Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund emerged as the world’s most active sovereign investor last year, increasing trading activity even as most of its global peers, including GIC Pte and Temasek Holdings Pte, cut spending.
The PIF, known as the Saudi Fund, committed $31.6 billion in 2023, according to research consultancy Global SWF. This is higher than the previous year’s investment of $20.7 billion, an increase that contrasts with the broader trend that global state-owned investors invested $124.7 billion, about one-fifth less than a year earlier. .
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The decline was led by GIC, which cut capital injections by 46% to $19.9 billion, losing its position as the world’s most active sovereign wealth fund for the first time in six years. Temasek also reported a 53% drop in new investment to $6.3 billion due to volatile markets, and two Singapore-based investors reported worsening returns.
“Investors in Singapore are becoming more cautious and we can see that reflected in the numbers,” GlobalSWF said. “Gulf sovereign wealth funds have increased their dominance in global trading activity, to the detriment of funds in Singapore and Canada, and now account for almost 40% of all investments made by sovereign wealth investors. .”
Overall, sovereign wealth funds controlled by the hydrocarbon-rich governments of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar occupied fifth place on the list of the top 10 most active funds last year.
This trend is likely to continue. The governments of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain will manage approximately $4.4 trillion in total external assets by the end of 2024, two-thirds of which will be managed by sovereign wealth funds. It is said that there is a high possibility. A report published by the International Finance Association in December.
The Saudi fund was also promoting significant domestic deals to support economic diversification, based on plans by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also PIF chairman.
In September, the fund acquired Sabic Basic Industries Corporation’s steel business in a $3.3 billion deal, bringing PIF’s domestic investments to around 42% of its total deployment in 2023.
“The diversity of transactions demonstrates the unparalleled bandwidth and reach of PIF and its subsidiaries,” Global SWF said in the report.