The Gulf Briefing: swapping petrodollars for assets
In this weekly newsletter, Sebastian Castelier rounds up the biggest stories from the Gulf region.
Saudi Arabia’s revenue from oil exports dipped to a seven-month low in September, but the kingdom still tallies almost $900 million a day in petrodollars. Part of this deluge of cash makes its way into the coffers of Gulf sovereign wealth funds as policymakers avoided so far the temptation of increasing public spending. Therefore, Gulf funds have become a go-to source for capital this year as major central banks pivoted to restrictive monetary policy.
Gulf sovereign wealth funds strategy evolved, though. It has shifted from a preference for “portfolio funds” that buy numerous small stakes in a lot of companies to “investing in a more strategic and concentrated way,” said Rachel Ziemba, a macro strategist. Gulf sovereign wealth funds are now hungry for global deals closely aligned with top domestic priorities.
For example, the United Arab Emirates’ ambitions to become a top destination globally for the data center industry. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a sovereign wealth fund, partnered on Thursday with a Singaporean private equity real estate firm to set up a $2 billion strategy targeting data center investments across the Asia Pacific region.
In terms of allocation, there is no evidence pointing to Gulf states divesting in a big way from US markets. Instead, they have unloaded conservative assets, like US Treasuries, for less conservative ones, like US equities. Further information in Al-Monitor’s latest Pro Memo.
