Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which aims to become a $2 trillion investment giant, is considering borrowing from banks for the first time as it seeks investments in the kingdom and abroad, according to people familiar with the matter. The Public Investment Fund, or PIF, has held talks with local and international banks and could raise about $5 billion this year, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
No final decisions on timing or size have been made and the PIF may instead turn to government financing. A spokesman for the PIF declined to comment.
The fund is willing to borrow as it seeks to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy and boost returns from investments, Managing Director Yasir al-Rumayyan said in a Bloomberg Television interview in October. Saudi Arabia is stepping up efforts to turn the PIF into a global giant by giving it ownership of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, which is preparing for what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering.This may be the first time the PIF has talked about borrowing money, but I do believe that Saudi has done some borrowing in the past year or so.
Regardless, borrowing $5 billion over the course of a full year seems fairly trivial when talking about becoming a "$2 trillion investment giant."
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For The Archives: Those Crazy Norwegians
Ten industry world records. Link here.
The #1 record, "the concert under the sea" is on YouTube:
If you are bored by the beginning (which seems to be in German) skip ahead to 8:25.
This was sent to me by a reader and it's quite incredible if you haven't seen this before.
The underwater evacuation sequence is amazing: remember, these are professional singers, not professional scuba divers.
The concert begins at 29:29.
There's something to be said for bringing a Yamaha (baby) grand piano down a deep-sea drilling rig.
Those crazy Norwegians.
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