Saudi fund's assets under management to top $400bn by 2020

PIF programme set to create hundreds of thousands of jobs as it enters new industries

The kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the architect of Vision 2030, is the chairman of PIF.Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, will increase assets under management to $400 billion by 2020 as it vies to enter new industries, leverage advancements in technology, seek out strategic partnerships and maximise its asset base.

The framework to achieve the fund’s objectives dubbed the Public Investment Fund Programme (2018-2020) is part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 Vision Realisation Programs (VRP), PIF said today.

The PIF programme “will unlock value in the domestic portfolio and drive forward strategic and sustainable diversification by creating opportunities in a range of different industries,” said crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.  “Internationally, the fund has begun to invest in some of the world’s most innovative companies and formed partnerships that will support long-term income diversification and ensure Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of emerging trends.”

The programme will create 20,000 direct domestic jobs and 256,000 construction jobs and will increase PIF’s contribution to the country’s economy to 6.3 per cent from 4.4 per cent, while boosting the value of existing assets, with the target of increasing the fund’s shareholder returns to as much as 5 per cent from 3 per cent.

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The new programme “acts as a road map for the next three years to strengthen PIF’s position as the engine behind economic diversification in the kingdom,” the fund said. It “underpins PIF’s role in supporting a crucial component of the Vision 2030 agenda, to transform Saudi Arabia into a global investment powerhouse.”

The Riyadh-based fund, which currently has about $230bn in assets, will target six strategic investment pools with four domestic-focused pools and two focused internationally across Saudi Holdings, Saudi Sector Development, Saudi Real Estate & Infrastructure Development and Saudi Giga-Projects pools.

PIF has also agreed a fresh tie-up with investment firm Blackstone for a new venture designed to invest more than $100bn in US infrastructure assets.

The fund will commit $20bn to the venture - originally floated in May - which is expected to have $40bn in total equity commitments in a permanent capital vehicle.