RIYADH: A 4 percent stake in energy giant Saudi Aramco has been transferred from state ownership to Sanabil Investments, the investment arm of the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday.
The crown prince revealed that the state remains Aramco’s biggest shareholder, owning 90.18 percent stakes in the firm, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The move follows a similar transfer last year worth tens of billions of dollars, with the wealth fund now controlling a total of 8 percent of shares in Aramco.
Mohammed bin Salman indicated that this transfer of stakes is a part of Saudi Arabia’s long-term initiatives to boost and diversify the national economy and expand investment opportunities in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
Riyadh-based Sanabil is an investment company that commits approximately $3 billion a year to private transactions, its website says.
The crown prince further added that the transfer will help maximize the assets of the Public Investment Fund and could enhance the PIF’s strong financial position and credit rating.
He went on and said that the PIF will continue to launch new sectors, along with building strategic economic partnerships, localize technologies and knowledge, which will ultimately result in the creation of more direct and indirect jobs in the local labor market.
Meanwhile, Aramco, in a statement to Tadawul said that the transfer will not affect Aramco’s total number of issued shares, as the shares transferred will rank equally alongside other existing ordinary shares in the firm.
The statement also added that the transfer will not have any implications on the company’s operations, strategy, dividends distribution policy or governance framework.
The oil major further noted that this is a private transfer between the state and Sanabil Investments, and Aramco, as a company is not a party to the transfer and has not entered into any agreements.
Earlier this month, in its first disclosure of investments, Sanabil Investments revealed its ties to more than 50 venture capital and private equity firms including Blackstone, KKR & Co., Andreessen Horowitz, General Atlantic, Hellman & Friedman and Platinum Equity.
It also divulged its direct investment portfolio, which included the machine learning-based discovery engine Atomwise, customer experience software company ActionIQ and cybersecurity platform Vectra, to name a few.
Sanabil Investments has pledged to commit $2 billion annually in earlier stages of the business lifecycle, particularly in venture capital, growth and small buyouts, according to its website.
Earlier in January, data released by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute suggested that the PIF has maintained the sixth spot in the list of top sovereign wealth funds worldwide, with assets worth $607.42 billion.
Currently, the sovereign fund owns 71 companies in 10 different sectors, creating more than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs.
In November 2022, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said that PIF is committed to creating more job opportunities in the future.
“We want to create 1.8 million jobs, and these are quality jobs. So, it is not only the figures we are looking at, but the quality of these figures, the quality of these jobs,” said Al-Rumayyan.
