Sign in
The Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) annualized return on investments since 2017 rose to 8.7% by the end of 2023, according to its 2023 annual report (pdf). That’s compared to the 8% annualized return rate the fund recorded at the end of 2022.
PIF’s assets under management rose 29% y-o-y to SAR 2.9 tn by the end of 2023, it said in the report. Some 76% of these assets are in local investments, while 20% are international investments, and 3% of its portfolio is in treasuries. The majority of the fund’s AUM (85%) are managed internally, while the balance is externally managed.
The fund is most bullish on localization + giga-projects: While most of the fund’s portfolio components have seen their share of total AUM decline y-o-y last year, assets in sector development projects rose to 33% of total AUM, up from 21%, and giga-projects rose to 8%, up from 5% the year prior.
Meanwhile, Saudi equity holdings accounted for 27% of AUM, down five percentage points, while treasuries accounted for 3% of AUM, down from 9% the year prior. This could be viewed as a signal of the fund’s growing interest in productive sectors rather than fixed-income instruments, which is aligned with the Kingdom’s diversification ambitions.
Energy is king: The largest allocation was in energy at 23%, followed by 19% in multi-sector funds and money-markets, real estate at 17%, IT at 9.4%, and financials at 7.3%.
2025 targets: The sovereign wealth fund is targeting SAR 4 tn in AUM by the end of next year, with 21% of that in new sectors, and 24% in international sectors (up from 20% in 2023). The fund aims to have contributed SAR 1.2 tn to non-oil GDP by the end of next year, and created 1.8 mn jobs.
The fund has identified 13 strategic sectors for next year, including aerospace and defense, automotive, real estate, and entertainment, leisure, and sports. Bloomberg also had the story.
