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Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund boosted its investment in local companies to a record level of nearly 817.37 billion Saudi riyals ($218 billion) at the end of October, Okaz daily reported on Monday.
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s largest SWFs with total assets of around $620 billion, now has stakes in 23 companies listed on the Saudi stock market, the paper said, citing market data.
The value of its ownership in each of 22 firms exceeds 5 percent while it owns 4 percent of Saudi Aramco, which controls the world’s largest oil reserves.
The report showed PIF’s shares in three key firms exceeded half its total domestic investment, with its stake in Aramco standing at 292 billion riyals ($77.8 billion).
PIF’s ownership in the Saudi Telecommunications Company is estimated at around 125 billion riyals ($33.3 billion) and that in the state-owned mining firm ‘Maaden’ at 107.3 billion riyals ($28.6 billion), the report said.
PIF also owns shares in the National Commercial Bank, the Saudi Electricity Company, AcwaPower, Riyadh Bank, Alinma Bank and a number of cement firms, it added.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
