Key corporate, mining and infrastructure moves

Saudi Azm for Communication and Information Technology Co. said it received a Class A qualification certificate from Saudi Arabia’s Digital Government Authority on 17 February. This is the highest eligibility level for participation in public‑sector digital projects.

The company told Tadawul the certificate will give it competitive advantages across projects of various sizes and types, and confirms its technical and operational readiness to compete for major government contracts. It also reflects compliance with regulatory requirements, governance standards and efficiency benchmarks for public initiatives.

Saudi AZM expects the qualification to positively impact business growth and diversify revenue over the coming years. The step is positioned as part of its strategy to strengthen public‑sector partnerships and pursue opportunities under public‑private partnership models.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reported a sharp reduction in its US equity holdings in Q4 2025. A US SEC filing shows the portfolio fell to $12.9 billion from $19.4 billion in Q3 2025.

PIF maintained positions in five firms: Lucid Group, Electronic Arts, Uber (UBER), Allurion Technologies and Clarivate. It fully divested its 11.4 million Take‑Two Interactive shares, having already disclosed in December 2025 that these were transferred to a Savvy‑owned company. Despite flat share counts in its remaining core holdings, market moves led to lower valuations in names such as Lucid and Uber over the quarter.

Ovintiv agreed to sell its Anadarko Basin assets in Oklahoma for $3 billion in cash to an undisclosed buyer. The deal covers around 360,000 net acres, representing nearly all of its holdings in that region, and current February production of about 90,000 boepd, including oil, gas and NGLs.

The transaction is expected to close early in Q2 2026, effective 1 January 2026, subject to customary conditions and adjustments. Ovintiv hired Wells Fargo (WFC) as financial adviser and Kirkland & Ellis as legal counsel, and plans to update its 2026 guidance and shareholder return framework in connection with the sale.

CEO Brendan McCracken said the sale focuses the portfolio, supports debt targets and underpins higher shareholder returns. Ovintiv has been consolidating its position in the Montney and Permian, closing a $2.7 billion acquisition of NuVista Energy earlier this month and a $2.37 billion all‑cash Montney asset purchase from Paramount Resources in late 2025.

MakeMyTrip announced a collaboration with OpenAI to deepen its AI‑first travel strategy. The Indian online travel company is using OpenAI APIs to power new AI features in its app, allowing users to move from conversational trip inspiration to booking inside its Myra interface.

The company said the integration shifts it from passive search visibility to active participation in AI‑led discovery, turning conversational travel intent into structured, transaction‑ready options across flights, hotels and ancillary services. Co‑founder and group CEO Rajesh Magow described the aim as transforming curiosity into confident decisions when AI is anchored in MakeMyTrip’s proprietary travel data.

OpenAI’s Oliver Jay said MakeMyTrip is using its APIs to make travel planning feel more like a conversation than filtering. MakeMyTrip highlighted that its in‑house GenAI Trip Planning Assistant, Myra, already handles more than 50,000 daily conversations in multiple Indian languages and English, with strong usage from smaller cities.

West Red Lake Gold Mines released new assay results from its fully funded infill and conversion drilling program at the 100%-owned Rowan Project in Ontario’s Red Lake district. Highlights include 5.5m at 14.42 g/t Au in hole RLG‑25‑201, including 2m at 32.93 g/t, and 1m at 84.3 g/t Au in hole RLG‑25‑198.

The campaign comprises about 6,300m across 38 holes; results have been reported for 14, with assays pending for 19 and five holes still being logged and sampled. The work targets infill and resource conversion on key veins to support a planned combined pre‑feasibility study (PFS) with the company’s Madsen Mine, aimed at evaluating shared infrastructure and integrated mine planning.

Rowan currently hosts an NI 43‑101 Indicated resource of 196,747 oz at 12.78 g/t Au and an Inferred resource of 118,155 oz at 8.73 g/t Au, using a 3.80 g/t cut‑off and $1,800/oz gold price. West Red Lake is also advancing permitting toward Advanced Exploration status, targeting approvals in 2027 under Ontario’s One Project, One Process framework.

Empire Metals began a major drilling campaign at its Pitfield titanium dioxide project in Western Australia. The fully funded program totals 41,250m across 754 planned holes, using three air‑core and two reverse‑circulation rigs, and is expected to wrap up by mid‑April.

The work is designed to upgrade the Thomas prospect mineral resource into higher‑confidence categories and significantly expand the Cosgrove resource. An updated MRE for Thomas and a larger Cosgrove estimate are targeted for the third quarter of 2026 to support ongoing engineering and study work.

Pitfield’s current MRE stands at 2.2 billion tonnes at 5.1% TiO₂, or 113 million tonnes contained TiO₂, covering only about 20% of the known mineralised area. Managing director Shaun Bunn said the campaign will improve understanding of scale and grade and increase measured and indicated resources ahead of mine design and ore reserve work.

Lane, the US subsidiary of Webuild, opened 11km of new lanes on Florida’s Turnpike between the Minneola Interchange and O’Brien Road, 1,020 days ahead of the planned completion date. The project also delivered new US 27 access ramps and safety and drainage improvements, with Lane attributing the acceleration to a modular, parallel construction management approach.

Separately, Valmet will supply a flue‑gas condensing heat recovery system and automation to Veolia’s EC4 combined heat and power plant in Łódź, Poland. The HeatUp! project is expected to capture more than 50 MW of energy from flue gases for district heating, increase renewable heat production at EC4 by one third without burning more biomass, and cut CO₂ emissions by over 82,000 tonnes per year once the facility starts up, planned for Q3 2027.