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Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) from the GCC deployed $55 billion in capital across 126 different transactions during the first nine months of 2024.
The transactions represented 40% of all deal-making by sovereign investors globally, on par with 2023 figures, industry tracker and data platform Global SWF said in a new report.
Most of this capital came from the ‘Oil Five’ SWFs, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), sovereign investors ADQ and Mubadala, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the Qatar Investment Authority.
According to the report, while a “significant” part of the investments were routed to the US and the UK, China’s growing appeal has drawn a total of $9.5 billion in capital from the GCC, with SWFs acquiring high-quality assets at relative discounts as many Western investors have been pulling out of the Asian giant over increasing regulatory restrictions, market volatility and a slowing down of the economy.
“Sovereign investors such as ADIA have traditionally invested over 50% of their portfolio in the US just because there were more opportunities on the rise. However, they have been trying for years to diversify into the East,” Diego Lopez, founder and Managing Director of Global SWF, told Zawya. “We have seen increased activity in both China and India. In the past 12 months, I think in China in particular, GCC funds have deployed $9.5 billion into investments across asset classes and industries.”
Other key findings from the report include the following:
- GCC SWFs manage today $4.9 trillion in capital and are scheduled to break $5 trillion in early 2025 and $7.3 trillion by 2030
- The total assets under management (AUM) are expected to hit $10.2 trillion by the end of the decade
- Within the Oil Five, UAE SWFs are leading in AUM, with $2.2 trillion by the end of 2024, followed by Saudi Arabia, with $1.12 trillion
- There are 877 companies listed in the seven stock exchanges of the GCC, with a market cap of $ 4.3 trillion, and 70% is owned by the states or state-owned investors
- Royal Private Offices (RPOs) have been growing, especially in the UAE. Global SWF has identified 35 major GCC RPOs that currently manage $500 billion in investments
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
