Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Investment Fund, announced the completion of the transfer of 8% of the total issued shares of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) from state ownership to the custody of wholly-owned companies of the Public Investment Fund.
The percentage of shares owned by the state in Aramco will become 82.186% after the transfer process.
He pointed out that the transfer of ownership of part of the state's shares in Saudi Aramco comes as part of the Kingdom's initiatives aimed at strengthening the national economy in the long term, diversifying its resources, and providing more investment opportunities in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. The transfer process contributes to maximizing the assets of the Public Investment Fund and increasing its investment returns, enhancing its strong financial position and credit rating.
The Crown Prince emphasized that the Public Investment Fund continues to launch new sectors, build strategic economic partnerships, localize technologies and knowledge, in addition to creating more direct and indirect jobs in the local labor market.
A recently published report showed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund spent about a quarter of the amounts spent by sovereign wealth funds worldwide last year, totaling nearly $124 billion.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund) spent $31.5 billion in 2023 out of a total of $123.8 billion for all sovereign wealth funds worldwide, according to an initial annual report from the Global SWF platform tracking the activities of sovereign wealth funds worldwide.
The strong performance in global stock markets last year helped sovereign wealth funds worldwide achieve record growth in assets, reaching $11.2 trillion.
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