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Sovereign Wealth Funds Rise & Shine in the GCC (Wealth Worth over USD 3 trillion)

@alarabi @Shotgunner51

Thank you for providing additional information.

@T-72 find another thread to pollute, obsessive Indian troll.

Saudi Arabia Boosts Wealth Fund With $27 Billion Injection
by Matthew Martin and Deema Almashabi
November 30, 2016 — 12:41 AM EST November 30, 2016 — 7:38 AM EST
  • Funds to be used to diversify investments and boost revenues
  • Wealth fund to focus on both domestic and international deals
Saudi Arabia is boosting the firepower of its sovereign wealth fund to accelerate dealmaking and lessen the country’s dependence on oil.

The Public Investment Fund is receiving a 100 billion-riyal ($27 billion) transfer from official reserves, according to a statement Wednesday on the SPA official news agency, increasing its existing assets by about 17 percent. The injection will help the fund diversify investments and revenues, it said.

The fund’s dealmaking has quickened this year as it seeks to increase the proportion of foreign investments to 50 percent by 2020 from 5 percent. It acquired a $3.5 billion stake in taxi-hailing app Uber Technologies Inc. in June and plans to put as much as $45 billion into a $100 billion global technology fund formed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. Eventually, the kingdom wants the PIF, as it’s known, to become the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

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“The government is aggressively pursuing its investment diversification plan,” John Sfakianakis, director of economic research at the Gulf Research Center, said by phone. “It also sends a powerful message that the local economy is seen as a tremendous opportunity and will boost private sector confidence after a series of government spending cuts.”

During the coming period, the PIF will focus on both domestic and international deals, including “expected high yield opportunities in the local market that support private sector investments and promote economic growth and local contents,” according to the statement.

World’s Biggest
The PIF, which is led by ex-Saudi Fransi Capital banker Yasir Alrumayyan and has assets of about 600 billion riyals, most recently said that it’s taking a 50 percent stake in Dubai-based businessman Mohamed Alabbar’s investment vehicle Adeptio. It’s also contributing $500 million to Alabbar’s plan to create e-commerce firm Noon.

Saudi Arabia’s plans also include transferring to the sovereign wealth fund the ownership of oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and proceeds from that company’s initial public offering. Once it takes ownership of the government’s stake in Saudi Aramco the PIF will become the world’s biggest sovereign fund with assets of over $2 trillion, according to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The fund currently holds about $100 billion of shares in listed local companies, including Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Saudi Telecom Co.


In March last year, the PIF was transferred under a committee controlled by Prince Mohammed. In his role as head of of Economic and Development Affairs Council, the Prince chairs the board of the fund. It had previously been managed by the Ministry of Finance.

Fees Bonanza
The prospect of the PIF becoming more acquisitive, coupled with the planned privatization of Saudi Aramco and other state-owned companies, is attracting global investment banks to the kingdom. Fees paid to banks in Saudi Arabia jumped by almost a third to about $100 million in the first five months, according to New York-based research firm Freeman & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. advised the PIF on its investment in Uber and was a global coordinator on the kingdom’s $17.5 billion bond sale in October along with HSBC Holdings and Citigroup Inc. The sale was the largest ever such emerging markets offering.

PIF doesn’t receive any funding through the government budget and received more than 20 billion riyals in dividends in 2015, mostly from its holdings of Saudi Arabian equities, according to the prospectus for the October bond sale.

Reserves Drop
Saudi Arabia, hurt by low oil prices, has drawn down foreign reserves and cut spending while it funds a budget deficit that reached about 15 percent of gross domestic product last year. Foreign reserves held by the central bank have fallen $200 billion since August last year, to $536 billion at the end of October, according to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.

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The movement of funds to the PIF from SAMA, as the central bank is known, indicates that the role of the central bank could be gradually shifting, Mohamad Al Hajj, Dubai-based equity strategist for the Middle East and North Africa at EFG-Hermes U.A.E. Ltd said today by e-mail. SAMA’s role may be moving away from managing the country’s foreign reserves to focusing on currency liquidity and regulation, he said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-transfer-27-billion-to-sovereign-wealth-fund
 
@alarabi @Shotgunner51
Thank you for providing additional information.

