 2026 by SWPC’s planning chief, not yet announced.
• Project cost: unlike Jubail-Buraydah’s SAR 8.5 billion, no capital value has been published.
• Equity partners: Vision Invest bid alone; any later shareholders are not on the record.

The 2.627-riyal price is the wager SWPC has accepted. On the first private transmission line, testers were already on site in September 2026. The third line still has to get from a winning tariff to a financed company, then into the ground, before water is due in the first quarter of 2030.