Saudi wealth fund reports $11 billion investment loss for 2022

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reported a loss on investment activities of about $11 billion last year compared to a profit of $19 billion in 2021 as global markets sank.

That meant the fund’s loss attributable to its owner was 36.6 billion riyals ($9.8 billion) in 2022, down from a profit of 81.8 billion riyals, according to the wealth fund’s accounts published Tuesday. Total assets of the PIF, as the fund is known, rose to about $778 billion from $676 billion.

PIF said it made a 25 per cent return in 2021 as global markets rallied, roughly in line with that of investors in the S&P 500 Index that year. PIF didn’t disclose a comparable figure in its 2022 accounts, a year when the S&P dropped almost 20 per cent. The index is up about 15 per cent so far this year.

The PIF is in the midst of a global investment spree after it was transformed from a domestically-focused holding company into a sovereign fund in 2016.

During the course of 2022 the fund established the Sports Investment Company as a wholly owned subsidiary to invest in sports internationally and within the country. This year, the Saudi government transferred a further 4 per cent of energy giant Aramco - worth almost $80 billion - to PIF.

The fund also manages a $35.6 billion portfolio of US equities that includes stakes in Lucid Group, Activision Blizzard, and Uber Technologies, according to a regulatory filing for the end of the first quarter.

The PIF raised $5.5 billion from a three-part green bond sale earlier this year.