Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has emerged as the lead investor in a planned $800 million Middle East infrastructure fund being established by Aberdeen Standard Investments and Investcorp, Bloomberg reports, citing a statement.
The PIF has agreed to commit up to a fifth of the $800 million fund, or $160 million, and the fund says it has received another $90 million commitment from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, according to a statement Thursday issued by the group. According to Bloomberg, the rest of the financing is expected to come from investors including pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices and private clients.
The PIF is chaired by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and lead by Yassir Al-Rumayyan.
As Bloomberg notes, Saudi Arabia is “increasingly trying to push expenditure on new infrastructure projects out of direct spending from the Finance Ministry as it looks to narrow the budget deficit.”
On Tuesday, the PIF named two deputy governors, creating new roles for Turki Bin Abdulrahman Alnowaiser, who heads PIF’s International Investments Division, and Yazeed Bin Abdulrahman Alhumied, who leads PIF’s MENA Investments Division. Alnowaiser and Alhumied will take on their deputy governor roles alongside their current responsibilities.
The PIF’s investments continue to grow in number and diversity, in various funding rounds and in companies both local and international.
“We are looking into any opportunity, Al-Rumayyan, said at a virtual event last year. “Once the economy is open and up, I think we will see a lot of opportunities,” he said then, giving airlines, energy and entertainment companies as examples.
The PIF is the main driver of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic and social reform blueprint, created primarily to diversify the Kingdom’s economy away from oil.
