It is reported that the Public Investment Fund is seeking investment opportunities in various sectors such as aviation, oil and gas, and entertainment. Earlier this month, the fund acquired an 8.2 percent stake in Carnival Corporation which is affected by the coronavirus. With that, the company’s shares rose nearly 30 percent higher. Carnival Corporation is an international cruise line headquartered in Florida.

Public Investment Fund Managing Director Yassir Al Rumayyan, said at an online investment forum, “There will be economies up and running, we will see a lot of potential.” The fund manages assets worth more than $300 billion. Also, it has stakes in Uber and Lucid Motors, media reports said.

Public Investment Fund has acquired stakes worth $1 billion in four European oil companies. Currently, the market is depressed on the back of the pandemic and low oil prices. These major companies include Equinor, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Enir, media reports said.

A source told the media, “The Saudis have been buying every day almost for the past few weeks, specially since the share prices of many of these companies were in correction territory and dividend yields were very high. They’ve been buying on the basis that everything is much cheaper and that they are bullish on the long-term outlook for oil prices.”

That said, the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has allocated $45 billion to SoftBank’s Vision Fund which is worth $100 billion.

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Vakt is a consortium of leading energy companies such as Aramco, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Equinor, Gunvor, Koch, Mercuria, ABN Amro, ING, Societe Generale, Chevron, Reliance, and Total.

According to media reports, the fund received from Aramco will be used to upgrade Vakt’s platform and plan for expansion in Southeast Asia.

Aramco’s subsidiary and trading company Aramco Trading is also expected to start using Vakt’s blockchain-enabled platform.

Vakt, which launched its trading platform in 2018, provides a smooth process from trade entry to settlement by completely eliminating paper-based processes and manual accounting practices.

Hans Middelthon, managing director of SAEV Europe told the media, “Vakt has demonstrated that their platform has the potential to digitise what is currently a very manual process.”

Interestingly, this is not the first time Aramco is investing in a blockchain company. Previously, Aramco took part in a $6 million funding round for Houston-based blockchain startup Data Gumbo. The investment was made through Aramco’s subsidiary Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.

Last year, Aramco raised around $25.6 billion in its IPO by listing its shares on the Riyadh Stock Exchange. Aramco IPO broke Alibaba’s record to become the biggest IPO ever.

After its IPO, Aramco became the most valuable listed company in the world, ahead of Apple which is valued at $1.2 trillion. Aramco became the only company to reach the coveted $2 trillion valuation.

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has targeted the coveted $2 trillion valuation for Saudi Aramco since he first announced Aramco’s plans to sell a small slice of the state-owned company.

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