Executive Summary

It is past midnight in a meeting room in Riyadh. Contracts running to hundreds of pages lie across the table; on the screens, advisers follow from London and New York. The team in Riyadh has been at work for weeks. Final drafting is reviewed, the last points are settled, and the deal is signed inside the Kingdom. In the morning it will be announced that the transaction closed in Saudi Arabia, and its value will be counted toward the economic activity the country is recording. But one question does not appear in the press release: where will the value this deal created come to rest? A great deal of the work may be performed in Riyadh, while the principal client relationship remains in London, the highest-value decisions are taken in New York, and a large share of the profit is distributed to partners living outside the Kingdom. Here lies the difference between hosting an economy that grows around you and owning it. This question is not confined to the legal profession. A country can host one of the world's largest Formula One races while the rights and the commercial decisions remain abroad.