Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the GCC account for five of the top ten state-owned investors, according to rating agency S&P. The latest report from S&P Global Market Intelligence found that these five SWFs - Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the Qatar Investment Authority, Kuwait Investment Authority, Investment Corporation of Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - deployed roughly US$74 billion in aggregate in 2022. Collectively, GCC SWFs manage close to $4 trillion of assets and have grown by 20% in the last two years, thanks to a rise in oil prices The UAE dominates the region’s sovereign wealth market. The ADIA is ranked as the second largest SWF, behind the China Investment Authority, with $993 million in assets under management. And three UAE-based SWFs - Mubadala, ADQ and ADIA- accounted for 62% of the total capital deployed in 2022 by GCC sovereign funds. “Contrary to the global financial crisis era, GCC SWFs argue that they are pursuing strategic buys rather than opportunistic buys, in line with their long-term national visions,” stated Jamil Naayem, principal economist, Middle East and North Africa, S&P Global Market Intelligence. “They played an important role domestically in supporting and stabilising their banking systems during and after the global financial crisis. They are now much larger than they were 15 years ago, but also more experienced with increasingly sophisticated asset allocation strategies,” said Naayem. ©2022 funds global mena