You are welcome!

About IPO of Aramco, it's perhaps the biggest event ever. You got any news after Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's last visit to China/Japan in September?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/saudi-pr...ive-visits-china-japan-080102636--sector.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-china-japan-prince-idUSL8N1B51HB
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...est-asian-oil-buyers-await-crown-prince-visit
 
You are welcome!

About IPO of Aramco, it's perhaps the biggest event ever. You got any news after Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's last visit to China/Japan in September?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/saudi-pr...ive-visits-china-japan-080102636--sector.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-china-japan-prince-idUSL8N1B51HB
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...est-asian-oil-buyers-await-crown-prince-visit

Not anything new other than what has been publicly stated. However knowing how things work a lot has probably been agreed to outside of the "limelight". At least this would not surprise me at all. But a lot of deals have been signed with China, Japan, South Korea etc. in the past 1 year. Unfortunately not as much as with Indonesia which I personally would like to see much more of given the historical ties of Indonesia and Arabia (there is a 5 million big Arab-Indonesian diaspora - almost all exclusively originate from Arabia - second only to Chinese-Indonesians) and the large Indonesian diaspora in KSA, native as non-native. Same story with Malaysia.

In fact we should as a country as the GCC and Arab world vastly improve our ties with Southeast Asia as a whole. A very underrated arena.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Indonesians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Malaysians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabs_in_the_Philippines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Singaporeans

@Indos

What's going on bro? I hope that you are alright.

A distant area geographically speaking but much more close to our hearts than most know about. Goes both ways.
 
Marketplace Middle East
Uber's Mideast rival is worth $1 billion after Saudi investment
by Zahraa Alkhalisi @CNNTechDecember 19, 2016: 9:13 AM ET

161213154807-wheel-uber-1024x576.jpg

Riding a self-driving Uber around San Francisco

Careem started with $100,000 four years ago. Now Uber's main rival in the Middle East is worth $1 billion.

The elevation of Careem to unicorn status follows an investment of $350 million by Saudi Arabia's state telecoms company and Japanese Internet firm Rakuten (RKUNF).

Saudi Telecom said it now owns 10% of Careem. It was also involved in earlier rounds of funding.

"There was a focus on getting investors from Saudi because Saudi was poised to be our biggest market and that's where we needed the most help," said Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder of Careem.

The ride-hailing service now operates in 11 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

It has about 150,000 drivers (or captains as Careem likes to call them) and expects the latest investment will allow it to create one million jobs by 2018.

Sheikha says the company is not profitable yet but hopes to be in the next two years.
161219085312-uber-careem-saudi-arabia-780x439.jpg


Saudi Arabia, which is committing huge sums of money to tech companies, is backing both Careem and Uber.

The kingdom's sovereign wealth fund invested $3.5 billion in Uber in June. It also owns 70% of Saudi Telecom, so indirectly controls 10% of Careem.

Related: Saudi Arabia and Burj Khalifa developer launch Gulf answer to Amazon

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia set out a vision for diversifying the country's revenues away from oil. In October, it launched launched a $100 billion fund with Japan's Softbank (SFTBF) to invest in the technology sector.

"We haven't seen anything in Saudi that would make us feel that one company is being favored over the other," Sheikha told CNNMoney. "The government sees this as a platform not just to create employment in the kingdom but also to improve the quality of transport for everyone."

And Sheikha gives some credit to Uber for his company's success.

"Competition is the best thing that happened to Careem. If an aggressive global competitor had not come into the Middle East in 2013 we would probably not be where we are today."

CNNMoney (Dubai) First published December 19, 2016: 9:13 AM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/19/technology/careem-saudi-arabia-investment/
 
The Tiny Gulf Country With a $335 Billion Global Empire

Qatar's population is smaller than Houston, but its sovereign wealth fund is one of the largest in the world.


Qatar is regaining its appetite for deals. In the past two months alone, the world’s richest country per capita invested in Turkey’s biggest poultry producer, Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC, and U.K. gas company National Grid Plc.

The investments have been made through the Qatar Investment Authority, created in 2005 to handle the country’s windfall from liquefied natural gas sales, of which it is the world’s biggest exporter.

