Saudi FII conference winds down, spawning billions in deals
Among the most watched tie-ups was the Public Investment Fund's agreement to back Brookfield Asset Management’s $2 billion Mideast fund

The lobby of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh (Getty Images)
After three days of working the vast marble halls and plush meeting rooms of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, corporate chiefs are shaking hands on billions of dollars in deals arranged at Saudi Arabia’s annual Future Investment conference.
With FII’s outgoing CEO Richard Attias estimating that the conference would spawn some $28 billion in investments, executives from Wall Street, the Gulf, China and elsewhere vied for attention in announcing their latest deals.
Among the most watched tie-ups was the preliminary agreement announced by the Saudi Public Investment Fund to back Brookfield Asset Management’s new $2 billion Middle East fund, boosting the Canadian investment firm’s ability to finance deals in the Gulf.
New York-based Z Capital Group pledged as much as $2 billion for investments in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports. It said the bank will launch a direct lending fund with approximately $1 billion early next year that offers senior secured and asset-backed loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
The National Bank of Kuwait signed $1.6 billion in deals at the FII conference, including a $690 million agreement with ACWA Power to support the Saudi energy and desalination company’s expansion plans in and outside the kingdom, KUNA reports.