Page 205 - SALIK PR REPORT JANUARY 2024

1/3/24, 11:08 AM How world sees GCC: Region's sovereign wealth funds on the rise
With permission from Global SWF, Gulf Business has republished select parts of its latest report and you can
read it below.

Region of the Year: GCC+

By Global SWF

One of the key consistent themes of the year when it comes to Sovereign capital has been the prominence of
investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), i.e., Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. In
2023, the AuM (Assets under Management) of SWFs in the region reached a historical peak of $4.1tn, and the
transaction value, even if slightly lower than in 2022, amounted $82.3bn, led by the so-called “Oil Five”
(ADIA, Mubadala, ADQ, PIF, QIA). By 2030, the group of 19 Gulf SWFs (sovereign wealth funds) could reach
$7.6tn in assets, and if we add the pension funds and central banks in the broader MENA region, that figure could
balloon to $11.2tn.

One obvious reason is the sustained high level of oil prices: Gulf SWFs have reaped the rewards of the fiscal
windfalls and recovered quicker than others from the 2022 financial markets debacle. The other reason is the
maturity of the investment landscape, with a wide range of players entering domestic and global markets with a
level of sophistication never seen before. This has fueled economic diversification, which is expected to push
GCC’s growth to +3.6 per cent and +3.7 per cent in 2024 and 2025, respectively, according to the World Bank.

The SWF industry in the GCC is anchored by its three largest players that are well over 50 years-old:
Kuwait’s KIA (1953), Abu Dhabi’s ADIA (1967) and Saudi Arabia’s PIF (1971). However, there is no shortage of
capital beyond them, and there are always new funds and developments that keep things interesting. The inflow of
foreign investors working in the region has accelerated, and managers and advisors fly in from around the world
every year to attend conferences and meetings, notably between the months of October and March.

The following pages shed a light on some of the key areas that we believe are shaping investment management in
the region: (i) the different ways sovereign capital is managed across GCC countries; (ii) the rise of the so-called
private offices; (iii) the culture of national champions; (iv) the stock offerings in domestic exchanges; and (v) the
geopolitics and support within the GCC and beyond.

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