Saudi crown prince says more than 20 companies to be privatised in 2019

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said his country will privatise more than 20 companies in 2019, helping the government's strategy to diversify revenues away from oil.

“In 2019, we will have more than 20 services that will be privatised, most of them in water, agriculture, energy and some of it in sports”, the prince said in an interview with Bloomberg published on Friday.

In April, the Saudi government said it aims to generate 35 billion to 40 billion riyals ($9 billion to $11 billion) in non-oil revenues from its privatisation programme by 2020 and create up to 12,000 jobs.

(Reporting By Marwa Rashad; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)