State Street Corp. is deepening its expansion in Saudi Arabia as it looks to cash in on booming demand for exchange-traded funds and growing appetite for alternative investments from clients including family offices.
The global asset manager with $5 trillion in assets plans to add a dozen staff in Riyadh in the next two years, boosting headcount that stands around 30 currently, according to Oliver Berger, the head of the strategic growth markets unit, and Emmanuel Laurina, head of Middle East and Africa.
State Street also aims to launch a range of new Saudi ETFs and and will begin offering custodian services in the kingdom in 2027, they said in an interview. It currently manages about $60 billion in assets for clients in the country and $135 billion for the broader Middle East and Africa region.
“What we have seen in Saudi is an absolute acceleration in how local investors are going about their plans and how they execute against Vision 2030,” Berger said. “We see high demand for multi-asset class structures. The rise and emergence of alternative investments has been significant.”
State Street, which launched its regional headquarters in Riyadh in October, is doubling down on the kingdom as it estimates financial assets and the pool of clients will continue to grow amid Vision 2030 progress.
Family offices and private wealth managers in Saudi are among those becoming more active with their money as the kingdom pursues that economic diversification agenda, which includes developing new industries, robust financial markets and an open environment for foreign investment.
