Saudi Arabia’s FII Summit Heads to Tokyo in Latest Sign of Deepening Asia Ties - Bloomberg
The organizer of Saudi Arabia’s biggest investment summit plans to take a new version of the event to Tokyo as the kingdom seeks to deepen ties with Japanese financial institutions.
The Future Investment Initiative Institute plans to hold the FII Priority Asia Summit in Japan’s capital from Nov. 30-Dec. 1, according to a spokesperson for FII. The event — dubbed by some as “Davos in the desert” — is expected to gather top firms including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., FII said.
Officials from both governments and the $1 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund are also slated to participate. The Tokyo conference would be the second FII event in Asia and is set to take place about a month after the flagship FII gathering in Riyadh.
Executives including Citigroup Inc.’s Jane Fraser, BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon have become regulars at that event. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, who has drawn huge investments from the Public Investment Fund, was a headline speaker at FII in Riyadh last year.
The PIF signed some $51 billion worth of agreements with Japanese institutions including Mizuho Financial Group at that event, where the first Japanese exchange-traded funds linked to Saudi stocks were also launched.
FII’s selection of Japan as a venue comes as Saudi Arabia looks to deepen partnerships and investments from and into Asia that can help the kingdom drive its local economic diversification plan.
Already, Asian banks have emerged as major financiers for Saudi entities and are becoming more active players in the local market, with some setting up offices in Riyadh in recent years.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo and Mitsui are among lenders that recently backed a $10 billion financing package for BlackRock Inc.’s investment in gas infrastructure of oil behemoth Saudi Aramco, Bloomberg News reported this week.
The organization hosted a conference earlier this year in Miami, which was headlined by US President Donald Trump.
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