By Yousef Saba
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund held $30.9 billion worth of U.S. stocks at the end of 2022, down from $36.8 billion at the end of September, dragged down by a $6.8 billion decrease in value of electric carmaker Lucid (LCID.O), it said in a regulatory filing.
PIF, which already owned more than 60% of Lucid, bought more than 93.75 million shares in the carmaker in the third quarter, according to Reuters calculations based on the U.S. filing.
That was equivalent to roughly 5.6% of Lucid shares, according to calculations based on Refinitiv data.
PIF’s stake in Lucid, despite increasing, nearly halved in value to $7.57 billion at the end of December from $14.18 billion three months earlier, the filing showed.
Shares of Lucid, which plans to build its first overseas factory in Saudi Arabia, were down 51% in the fourth quarter.
PIF, at the centre of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plans to diversify the economy away from oil, invested over $1 billion in Lucid in 2018.
Building electric vehicles is part of the kingdom’s push to create new industries and jobs.
Last year Saudi Arabia signed a deal with Lucid to buy up to 100,000 of its cars over the following decade.
PIF cut its holding in online luxury shopping retailer Farfetch shares by 36.5% and the value of its holding decreased by about $14.7 million in the fourth quarter, the filing showed.
It also bought more than 39,000 additional shares in “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard and the value of its stake rose nearly $86.7 million.
The value of PIF’s stake in Uber fell by nearly $129 million, the filing showed.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Mike Harrison)
