A photograph of the son of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi shaking hands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was released late last month. The image was difficult for many in the international community to process given the Saudis' shifting narrative on the killing and the fact the son, Salah Khashoggi, had been banned by the Saudis from leaving the country for months due to his father's criticisms of the regime — he was finally allowed to travel to the U.S. in late October after the handshake photo opp.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, shakes hands with Salah Khashoggi, a son, of Jamal Khashoggi, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Saudi Press Agency | AP

The Khashoggi killing came after a period of time when Crown Prince MBS had consolidated power over Saudi Arabia and had been on a global charm offensive. Earlier in 2018, it was other images of greetings being published, as MBS met with Silicon Valley titans like Google's founders and the Queen Elizabeth II. While the Crown Prince has not been implicated, and this week called the killing a "heinous crime", his international credibility has taken a hit. So have his plans to transition the Saudi economy from an oil-dependent kingdom to a diversified economy in the decades ahead with the help of an increased flow of foreign investment. The story won't go away. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said the murder threatened stability in the Middle East, though he stopped short of blaming the Saudi leadership or implicating Crown Prince MBS. At the same conference in Bahrain where Mattis spoke in late October, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the reaction to Khashoggi's death "hysterical." Since that time, Turkey has released an audio recording of the murder, the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded the killing was likely ordered by the crown prince, and the Saudis continue to deny MBS was involved after firing top officials known to be close to him and making many arrests. Saudi prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for five people alleged to be involved in the killing, as well as lesser charges for six others. On Tuesday, President Trump said in new statements that he stands with Saudi Arabia. "We may never know all of the facts," but, "our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Trump said. "It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event, maybe he did and maybe he didn't!" There is someone else who soon may be standing by Saudi Arabia, and with their own dollars, too: You.

Why you may soon be investing more in Saudi Arabia

As the Khashoggi killing headlines continue, there is a hard stock market truth about this story's persistence. While the Saudis played up the more than $50 billion committed to its economy, primarily from U.S. institutions, at the conference in Riyadh that many global business leaders and politicians pulled out of after the Khashoggi killing, regional experts are questioning whether the foreign investment sought by Saudi Arabia from global institutions ultimately will flow into the kingdom. "My gut is that this was a watershed moment," said Jean-François Seznec, a member of the Middle East Institute and adjunct professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, who spent years as an investment banker in the Middle East. "I think until now there was great deal of hope that the reforms would really result in change. Now foreign investors are realizing all of a sudden that the millions of dollars in ventures is at mercy of one guy. This will translate into investors being very wary of doing anything in kingdom." But many individual investors who have diversified equity asset allocations that include emerging markets will soon be investing more, not less, in Saudi Arabia, and if they stick with their investment plans, won't be able to do anything about it. A fortuitous market event occurred for Saudi Arabia in 2018: major stock market index creators, FTSE Russell and MSCI, announced they would be adding Saudi Arabia to emerging markets benchmarks that form the basis of trillions of dollars in investment funds around the world, including in the U.S., mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that are used in individual investment plans from 401(k)s to IRAs and retail brokerage accounts.

The base case probably remains that the Saudi market still has gains to come. Charlie Robertson Renaissance Capital global chief economist

There already are two ETFs that track the Saudi Arabian stock market, BlackRock's iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia ETF (KSA) and, in a fund launch that was unfortunately timed, the Franklin Resources' Franklin Templeton FTSE Saudi Arabia ETF (FLSA), which launched in October right before the Khashoggi killing news broke. But these funds aren't where the real money is. Even as Saudi Arabia has been one of the only global stock markets to generate high returns in 2018 — and is still up 11 percent as of Tuesday — the iShares ETF has about $200 million in assets and the new Franklin ETF only a little over $2 million. The Wisdomtree Middle East Dividend Fund (GULF), which has a 26 percent weighting to Saudi Arabia, its biggest market, has $17 million in assets. The big money is in the broad emerging market index funds and ETFs that are used for emerging markets exposure in many investment plans created by financial advisors and asset management firms.

Saudi Arabia ETF performance Period ETF return 1-week 3 percent 1-month (-0.17 percent) 3-month (-6.0 percent) Year-to-date 16 percent 1-year 21 percent 3-year 8 percent

EFG-Hermes Holding has estimated that the upgrades to emerging markets status by FTSE and MSCI could bring between $30 billion and $45 billion into Saudi stocks. There was $1. 9 trillion benchmarked against the MSCI Emerging Markets Indexes as of year-end 2017. The two main iShares emerging markets ETFs that use the MSCI benchmarks (IEMG and EEM) have roughly $70 billion in assets, while the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), has near $80 billion in assets. New York City's chief pension fund official this week asked the index providers to reconsider their decisions. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, pulled out of a recent Saudi investment conference along with other global executives, but Fink told CNBC earlier in October that BlackRock, the world's largest money manager and whose business initiatives run far beyond running core equity funds — it owns a recently opened prison in Mexico — would not stop doing business with the Saudis even if the killing was ordered by the government. ""We do business in 80 different countries. There are many countries where we may disagree," Fink told CNBC on Oct. 16. "I've been going to Saudi for years and years and years, as much as three or four times a year. As friend of the country's, I wanted to do this in a way ... that preserved the relationship that we have, that we worked so long for." FTSE, MSCI, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton declined to comment about the emerging markets index funds and ETFs.

