Palace: Saudi investors interested in Maharlika

RIYADH — Two of Saudi Arabia’s largest financial institutions have expressed interest in the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), the Philippines’ first sovereign wealth fund, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said yesterday.

Garafil said these companies are the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, and Jada, one of the kingdom’s biggest investment companies.

Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executive general manager Mulhan Albakree and Jada chief executive officer Bandar Al Hamali participated in the roundtable meeting with President Marcos, organized by the Department of Trade and Industry and Saudi’s Ministry of Investment, at the St. Regis Hotel here on Thursday.

Marcos, accompanied on his trip here by his economic managers, including Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, said he hopes the Philippines would learn from Saudi Arabia’s “extensive” experience in managing sovereign wealth funds.

In pitching for the MIF, the President told Saudi business leaders that the sovereign fund was designed to drive long-term economic development through increased investments in high-impact sectors.

“At the forefront of these (investment) opportunities is the recently launched MIF… We look forward to benefiting not just from Saudi investments, but also from the Kingdom’s extensive experience in managing such funds,” he said.

Diokno, at the meeting, also made a pitch for Maharlika, assuring Saudi business leaders that the establishment of the fund would proceed as scheduled.

“Maharlika aims to attract capital from both domestic and global equity investors, including large funds in the Middle East seeking to diversify its portfolio in fast-growing emerging markets like the Philippines,” Diokno said.

“The fund also presents exciting opportunities for green and blue investments, ESG-linked fixed-income instruments and cutting-edge technologies with the advent of artificial intelligence and cloud computing,” he explained.

In a statement, meanwhile, Speaker Martin Romualdez also noted the “keen interest” expressed by Saudi business leaders in the Maharlika