The BlackRock logo is displayed at the company's headquarters in New York City on November 14, 2022.
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Asset management firm BlackRock will launch an investment platform in Riyadh with the help of a $5 billion lead investment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
This announcement came on Tuesday after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Saudi division of BlackRock and the Public Investment Fund with the aim of stimulating the growth of capital markets in the oil-rich Gulf country.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager with $10 trillion in assets under management, will “launch investment strategies across asset classes for the Saudi market, including public and private markets, managed by a Riyadh-based investment team,” a press release said. Joint issued by BlackRock. I read the company and the Public Investment Fund.
The new platform will be called BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management, or BRIM.
The statement stated that BRIM aims to help bring foreign institutional investment to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addition to developing the Saudi asset management industry, expanding local capital markets, diversifying investors, and supporting the development of asset management talent in the Kingdom.
This initiative, in addition to many others launched by the Public Investment Fund, which oversees $925 billion in assets under management, contributes to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a multi-billion-dollar project aimed at modernizing and diversifying the Kingdom’s economy away from oil. Central to this effort is bringing major international institutions, foreign investments and talent to Saudi Arabia itself.
The press release stated that the establishment of BRIM aims to promote “further growth in the Saudi capital market ecosystem and enable the growing international investment management sector in Saudi Arabia.”
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said in the statement that the Kingdom “has become an increasingly attractive destination for international investment with the advent of Vision 2030.”
The asset management giant has been working with Saudi Arabia for years, and in 2018 made it clear that it would not withdraw despite the huge controversy surrounding the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
In another step to strengthen its relations with the Kingdom, in July 2023, BlackRock granted Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser a seat on its board of directors. Aramco is the largest oil company in the world.
At the time, BlackRock said the move reflected the company's focus on the Middle East as part of its long-term strategy.
— CNBC's Yun Li contributed to this report.
