The decline in the value of sovereign wealth funds is one of the indicators of bad investments, which is evident in the case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in light of the catastrophic failure of the ruler of Muhammad bin Salman.
The Kingdom’s main sovereign wealth fund – the Public Investment Fund – ranked 11th globally, after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Qatar Investment Authority, with the value of the sovereign wealth fund for the Emirates reaching 1.213 trillion dollars, then Kuwait at 522 billion dollars, and Qatar at 328 billion Dollars, and Saudi Arabia at $320 billion.
In his most recent suspicious transaction, the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund acquired a 5.7% stake in the American “Live Nation”, a company that works in the field of promoting and organizing events such as sports and musical events.
The investment fund disclosed the stake, which consists of 12 million and 337 thousand and 569 shares, according to the Hollywood Robert site.
According to the stock prices of Life Nation, the investment value is estimated at $500 million. The company’s share price jumped more than 2% in the first few minutes of trading.
Currently, the Saudi Public Investment Fund is now the third largest shareholder in the company.
Live Nation was particularly affected by the new epidemic of the Coronavirus, with all concerts and sporting events around the world suspended.
The company was prosecuted because it was reluctant to return the full amounts to customers who canceled the events that contracted with the company to organize or promote, although it has since modified the recovery rules to address these complaints.
The company’s share price has fallen more than 40% from January 1, largely due to the Corona epidemic
The sales of the Kingdom’s assets would not be a bad thing if Muhammad bin Salman knew what he was doing with the money. But the 34-year-old prince proved himself a doubtful investor who wasted cash on money-losing stocks and risky white elephant projects.
In 2017, the Kingdom invested in failed WeWork joint action through the SoftBank-managed Vision Fund. It also lost $1.1 billion on Uber and sold Tesla shares directly before the stock rose to $900, a loss of $4.5 billion in unrealized gains.