PIF profits reach SR85.7 bln in a year, revenues up to SR228.2 ‎bln

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced recording a net profit of 85.7 billion riyals last year 2021, a decrease of 61%, compared to profits of 221.2 billion riyals a year ago due to suspended operations.

Revenues amounted to 228.2 billion riyals, an increase of 27% from 179 billion riyals a year ago.

In 2020, the Fund made gains as a result of selling its stake in the company “SABIC” for about $70 billion.

The assets under the fund’s management increased to SR 1980 billion by last year end, an increase of SR 436 billion compared to the year 2020, which was SR 1544 billion, while it was SR 1208 billion in 2019 and SR 971 billion in 2018.

Based on the position of the PIF as one of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds and investment institutions in the world, the Fund has worked to form a diversified portfolio of investments distributed across a wide range of sectors, asset classes and geographical regions.

In 2021, the Fund achieved a total return of 25% on its portfolio, largely due to the strategic global investment portfolio, the investment portfolio in Saudi companies, and the investment portfolio aimed at developing promising sectors and supporting strong partnerships.

Given the well-established position of the Fund in Saudi Arabia and its global presence and influence, it represents the Kingdom’s investment arm. It supports a strategy aimed at diversifying the development of the Kingdom’s economy.

In order to achieve this, the Fund closely cooperates with the most prominent strategic partners and investment managers in the world in order to reap rewarding financial returns and add value to the Kingdom in the long term.

The PIF’s returns more than doubled from an annual average of 12% between 2017 and 2020, according to the Fund’s financial statements.

Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund, said, “This year, the fund succeeded in increasing its assets under management by more than 20%, to reach about 1980 billion Saudi riyals, which is the highest annual growth rate recorded by the fund since the launch of its first program. Thus, it became one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world in terms of the volume of assets under management.”

It should be noted that 71% of the PIF’s investments are local and 29% are global. The investments of the Fund are concentrated in 13 sectors, most notably communications, media and technology 25%, real estate sector by 23.5%, and financial services by 23%.

The Fund targets by the end of 2025 that the volume of assets under management will reach 4 trillion riyals, and the new local investments will reach 150 billion riyals.

Moreover, the expected impact by the end of the year 2025 is that the contribution of the Public Investment Fund to the Saudi non-oil GDP cumulatively will reach 1.2 trillion riyals, and 1.8 million direct and indirect jobs, in addition to the contribution to the local content by 60%.