Saudi Public Investment Fund reports $11 billion loss for 2022

DUBAI — Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) lost $11 billion on investment activities in 2022, compared to a profit of $19 billion the year before, the sovereign wealth fund reported Tuesday.

Despite rapidly expanding its global investment spending in recent years, plummeting global stock and bond prices combined with the implications of the Russia-Ukraine war on the global economy have affected the Saudi wealth fund’s holdings. 

The PIF evolved from a mainly domestic-focused holding company to a global one in 2016 and has been investing heavily in foreign projects ever since.

The fund currently owns 79 companies — including megaproject NEOM, the Saudi Stock Exchange and new airline Riyadh Air — and has seen its total assets rise to about $778 billion in 2022 from $676 billion the year before, according to data published by the wealth fund’s accounts and acquired by Bloomberg.

Ongoing major deals include a possible merger between the Saudi wealth fund’s LIV Golf league and the United States’ PGA Tour. The merger deal — valued by PGA CEO Ron Price at “north of $1 billion,” according to The Washington Post — would be one of the largest in the sport’s history.

In the United States, the fund manages a $35.6 billion portfolio that includes stakes in firms such as Lucid Group Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc. and Uber Technologies, according to regulatory filings for the end of the first quarter, reported Bloomberg. 

The PIF, chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been demonstrating more transparency with its accounts as the kingdom works to earn financial trust and soft-power influence on the global stage. Most Gulf wealth funds control trillions of dollars and do not publicly share investment and returns data.