The sovereign wealth fund that will control the government’s proceeds from Israel’s natural gas reserves will not be used to help defray the cost of protecting the gas installations, a government panel decided Tuesday.
In doing so, the ministerial legislative committee rejected a proposal by the Defense Ministry to include national security among the national projects that can be funded by the projected sovereign wealth fund. The navy had estimated the cost of protecting Israel’s offshore gas installations at NIS 3 billion annually………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, has snubbed a request to reveal how it plans to manage climate change risks, declaring ‘‘resource constraints’’ prevented its involvement, according to an advocacy group.
John Hewson, chair of the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP), said the $77 billion fund needed to disclose its plans for dealing with future challenges posed by global warming. ‘‘It is quite extraordinary that Australia’s largest fund which will have to supply pension liabilities over the long-term has decided not to come clean over its climate position,” Dr Hewson, the former Liberal leader, said in a statement………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Still smarting over a Senate Committee gruelling over its tobacco investments, the Future Fund - the largest fund in Australia - is being accused of insufficient transparency over climate-change risk mitigation within its portfolio.
A FOI search two years ago revealed that despite investor warnings of particular risks to long-term investors like the Future Fund, it had not once mentioned climate-change in any of its Board meetings. Despite the more recent development of Australia’s own carbon pricing scheme, the Future Fund is accused of not giving the issue sufficient oxygen or providing stakeholders with clarity about its strategies to protect its portfolio………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Greens will put a sovereign wealth fund back on the political agenda in the new year by formally moving for the fund to be established and asking the Productivity Commission to investigate the best method for Australia.
Greens MP Adam Bandt will introduce a private member’s bill when Parliament resumes to test support for a sovereign wealth fund among major party MPs. Senior Liberal Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard’s former chief of staff, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, publicly indicated support this year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Economist and former federal Liberal leader John Hewson has criticised the Future Fund – Australia’s largest – for the way it manages, or fails to manage, the risks of climate change to its $75 billion portfolio. Hewson chairs the Asset Owners Disclosure Project, an organisation encouraging funds to recognise the long-term risks of climate change – both in policy terms and its physical events.
The AODP says a Freedom of Information search conducted two years ago found that climate change had not been mentioned in any of the board meetings of the Future Fund, and it was still refusing to provide stakeholders with clarity about its strategies to protect its portfolio because of “resource constraints”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The taxpayer-owned Future Fund invested more than $37 million in tobacco company stocks at the same time as the government was finalising the world’s first plain-packaging laws for tobacco products.
The fund’s stake in global tobacco companies has risen by almost 50 per cent in recent years to $210 million at the end of June, angering health groups. Until now, the fund has not said if it has been actively buying more stock, or if the shares have risen in value. Tobacco company shares have performed strongly recently………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Leading health groups are calling on the Future Fund to divest itself of tobacco company shares, amid revelations it invested tens of millions of dollars in the sector as the Government was introducing plain packaging laws for cigarettes.
Information provided to a Senate committee shows the fund invested $37.8 million in tobacco shares between December 2010 and February 2012 to top up its existing holdings. The extra investment contributed to a more than 50 per cent increase in the value of its tobacco shareholdings, taking the total to around $210 million as at June 30………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The Australian Greens say the Future Fund is hiding behind “sham” practices to justify its investment in the shares of tobacco companies. Greens senator Richard Di Natale said it was appalling that the fund, which was set up to cover federal public service superannuation liabilities, was investing money in a toxic product.
“The Future Fund hides behind vague principals such as ‘engagement’ in order to reassure the community that it encourages good corporate behaviour,” the senator said in a statement issued Tuesday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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China Investment Corp, the $US200 billion sovereign wealth fund, is in talks to invest in Van Diemen’s Land Co as the New Plymouth District Council-owned dairy farmer seeks to raise up to $A180 million to ramp up production.
A tie-up with the Chinese fund would come after Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings returned from a trade mission that included pitching agriculture and mining investment opportunities to China Investment Corp………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australia’s island state of Tasmania is courting dairy investments from China’s giant sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, as the world’s most populous country looks overseas to secure food supplies.
Tasmania’s move comes after Canberra last month approved a Chinese company’s bid for a giant cotton farm, which ignited fresh debate about foreign investment in Australian agriculture………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s giant sovereign wealth fund is looking to make its first significant investment in the Australian dairy industry, as it tries to lock up food ­supplies for its growing middle class. In a potential test case for foreign investment laws, China Investment Corp, which is estimated to have $US190 billion to invest outside its home market, sent four executives to Tasmania this month.
