Kpop growing market in the middle east15 Feb 2024 00:11
PIF is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, founded in 1971. It is one of the world’s largest state-owned investment funds with estimated total assets of $620 billion. It is headed by the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, who recently visited Seoul.
The prince has been making investments in new technology industries to diversify the state fund’s portfolio in an attempt to lessen its heavy dependence on oil revenue.
As part of the effort, the fund has been showing great interest in the Korean entertainment and technology market, investing more than 3 trillion won in NCSoft and Nexon, two major game developers.
Through the investment, PIF became NCSoft’s second-largest shareholder in February. It also is the fourth-largest shareholder of Nexon, listed on the Tokyo bourse.
The content and entertainment businesses have proven to be resilient when it comes to economic downturns. The rising global popularity of Korean content -- K-pop, K-dramas and films -- also seems to be appealing to big institutional investors