The footsteps of the Middle Eastern giants are unstoppable.
This time, it is the super giants Recently, at the FII Priority Asia Summit held in Hong Kong, Yasser Rumayan, head of Saudi Public Investment** (PIF), revealed an important information: PIF plans to open an additional office in Chinese mainland.
As Saudi Arabia's largest sovereign wealth**, PIF is part of the Saudi royal family, and its chairman is none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salal. Looking at the primary and secondary markets, PIF has a great reputation and has always swept the world. The latest news is that PIF's parent company has just invested in a Chinese investment institution, Yida Capital.
Looking back at 2023, the Middle East consortium has become an unforgettable landscape. As last night, Kingdee announced that it had received a strategic investment of US$200 million from the Qatar Investment AuthorityAnd in September this year, Mubadala's Beijing office was officially unveiled. Living water from the Middle East is flowing here.
Saudi giants want to set up mainland offices
Just voted for a Chinese **
This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia's public investment** has landed in China.
In February 2022, Saudi Public Investment** opened an office in Hong Kong, China. Prior to this, from 2012 to 2021, the total equity investment of Saudi Arabia's public investment** in China was about 12.2 billion US dollars, accounting for 20% of its total overseas equity investment.
This is one of the world's largest sovereigns**. Founded in 1971, Saudi Public Investment** The early investment was basically focused on Saudi Arabia, because of its slight mystery, it was once called "the most opaque sovereign wealth**" until 2015, when the supervision of PIF was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Council for Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the chairman of CEDA, officially took the helm of PIF. He launched Saudi Vision 2030, one of his goals is to become a global investment powerhouse.
What made PIF famous was the generous investment in SoftBank's vision. In 2016, Mohammed traveled to Tokyo with a team of nearly 500 people to meet Mr. Son, who made a 45-minute speech the largest LP in SoftBank's vision for a $45 billion investment from PIF. It's just that the "Great Collapse" that Vision ** later became known to have cost PIF a lot.
Today, Saudi Arabia's public investment** has more than $770 billion under management, making it the largest sovereign wealth in Saudi Arabia**.
Since the beginning of this year, Saudi Arabia's public investment** has appeared intensively in China.
Starting from January this year, PIF cooperated with Futian District, Shenzhen, to establish Blue Ocean TechCode (Shenzhen) Private Equity Investment in China, and settled in the Xiangmihu International Venture Capital Block in Shenzhen, with the first ** scale exceeding 1 billion US dollars. Subsequently, it was reported that PIF was in talks with Chinese electric vehicle maker Human Horizons to invest at least $2 billion at a valuation of $3 billion$500 million.
The latest news is that PIF has just invested in a Chinese **On December 8, Yida Capital officially announced that the second phase of the ** with a total scale of 1 billion US dollars has been invested by the parent company of Saudi Arabia's sovereign ** (PIF) Jada Fund of Funds Company (hereinafter referred to as "JADA"), which has become the main LP of the second phase of Yida Capital**.
In fact, as early as 2019, PIF partnered with Alibaba's EWTP** to co-invest in Yida Capital, and in the first phase of the latter**, JADA Fund was also a cornerstone investor. Today, Yida Capital is headquartered in Riyadh and Beijing.
Commenting on the partnership, Jada CEO Bandr Alhomaly said: "We will continue to be a growth catalyst for the local private equity and venture capital ecosystem, with the aim of promoting innovation and job creation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including attracting foreign direct investment and supporting knowledge and technology transfer. ”
Now, Saudi Arabia's public investment** is ready to open a Chinese mainland office, which is undoubtedly an important signal to increase investment in the Chinese market. The head of PIF, Yasser Rumayan, shared his logic:"Asia's economy is growing by about 4 percent this year6%, contributing 52% to global economic growth, while China is home to 26% of the world's unicorns. ”By implication, there are still plenty of opportunities here.
Middle Eastern consortiums lined up to set up offices
"I heard that many sovereigns in the Middle East are coming to China to set up offices. ”Since the beginning of this year, such rumors have been circulating intensively in the primary market. Now, the rumors are becoming reality.
The first to cause a sensation was its official debut in September this yearMubadalaChina Office. The investment community understands that the office is located in the north tower of the CP Center in Chaoyang District, which is in the core area of Beijing's CBD. At present, Mubadala has a team of about 10 people in Beijing, who are responsible for China's direct investment and ** investment.
