The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is splashing cash around

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is splashing cash around:

"How Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has gone about consolidating political power in his kingdom (let’s call it the, “Putting on the Ritz” strategy) and what he is doing with that power is one of the biggest stories in geopolitics. In business, his plans to privatise Saudi Aramco have global bankers and stock exchange officials tripping over themselves to curry favour with MbS and his inner circle.  But less attention has been placed on the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, the $230bn sovereign wealth fund at the centre of MbS’s plans to wean the country’s economy off its dependence on oil revenues generated by Aramco.  So it was with much fanfare back in 2016 when the PIF, which was until recently a pretty sleepy institution inside Saudi Arabia, took a $3.5bn stake in car-booking app Uber at a valuation of $62.5bn. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of the PIF, even joined the company’s board."



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