PIF & BlackRock Partner to Create New Investment Management Platform

BlackRock, the world’s largest investment company, has signed an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to create a new multi-asset investment platform based in Riyadh.

This platform, called BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management (BRIM), will be launched with a $5 billion anchor investment from the PIF. BRIM will manage a wide range of class-assets, encompassing both public equities and bonds as well as private debt and infrastructure. This portfolio will be managed by a Riyadh-based team with support from BlackRock’s global asset management platform. While all of these assets will be based in the Middle East and North Africa, these investments will largely be Saudi Arabia-specific.

In creating this new investment company, these two parties aim to enhance the kingdom’s asset management sector and pave the way for new foreign investment into Saudi Arabia. The company will broaden local capital markets while simultaneously diversifying investment across asset classes and enriching Saudi Arabia’s pool of asset management talent. BlackRock has already taken steps to enrich Saudi Arabia’s asset management sector with their BRIM Graduate Development Program.

BRIM will be a partnership between two investing giants; BlackRock, worth $112.26 billion, is the world’s largest investing company, and the PIF, which was reportedly worth around $750 billion in 2023, is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. In signing the non binding memorandum of understanding to launch BRIM, these two parties are turning the corner on a deal that will likely have lasting implications for development and investment across Saudi Arabia and the region at large.