Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has opened a new subsidiary company office in Paris to deepen its business ties with Europe.

The office will drive the sovereign fund to engage closely with local partners, businesses and institutional investors, PIF said in a statement.

The Paris office will also allow the fund to strengthen its regional partnerships further.

Speaking at the FII Priority Summit in Albania, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said Saudi Arabia expects investments in Europe to surge to $170 billion by 2030.

The PIF has deployed $85 billion in Europe between investments and procurements since 2017 until 2024, he said.

The fund has invested $8.6 billion in France, which added $4.8 billion to the nation’s GDP and created 29,000 direct and indirect jobs for the French economy.

Overall, the PIF has created 254,000 direct and indirect jobs in Europe.

The current impact of the existing investments on Europe’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at $52 billion, which is expected to reach $ 105 billion by 2030.

However, Al-Rumayyan said some European regulations are anti-investment, hoping that some of the different European countries’ leaders will push for changes in these regulations and make them more business-friendly.

“The potential in Europe is really great,” he stated.

PIF already has subsidiary company offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Beijing, and has 220 portfolio companies.

(Editing by Brinda Darasha; brinda.darasha@lseg.com)