Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has scaled back work on a number of planned share sales inside the kingdom, people with knowledge of the matter said, indicating shifting strategy amid weak valuations and soft investor appetite. Bloomberg first reported the development, and its reporting aligns with assessments in market commentary.

Executives and advisers close to the red-sea fund say that a subdued climate in the local equity market has made it harder to price new listings. Some of the contemplated offerings-among them Saudi Global Ports, Tabreed District Cooling, Nupco, and Saudi Information Technology Co -have been postponed or re-phased. Financial market observers view this as a defensive recalibration rather than a full abandonment of the listing programme.

The move signals a pivot in PIF's execution amid slowing momentum in IPOs across the broader Middle East and rising concerns about overvaluation and liquidity risk in domestic markets. In effect, PIF is taking a more measured path to monetising its holdings.

Market participants acknowledge that recent IPOs in Riyadh have struggled to sustain strong secondary-market performance, putting pressure on pricing assumptions for fresh issues. As one source put it,“there's less runway to take risk in this environment.”

This change occurs alongside a broad repositioning of PIF's capital deployment. The fund is reportedly directing about 80 percent of new investment inward, with the remainder abroad, and increasingly favouring co-investment structures rather than full exits. That domestic tilt was signalled earlier this year. Analysts also point to PIF's rising interest in structured capital tools, such as dollar-bond issuance, as the fund seeks more flexible financing sources.

Weak investor sentiment on the Tadawul exchange, where the Saudi market trades, adds pressure. Quarterly results from listed firms in energy, petrochemicals, and consumer sectors fell short of expectations, reducing confidence among institutional and retail holders. Meanwhile, rising interest rate pressures globally and alternative asset yields have lured capital away from equities into fixed income and debt instruments.

Despite this pullback on local share sales, PIF has not entirely withdrawn from public markets. It increased holdings in key global stocks, notably expanding its position in the electric vehicle maker Lucid and doubling its stake in chip designer Arm Holdings over the past year. Concurrently, PIF exited stakes in some tech and e-commerce names including Meta, Alibaba, Shopify, and PayPal in the second quarter. These portfolio adjustments point to a more selective, return-oriented investing posture.

On the domestic front, PIF is also writing down valuations of its flagship mega-projects. The fund disclosed an $8 billion impairment on its“gigaproject” holdings, including the futuristic Neom development, trimming its estimated value to $56 billion. The adjustments reflect cost overruns, global inflationary pressures, execution delays, and more conservative forward assumptions.

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