At the end of 2011, sovereign-wealth funds’ assets under management amounted to $3 trillion, following 237 direct investments worth $81 billion that year. Some experts even estimate SWFs’ assets to be worth $6 trillion. This means that SWFs, the avatars of state capitalism, are now twice as rich as the world’s hedge funds, the totems [...]

From FT.com: Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state investment company, plans to use the proceeds from the sale of an Indonesian bank last week to make more investments in the Asian financial sector.

From Reuters.com: The UAE’s Mubadala Development Co said on Sunday it has signed a preliminary deal with U.S. major ConocoPhillips and Kazakhstan’s state energy firm to develop an offshore Kazazh oil and gas block.

From Chinastakes.com: [W]ith a spreading financial crisis dragging the global economy into possible recession, those countries with ample foreign exchange reserves, particularly China, must take action, but the question of exactly what to do is a dilemma.

From WSJ’s Real Time Economics blog: The dollar could bear a big part of the adjustment to the growth of sovereign wealth funds, as global capital flows diversify out of U.S. government securities, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

From TheNational.ae: With an international credit squeeze threatening companies, infrastructure projects and financial markets, GCC governments are coming under pressure to tap their vast oil-revenue savings to avert problems.

From FT.com: Temasek’s latest annual report is entitled Risks & Opportunities. That is an apt description of the Singapore state investment company’s exposure to financials, which make up 40 per cent of its S$185bn (US$129bn) asset portfolio.

From Reuters Africa: OPEC member Libya will seek to invest in overseas real estate markets that have tumbled due to the global credit market downturn, the government said on Thursday.

From CNBC.com: Russia plans no changes to the draft strategy for the investment of its $49 billion National Wealth Fund due to the current market turbulence, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin told Reuters on Friday.

From FT.com: The Qatar Investment Authority [QIA]… is continuing to build its portfolio of luxury hotels, even though the luxury hotel sector could be considered in these cash-strapped times, especially for normally high-spending Americans, as a risky business staring a downturn in travel in the face.

From Asianinvestor.net: At China Investment Corporation’s first anniversary, China’s State Council has appointed a new chairman who will oversee CIC’s supervisory board.

From Xinhuanet: South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), the country’s largest investor, said Thursday that it has decided to scrap its plan to bid for Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co… Full article: Source

From WSJ.com: Chinese oil company Cnooc Ltd. is bidding for natural-gas assets in the Caribbean, and is teaming up with refiner China Petrochemical Corp. to buy a stake in an Angolan oil field, the latest efforts by Chinese state-owned energy companies to expand their global reach… Full article: Source

From Reuters UK: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund [the Government Pension Fund–Global] is sticking to its previous estimate for its year-end value, despite losses on the back of global financial turmoil, daily Aftenposten reported on Thursday.

From RTI.org: A government proposal to set up a sovereign wealth fund has sparked controversy in Taiwan’s legislature.

From eTaiwannews.com: Vice President Vincent Siew held a financial consultation meeting on Sep 30 and decided to set up a sovereign wealth fund.

From iii.co.uk: Central bank governor Perng Fai-nan did not discuss any proposal to establish a state wealth fund using [Taiwan’s] forex reserves when Perng met with a government economic task-force yesterday, the bank said.

From Hemscott.com: Russia’s two oil wealth funds [the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund] totalled 4.79 trillion roubles ($189.7) as of Oct. 1, around eight percent higher than a month ago, Finance Ministry data showed on Wednesday.

From Reuters.com: Morgan Stanley denied it was advising a Libyan fund [the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA)] for a possible investment in Italian telecoms operator Telecom Italia in a statement on Wednesday.

From eTaiwannews.com: A meeting of top [Taiwan] government finance officials failed yesterday to reach an agreement on a proposal to set up a sovereign wealth fund to boost the economy.

From Research Recap: Efforts to get a better handle on the activities of sovereign wealth funds face a number of challenges, notably from China, according to Oxford Analytica.

From LesAfriques.com: “Some people say we should seriously experiment with sovereign funds to make our foreign exchange reserves more profitable abroad. I believe our country continues to be greatly in need of capital to develop the nation’s economy – a reality that goes against choosing sovereign funds at the present time.”.

From The Malaysia Star: Before local institutional investors [such as Khazanah Nasional] look to acquiring stakes in US banks, it will be a good idea to take heed of the home ground as the US financial turmoil has impacted East Asia via tighter funding conditions for the region’s financial hubs.

From FT.com: Even in countries where there is neither parliament nor free media, some voices, including in the banking sector, have called on governments and their sovereign wealth funds to focus on the home front and shore up domestic markets.

From TheAustralian.com: [T]he reluctance of the great state-owned conglomerate Citic to take over Morgan Stanley when the opening beckoned, leaving the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp [CIC] to build its passive stake instead, illustrates that those at the top in the [Chinese] finance sector are aware of their lack of sufficient experience to start [...]

