Saudi fund outpaces GIC with big splurge

PIF deployed $31.6 billion in 2023, according to research firm Global SWF

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Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund emerged as the world's most active sovereign investor last year, boosting its deal activity even as most global peers including GIC Pte and Temasek Holdings Pte slashed spending.

PIF, as the Saudi fund is known, deployed $31.6 billion in 2023, according to research consultancy Global SWF. That was higher than the $20.7 billion it invested the previous year, an increase that contrasts with wider trend-globally state-owned investors deployed $124.7 billion, about a fifth less than the prior year.

The declines were led by GIC, which cut the amount of capital deployed by 46% to $19.9 billion and lost its spot as the world's most active sovereign wealth fund for the first time in six years. Temasek also reduced new investments by 53% to $6.3 billion against a backdrop of volatile markets, which led the two Singapore-based investors to report worsening returns.