They inspected two large dairy operations in the state’s north which have a combined value of more than $200 million and significant capacity for expansion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The Future Fund needs ethical investment guidelines to ensure it doesn’t keep putting money into the tobacco and nuclear weapons manufacturing industries, the Greens say.
The Senate on Thursday debated a private members bill put up by Australian Greens senator Richard Di Natale, who told the chamber the fund’s board needed a moral compass. “A pool (of cash) this size has a lot of power, which could be used for good, neutral purposes or harm,” he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australia has shown outstanding leadership on tobacco control – but it could do more. The next step is surely for the Future Fund to quit its addiction to tobacco investments.
The Gillard government’s policy initiative to introduce the plain packaging of tobacco products has won plaudits from the World Health Organization and health leaders around the world. And the government’s victory in the High Court of Australia sparked an Olive Revolution, with other countries waiting to follow suit………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The proposal for a more ethical Future Fund could be better, says James Rose, but investors should join the conversation rather than throw their arms up in horror. Not for the first time, the Greens have caused some hubristic harrumphing from the business sector with an idea that shines a light into an area Big Business would rather remain darkened.
The latest Greens missile is from Senator Richard Di Natale, and it concerns the marrying of social conscience and moral values with hard business………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oman India Joint Investment Fund, a private equity fund sponsored by Oman’s sovereign wealth fund and India’s largest lender State Bank of India, will pick up 4.28 per cent of the expanded capital of the public-listed Solar Industries.
Industrial explosives maker Solar Industries India Ltd (SIIL) has struck a deal to raise Rs 72 crore ($13 million) from Oman India Joint Investment Fund through a preferential allotment………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Pressure is growing on the Future Fund to ditch $225 million of tobacco shares, with anti-smoking groups supporting calls for tougher rules on the assets it can hold.
The taxpayer-owned fund, which has also invested in nuclear arms companies, revealed in May that the value of its tobacco shares had swollen by more than 50 per cent between late 2010 and February………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The Greens’ push to force the Future Fund to ditch $225 million worth of tobacco shares has been supported by anti-smoking groups, who say the investments contradict government policy goals.
The taxpayer-owned fund, which has also invested in nuclear arms, revealed in May that the value of its tobacco shares had swelled by more than 50 per cent between late 2010 and this February………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Superannuation Fund First State Super has wiped from its investment portfolios all companies involved in the manufacture of tobacco products, in a move welcomed by cancer specialists.
Chief executive Michael Dwyer said the decision to exclude the cigarette and tobacco companies from its entire investment portfolio followed strong feedback from the health industry, which represents about 40 per cent of the fund’s 770,000 members………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s new-found activist approach to the $58bn merger of Xstrata and Glencore has further distanced Qatar Holding from its regional sovereign wealth fund peers and placed it firmly in the spotlight.
Qatar Holding said in a statement last week that it was “seeking improved merger terms.” Glencore is offering 2.8 of its shares for each of the miner’s, but Qatar said an exchange ratio of 3.25 a share “would provide a more appropriate distribution of benefits of the merger”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Valued at US $611 billion at the end of March, the Norway Pension Fund—Global vies for the top spot of the sovereign wealth fund tree with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
However, with great power comes great responsibility: in the last 12 months the Norwegians have voted against the beleaguered Greeks being allowed a “managed default” and offered a $9.2 billion loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the organization struggles to contain the Eurozone crisis. In contrast, the United Kingdom—with a population 12 times larger—offered $15 billion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s finance ministry has excluded Shikun & Binui from the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), the largest pension fund in Europe, over its construction of illegal Israeli colonies in East Jerusalem. Analysts have described the company as Israel’s largest real estate business.
The Norwegian government has previously divested from Israeli military company Elbit, as well as Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus, two other construction companies involved in building illegal settlements………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Ethics board finds Shikun and Binui ‘in breach of international humanitarian law in East-Jerusalem’ “Norway’s Ministry of Finance announced Friday that a state fund that is Europe’s largest equity investor would no longer invest in Israeli construction company Shikun and Binui.
Oslo said the decision to cut Shikun and Binui from the Government Pension Fund Global, commonly known as the oil fund, came on the heels of a recommendation from a state ethics board, which found the company was in contravention of international law by being involved in building projects in East Jerusalem………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Ministry of Finance has excluded the company Shikun & Binui Ltd. from the investment universe of the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG).
The decision to exclude the company follows an exclusion reccommendation from the Council on Ethics to the GPFG. The company is a construction company involved in the building of settlements in breach of international humanitarian law in East-Jerusalem………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A major question looms for many policymakers. Who are sovereign wealth funds accountable to? By examining each sovereign fund’s governance framework, it is paramount to see who is at the top and who do they answer to? There are no generic answers to these questions. Sovereign wealth funds have many key constituencies to address including domestic and foreign parts.