Since then, the country - with a population smaller than Houston - has amassed $335 billion in assets around the globe, making its sovereign wealth fund the 14th largest in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

After a raft of high-profile deals that gave the fund, known as the QIA, and other Qatari investors, holdings in Hollywood, New York office space, London residential property, luxury Italian fashion and even a soccer team, transactions slowed in 2015 and 2016 as oil prices slumped.

With oil’s recovery since early last year, Qatar is back in the deal-making business. Here are some of the country’s biggest investments globally:

Qatar

A visit to the capital of this tiny state starts at the $17 billion Hamad International Airport. Qatar Airways, which is backed by the QIA, manages the airport, and that's just the start of the fund's extensive footprint in the country.

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The QIA is the biggest investor in Qatar’s stock market, with majority stakes in Qatar National Bank SAQ, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s biggest lender, and telecom provider Ooredoo QSC, which has operations in 12 countries and is chaired by Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, who is also the QIA’s chief executive officer.

Europe

Europe has long been a top destination for Qatari cash, with the country deploying billions in trophy investments such as German carmakers, Italian fashion designers and football clubs.

Qatar stepped in to invest billions in Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG during the 2008 financial crisis. Qatar’s former Prime Minister and royal family member Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani injected 1.75 billion euros ($1.85 billion) into Deutsche Bank AG in 2014 as the German lender sold shares to shore up capital.

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The QIA is the biggest shareholder in German carmaker Volkswagen AG and played a pivotal role in Glencore’s $29 billion takeover of Xstrata Plc in 2012 after demanding the Swiss commodities trader boost its offer for Xstrata, in which it had built a stake of more than 10 percent.

In other high-profile deals, Qatar Sports Investments bought Paris Saint-Germain Football Club in 2011 and went on to win four French soccer league titles with star players including David Beckham. Mayhoola for Investments SPC, a company backed by Qatari investors, bought Italian luxury brand Valentino Fashion Group SpA from private-equity firm Permira Advisers LLP in 2012 for about 700 million euros, while former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bought a 10 percent stake in Spain’s El Corte Ingles SA, western Europe’s largest department store owner in 2015.

United Kingdom

Qatar’s investments in the U.K. were valued at a minimum of $35 billion in 2014, according to local media reports. In the swankiest parts of London, it’s possible to exclusively live, work, shop and stay in Qatari-owned properties. A Qatari-led group bought London’s Canary Wharf in 2015, expanding Qatar’s collection of London properties that includes stakes in London’s Savoy Hotel, the Shard skyscraper, Harrods department store, the Olympic Village and HSBC tower. Qatari Diar, the QIA’s real estate development unit, is converting the U.S. Embassy on London’s Grosvenor Square into a luxury hotel, and is building homes at the former Chelsea Barracks.

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Qatar’s U.K. investments aren’t just limited to real estate. With a 22 percent stake, the QIA is the largest shareholder in J Sainsbury Plc. In 2012, the country’s sovereign fund bought a 20 percent stake in London Heathrow airport and Qatar Airways raised its stake in British Airways owner IAG SA to 20 percent last year.

Russia

Qatar’s Rosneft $11 billion deal with Glencore Plc in December builds on the country’s growing Russian portfolio. Qatar agreed to buy 24.9 percent of the St. Petersburg airport in July and committed $2 billion to the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund in 2014.

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United States

With much of its major investment confined so far to Europe, Qatar is now setting it sights on the U.S. The QIA opened an office in New York in 2015 and laid out plans to invest $35 billion in the country by 2020 to diversify its oil holdings.

Qatar-based broadcaster BeIN Media Group last year acquired Miramax, the California-based film company that owns Oscar-winning movies including "Pulp Fiction."

The QIA was the fourth-biggest investor in U.S. office space in 2016, mostly in New York and Los Angeles, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. The fund acquired almost 10 percent of Empire State Building owner Empire State Realty Trust Inc. last year, and partnered with Brookfield Property Partners LP on an $8.6 billion mixed-use project on New York’s far west side.

Asia

Switch on the lights in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and there’s a good chance the power was generated from imported Qatari gas. While these Asian markets, including China, bought half of Qatar’s LNG exports in 2015, they have so far failed to attract much investment from the country. But this is starting to change.

