#Saudi wealth fund to cut overseas investments | Reuters

Saudi wealth fund to cut overseas investments | Reuters

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund plans to cut its overseas investments by about a third, its governor told a conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, as the Kingdom taps into its resources to fund plans to wean the economy off oil.

Speaking on a panel of business, technology and finance leaders, Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the sovereign wealth fund was more focused on the domestic economy and aiming to bring the fund's international investments down to between 18% and 20% of the total from 30%.

Global business, technology and financial leaders have converged on the Saudi capital for the annual Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit, an opportunity for attendees to forge relations with some of Saudi Arabia's biggest companies and its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund.

This year, the event may also test investor appetite in Saudi Arabia's economic transformation at a time when there are fears of widening conflict in the Middle East.

The sovereign wealth fund is the main vehicle for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to steer the Saudi economy away from oil, with investments of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop new sectors and create more sustainable revenue streams.

However, the fund has been scaling back some of its flagship "giga-projects" due to rising costs.

Al-Rumayyan said there had been a shift in the way the fund deploys its investments towards establishing joint ventures with both international and local companies.

"Now we see a shift from people who want us to invest or take our money to invest from there to co-investments," he told the conference.

The country's investment minister, Khalid-al-Falih, said on Tuesday that the number of foreign companies with regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia had reached 540, ahead of a 2030 target of 500.

Oil remains the mainstay of the Saudi economy and Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the same event that the country was committed to maintaining crude capacity at 12.3 million barrels per day.