As Saudi Arabia enjoyed an unprecedented oil boom in the 1970s, the monarchy turned to a handful of merchant family companies to build the nation’s infrastructure.
But almost 50 years and another oil windfall later, many have been sidelined by a rising cadre of businesses that have one thing in common: the state Public Investment Fund has taken a stake in each.
The growing dominance of the $650bn sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, underscores the extent to which the country’s day-to-day ruler has upended the old order as he robustly asserts his control over the economy and seeks to diversify it away from oil revenues.
“There’s definitely a change in the guard,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and author of a book on the Saudi private sector. “Development is being driven by government-led entities, it’s very much more a centralised and public sector-led growth.”
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