PIF named most valuable sovereign wealth fund brand 
A recent report from Brand Finance — a London-based independent brand valuation consultancy — named Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as the world’s most valuable sovereign wealth fund brand.
The report also ranked the US multinational BlackRock as the world’s most valuable asset management brand.
The report valued the PIF at $1.1 billion and ranked it sixth globally in terms of the ratio of assets it manages to the value of its brand.
The PIF’s brand overperformed in several areas, according to the report, including “brand awareness and the goal” — which measures the extent of the public’s knowledge of the brand and takes into consideration environmental, social, and governance practices — and “commitment to growth.”
The PIF ranked second among sovereign wealth funds in the “Brand Strength” criterion, obtaining 62.1 points with an A+ rating.
Brand Finance based its evaluation process on several steps, including determining royalty ranges for each industry to reflect the importance of the brand to purchasing decisions, calculating royalty rates, and determining brand-specific revenues and forecasted revenues.
For more than 25 years, Brand Finance has managed to consider both marketing and finance to accurately evaluate the strength of brands, quantifying their financial value to help organizations of all kinds make strategic decisions, and I believe that Brand Finance has done a great job in its valuation of the PIF’s strength in different aspects of the business. The PIF deserves its ranking, as it has managed to build an excellent brand since its establishment in 1974.
Initially created to help establish companies of foundational importance to the Saudi economy, the PIF was reborn in March 2015 when its management was shifted to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was appointed chairman. This major change gave PIF greater autonomy and better-defined national strategic responsibilities and enabled the fund to accelerate its performance and become a key driver for Saudi Vision 2030, achieving positive, sustainable economic and social change.
Since 2017, the PIF has launched 94 new companies and created more than 644 job opportunities, while its assets have grown from $153 billion in 2015 to more than $930 billion in 2023.
The PIF represents the growth and new opportunities that are beginning to reshape the Kingdom’s economy, as well as the global economy.
• Talat Zaki Hafiz is an economist and financial analyst.
X: @TalatHafiz
