Investcorp launched a fund to invest in high-growth companies in Saudi Arabia, the rest of the GCC and China, with the support of the China Investment Corporation, today, Wednesday, according to a press release.
The launch of the fund, called Investcorp’s Golden Horizon Platform, was announced today during Investcorp’s China-GCC Investment and Trade Summit in Riyadh.
The platform's target size is $1 billion, and it has the support of investment institutions, especially in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in addition to the China Investment Corporation, according to the statement.
The China Investment Corporation is one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, managing assets worth $1.3 trillion.
Investcorp Holdings, a Bahrain-based holding company that owns several companies including Investcorp Capital, is seeking to double its infrastructure assets under management to $10 billion within five years, co-chief executive Hazem Bin Jassim said in an interview with Bloomberg in mid-January.
Bin Jassim revealed at the time that Investcorp was also looking to raise $1.5 billion in funding for global infrastructure projects. The company is also looking to invest $500 million to $1 billion in the GCC each year across all its asset classes, including private equity, infrastructure and real estate, according to the CEO.
“Over the past two years, we have built several bilateral funds with leading financial institutions to facilitate industrial cooperation between China and major economies in the world. We are now working closely with Investcorp to build a similar bilateral fund to enhance financial and industrial relations between China and the GCC,” said Ben Qi, Executive Vice President and Deputy Director of Information Technology at China Investment Corporation.
Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-CEO of Investcorp, said: “This is just the first step in what we expect to be a fruitful relationship, and we look forward to making a significant positive impact on businesses in both regions.”
Investcorp, the Middle East’s largest alternative investment manager, has about $50 billion in assets under management, according to its website. It is also expanding into Asia, reportedly partnering with the private equity arm of the Fung brothers’ family office in 2022 to create a $500 million fund to invest in mid-cap companies across China’s Greater Bay Area.
China, the largest buyer of Middle Eastern oil, has increasingly cultivated ties with the Middle East and is increasingly looking to deepen its ties with the region amid trade tensions with the United States and a slowdown in its own economy. Those ties were boosted after Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a regional summit in Saudi Arabia in 2022.
