Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, is looking forward to invest billions of dollars in Saudi Arabia. According to reports, Slim is planning to put funds in segments such as petrochemical projects in the industrial city, in the east of the country Jubail. Apart from Jubail the billionaire is seeking to invest in other projects, as well.
According to local news paper Al Riyadh, Slim plans to invest in order to build manufacturing plants. The Mexican business tycoon went on a tour with Jubail with Hussein al-Asiri, Saudi Arab’s ambassador to Mexico.
According to Asiri, the objective of the trip was to strengthen and take forward the commercial relations between Mexico and Saudi Arabia. There were other Mexican investors and businessmen along with Carlos Slim who went to meet Mosleh al-Otaibi, chief executive of the Royal Commission in Jubail.
Carlos Slim is holding the title of the World’s richest man for four straight years in the rankings of Forbes. The family fortune of Carlos Slim Helu is estimated to be around $73 billion, an increase by approximately $4 billion from 2012. The major contribution in his wealth comes from telecoms. The other areas of his interest are mining, real estate and infrastructure.
Carlos took a keen interest in Saudi Arabia after the kingdom developed many industrial cities over the past few years and also made numerous efforts to attract investments from foreign countries.
John Burbank, owner of Passport capital echoes similar thoughts and is bullish on Saudi Arabia. He said last year that this emerging economy is the only country in which he would like to go long.
The reason behind Burbank liking Saudi Arabia is that the kingdom boasts of $600 billion in foreign reserves. According to Burbank, the economy of Saudi Arabia is in a healthy state to face any challenge in the near term if any correction takes place in the oil prices. Burbank also says another reason for his liking and points out that, from 2009, the correlation between Saudi market and oil price has been low compared to correlation between Oil and S&P 500.
The two Saudi equities which Burbank likes are, Etihad Etisalat and Yanbu National Petrochemical Company. The brand name of Etihad is mobile and holds the second position in the mobile operation in Saudi. It is noteworthy that Etihad has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Saudi Telecom Industry deregulation. The company has posted stellar growth of 30 percent in the past five years. The other one Yanbu, is also a favorite of Burbank with two major contributors Ethylene Glycol and Polypropylene.
