Saudi sovereign wealth fund loads up on Alibaba, Just Eat, Lucid Motors, Pinterest and Walmart as it triples its holdings of US stocks

The US portfolio of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) surged to US$43.45 billion in the third quarter, according to a US SEC filing

The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund bought shares of Alibaba, Walmart, Pinterest, Just Eat, Ballard Power, and Lucid Motors

2-MIN READ2-MIN

The Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange in Riyadh on June 15, 2015. Photo: AP.

Published: 9:58am, 16 Nov 2021Updated: 4:37pm, 17 Nov 2021

The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, nearly tripled its holdings of US-listed stocks to US$43.45 billion in the third quarter, adding shares of Alibaba Group Holding, Walmart and Pinterest.

Its US-listed stock holdings in the quarter ended September 30 increased from nearly US$16 billion in the prior quarter, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Other stocks it bought included Just Eat Takeaway.com and Ballard Power Systems.

The PIF, which manages US$430 billion in assets, is at the centre of Saudi Arabia’s plans to transform the economy by creating new sectors and diversifying revenues away from oil.

The PIF also owns a 62.72 per cent stake in electric car company Lucid, which has a market value of about US$71 billion, a significant boost in value from the end of September.

“The Q3 figure is indeed significantly larger than Q2, but most of the increase is due to Lucid Motors’ IPO in July,” said Diego Lopez, managing director at Global SWF, an industry data specialist. “If you isolate the effect of Lucid, the US equity holdings increased only 11 per cent, from US$15.9 billion to US$17.7 billion.”