(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia’s Jadwa Investment Co. has raised as much as 1 billion riyals ($266 million) for a new fund to boost dealmaking, the latest sign of growing appetite for investment vehicles focused on the Middle East.
The private equity firm raised the money from entities linked to regional sovereign wealth funds and family offices, Jadwa said in a statement. It aims to grow its first blind pool fund to as much as 2 billion riyals by the first half of 2025, the Riyadh-based firm said.
Jadwa has already started making investments for the fund and is currently working on four more deals, according to the statement.
It has previously said the fund will target investments in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, an economic bloc known as the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Private equity fundraising in the region has picked up over the past year, with giants of the industry like BlackRock Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. both establishing Middle East funds, while General Atlantic has opened an office in Riyadh to scout for deals.
Jadwa is one of the most active Saudi-based alternative asset managers, with total client assets of about $20 billion.
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