RIYADH - The Public Investment Fund has achieved high credit ratings for the first time from Moody’s and Fitch Ratings, which reflects the fund’s creditworthiness and the quality of its investment portfolio in line with the growth process that began since 2015 under the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz. The Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, by restructuring the fund’s board of directors headed by His Highness, and transferring its supervision to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which contributed to launching the fund’s strategy and turning it into one of the enablers to achieve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The global credit rating agency Moody’s assigned the fund an issuer rating at (A1), and a credit rating according to Moody’s rating card at (Aa2), with a stable outlook.

In the same context, Fitch Ratings gave the Public Investment Fund a long-term issuer rating of (A), with a stable outlook.

His Excellency the Governor of the Public Investment Fund, Mr. Yasser bin Othman Al-Rumayyan, said, “The Fund, under the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been able to achieve qualitative and important leaps, and achieving this credit rating is an important step for the Fund, and we will continue to develop our investment portfolio and achieve our goals that we aspire to.” Through the strategy of the Public Investment Fund 2018-2020 and now 2021-2025.

His Excellency explained that the Fund’s obtaining this classification is an important achievement that reflects success in several factors, including the Fund’s application of global standards in governance, its financial strength and the diversification of its portfolio and subsidiaries, and that this classification will enhance our access to international capital markets, and will support our continued in Diversify the fund’s financing sources, in order to achieve the fund’s objectives and in line with the Kingdom’s vision 2030.

Moody’s report indicated that the fund received the highest rating level (Aaa) in five sub-categories, according to the following: diversification of the fund’s portfolio, the fund’s financial policies, borrowing ratio, financing cost coverage, and financial liquidity rates.

Moody’s report highlighted the fund’s growth and ability to double its assets, as assets under management amounted to more than 1.54 trillion riyals in December 2020, compared to 570 billion riyals in 2015, in addition to achieving sustainable growth in returns and the quality of the investment portfolio.

Moody’s report confirmed the success of the governance policies applied by the fund, and its commitment to maintaining a strong credit record at the level of its portfolio companies through its representation on the boards of directors of its subsidiaries, and its participation in setting the financial policies of these companies. In addition to the application of the fund’s governance standards and its review by five committees at the management level that focus on investments, risks and liquidity.

The report focused on the diversification of the Public Investment Fund’s investments by launching priority sectors locally and internationally, as well as its strong financial position with low borrowing ratios, very high interest cost coverage and an excellent liquidity position.

Moody’s indicated the strategic importance of the fund to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as one of the main drivers in achieving the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

On the other hand, the Fitch report sheds light on the low level of the fund’s debt, and the positive position of the net cash flow, which gives a strong future outlook for the fund’s financial position. In its report, Fitch also focused on the fund’s importance to the Kingdom and its role in diversifying sources of income and developing the non-oil sector of the local economy in The Kingdom’s Vision 2030.