Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund PIF swings to $36.8bn profit in 2023

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF swung to a profit of $36.81bn (SAR138.1bn) in 2023, it said on Monday, after posting a loss of $15.6bn a year earlier.

Total revenues at the Public Investment Fund (PIF) more than doubled to $88.3bn last year from $44bn in 2022, according to a regulatory filing.

The rise in revenues was driven by factors including an improvement in both investment and non-investment activities in sectors like banking, telecommunications and gaming, as well as increased dividends.

PIF, which has around $925bn in assets under management, is the chosen vehicle of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman to drive an economic agenda aimed at weaning the Gulf country’s economy off oil.

Under the plan, called ‘Vision 2030’, Saudi Arabia has poured hundreds of billions of dollars through the PIF into projects, including NEOM, a massive urban and industrial development project nearly the size of Belgium to be built along the Red Sea coast.

With a portfolio of investments ranging from date farms to multinational conglomerates, its sources of funding come from retained earnings from investments, capital injections from the government, government assets transferred to the fund and loans and debt instruments.

Read: GCC state investors dominate sovereign-backed investments, GlobalSWF says