Amid indications that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is tightening its belt, the sovereign wealth fund’s coffers grew at a higher rate last year than in 2022.

The PIF, which bankrolls a wide range of the kingdom’s investments including Neom, Riyadh Airlines and LIV Golf, reports that assets under management increased to $765 billion at the end of 2023, a growth rate of 8.7% compared to 8% in the previous year.

Reviewing the fund’s performance in its annual report released on Monday, Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the PIF “has continued to deliver on its mandate as the driving force of Saudi Arabia’s sustainable economic transformation and diversification.”

After years in which the fund became a go-to source for bankers, venture capitalists and dealmakers pitching investments around the world, the PIF is narrowing its focus to concentrate on priorities closer to home, the Financial Times reports.

With oil prices slumping, Saudi officials are applying more conditions when dispensing cash, often demanding the hiring of local employees and investment in domestic companies and projects, the newspaper said.

Qatar Airways is building up its business in Africa.

The state-owned carrier has acquired a 25% stake in Airlink, the South African regional airline that flies to 45 destinations in 15 African countries, without disclosing how much it paid.

Qatar already flies 29 routes in the continent and will operate a code-sharing arrangement with the South African airline.

“Our investment in Airlink further demonstrates how integral we see Africa being to our business’ future,” Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said in a statement.

The Qatari carrier also owns a 60% stake in Rwanda’s new $1.3 billion international airport and a 49% interest in Rwandair.

Saudi Arabia is headed into what Goldman Sachs terms a “capex super-cycle” as it plows more than $1 trillion into the economy and aims to strengthen industries outside the oil and gas sector.

In an analysis of the kingdom’s projected capital expenditures for the next five years, the New York-based investment bank expects about 73% to be spent on non-oil industries, up from its previous estimate of 66%.

Clean energy should get $235 billion in funding, up from a previous forecast of $148 billion, with the increase driven mainly by renewables as Saudi Arabia more than doubles its 2030 capacity target, Goldman Sachs said.

Saudi Arabia is also funding sectors that enable economic diversification away from oil, such as metals and minerals, transport and logistics, and digitalization, according to the report.

The UAE launched a satellite into lower earth orbit on Friday in the first step of a three-year program to develop a string of radar imaging devices in space to monitor conditions below.

The Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California by UAE companies Yahsat and Bayanat.

The two companies are in the process of merging to create a $4.1 billion AI-powered space technology business called Space42 – possibly creating one of the most valuable publicly listed space companies, The National reports.

Finland-based ICEYE worked with Bayanat and Yahsat to develop the satellite, which will be able to capture images day and night regardless of weather.

It has a sensing system that illuminates the Earth’s surface and measures the reflected signal to create high-resolution images.

Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, is spreading its wings and eyeing Dubai as a springboard for expanding activities in the Middle East.

“There’s an opportunity to scale it up,” CEO Piyush Gupta told Bloomberg during an interview in the UAE financial center this week. “We’re revisiting the thesis that there is real opportunity to do more stuff out of Dubai and this region.”

Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have emerged as attractive bases in the MENA region for hedge funds, investment banks and other financial firms.

International businesses appreciate the ease of doing business in the UAE, the low taxes and the Gulf state’s position as an international travel hub.

GoldenTree Asset Management and Millennium Management are among the New York-based hedge funds that have recently set up shop in Dubai.

Singapore’s $288 billion Temasek sovereign wealth fund has also made several co-investments with Mubadala and other UAE institutions.

In a move considered crucial to mobilize green financing in the region, Egypt has launched its first voluntary carbon trading market. Companies will henceforth be able to use the market to register, buy and sell carbon certificates in Egypt and across Africa, creating a powerful incentive for investment in projects that reduce emissions.

Opening the market is an important step towards economic and environmental sustainability for Egypt and will position the country as a regional leader in the green economy, Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, said at an event this week to mark the launch, Arab News reports. Several companies have reportedly already purchased credits this week.

The Egyptian government is also ramping up green energy projects, with plans to save $4.1 billion a year by adding up to 30 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity to its national grid in coming years. 

The developments mark a turnaround for Egypt, where extreme heat waves, combined with a crippling financial crisis, forced the government to cut electricity for up to three hours a day earlier this summer. An IMF-prescribed rescue package has since spurred a wave of reform and economic investment, with a heavy focus on green industries.

From energy, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals to iconic snack brands and baby products, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has been pumping funds into India over the past six months.

Across five deals with Indian businesses, the sovereign wealth fund invested $1 billion during the first half of 2024 as the UAE pushes to increase non-oil bilateral trade with its second-largest trading partner.

India is becoming a magnet for sovereign investment amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty elsewhere.

Last month UAE Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq led a trade delegation of Emirati business leaders and government officials to the world’s most populous nation.

It followed reciprocal visits by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ADIA has been able to leverage relationships with India’s biggest conglomerates, including Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and Gautam Adani’s Adani Group, to grow its presence.

The fund has been named among likely investors, alongside Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Co., in an upcoming $1 billion stock offering for Adani Energy.

Among the non-oil deals under pursuit, ADIA is a part of a consortium led by Blackstone which is attempting to acquire a majority stake in snack giant Haldiram in a deal worth $4.8 billion. If successful, the purchase is likely to be the largest private equity buyout in India to date.

The fund is also being sounded out by the Indian government to buy its stake in Vodafone Idea.

A new level of assertiveness by sovereign wealth funds is changing the way some of the world’s biggest money managers are seeking investment from the Gulf.

Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock and others are being urged and sometimes compelled to set up local offices in the Gulf, hire and train Gulf nationals, arrange investor gatherings and bring more expat professionals to live in the region’s financial capitals, Bloomberg reports.

Among the funds advocating for these upgrades are the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and the Qatar Investment Authority.

With the total pool of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund assets estimated to reach $7.6 trillion by 2030, these funds want to co-invest, get a larger share of deal profits and strengthen their local economies that are largely built on oil through diversification, according to the news agency.

The largest sovereign wealth funds are focusing on fewer asset management firms, which in turn are doing away with their usual management and performance fees in order to secure commitments for their funds, Bloomberg reports.