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Newcastle United’s majority owner, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is scaling back its investments overseas to focus more on the domestic economy, according to the Financial Times.
The Magpies’ chairman, Yaser Al-Rumayyan, is also the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
There were big expectations that Newcastle’s owners would power them to unreached heights in the Premier League, but progress has been slower than some believed it would be.
While there have been issues with meeting PSR commitments, there remains talk that the Saudi owners could have their sights set on another Premier League club at some point.
Now, in a bigger picture development, the Public Investment Fund is scaling back its international investments, with cuts of about a third expected.
The fund will focus more on the Saudi Arabian economy as it looks to invest its cash.
Al-Rumayyan admitted that the Public Investment Fund wants international investments down to as low as 18 per cent.
“But then [the international investments of the fund] increased from 2 per cent all the way up to 30 per cent”, he was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
“Now our target is to bring it down to a range between 18 to 20 per cent.”
What impact the development might have on Newcastle and how much the Public Investment Fund prioritise the Magpies remains to be seen.
