Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is slowing work on several planned share sales, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially impacting one stream of funding for the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar economic transformation.
Weak market sentiment has weighed on valuations and recent trading debuts in Riyadh. That’s partly prompted the Public Investment Fund to take a more measured approach on potential listings, including Saudi Global Ports Co., Saudi Tabreed District Cooling Co., Nupco and Saudi Information Technology Co., the people said.
Some of those deals are now likely to be pushed into 2026, the people said, declining to be identified discussing private information. At least one of these share sales, Saudi Global Ports, was expected to come to market as soon as this year, Bloomberg News has previously reported.
The PIF is also waiting for appetite to recover before proceeding with large follow-on share sales, according to one of the people. The fund could move ahead with listings when markets conditions become favorable again.
Representatives for the nearly $1 trillion wealth fund and Singapore’s PSA International Pte, which co-owns Saudi Global Ports with PIF, declined to comment.
Riyadh’s benchmark Tadawul index is down about 4% for the year, making it one of the Middle East’s worst performers. That’s despite a sharp increase last month, when Bloomberg News reported that the market regulator is proposing reforms to attract investors, including easing foreign ownership limits.
The PIF is the main vehicle driving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $2 trillion Vision 2030 plan, and has previously sold down holdings in portfolio companies to raise cash. Late last year, it raised about $1 billion by selling a stake in the kingdom’s main mobile-phone operator, Saudi Telecom Co.
The wealth fund has stakes in companies ranging from Saudi Electricity Co. and Acwa Power Co. to bourse operator Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co. It also owns a majority stake in the $69 billion commodities firm Saudi Arabian Mining Co. as well as holdings in lenders including Saudi National Bank, Riyad Bank and Alinma Bank.
In all, its domestic portfolio is valued at about $430 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with oil giant Aramco accounting for about two thirds of that.
Crown Prince Mohammed has in the past said the fund shouldn’t hold investments in local firms “forever,” and the PIF has raised billions of dollars from share sales across its portfolio. A decision to slow the pace of such deals would be a further hiccup for the kingdom, which is already facing mounting pressure from lower oil prices and a widening budget deficit.
To be sure, Saudi Arabia has been more reliant on debt markets for its fundraising efforts and now ranks as one of the most active issuers in emerging markets, with a nearly $20 billion haul this year. The PIF, meanwhile, has raised over $9 billion from bond and sukuk sales, and $7 billion from an Islamic loan.
In the latest sign of the kingdom’s efforts to diversify its sources of funding, Bloomberg News reported this week that the Saudi Ministry of Finance is in talks with banks including large Wall Street lenders to raise as much as $10 billion in a rare loan deal.
Still, diversifying the Riyadh bourse is a core pillar of Vision 2030 and the PIF’s listing program has been central to deepening local capital markets and encouraging both state-backed and private-sector share sales. For portfolio companies, the fund typically participates in consultations but firms eventually decide the final timing of their share sales.
Saudi Global Ports, district cooling company Saudi Tabreed and medical procurement firm Nupco have all hired banks for possible listings, while SITE has started work on its IPO, Bloomberg News has reported. None of those firms have received regulatory approval to list yet.
Other PIF-backed firms, including the organizer of the Future Investment Initiative and a cloud kitchen startup run by former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick, are also exploring share sales.
But few have actually made it to the market. Oil driller ADES Holding Co. listed in 2023, while Umm Al Qura for Development & Construction Co., where the fund holds a 19.6% stake, raised $523 million from an IPO earlier this year. Secondary sales activity, too, has been muted since the PIF pared back its holding in Saudi Telecom.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been the busiest IPO venue in the Gulf so far this year, with almost $3.7 billion raised, but only three of the ten biggest listings are trading above their offer price.
Chaired by the crown prince, the PIF has created about 100 companies spanning sectors from tourism to artificial intelligence. The fund is looking to boost total annual deployment to $70 billion a year after 2025 and has emphasized that its investments in absolute dollar terms will continue to rise abroad even as it focuses at home.
Despite the kingdom’s cash constraints, the PIF continues to show an appetite for large deals. It recently emerged as the largest contributor to the $36 billion in equity being put in to finance the buyout of Electronic Arts Inc.
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