Saudi public investment fund looks to China despite US investment

Saudi Arabia's huge sovereign wealth fund targets China as it expands its international investments, even though its "No. 1 target" remains the United States, the CNBC said on Tuesday. General manager.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund is one of the largest in the Middle East, with badets under management of about $ 300 billion and its goal is to raise it to $ 2 trillion. by 2030 thanks to dynamic investments in national and international markets.

"This is the first time I have come out to meet Chinese badet managers, companies and entrepreneurs, and they are really very impressive," said Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, speaking on the theme of China, at a CNBC television conference, at the Milken Institute conference. World Conference in Los Angeles. "GDP growth is now, I think, 6.25%, which is bigger than most other countries in the world.But the problem is that it has gone from more than 11% Now entering China The Softbank Vision Fund has also deployed large sums of money in China and some Chinese companies, so we are OK in the longer term. "

Al-Rumayyan, who is the fund's director since 2015, was recently in Beijing for a forum on China's Belts and Roads Initiative, which culminated in multi-billion dollar deals aimed at to expand the flagship Chinese project that aims to invest in Asia, Africa and Europe regions.

But the main focus of the fund remains the United States, Al-Rumayyan said.

"The United States is our # 1 investment target, with most innovations taking place in the US We have directly and indirectly deployed more than $ 50 billion over the past two years in the US This is a great demonstration of the interest we have here. "

The FIP has agreed to partner with Blackstone Investment Corp in 2017 to create a new company designed to invest more than $ 100 billion in US infrastructure. The Saudi fund will commit $ 20 billion to this venture, which should include $ 40 billion in equity commitments in a permanent vehicle. He also invested billions of dollars in Silicon Valley technology companies through the Softbank Vision Fund, and in 2016, he donated $ 3.5 billion to Uber.

"We consider the rest of Asia, we consider Europe to some extent, Africa is a good target for us," said the general manager.

"We have not done anything yet, but we are actually looking at some of the opportunities." Of course, investments in Saudi Arabia currently account for 86% of the investments – 98% of our badets were under management and the distribution of the badets in the country was $ 40 million. badet would start to decline as the years go by until we arrive in 2030, we should be 50% international and 50% national, "he said, adding that this strategy would help the fund to reach its target of $ 2,000 billion of badets to be managed by 2030.