Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s bridge to boost Saudi investments at home and abroad, as he seeks to diversify the oil-heavy economy.
PIF has accumulated stakes worth about $1 billion in four major European oil companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The four companies are Norway’s Equinor ASA, Anglo-Dutch energy company Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total SA and Italy’s Eni SPA.
A Saudi official cited by the Journal said that similar deals could take place in the future.
“The PIF is getting active again in the market..I would not be surprised if we see similar deals again,” the official was quoted as having said by the newspaper.
The fund built a stake of about $200 million in Equinor in the days around a sharp rally in oil prices last week, the Journal reported, adding it could not learn the size of the stakes bought in the other three companies, but that the combined stakes were worth about $1 billion.
The fund manages over $300 billion in assets and has stakes in Uber and electric car company Lucid Motors.