From Business24-7.ae: Abu Dhabi said yesterday it remains committed to long-term projects in its overseas oil investments but would favour low equity in the targeted ventures.

From Chinaknowledge.com: China’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has invested RMB 15 billion (HK$17.06 billion), equivalent 3% of its RMB 500 billion in shares of listed overseas companies and will raise the holdings to boost returns, said Zhan Yuyin, the director-general of global investment at NSSF, sources reported.

From Khaleejtimes.com: The ADIC-UBS Infrastructure Investment Fund is currently bidding for four multi-billion US dollar infrastructure projects including the Aqaba Port Redevelopment in Jordan, an Independent Power and Water Plant in Saudi Arabia, a Sewage Treatment Plant in Bahrain, and a Schools Project in Egypt.

From Tripolipost.com: Speaking after a meeting of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) on Monday, the Secretary of the GPC Mr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi said that Libyan investments abroad were not hurt by the turmoil in the financial markets around the globe.

From Guardian.co.uk: Investors from China and the Middle East have lost more than £1bn baling out British and American banks - and the losses look set to mount further.

From PEnews.com: George Sudarskis, a senior fund controller at secretive sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority [ADIA], has left the operation.

From Easybourse.com: China’s US$200 billion sovereign-wealth fund has some good opportunities to buy prime overseas assets as their prices have slumped amid the global financial turmoil, [Antony Leung, Greater China chairman for the US private-equity firm Blackstone Group, said at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin] Sunday.

From Scotsman.com: Alex Salmond, the [Scottish] First Minister, has been accused of going cap in hand to the Middle East for money because his schemes to pay for Scotland’s infrastructure have failed.

From Taipeitimes.com: China is the US of this century. The initial stages of the credit crunch last year were managed so apparently painlessly because sovereign wealth funds (SWF) from the Middle East, but above all from China, were willing to step in and recapitalize the debt of US and European institutions.

From Reuters.com: The Qatar Investment Authority [QIA] has bought a 20 percent stake in British property company Chelsfield Partners LLP, boosting the Gulf state’s interest in commercial real estate, the two partners said on Sunday.

From Telegraph.co.uk: The US Treasury is not taking on permanent debt: it is behaving like a giant wealth fund, hoovering up mortgage securities selling far below their real value for reasons of panic. Famed investor Warren Buffett expects it to make ‘a considerable amount of money.

From Bloomberg.com: Sovereign wealth funds will become major sources of funding for Western companies as financial markets reel, said European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Airbus SAS Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders.

From FT.com: Arab sovereign wealth funds are likely to pounce on distressed US assets after the government bail-out plan eases the extraordinary tensions in financial markets, according to [Gary Long, president of Investcorp,] one of the top intermediaries in the Gulf.

From Reuters.com: Fullerton Financial Holdings, part of Singapore’s Temasek, said on Saturday it offered an improved deal for the sale of its stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia [BII] but Malaysia’s Maybank did not accept it, another blow to a troubled deal.

From Reuters.com: Malaysian infrastructure firm UBG Berhad and Abu Dhabi investment agency Mubadala Development Co have agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture to develop petroleum projects in the Southeast Asian country, UBG said on Thursday

From Forbes.com: The European Union is open to ‘responsible investment’ from China Investment Corp (CIC), EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said ahead of a meeting with Lou Jiwei, chairman of the 200 bln usd sovereign wealth fund [the China Investment Corporation (CIC)]

From EEO.com: US-based private equity house Blackstone revealed that China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation (CIC), had no immediate intention to increase stake in the company

From Asiaone.com: Asia and other emerging economies will be a growing focus for the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) in coming years, said its investment chief [Ng Kok Song] yesterday

From Koreatimes.co.kr: [South Korean] ]National Pension Service (NPS) President Park Hae-choon apologized to the public for mismanaging public funds which suffered steep losses through investment in stocks and bonds

From Reuters.com: Japan’s new finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, said on Friday he was cautious about creating a sovereign wealth fund using some of Japan’s foreign exchange reserves, given the turmoil in financial markets

From Forbes.com: For the past 20 years, globalization has relentlessly diffused power and technology into the hands of rising powers like China and India, while control over energy resources has propelled Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia into the tier of pivotal states as well

From oxan.com: Relocating to Moscow might not be a top priority for investment bankers left adrift in the wake of the global financial crisis, but the Russian Finance Ministry may soon start issuing vacancy announcements

From alesonline.co.uk: Plaid Cymru’s [the Welsh nationalist party] economy spokesman Adam Price is urging the Assembly Government to consider following the example of other countries in setting up a Sovereign Wealth Fund

From Heritage.org: What must be quickly achieved is greater transparency from SAFE as well as state firms. SAFE declines to discuss even the existence of offshore arms through which purchases are made. Just a quarterly report of SAFE’s holdings would go far

From The Oxford International Review’s SWF blog: interview with Professor Victor Fleischer of the University of Illinois College of Law