Saudi plans world's biggest wealth fund

SAUDI CAPITAL RIYADH: Kingdom could launch fund in excess of $900bn (Getty Images).

Saudi Arabia is planning to establish what could be the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, worth more than $900 billion and dwarfing current title-holder Abu Dhabi, according to a report by UK daily the Financial Times.

The effort, likely to be led by the country’s Public Investment Fund, “will be a formidable rival for other government-owned investment funds in the Middle East and Asia, which are playing an increasingly active role in channelling capital to western companies” the newspaper said.

Rapidly growing sovereign wealth funds, which currently control more than $2 trillion in assets, have triggered concerns in developed countries that foreign governments could gain control over key industries.

Merrill Lynch predicts the value of assets controlled by the funds will quadruple to $8 trillion by 2011, and that they could soon exceed the entire hedge fund industry in terms of market influence.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is considered to be the world’s largest fund, with assets estimated to be worth $875 billion.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Dwarfing??
Posted by Gopal on Monday 31 December 2007 at 00:17 UAE time


well like the earlier reader pointed out how can a difference between 875 billion and 900 billion be considered big enough for the latter to be dwarfing the former??

900 billion or 1.2 Trillion who's counting?
Posted by T Crowe Semler, Fayettville, AR, USA on Sunday 23 December 2007 at 13:27 UAE time

Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund is a great step forward. The Kingdom is setting the foundation for the future generations. Those in the Khaleej who follow this model of strategic planning and investing will find that investing in ones self, neighbors, and allies creates a strong collective bond that benefits all stakeholders in a reciprocal way. How leaders build wealth for their nation / people is a true test of character. In my own country (USA)you can see how the peoples wealth has been squandered placing the"real" national debt at 49 trillion USD....but who's counting?

correction?
Posted by Naz Hussain on Sunday 23 December 2007 at 08:55 UAE time

Don't you mean 900billion?

Editor's reply - yes we did. Thank you. Duly corrected.

check your numbers
Posted by Jean-Marie Moussalli, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 23 December 2007 at 08:08 UAE time

2 questions regarding this above article:
a) if Abu dhabi's sovereign fund is listed at USD875 Bil and you're announcing the new Saudi fund at USD900Mil, how can it be bigger??
b) assuming that you made a typo re the saudi fund number (i.e. the amount should be listed as billion and not million), how can the saudi fund be 'dwarfing' the Abu Dhabi fund with such a meager difference??

Appreciate you setting the record straight - as well as checking your articles before they get published.

A faithful reader.

Editor's reply: Typo corrected - and a fair comment.

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