Manama: Mumtalakat will be announcing fresh investments in Europe and the GCC region shortly, the sovereign wealth fund’s chief executive has said.
Mahmood Al Kooheji yesterday told participants of a forum that pharmaceuticals and education were areas of keen interest for the entity tasked with managing the kingdom’s non-oil and gas assets.
The Mumtalakat chief executive said this during an interview with Euromoney Conferences consulting editor Richard Banks, within the 5th Euromoney GCC Financial Forum at Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay.
The $11.2 billion fund holds minority and majority stakes in 38 commercial enterprises, in addition to investments in third-party managed funds.
Mr Al Kooheji also said that Mumtalakat was a commercial enterprise and would not be weighed down by political considerations in its investment decisions.
He was responding to a question on the recent announcement of an investment of $250 million with Russian Direct Investment Fund, a fund set up by the Russian government.
“Russia offers long-term growth potential in sectors such as healthcare, energy, agriculture, logistics and retail and we are definitely interested in it,” he added.
Mumtalakat’s mandate, said Mr Al Kooheji is to be a state entrepreneur, turn-around state-run enterprises and attract investment to diversify the national economy.
According to him, five priority sectors for the fund are manufacturing, tourism, information technology, logistics and financial services.
Co-hosted by Economic Development Board, the forum which concluded yesterday saw attendance from more than 500 leading international and regional experts from finance, investment, government, regulatory organisations and businesses and members of the media from 24 countries.
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