PIF sells Al-Hilal to Prince Alwaleed's KHC and eyes LIV Golf exit in Saudi sports reset
What's the deal? Saudi Arabia's Public Investment FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has sold a 70% stake in football club Al-HilalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to Kingdom Holding CompanyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the investment firm controlled by Prince Alwaleed Bin TalalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, based on an enterprise value of SAR 1.4B ($373M) for the club.
The deal, announced in April 2026, marks the first major exit from PIF's Saudi Pro LeagueDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → portfolio, which also includes Al-NassrDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Al-IttihadDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Al-AhliDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The sale landed on the same day Wall Street Journal reported that PIF is on the verge of pulling its backing for LIV GolfDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the breakaway circuit it launched in 2022 with an estimated $5B in investment. LIV Golf Ltd reported a nearly $600M loss in 2024 and has struggled to build a meaningful US television audience throughout its four-year existence.
Why now? The timing of the Al-Hilal sale is hard to separate from the LIV news. Together, they suggest PIF is beginning to rationalise its sports portfolio — redirecting capital away from loss-making international ventures and toward assets that can attract private Saudi investors. Al-Hilal is the Saudi league's most decorated club, having won the title 19 times, and represents a more straightforward privatisation play.
LIV Golf, by contrast, never achieved the commercial breakthrough PIF needed. A 2023 framework agreement with the PGA TourDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — announced in dramatic fashion with both sides appearing together on television — never materialised into a formal deal, leaving both circuits to continue operating independently.
What could go wrong? LIV Golf's potential closure would leave more than 50 players — including Phil MickelsonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Bryson DeChambeauDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Jon RahmDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — suddenly without a tour, some of whom tore up PGA Tour contracts and publicly criticised the circuit when they left. Their path back is uncertain and complicated by years of bad blood.
For Al-Hilal, the risk is whether KHC can sustain the investment levels that have made the club competitive at the highest level. PIF's backing enabled a spending spree; private ownership may demand a more disciplined approach.
The signal: The Al-Hilal deal represents the first concrete sign that Saudi Arabia's sports privatisation push is entering an exit phase — PIF seeding clubs with investment before selling stakes to private capital. If LIV Golf folds, it will mark one of the most expensive failed experiments in sports history and a significant reputational setback for a fund that bet billions on sport as a tool of global influence.
For professional golf, LIV's potential end would reunify a sport that has been divided since 2022 — though the question of whether its star players can return to the PGA Tour, and on what terms, remains entirely unresolved.
Sources:
PIF
Saudi Gazette
Arab News
SportBusiness
TSN
Arabian Business
BBC Sport
Financial Times
Forbes
Image credit:
PIF
J.V.
