Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Wednesday that the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would launch five new investment firms in countries around the Middle East, targeting regional growth for the fund, according to reports and a release from the PIF.
The new companies are aimed at investing in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, and Sudan. This comes after the launch of the Saudi Egyptian Investment Co. in August, and across all six companies the value of the targeted investments will reach SR90 billion ($24 billion) in opportunities across various sectors, including
The announcement comes on the same day as the Public Investment Fund announced the launch of its Local Content Growth Program “which aims to leverage PIF spending to catalyze the development of at-scale, competitive, and innovative sectors and industries in Saudi Arabia. The Program will aim to achieve the Fund’s aspiration of increasing its contribution to the Saudi economy by increasing PIF and its affiliates’ contribution to local content to 60% by the end of 2025, thereby enabling and supporting the country’s private sector in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.”
The local content growth policy program also includes a Local Content Policy, “in which PIF’s portfolio companies will encourage and support local products and services from project design stage to implementation, with priority given to private sector service providers and suppliers based on the size of their contribution to local content. With progress reported on a regular basis, this will support the competitiveness of local industries, driving innovation and confidence in local materials and designs,” the release said.
The PIF, which manages about $620 billion in assets and aims to grow that to over $1 trillion by 2025, was the second most active state investor between January and October, with 39 deals valued at $17.2 billion during the period, according to wealth fund tracker Global SWF.
