Osama Alowedi walks out on SAB Invest’s top investment seat

Osama Alowedi (LinkedIn) walked out of SAB Invest's top investment seat after more than four years running the show as chief investment officer, people familiar with the matter tell EnterpriseAM. No corporate reshuffle here — he’s going out on his own.

Alowedi isn’t taking a breather. He’s already building his next act, a new MENA-focused public equity fund based right here in Riyadh, under a fresh outfit called EQCM. And it’s not starting from zero, as the fund has already pulled in roughly SAR 1 bn (USD 267 mn) in initial commitments, the sources say.

Why it matters: Alowedi spent his SAB Invest years turning the platform into something of a product machine. Saudi Arabia's first quant ETF launched under his watch; a USD 100 mn VC fund with Saudi Technology Ventures came together during his tenure; and when SAB Invest made its first push into private credit, chasing a SAR 1 bn raise, it landed on his desk as well.

The HSBC muscle behind SAB Invest: SAB Invest sits inside Saudi Awwal Bank, roughly a third owned by HSBC, which is how a Saudi asset manager ended up running quant strategies borrowed from HSBC’s global playbook.

The bigger trend: Alowedi’s leap into public equities adds one more name to the roster of managers launching products out of Riyadh at a moment when institutional and family office capital in the region has been showing appetite for specialized, locally run strategies.