Riyadh (Business News Report) – The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has disclosed its future investments, as it intends to invest $10 billion this year in the stock markets.
Bloomberg said PIF is heading towards more than doubling the fund’s assets by 2025.
According to the agency, the fund is looking to focus its investments on a strategy that focuses on areas including e-commerce and renewable energy sources.
Saudi investment
The PIF, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is looking to buy global stocks based on an objective strategy that focuses on areas including e-commerce and renewable energy sources.
Spending on global stocks is added to the fund’s direct investments in international companies and their local deals.
The PIF has amassed about $500 billion in assets, playing a prominent role in global markets since receiving a $40 billion transfer from the kingdom’s reserves in early 2020 when the pandemic sent stock markets into tailspin.
The money was used to buy stakes in companies including Citigroup Inc. Facebook Inc. and Carnival Corp, operator of cruise ships. The PIF sold them just months later.
Several investments
The fund’s governor, Yasser Al-Rumayyan, said more than a year ago that it aims to invest about 80% of its investments in the Saudi economy, with the rest being spent internationally.
A document that outlined the fund’s strategy for 2021-2025 said it aims to “grow and diversify PIF’s international portfolio investments broadly, across geographies, asset classes and sectors, and away from the domestic economy and oil and gas industries.”
The value of the PIF’s public holdings, including its shares in domestic companies, has reached nearly $200 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, dominated by its stakes in Lucid Group Inc. and Saudi Telecom Co.
The fund more than tripled its holdings in publicly U.S.-traded companies from the end of 2020 to $43.4 billion during the third quarter of last year.
It began investing in video game makers in 2021 and recently added stakes in Chinese e-commerce and clean energy companies, from PayPal Holdings Inc and Plug Power Inc, to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
