Saudi Arabia is exploring opportunities for investments in Europe, Asia and the United States in sectors including technology and auto parts for its new $5.3 billion investment company, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said. The company, Sanabil Al-Saudia, has not yet started operations but its owner, the state's Public Investment Fund, is already eyeing possible acquisition targets, Al-Assaf told Reuters in an interview in Oman. The Saudi government announced last year its intention to set up Sanabil with a mandate to invest in equities, bonds, real estate, foreign currencies and commodities in Saudi Arabia and abroad. “We are looking at some opportunities from Europe, as well as Asia and the US. We are still in the stages of creating the company but this does not stop us from exploring these investments,” Al-Assaf said on Saturday. “We are looking at technology, also auto parts where we believe we have a competitive advantage when it comes to those components, especially plastic-based products.” “We have so many opportunities inside the country. The evidence of that is that almost every month we are creating a new company owned by the public investment fund mainly to invest in the country,” Al-Assaf said. “Having said this, if we find a benefit from investing outside the country for our own economy's benefit, we will not shy away from it. If we find a company that could ... bring in value added in the form of technology, management, marketing then we will not hesitate.”
