#Saudi Wealth Fund Raises Year’s Third-Biggest Loan for New Deals - Bloomberg

Saudi Wealth Fund Raises Year’s Third-Biggest Loan for New Deals - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund obtained the third-biggest loan of the year so far as it raises money for new investments.

The Public investment Fund signed the $15 billion multi-currency revolving credit facility with 17 banks from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the U.K. and the U.S., according to a statement on Wednesday. The loan “provides PIF with access to additional capital that can be deployed at speed when convenient,” it said.

The facility is the biggest loan the PIF has ever secured. This year it’s behind only Verizon Communications Inc.’s $25 billion deal signed last month and a $24 billion loan announced by AerCap Holdings NV on Wednesday. The fund more than doubled the size of the amount it was planning to raise after initially targeting up to $7 billion, Bloomberg reported last month.

The $400 billion sovereign investor is key to the kingdom’s efforts to revive economic growth after a recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to stabilize oil prices with output cuts by an alliance of producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Handed $40 billion earlier this year to buy global stocks, the PIF plans to plow the same amount into the domestic economy this year and again in 2022.

The fund has also received cash injections in the form of the $30 billion proceeds from the sale of shares in Saudi Aramco.

The PIF is funded through a mixture of borrowing, cash and asset transfers from the government, and retained earnings from its investments. Chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and managed by Governor Yasir Al Rumayyan, the fund has outlined a plan to grow its assets to over 4 trillion riyals ($1.1 trillion) by 2025.