Saudi assets under management head towards 400 billion dollars

Published: 2026-06-30T08:18:30.000Z

The money management business in the Gulf is having a remarkably good run, and it is doing so against a backdrop that would normally send investors running for the exits. Even as the Iran conflict rattled the region through the first half of the year, the asset management industry kept expanding, with Saudi Arabia firmly out in front. According to Fitch Ratings, the kingdom's assets under management climbed past 340 billion dollars at the end of the first quarter, a 17 per cent jump year on year and a 4 per cent rise on the previous quarter, and the agency expects the figure to surpass 400 billion dollars by 2027, making Saudi Arabia comfortably the largest such market in the Gulf Cooperation Council. The resilience is the part worth dwelling on, since growth during a period of acute geopolitical stress is far from guaranteed. Fitch put the expansion down to a familiar but powerful combination, namely supportive regulatory reforms, easing entry requirements, and rising participation from both domestic and foreign investors as well as institutional and retail money. The industry now sits at roughly 26 per cent of Saudi GDP, up from 23 per cent a year earlier, which tells you the sector is not merely growing but deepening its role in the wider economy. Private funds remain the dominant slice at about 54 per cent of assets, followed by discretionary portfolio management and public funds, while bank affiliated managers still account for the bulk of industry revenue. What makes the kingdom's lead more striking is the structural shift underway beneath the headline number. International and regional capital market institutions lifted their share of industry revenue to around 20 per cent in the first quarter, up from 15 per cent in the first half of last year, a sign that outside players increasingly want a piece of the Saudi market. Capital market data point the same way, with the official Capital Market Authority reporting that assets under management surpassed 1.2 trillion riyals in 2025, an 18 per cent increase, powered by sharp rises in private real estate funds, money market funds and private credit. A planned addition of Saudi Arabia to JP Morgan's emerging markets government bond index in 2027 should deepen the debt markets further. The broader Gulf picture reinforces why this matters. The region's sovereign wealth funds, managing some 5.7 trillion dollars between them and led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the UAE's cluster of Abu Dhabi funds, have shown no real slowdown in deployment despite the war, with several maintaining or even quickening their pace of investment. That steady flow of capital, much of it heading into US technology, AI infrastructure and global private markets, sits alongside the domestic asset management boom as two sides of the same story, namely Gulf money growing more sophisticated and more assertive at once. The regional read is one of consolidation around a clear leader. While the whole GCC is expanding its financial sector, Saudi Arabia is increasingly the center of gravity, leaning on Vision 2030's Financial Sector Development Program, a deep sukuk market and a fast maturing regulatory framework. As the UAE, Qatar and others build out their own industries, the kingdom's widening lead in assets under management suggests it intends to be the Gulf's dominant hub for managing the region's swelling pool of capital.