Saudi Arabian sovereign fund to invest $10 billion in Brazil

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will invest $10 billion in Brazil and plans to use the country as a gateway to the rest of Latin America, the Brazilian government said.

The investment comes after talks between President Jair Bolsonaro and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araujo told reporters in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro met Bin Salman at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the sovereign fund is hosting an investment summit this week. The $320 billion fund is mandated with making the kingdom’s economy less dependent on oil.

Bolsonaro’s Chief of Staff Onyx Lorenzoni told reporters on Tuesday that the two governments will form a council over the next two weeks, which will define the sectors and the timing of the investments.

Lorenzoni said the Saudis expressed interest in the construction of a 600-mile railroad from the agricultural heartland Mato Grosso to Para in the far north of the country. The railway is expected to cost about $3 billion.

Later, during a panel at the forum, Bolsonaro said he would like to see the funds being directed to oil and gas, infrastructure, sanitation and tourism.

He cited the coastal area of Angra dos Reis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, as a possible target for the funds, saying it has potential to attract more tourists than Mexico’s Cancun.

Bolsonaro also said Brazil received an informal invitation to be part of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after meetings in Saudi Arabia, and that he would like to see that happen.

Earlier this week, Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, the deputy chief executive officer of Mubalada Investment Co., Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, said that his fund is “extremely excited” about upcoming privatizations in Brazil.

The Latin American country expects to raise 1.3 trillion reais ($325 billion) over the next years through auctions of licenses to operate airports, oil wells, and ports, and also through the privatization of state-owned companies such as the postal service. Filipe Pacheco, Bloomberg