PIF anchors Brookfield Middle East fund

5 August 2026

Canada’s Brookfield has announced the first close of Brookfield Middle East Partners (BMEP), a private equity fund anchored by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), raising about $2bn.

The capital was raised from a group of anchor investors comprising PIF and other global and regional institutional partners.

The fund will invest in businesses based in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, pursuing buyouts, minority growth equity and other opportunities across sectors including financial, business and consumer services, industrials, technology and healthcare.

Capital will be allocated to investments in the Middle East, with a focus on the GCC. The fund targets allocating 50% of its investments to Saudi Arabia.

Brookfield is committing $500m to the fund. The $2bn figure is a first close; neither the size of PIF’s commitment nor the fund’s final fundraising target was disclosed.

“Our partnership with Brookfield is designed to help anchor international private equity into Saudi Arabia and the region. It will also accelerate deal flow while continuing to bring world-class expertise to the local capital market ecosystem,” said Yazeed Al-Humied, deputy governor and head of Mena investments at PIF.

The fund draws on Brookfield’s offices in Riyadh and its wider global network. As part of the initiative, Brookfield will make the Brookfield Academy, its professional learning programme founded in 2019, available in Saudi Arabia to develop local investment talent.

PIF and Brookfield agreed to create the fund in October 2024. The announcement follows the approval of PIF’s 2026-30 strategy in April, which focuses on maximising financial returns, improving investment efficiency and increasing private sector participation.

“We are grateful for the collaboration with PIF and our other strategic anchor partners, reflecting the global confidence and strong demand for private equity opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the region. Brookfield has been active in the Middle East for nearly three decades, and we bring deep local investment expertise, local networks and an owner-operator approach to transforming high-quality businesses. We see a compelling opportunity to partner with businesses across the region and position them for long-term growth,” said Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Corporation.

Saudi footprint

The fund is the latest step in Brookfield’s expansion in Saudi Arabia. Its local unit, Brookfield Arabia for Business Services, received Capital Market Authority approval in June to manage investments and run funds in the country. In May 2025, Brookfield launched a $1bn joint venture with Abu Dhabi’s Lunate focused on residential real estate in the Middle East, with a focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The fund also fits a wider PIF pattern of using relationships with global asset managers to channel international capital into the domestic economy rather than deploying Saudi money abroad. In the same month as the BMEP close, PIF signed $24.5bn in memorandums of understanding with the World Bank Group and US Export-Import Bank to draw outside capital into its portfolio companies, alongside a $2bn co-investment agreement with US-based I Squared Capital targeting infrastructure and district cooling.

Gulf expansion

Brookfield has signalled a broader push into the Gulf. In May, Flatt said the company intended to increase its investments in the region despite the ongoing conflict.

“In fact, [we're] doubling down; we are doing more,” Flatt said when asked at the Milken Institute Global Conference on 4 May whether the ongoing conflict in the region was changing the way he thought about the Gulf.

“When you find great businesses, countries, great people, and the market offers you an opportunity to invest when others are not, it is always the best opportunity in the world, so we are doing more. We have been there for 25 years; we are continuing to do all of the investments we have there, and we are going to do more,” he added.

Flatt suggested the current period of geopolitical stress could accelerate long-term economic strengthening across the Gulf, arguing that governments and businesses would respond by investing in self-sufficiency and strategic infrastructure.

Since the conflict began on 28 February, Flatt has travelled to the region to meet senior UAE officials. In Abu Dhabi on 9 April, he met Sheikh Khaled Bin Mohamed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, to discuss cooperation in investment and asset management between UAE-based institutions and Brookfield.

Two days later, in Dubai, Flatt met Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and chairman of Dubai International Financial Centre, to explore opportunities to expand cooperation.

Regional deals

Brookfield has also been active elsewhere in the region. In May, the firm formed a joint venture with Kuwait-based Alshaya Group to develop a 480,000-square-foot mixed-use project in the Dubai Hills area of Dubai, a master-planned community developed by Emaar. The project will include Grade A office space, build-to-rent residential units and retail components, with Brookfield Properties acting as development and real estate manager.

In late 2025, Brookfield and Qai, Qatar’s artificial intelligence (AI) company and a subsidiary of Qatar Investment Authority, announced a strategic partnership to establish a $20bn joint venture focused on AI infrastructure in Qatar and select international markets. The venture is slated to be backed through Brookfield’s Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, part of a broader programme targeting up to $100bn in global investment.

Brookfield has been directly investing in the region since 2015 and has built a portfolio of more than $16bn of managed assets across private equity, real estate and infrastructure.

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Colin Foreman
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