EWPartners aims to close $800m Saudi fund

• Investors from Gulf and East Asia
• Logistics and digital infrastructure
• Initial deadline was pushed back

Private equity company EWPartners is looking to close an $800 million investment fund in Saudi Arabia, its founder has said.

The fund has backers from the GCC and East Asia. It wants to invest in supply chain sectors, logistics and digital infrastructure, including data centres.

EWPartners, which is headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Hong Kong, is yet to announce the identities of its investors, but a senior executive said they were likely to be evenly split between the Gulf and the rest of the world, in particular China and East Asia.

“This is patient capital,” said founder and managing partner Jessica Wong. “They are not just bringing money, but also bringing their knowhow.”

EWPartners has previously received financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s $930 billion Public Investment Fund. It specialises in cross-border investments between Asia and the Middle East.

Wong said the Saudi investment opportunities that attract the most interest from Asia tend to be those that “set up the solid foundation for the future growth”, particularly infrastructure and logistics.

“Those opportunities can no longer be found in mature markets like the US and China,” she said.

EWPartners had hoped to close the fund before the end of last year, but the initial deadline was pushed back.

The company is already involved with high-profile projects including the special economic zone at King Salman Airport, where Wong said it would soon announce 10 “household names” that have partnered with the development, and a $2 billion Lenovo laptop factory in Riyadh.

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EWPartners also has investments in logistics through its holdings in courier companies J&T Express and Leshines, and technology through Alibaba Cloud.

The new fund will be its first major investment in data centre development. 

“It is an asset-heavy investment,” said Wong. “Three years ago, a lot of partners were hesitating. But now everyone is more open-minded. They know that this is a revenue generating business that is also stable.”