The QIA is scouring the continent for possible investments. Fund executives said in 2014 they planned to place as much as $20 billion in Asia over six years, and expand its offices in Beijing and New Delhi.

In June, the QIA agreed to buy Singapore’s Asia Square Tower 1 from BlackRock Inc. for $2.5 billion, the biggest office transaction in Singapore. The fund acquired a stake in department-store operator Lifestyle International Holdings Ltd. in 2014 and holds 20 percent of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s electric utility company. It is also planning to set up a $10 billion investment venture with China’s Citic Group and is considering investing in a $100 billion global technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter said in October.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-11/qatar-sovereign-wealth-fund-s-335-global-empire
 
The most astonishing data is the growth of the GCC SWF by 900 billion$ between 2012 and 2014.. that is from 1.7 trillion$ to 2.6 trillion$ in just 2 years..
What has happened between 2014 and 2016?
 
The most astonishing data is the growth of the GCC SWF by 900 billion$ between 2012 and 2014.. that is from 1.7 trillion$ to 2.6 trillion$ in just 2 years..
What has happened between 2014 and 2016?

The total assets of all GCC sovereign wealth funds have grown to over $3 trillion by now.
 
Investing for good gains ground among GCC youth

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Experts predict Gulf family businesses will drive uptake of impact investing as millennials look for profits with a purpose

FINANCE 20 FEBRUARY 2017 GEORGINA LAVERS PHOTO CREDIT : GAUDILAB/SHUTTERSTOCK

Impact investment in the GCC is set to rise as millennials seeking both financial and social returns take the reins of the region’s family businesses, industry executives said.

But the market still has some way to go in terms of gauging social outcomes of investments amid a “fluid definition” of impact, said Rachel Pether, an advisor with the US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

“I see significant alignment between family business in the Gulf and impact investment,” Pether said during a panel event at the Family Office Forum in Dubai. “As intergenerational wealth begins to transfer… the increasingly socially-aware younger population is keen to leverage businesses’ long-term investment ethos to make a difference.”

Impact investing, a term coined in 2007, grew out of the desire by socially savvy individuals to both turn a profit and make progress against pressing global problems.

Its popularity has soared in recent years as mainstream financial institutes such as banks, insurance companies and fund managers have jumped on the bandwagon.

Gulf family offices, which generate more than $100bn in annual revenues, already direct 3.5 per cent of their wealth into social impact investing, according to a report by Ernst & Young; more than their counterparts in the US and Europe.

A small proportion of GCC family business owners invest more than 10 per cent of their wealth through impact investments, the report noted.

“The menu of choices is no longer limited to local giving and family foundations. [Impact investment] offers a prospect of effective social problem-solving through investment vehicles,” the report said.

Shainoor Khoja, managing director of Better Business Enterprise and moderator of the panel, said family offices increasingly seek to leave a broader legacy.

“When you consider the geography in a four-hour radius from the UAE, the need is immense in terms of infrastructure, jobs and capacity building,” she said. “Any dollar value invested here has a multiplier effect providing both an ROI for the business as well as the social return.”

Privately held companies are often pioneers of investment trends, having fewer stakeholders to gain approval from.

“We don’t have a billing department, an accounts department – our funding all comes directly from [our founder] PNC Menon,” said Raj Chinai, managing director of Sobha Group, a real estate conglomerate with interests in the GCC and Indian. “The way we look at impact is laser-focused on the question of how can we create dignity.”

Reza Dari, CEO Global Investment Bank, said corporates can bring both funding and their expertise to bear on the social sector to support long-term impact. The Dubai-based finance house has pledged this year to reinvest 50 per cent of asset fees from its wealth management arm towards sustainable causes and social development projects.

“One of the reasons we’re doing this, is to sustain some of the initiatives that we initially fund,” he said. Rather than nonprofits needing to approach donors annually for money, a reliable income stream would aid in better use of assets, he added.

“It may very well be that instead of funding 10 schools in a refugee camp in Jordan, we just do one, but we keep that going all the way through. As we expand our capital base, we can add another one, and another one.”

