Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is set to compete with the world's largest insurance investors following the merger of two of its biggest funds.

The Saudi Cabinet last week approved merging the Public Pension Agency and the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) to unify the public and private sectors' insurance protection umbrella.

The enlarged entity will boast assets of more than $250 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing Saad Al-Fadly, the CEO of Hassana Investment Co, the investment management arm of the Kingdom’s General Organization of Social Insurance (GOSI).

That would place it in the top ten funds globally, measured by assets under management.

The merger would reduce costs and help increase investment returns, Al-Fadly said in an interview.

“The merger will strengthen the position of the fund, enhance performance, and position GOSI as one of the top 10 pension plan investors in the world,” he said.

“Scale is a benefit that helps in relationship management, cost management and in negotiations, so it helps in many aspects which will improve returns,” he added.

This step is one of many that Saudi Arabia has been taking as part of a plan to diversify the economy away from oil.  

The government has also outlined a plan to grow its sovereign wealth fund assets to over $1 trillion by 2025.