As the third largest sovereign wealth of the UAE**, Mubadalah is directly led by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. According to the official website, Mubadala's latest management scale exceeds 276 billion US dollars, or about 2,000 billion yuan, and the portfolio has many Chinese projects: Kuaishou, Boss Zhipin, Xiaopeng Motors, Novo Nuotai, etc.
Subsequently,Saudi Ministry of Investment (MISA).The deputy minister also revealed his intention to open an office in the Greater Bay Area to strengthen its presence in southern China, thereby supporting the "Saudi Vision 2030". At the same time, he also expressed the hope that such offices would be located in all major cities in China to ensure contact with the whole of China.
Earlier,Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).In 2021, it opened an office in Beijing and built a local team, most of which are currently professionals with deep knowledge of the Chinese market. In June this year, CYLN Holdings, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, made a strategic investment in NIO totaling about US$1.1 billion. In addition, at the end of August, another institution under the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Platinum Peony B 2023 RSC Limited, subscribed for shares in consumer company Fengxiang.
And the one that was just established last yearUAE G42 Expansion FundThis year, it has set up an office in Shanghai non-stop, and Hu Ningfeng, the former director of JD.com's strategic investment department, is responsible for ......For a time, Middle Eastern consortia came to China intensively.
The Middle East consortium is coming, which means that the money is coming. This year, HKEX Chief Executive Nicolas Aguzin said publicly that "by 2030, the investment capital of Middle Eastern sovereigns** is expected to increase to US$10 trillion, and more than 10-20% of investment may be invested in China by then." In other words, about $1 trillion to $2 trillion will be invested in the Middle East.
Just last month, Investcorp, a global investment arm headquartered in Bahrain, planned to set up its first 2.04 billion yuan** to target buyout opportunities in China.
Why do you want to raise RMB?Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-CEO of InvestCorp, explains: "There is an increasing amount of renminbi in the GCC that needs to be reinvested back into China. It is reported that Investcorp plans to apply for a license from the Chinese regulator in the coming months.
All of these are extremely historic scenes.
Middle East Fund is hiring
Subsequently, the recruitment of funds in the Middle East has quietly become popular.
Investors in the circle got together to chat, and the topics were all turned to the Middle East. "A VC friend from Shanghai has discussed the opportunity in the Middle East with his US dollar friends more than once this year"We really want to think about forming a 're-employment group' and meeting in Riyadh. ”
Coincidentally, Joyce is a headhunter who specializes in serving the VC PE circle, and she found that many Middle Eastern ** have been active this year, and a lot of HC has been added. At the same time, everyone has set their eyes on the sovereign wealth of the Middle East**, which is intensively coming to China to open offices, but it is hard to find a seat. Just as in March this year, when 42X** set up an office in Shanghai, it once "ripped it off" a person with a head dollar pe in China.
The investment community understands a relatively accurate recruitment need:
Saudi Public Investment** is currently looking for investment professionals and plans to recruit more investment experts and advisors in the coming yearsAbu Dhabi Investment Authority is recruiting for Investment Manager and Senior Analyst;The Qatar Investment Authority has also released the ...... for the position of investment managerMore and more Middle Eastern funds are expanding their investment teams.
This is a microcosm of this year's Middle East fever. Two months ago, the Shenzhen Venture Capital Association organized a business trip to the Middle East. Liu Day, founding partner and chairman of Dachen Caizhi, and Jiang Yucai, vice president of Shenzhen Venture Capital, led a team to lead a group of senior managers of well-known local venture capital institutions and invested companies in Shenzhen, focusing on Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two core cities in the United Arab Emirates.
At the end of October this year, Kangqiao Medical and Health Industry Facility Platform announced that its first Chinese life science industry facility** successfully completed the second round of closing, raising a total of 8$7.5 billion. The main investor of the second round of fundraising is Mubadala Investment Company.
More than the primary market, the scene of Middle Eastern tyrants buying A-shares is also unforgettable, data shows that in the 2023 semi-annual reports of A-share listed companies, the top ten circulating shareholders of 89 companies have appeared in the figure of sovereign wealth**, and there is no shortage of Middle Eastern forces such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority;In just over a month, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, has invested more than 100 billion yuan in China.
As far as the eye can see, conglomerates from the Middle East are stirring up a pool of spring water. As one investor lamented:"The dollar is over, and oil is rising. ”