BlackRock joins Abu Dhabi’s IHC in $1 billion reinsurance venture

Wall Street titan BlackRock is teaming up with Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Co. to create a $1 billion reinsurance firm with its foundations in AI.

The venture announced Thursday is one of a cavalcade of deals that are being cooked up amid Trump’s tour of the Gulf next week, which will take him to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, followed by Qatar and the UAE.

BlackRock, the world’s largest alternative investment firm, and Abu Dhabi asset manager Lunate will join as minority partners, according to a statement issued by IHC.

The new company will be chaired by Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of ADNOC. Mark Wilson, the former chief executive of Aviva and AIA Group, will serve as CEO.

Lunate, which was founded two years ago and manages $110 billion, will provide expertise in private and public markets to the reinsurance company, which will operate from the capital city’s free zone financial center, ADGM.

Also in the run-up to the Trump visit, the U.S. is developing a fast-track process for screening foreign investments, which could smooth the process for sovereign wealth funds such as the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the UAE’s Mubadala, and the Qatar Investment Authority to sign contracts next week, Bloomberg reports.

Goldman Sachs deepens ties with Saudi Arabia as PIF backs funds

As Goldman Sachs boosts its involvement with Saudi Arabia, the kingdom is offering more support for the Wall Street investment bank.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund is set to become an anchor investor in a series of new Goldman Sachs-managed funds that focus both on the kingdom and the other five Gulf states, Bloomberg reports.

The PIF and the U.S. firm signed a draft agreement relating to the new funds – subject to regulatory approval – which will be centered on private credit and public equity strategies in the GCC region, the news agency said.

Saudi Arabia has courted Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms as it seeks to invest its wealth and wean the economy off its dependence on oil.

Saudi FII conference winds down, spawning billions in deals

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.

Wall Street meets royal court at Saudi business summit

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – The captains of Wall Street met the princes of Saudi Arabia today at the kingdom’s annual gathering of the financial elite.

Speakers on stage at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center fielded questions on conflict in Europe and the Middle East, high interest rates, low growth and technological upheaval. Front and center was Saudi Arabia’s place in global markets.

“I believe many of the challenges” in current world economic conditions such as high interest rates “actually play to our strengths,” Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid al Falih said in the Future Investment Initiative conference’s morning session. 

The kingdom’s $760 billion sovereign wealth fund has launched 90 new companies since 2017, beginning its investment spree with a mandate from Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 economic transformation plan, which he introduced to the world investor class at the first FII conference seven years ago. Today, the Public Investment  Fund is overseeing the development of the mega-project NEOM as well as major investments into alternative energy, aviation, telecoms. Forays into e-gaming and pro soccer and golf have grabbed headlines around the world. 

Prince Mohammed, known internationally as MBS, sat beside South Korean President Yoon Suk Leol in ringside seats at the conference – which was arranged as a theater in the round – but he made no public comments.

In  a panel discussion, Wall Street leaders were largely negative on the global economic outlook. Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, pushed for continued normalization among Arab countries and Israel as he called the economic transformation within the kingdom “so good”. 

Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone, the largest alternative investment firm in the world, said he’s seeing a dramatic increase in investing amid a slow-growth environment: “We have probably a quarter of the trillion we manage from retail, high net worth investors. I think that’s going to grow.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve is “having a pretty good impact of taking inflation out of the system,” he added, noting that of the 250 companies in its portfolio, cost of production was flat quarter-on-quarter.

Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, acknowledged the recent terrorist attacks in Israel, and was more pessimistic, predicting the Fed will have to continue to hike interest rates: “This reminds me of the Seventiess…. The Seventies was all about bad policy and today is all about bad policy again.”

Citi’s CEO Jane Fraser was also cautious. “We’re sitting here with a backdrop of the terrorist attack in Israel and the events that have unfolded since, and it’s desperately sad,” she said. “So it’s hard not to be a little pessimistic.

“There is a new S in ESG which is security, be it food security, energy security, it could be defense, or financial security,” she said, referring to recent emphasis on environmental, social and governance values in investing “That’s certainly a theme for all CEOs around the world – how to build more resilient companies and countries.”

Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, summed up the general tenor when he said the world economy is at a “dangerous juncture.”