Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has signed a $15 billion revolving credit facility agreement with an international consortium of 23 financial institutions, replacing a previous credit facility of the same value agreed in 2021.
The facilities will be provided for a period of three years, extendable for an additional two years, said a statement from the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund that manages assets worth $925 billion.
A revolving facility is a loan that can be drawn down, repaid and drawn down again during the lending period.
The statement said that the alliance includes financial institutions from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia.
Reuters earlier quoted sources as saying that the banks participating in the 2021 facility are BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Citi, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, Natixis, Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corporation, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.
The Public Investment Fund declined to disclose the banks participating in the new facility.
Performance 2023
Earlier this month, a report by the Saudi Public Investment Fund for 2023 showed that total assets under management increased by nearly 29% to about $765 billion last year, driven by local investments in mega Saudi projects.
Assets representing Saudi mega projects nearly doubled to 241 billion riyals ($64 billion) from 121 billion riyals a year earlier, while development of other projects aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil also doubled to $251.32 billion from $125.26 billion at the end of 2022.
The fund has led a spending spree to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on oil and launch leading national companies in sectors including financial services, tourism, aviation and industry.
The rising costs have increased pressure on the Fund to implement these projects.
Since the end of last year, the fund’s assets under management have increased by about $160 billion to about $925 billion in total, according to its website, after transferring an 8% stake in the national oil company, Aramco, to the fund in the first quarter of 2024. Aramco is also headed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the fund’s governor.
The transfer of this stake allowed the fund to obtain abundant profits, and it also raised $5 billion from the sale of bonds last January.
The 2023 annual report showed that international investment continued last year and constituted 20% of the total assets under management, while local investments constituted 79% of the total.
