Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is planning to open more offices in the Mena region as it increases its workforce to about 3,000 and prepares to launch a new long-term strategy.
“In 2015, we had about 30 people and a very small office. Today, we have our main office in Riyadh, with 2,964 people working,” Yasir Al Rumayyan said during an interview with Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington on Monday.
The fund will be opening offices in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman as part of its expansion, Mr Al Rumayyan added.
“The first office was in New York City, then, we opened the second in London, then Hong Kong – then Paris and Beijing. We are opening regional offices in Cairo, Amman, Manama, and also in Muscat.”
The PIF, with assets worth $913 billion by the end of 2024, is leading Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative, which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy from oil.
The fund also aims to boosts its assets value to $1.75 trillion by the end of the year to be the “biggest sovereign wealth fund … and our target by 2030 is to be at least $2 trillion and there's a good chance for us to be $3 trillion”, Mr Al Rumayyan said.
The PIF, along with related organisations, is driving investment into areas including finance, health care, sport, renewables, technology, automotive, property, aerospace, defence, entertainment, leisure, retail and mining.
The fund has investments in local and international companies including Saudi mining and mineral giant Maaden, petrochemicals major Sabic and the kingdom's biggest lender, Saudi National Bank.
Its international investments include SoftBank Group, Lucis Motors, Uber technologies, Reliance retail and Jio Platforms, among others.
The fund is also building giga-projects in the kingdom, including a city named Neom along the Red Sea and Qiddiya, an entertainment and sports complex in Riyadh.
The expansion will come as PIF plans to unveil a long-term strategy to boost investment returns and help to move its economy away from oil, Mr Al Rumayyan said.
“In the coming two months or so, we will set the new strategy for the PIF, which is a continuation from the original, until 2030 and from 2030 all the way to 2040 and beyond,” he said, without providing further details on the new strategy.
The PIF is currently deploying about 80 per cent of its capital locally, while the rest goes abroad, Mr Al Rumayyan said, adding that the fund is keen on co-investments with international players that would bring money back to Saudi Arabia.
“We need to increase and grow our local content and one of the best ways to do so is to get direct foreign investments to the country,” Mr Al Rumayyan said.