Impact investing rose to $15.2bn globally in 2015, from $10.6bn in 2014, according a report by the Global Impact Investing Network. The report found family offices and high-net-worth individuals together accounted for 13 per cent of the total capital invested.

http://www.philanthropyage.org/finance/investing-good-gains-ground-among-gcc-youth

Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Expands to $2 Trillion AUM

By Surbhi Jain
23 Feb 2017

This is post 4 of 4 in the series “Privatization and Sovereign Wealth Funds Gain Priority in the Gulf with Oil Still Low”






    • Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Expands to $2 Trillion AUM

Gulf SWFs are betting on technology
Technology sector investments by sovereign wealth funds are on the rise in the Gulf area. The Middle East (GULF) (GAF) is home to 3 out of 10 of the most active sovereign wealth funds in this regard; the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).

  • The KIA, with $592 billion assets under management (AUM) is invested in the accommodation rental platform BedyCasa along with Bpifrance.
  • The QIA, with $335 billion AUM, is co-funding the transportation network company Uber, along with Saudi Arabia’s PIF. The QIA has also invested into Flipkart.
  • The PIF of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has about $160 billion assets under management
vision-2030.jpg

Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to expand to $2 trillion AUM

Under the National Transformation Plan (NTP) and the Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has set a target of $2 trillion as the eventual value of PIF’s assets under management. This would be twice the size of Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global; currently the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

According to data from CB Insights, the government of Saudi Arabia is also committed to increasing the fund’s investment in technology (XLK):

  1. In June 2016, the PIF invested about $3.5 billion in Uber
  2. In October 2016, the government announced that the PIF would partner with Japan’s SoftBank Group (SFTBY) in order to create a $100B tech investment fund.
  3. In November 2016, the fund participated in a $1 billion round of funding for the UAE-based e-commerce company Noon.
Sovereign wealth funds consolidating
Abu Dhabi is in the process of finalizing the merger of two of its largest sovereign wealth funds -Mubadala Development and International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) – to form a new $125 billion investment powerhouse in the Arabian Gulf. The combined entity would be known as Mubadala Investment Co. The creation of Mubadala Investment Co should result in cost savings and efficiencies, and at the same time enable the new entity to aggressively pursue growth by leveraging on both entities’ portfolios. IPIC already has stakes in about 18 companies encompassing oil and gas exploration and production, marketing, petrochemicals and power in places like Kazakhstan, Austria, Pakistan, and Portugal.

https://fronteranews.com/investing/...ereign-wealth-fund-expands-to-2-trillion-aum/
 
FINANCIALS | Wed Mar 1, 2017 | 1:13pm EST

Saudi Arabian sovereign fund may invest in German tech, finance companies


Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking at taking minority stakes in German technology and financial companies, although any deal is unlikely before 2018, the kingdom's ambassador to Germany said.

Such a move would mirror other Gulf state funds from Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait, which have taken minority stakes in German companies including Daimler, Deutsche Bank and Volkswagen, although Ambassador Awwad Al-Awwad did not mention any companies by name.

"Germany is an economic powerhouse with (around) 300 hidden champions here that would need more capital to take them to another stage of development," he told Reuters on Wednesday after meeting politicians and business leaders from the federal state of Hesse, where Frankfurt is located.

Any stakes would be no greater than 10 percent and PIF was looking at five to six opportunities, he said.

"We have been looking at some of the technology and financial institutions ... but we are still in early stages," Al-Awwad said. "We are not interested in majority stakes."

He said there was no concrete deal yet. "It could probably materialise in 2018," he said.

Overseas investment is part of the Saudi government's "Vision 2030" to diversify the economy beyond oil. The centrepiece of the strategy is listing oil firm Aramco , which is expected to be the world's biggest IPO and raise tens of billions of dollars.

