(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia’s General Organization for Social Insurance is set to back Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.’s new Middle East venture, which has also drawn the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund as an anchor investor.
Hassana Investment Co., the investment arm of the pension fund, plans to allocate $500 million, matching Brookfield’s own commitment, according to a statement Thursday. The Public Investment Fund has already committed to come in as an anchor investor for Brookfield Middle East Partners, which could grow to at least $2 billion.
The new private equity fund will invest in businesses in Saudi Arabia and the wider region, with at least half of the capital to be allocated to deals within the kingdom and to international firms looking to expand locally — a move aimed at attracting foreign direct investment.
It marks the latest example of a foreign firm raising a Middle East-focused fund. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is working on one, Bloomberg News has reported, while the PIF has also committed $5 billion to BlackRock Inc. for local investments.
Last year, Brookfield said it would open an office in Riyadh, the latest international firm to set up shop in the kingdom. It’s already one of the Middle East’s most active and largest institutional investors with about $12 billion invested in recent years, mostly in the United Arab Emirates.
Until now, those investments were done through its global funds.
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