A new $5.33 billion investment firm owned by the government of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, will start operations next week, a senior Saudi official said on Tuesday.
The government announced last year its intention to set up the firm, called Sanabil al-Saudia, with a mandate to invest in equities, bonds, real estate, foreign currencies and commodities in Saudi Arabia and abroad.
“It is expected that Sanabil’s advisers will begin work next week,” said Mansour al-Maiman, secretary-general of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the finance ministry’s investment arm.
The advisers’ function is to take investment decisions, he told an investment conference in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia’s state investments abroad have so far been managed by the kingdom’s central bank, which gives few details of its investment strategy