"The IPO of Aramco is a strong signal that we want to end our addiction to oil," Al-Awwad said. (Reporting by Alexander Huebner; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Susan Fenton)

http://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-germany-investment-idUSL5N1GE75F
 
Qatar wealth fund to open office in Silicon Valley

Reuters | Published — Monday 27 March 2017

LONDON: The Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf Arab state's acquisitive sovereign wealth fund, is setting up an office in San Francisco to manage its growing portfolio in the United States, the CEO of QIA said in London on Monday.
"Soon we will be opening an office in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco," Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed al-Thani told reporters at an investment conference.
The fund is one of the most active sovereign investors in the world, snapping up stakes in everything from real estate to luxury goods.
Much of its activity has traditionally been in Europe but the fund has said it is looking to diversify into Asia and the United States, announcing last year a plan to spend $20 billion in Asian investments over the next five years.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1074801/world

Saudi Wealth Fund to Get Airports in Privatization Push

by Deena Kamel
18. april 2017 07.27 CEST 18. April 2017 14.36 CEST

Saudi Arabia will transfer airports to its sovereign wealth fund by mid-2018, as part of a nationwide privatization drive spurred by low oil prices.

Airports will be turned into companies before being handed over to the Public Investment Fund, to help improve accountability, Faisal Al-Sugair, chairman of Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Co., said in a phone interview. The transfer will also boost oversight as the General Authority of Civil Authority will no longer be both an operator and regulator, he said.

The kingdom aims to win investment in airports as its seeks to revive an aviation industry that’s been dwarfed by competitors in nearby Dubai and Qatar. It’s also looking at privatizing seaports as depressed crude prices weigh on state spending plans.

The wealth fund will take over Saudi Civil Aviation Holding, which will act as an umbrella company for the airport operators, Al-Sugair said. The holding company will be worth “billions of dollars,” he said. The kingdom also has plans to transfer ownership of oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and proceeds from that company’s initial public offering to the fund.

Airport stakes will be sold off when the operating companies have become stabilized, which could be before they are handed over to the wealth fund, Al-Sugair said. A variety of privatization options are under consideration, including initial public offerings and private stake sales, he said. Different airports may be sold in different ways, and the government is yet to decide what stakes it will retain, he said. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young are advising on the sale process and on turning operators into companies.

The eventual sales may be hampered by “a very bearish market,” Al-Sugair said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you get less interest -- if you don’t get very good bids because of the situation in the market,” he said. That could lead to sales being re-tendered or postponed, he said.

Al-Sugair declined to comment on the level of interest in current tenders, which include Qassim, Hail, Ahsa and Taif airports, as he’s not directly involved in them. Generally, most bidders for Saudi airports have been European and international airport operators in partnership with contractors and investors, he said.

The country intends to convert Dammam airport into a company by July 1, followed by smaller airports and the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation, a training provider, in the fourth quarter, Al-Sugair said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-to-get-airports-in-step-toward-privatization

Great news.

 
A quite amazing fact.
Out of global sovereign wealth fund assets worth $6.5tn, GCC SWFs have assets worth over $3tn.
http://www.gulf-times.com/story/545326/Doha-Bank-knowledge-session-dwells-on-GCC-global-e
That's gigantic! China (Mainland and HK) SWFs are just over $2 trillion, must improve ROI to grow faster organically as well as pull more capital from low ROI forex reserves. Since 2013 China has began pivoting away from forex rerves (T-bills) to FDI, so SWF would be lead vehicle. China and GCC are getting closer in all fronts, already many joint investments, I hope to see a capital alliance in the making.
 
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That's gigantic! China (Mainland and HK) SWFs are just over $2 trillion, must improve ROI to grow faster organically as well as pull more capital from low ROI forex reserves. Since 2013 China has began pivoting away from forex rerves (T-bills) to FDI, so SWF would be lead vehicle. China and GCC are getting closer in all fronts, already many joint investments, I hope to see a capital alliance in the making.

That will definitely happen my friend. It already is. Mutually beneficial cooperation is the best that we as humans (nation states) can do.
 
That will definitely happen my friend. It already is. Mutually beneficial cooperation is the best that we as humans (nation states) can do.
Yes it is, very good trend. A major news, Softbank is starting a humongous $100B tech fund, they put up $25B on their own, rest is $45B is from Saudi sovereign weath fund, $15B from Abu Dhabi investor Mubadala Development Co. ($15 billion), rest from others. I posted here https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/new-...-worlds-largest-sovereign-funds.328675/page-7
I wish Chinese and GCC SWF can joint-start venture funds for TMT, infra, advanced manufacturing and financial sectors.
 

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