25th April, 2024
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has forged a joint venture deal with the Kingdom’s telecoms company STC which sees it acquire a 51% stake in Telecommunication Towers Company Limited (TAWAL), which is set to form the basis of the Middle East’s biggest telecommunications infrastructure company – and a global player.
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19th April, 2024
On Thursday this week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its latest fiscal oil price breakeven in the statistical appendix of its Middle East overview. These are important figures, as they reflect the fiscal situation of the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), when compared to current oil prices.
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2nd April, 2024
The Gulf region’s sovereign wealth funds have pursued very different strategies towards the rise of electric vehicles.
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26th March, 2024
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat have stumped up more money in their automotive interests in return for equity as they support plans for growth in a challenging market.
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19th March, 2024
The height of the pandemic saw sovereign investors plunge capital into e-commerce and logistics real estate, but today the biggest focus of their tech investments is artificial intelligence and machine learning – and this month has seen a surge in activity among state-owned investors.
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12th March, 2024
The building of national champions with global reach is a major theme of strategic sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf region. Abu Dhabi’s launch of a global tech investment firm on a scale of SoftBank’s first Vision Fund, backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and native AI firm G42, ramps up the rivalry between the Emirate and initiatives backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
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8th March, 2024
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is marching towards its end-2025 target of US$1 trillion with a further 8% stake in Aramco transferred to its portfolio by the government, in order to fund the Kingdom’s aggressive economic diversification program.
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5th March, 2024
Gulf states have tended to use soft power to gain geopolitical influence via economic and cultural relations, particularly in the MENA and Central Asian regions. The cold war within the GCC has subsided with a deal between Doha and a Saudi-led alliance over Qatar’s alleged closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet, rivalries are still heated and they are vying for regional influence and at a time of heightened geopolitical sensitivities, with this week seeing Saudi Arabia cement its ties with Bahrain via their sovereign funds while Qatar's QIA is deepening its exposure to Uzbekistan.
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29th February, 2024
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has tapped global markets for a mega-sukuk worth US$2 billion, bringing its total debt to an estimated US$36 billion - and it unlikely to stop its borrowing spree.
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28th February, 2024
Last year’s venture capital drought has given way to a deluge of investment with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) the latest to open the sluice gates of funds for startups.
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19th February, 2024
PIF’s US public equities portfolio fell 3.4% q-o-q to US$35.2 billion in Q4 2023, dragged down by the value of its holding in EV maker Lucid Motors but also including the divestment of a chunky gaming stock, according to its latest 13F filing.
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7th February, 2024
Saudi Arabia has launched two separate new major economic development entities, established under the auspices of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the National Development Fund (NDF) respectively, to drive investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, with a stress on sustainability.
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