Saudi Arabian wealth fund takes 50% stake in Alabbar’s Adeptio

Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is deepening ties with Dubai-based businessman Mohammad Alabbar by taking a 50 per cent stake in his Adeptio investment vehicle.

The acquisition is part of the Public Investment Fund’s strategy to boost non-oil investments, according to a statement late Monday, which didn’t give financial details of the transaction. Adeptio is working on a takeover of fast food restaurant operator Kuwait Food Co, also known as Americana, and is set to begin a mandatory tender offer for the company’s shares after acquiring a 67 per cent stake.

The PIF, as the fund is known, also contributed half of the $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) to create e-commerce firm Noon earlier this month. Noon is part of Alabbar’s plan to build regional technology and e-commerce focused businesses.

Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to transform the PIF from a domestically focused investment firm into a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund earlier this year as the country seeks to reduce its dependence on energy. Since then, the fund has announced a $3.5 billion investment in taxi-hailing app Uber Technologies and said it may put up to $45 billion into a $100 billion global technology fund formed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.