A big deal for Saudi Arabia

The underlying story is that upgrades to emerging market index status tend to be very bullish for equities, said Charlie Robertson, global chief economist, emerging and frontier markets specialist at London-based Renaissance Capital. "What history tells us that in the 18 months up to an upgrade, stocks do well. If oil and currency stability were the most important issues, Nigeria would have done well too," Robertson said of the recent run in Saudi performance, where the stock market is still up 11 percent this year, versus a decline of 18 percent in the Nigerian market. "The base case probably remains that the Saudi market still has gains to come." Steven Holden, founder of Copley Fund Research, which tracks how fund managers around the world invest, said the passive impact of the Saudi market inclusion into the emerging market indexes is "still a big deal and shouldn't be underestimated." He said ownership of Saudi stocks by the actively managed emerging market fund universe his firm tracks will continue to rise, and the current buying is "just the start. It is definitely an index tailwind and provides support to the market." Holden said that his firm's data shows that, on average, 60 percent of fund managers try to match an index weighting to markets, and Saudi Arabia's weighting presence among global emerging fund managers is currently at 7.2 percent. "No other region the size of Saudi Arabia has anything less than 60 percent of fund ownership, and currently at 7.2 percent, it represents a massive underinvestment," Holden said. "The Saudi market is guaranteed to attract greater international investment due to its inclusion in the emerging markets index next year." He said the index providers, FTSE and MSCI, are in a difficult position, because their entire business is based on an index process driven by a broad methodology. "Countries go in and out of indexes through a methodical process, not on the basis of one political event. That process is fairly well-defined and MSCI and FTSE don't make decisions lightly and it takes a long time to go through," Holden said.

The Saudi economy still faces steep challenges

"The recent event may have dampened foreign interest in investing in the kingdom, but there is at least a short term tailwind rather than headwind for Saudi stock market," said Garbis Iradian, chief economist for the MENA region at the Institute of International Finance in Washington D.C. He said it is the more ambitious elements of the Crown Prince's plan that are most threatened, such as the plan to build a $500 billion megacity (Neom) and the broad objectives set in the Saudi Vision 2030 plan which are "overly" ambitious. "But that was true before the recent global backlash, and more so due to the challenge of implementing deeper structural reforms to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil and achieve sustained, rapid private sector growth," Iradian said. "MBS has already consolidated his power and the recent event will not weaken his power unless the U.S. Congress imposes strong sanctions." Neom and the creation of a new global financial district were already stalled, and "a failure waiting to happen, a train wreck waiting to happen," Seznec said. "You can't have one person from the top dictating everything." Seznec said it is the "more logical reforms, not the Neom city and stuff," that need to be the focus and be properly managed. Some U.S. politicians have been calling for sanctions, but barring a strong and unlikely move against MBS, Iradian said it is going to be his job to convince investors to stick with the kingdom and see through reforms, and he remains highly popular within the country, where he received a standing ovation at the Future Investment Initiative. "MBS has already consolidated his power and the recent event will not weaken his power unless the U.S. Congress imposes strong sanctions. MBS is still very popular among the young Saudi nationals (which account for more than 60 percent of the population) partly due to the social reforms (including more entertainment and letting women drive)." The Crown Prince's father, who handed over power to his son, said this week he stands by his succession plan, even as some members of the royal family have turned against MBS.

The whole issue is not seen in Saudi Arabia as a major crisis. ... People are not about to go out in the street and complain. Jean-François Seznec a member of the Middle East Institute

Seznec is less convinced that MBS will not face any challenge to his power, but he stressed that in phone conversations he has had this week with people in kingdom, there wasn't much concern shown. "The whole issue is not seen in Saudi Arabia as a major crisis. ... People are not about to go out in the street and complain," he said, though he added that the press is controlled in the country. "The king is very old and knows he has to establish a legacy, and it really is in shambles right now because of this. The U.S. and Europe relationships are in terrible shape, but when you think from a strategic standpoint, the U.S. needs support for the fight against Iran, so can't just entirely start turning against them." The most important commitments for MBS to see through, but which have not been completed, are on a lengthy list of reforms that will be required for private business growth, Iradian said. The Saudi business climate ranking among emerging economies was 90th out of 190 nations, according to a World Bank assessment this year, a weakness which stems from lack of transparency, rule of law, too much red tape, and obstacles in enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency, Iradian said. Recent statistical measures of the Saudi economic goals are mixed. Fuel subsidies have declined and electricity prices increased by about 45 percent this year, in keeping with plans to make the population less reliant on government subsidies. Government non-oil revenue as percentage of GDP increased to 10 percent in 2017, and should reach 12 percent in 2018, according to Iradian. But the unemployment rate increased in the past two years to around 13 percent as of the second quarter 2018, when the plan is to cut it in half, and despite increased hurdles on employment of foreign labor. Meanwhile, foreign investment is still minimal. The kingdom wants to increase FDI to 5.7 percent in 2030, but it decreased to 0.4 percent of GDP in 2017. And little progress has been made on increasing the contribution of small and medium-sized businesses to the economy. Many of the companies that are the biggest public companies in Saudi Arabia today, and the ones which are the largest weightings in the stock market, are the older-guard companies in core industries, such as chemicals, materials, telecom and financial services.

Top 5 stocks in iShares Saudi ETF Stock Market Cap 1-year return Industry Saudi Basic Industries $388 billion 36% Materials Al Rajhi Bank $145 billion 47% Financials National Commerce Bank $135 billion 47% Financials Saudi Telecom $172 billion 33% Communications Samba Financial Group $63 billion 48% Financials