BlackRock Inc. has secured approval to establish its regional headquarters in Riyadh, enhancing its presence in the Middle East, Bloomberg has reported.
The strategic move is expected to enable the world’s largest asset manager to broaden its operations throughout the Middle East.
With $10 trillion in assets under management, the investment firm has shown a rising interest in the Kingdom. Six years ago, the firm established the BlackRock Saudi Arabia Company six years ago and in, July 2023, gave Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser a seat on its Board of Directors. In May, BlackRock signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s PIF to launch a Riyadh-based multi-asset investment management platform.
At the time, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said the Kingdom “has become an increasingly attractive destination for international investment as Vision 2030 comes to life.”
Fink travelled this week to Saudi Arabia, where he participated in the Future Investment Initiative. During a panel discussion, he predicted the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again in 2024, but warned that the rate cuts will not go as low as many people might expect.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment, Khalid Al-Falih, recently noted that the Kingdom has surpassed its goal of hosting 500 international companies’ regional headquarters by 2030, with 540 companies already having established their offices there.
The BlackRock move would also allow the investment firm to benefit from the rules requiring that government entities and funds solely partner with foreign companies that have a regional HQ in the Kingdom. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs became the first Wall Street bank to receive a licence from the kingdom’s Ministry of Investment.
