Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

The daunting quest for fixed income yield is a tricky undertaking. How much are investors willing to pay for yield within an acceptable level of risk? Public investors have shifted fixed income focus in the past few years to credit funds. Investment consultants and advisors have been routing pension funds into credit investments like leveraged [...]

Globally and gradually, sovereign wealth funds and large public pensions are analyzing the benefits of internal asset management. At a recent meeting, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board of Trustees made some modifications to the fund’s investment policy. Some major changes include the authorization to create three new internally managed programs for public equities, co-investment [...]

Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has invested 3.91 billion MYR (US$ 1.29 billion) in overseas investments such as bonds, equities and real estate during the first quarter of 2013. Malaysia’s EPF which is 526.8 billion MYR (US$ 171.2 billion) in size is undergoing a strategy to geographically diversify their investment portfolio. EPF’s long-term diversification strategy [...]

VTB Bank has finalized its 102.5 billion roubles (US$ 3.3 billion) offering of new ordinary shares. Qatar Holding, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, Norges Bank Investment Management and China Construction Bank have purchased 55% of the new shares issued. VTB chairman Andrei Kostin mentioned the three sovereign funds investing about US$ 500 million each. [...]

Embracing a risk-on perspective, a miniscule but growing portion of China’s foreign currency reserves are being allocated toward illiquid assets. China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has created subsidiaries to invest reserve assets in a variety of investments including public equity, private equity and real estate. SAFE has opened up a New York office [...]

Sovereign wealth funds and state-owned enterprises are attracted to energy infrastructure in benign regulatory environments. Chinese state-owned State Grid Corporation of China wants to purchase more energy assets in Australia. State Grid is the largest utility in China and one of the biggest in the world in terms of annual revenue. They plan to pay [...]

After some delay, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has begun to allocate the US$ 1 billion in seed capital to each of the sovereign funds. The Future Generation Fund and Nigeria Infrastructure Fund would each receive US$ 325 million or 32.5% of the total amount. The Stabilization Fund would receive US$ 200 million, with [...]

First quarter data of 2013 from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Transaction Database (SWFTD) has been tabulated. During the first quarter of 2013, direct sovereign fund transactions totaled US$ 14.8 billion. This is an incremental increase of 2.06% compared to the first quarter of 2012. As 2013 progresses, the first quarter number should experience a positive [...]

Many of the massive sovereign funds today were started before the 2000s. Below are some old sovereign wealth fund logos. Click to enlarge logos. Kuwait Investment Authority GIC – 1998 Temasek Holdings 2002 Temasek Holdings 2004 Khazanah Nasional Abu Dhabi Investment Authority China Investment Corporation – Debut

In the midst of troubling economic times, the skyline of Milan is rising. As Italy’s financial hub, Milan is home to the Italian Stock Exchange. The government of Qatar is keen on Italian real estate developments, especially mixed-used projects in highly-trafficked zones. Qatar Holding LLC, the sovereign wealth enterprise of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), [...]

According to the press release, “The CPP Fund ended its fiscal year on March 31, 2013 with net assets of $183.3 billion, compared to $161.6 billion at the end of fiscal 2012. The $21.7 billion increase in assets for the year consisted of $16.2 billion in net investment income after operating costs and $5.5 billion [...]

Construction projects in Dubai were deeply affected by the real estate slump. The Investment Corporation of Dubai continues its efforts to support the local Dubai real estate industry. The Investment Corporation of Dubai and Brookfield Asset Management are hoping to lockdown $500 million in financing to launch a real estate fund dubbed the ICD-Brookfield Dubai [...]

According to the press release, “Global Alumina Corporation announced today that it has signed a share purchase agreement with DM GAV Limited, a company established and owned equally by Mubadala Development Company PJSC and Dubai Aluminium, to sell all of Global Alumina’s interests in Guinea Alumina Corporation Limited to DM GAV. Pursuant to the SPA, [...]

An investment consortium led by CITIC Capital Partners is going to buy Asiainfo-Linkage Inc. for about US$ 890 million. U.S.-listed Asiainfo-Linkage Inc provides software to telecommunication companies with big clients such as China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile. Using Ellington Investments Pte. Ltd., Singapore’s Temasek Holdings is part of the consortium of investors. Other [...]

Park Alpha, the consulting division of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, has released a briefing on the Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) model. Essentially, the outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) model permits the advisory firm to manage the client portfolio on a discretionary basis – allowing the firm to make changes (with prescribed limits) in [...]

Doha Global Investment Co., the investment company partially-backed by Qatar Holding LLC, has postponed their initial public offering on the Qatar Exchange to a new date. The investment company plans to manage $12 billion in assets, in which $3 billion of assets will be transferred from Qatar Holding into the new entity. The new vehicle [...]

State-owned China Galaxy Securities Co., Ltd. is mainland China’s sixth largest brokerage company by revenue. Capital market conditions seemed to have improved since 2012, and the company desires to grow their margin financing business. China Galaxy Securities is backed by Central Huijin Investment Ltd., a sovereign wealth enterprise (SWE) of the China Investment Corporation (CIC). [...]

The mega-sized sovereign wealth funds have the characteristic of lower cost of capital compared to small to mid-sized pensions and private investors. The China Investment Corporation (CIC) purchased the Winchester House located in London for £245 million. It was their first direct real estate investment in the London. [Content protected for Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute [...]

Increasingly, sovereign wealth funds are embracing direct investing. Elephantine, aged public funds are the type of institutional investors that partake in these investment activities. Direct investors usually have massive amounts of capital that need to be put to work. On May 8, 2013, OMERS Private Equity, the private equity arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees’ [...]

The U.S. inflation-linked bond sector has experienced major outflows since the start of 2013. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities also called Tips performed well in recent years. With regard to Tips, there is concern that real yields can increase along with nominal bond yields without inflation growing. The theory behind inflation-linked bonds is to allow investors [...]