Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is leading a consortium of investors which has emerged as the frontrunner to buy a minority stake in Kuwaiti conglomerate Alshaya Group’s Starbucks Corp. franchise, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The PIF is vying for a stake in the business and could reach an agreement in the coming weeks, the people told Bloomberg on the condition on anonymity.
Per Bloomberg, Alshaya is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and had indicated they valued the business at $15 billion but prospective buyers expected bids to value it closer to around $11 billion. “No final decisions have been made, and negotiations could still drag on longer or fall apart. Representatives for the PIF and Alshaya declined to comment,” Bloomberg said.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought shares in Alphabet, Zoom Video, and Microsoft at the end of the 2Q 2022 as part of a wider pick of U.S. stocks, bringing the market value of the sovereign wealth fund’s investment portfolio to about $40.8 billion at the end of the second quarter.
The PIF, with $620 billion in assets, also added earlier this year to positions it held in Facebook Inc. owner Meta Platforms Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. in the second quarter, according to a SEC 13F filing by the PIF, a quarterly report that is required to be filed by all institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management.
As Bloomberg notes, the PIF is investing in companies across a wide range of industries as part of a key role to diversify the economy away from oil.