Sovereign wealth funds have a domestic component that must be addressed. This public accountability stems from the sovereign wealth fund being a part of the nation or state………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, with an estimated $100 billion in assets, expects to start exports of grains and wool from Australia as it nears completion of a A$500 million ($486 million) farm investment plan.
Hassad Food Co., the agricultural investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, is shifting its focus to commercial production from food security and is unlikely to buy new properties when it reaches its purchase goal within a year, said Tom McKeon, chief executive officer of Hassad Australia………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hassad Food Co, the agricultural investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, may invest 500m euros ($625m) this year to increase food supplies for the desert emirate, the company’s chairman said.
“Buying agricultural land isn’t a goal for the company,” Nasser al-Hajri said in an interview in the Qatari capital Doha. “The goal is to produce and improve the production from different parts of the world.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

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How disingenuous can the Future Fund’s officers be? The federal government helped formulate and approve the United Nations policy on investments – no tobacco or armaments allowed.
When the Future Fund was being set up, its officers visited the United Nations Pension Fund in New York to which the Future Fund is directly comparable, as both funds provide superannuation payments to civil servants………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Future Fund’s shareholding in tobacco companies has soared to almost $250 million, despite Federal Government moves to discourage smoking. The value of tobacco company shares held by the Future Fund has increased by more than 50 per cent since the start of last year.
Mark Burgess from the Future Fund Management Agency has not been able to tell a Senate estimates hearing what is behind the increase. He says, however, that all investments are in line with the fund’s policies………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Future Fund’s stake in the tobacco industry has swelled by $78 million, an increase of more than 50 per cent, sparking criticism of the fund for investing in companies that are suing the government.
The taxpayer-owned fund, which also has shares in nuclear arms companies, yesterday disclosed tobacco shares worth $225 million in February, up from $147 million at the end of 2010………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global should invest in agricultural land and forests as a hedge against any climate change policies that governments around the world may introduce, according to a report specially prepared by investment consultant Mercer.
The Nkr3.3 trillion ($550bn) fund, the second-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, according to the SWF Institute, should invest in these commodities “as a ‘hedge’ against climate policy measures that are not fully anticipated by the market”, Mercer’s report said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Norway’s 3496 billion kroner (US$582.7 billion) sovereign wealth fund could suffer significant losses in a range of climate-change scenarios if it fails to hedge its risk by investing in climate-sensitive assets, the release of a confidential report shows.
Norway’s Ministry of Finance recently released an extensive study by asset consultant Mercer on the effects of climate change on the Government Pension Fund Global’s (GPFG) portfolio of investments………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Scott Kalb, former chief investment officer of Korea’s $45 billion-plus sovereign wealth fund, Korea Investment Corp., knows how to take smart risks. Hired by KIC in 2009, Kalb, 56, reorganized the investment team and stabilized KIC’s loss-making investment portfolio — which was then worth just $19 billion — by recalibrating its approach to risk management, diversifying its holdings and implementing a long-term investment culture and discipline.
The results have been dramatic. Over the three years of his tenure, through March 2012, KIC’s portfolio has delivered annualized returns of 12 percent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The “Samruk-Kazyna” National Welfare Fund is planning to work on social stability ratings of its subsidiaries.
At a meeting on corporate social responsibility the fund’s chairman, Umirzak Shukeyev, noted the need for personal responsibility of top managers of enterprises. A Centre for Social Partnership has already been established, which is destined to turn into a platform for negotiations. The fund will form a Council of Trade Unions in the future and develop recommendations on professional standards………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Oil revenues held in sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) based could become key to states’ efforts to diversify into alternative energy sectors, according to the report published this week by the Geneva-based non-governmental organization World Economic Forum (WEF).
The report said SWFs – in addition to their role as stabilization funds to counteract the high volatility of resource prices and longer-term uncertainty – could decrease states’ dependence on traditional energy resources by investing in renewables………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Anti-nuclear campaigners wearing gas masks and sterile outfits have staged a small protest in Melbourne to call for an end to Future Fund investment in nuclear weapons firms. Demonstrators held signs featuring the face of the Future Fund’s new chairman David Gonski as they gathered outside the organisation’s office.
The Future Fund was established in 2006 by the Howard Government to help meet the cost of future public sector superannuation liabilities………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has breached its own code of ethics by investing billions in companies involved with nuclear weapons, reports say. It has been revealed that the Government Pension Fund Global (‘Oil Fund’) invested 4.4 billion kroner in 2011 in five companies. UK-based Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC received the biggest, totaling 3.1 billion kroner.
The firm, together with Babcock Marine and BAE Systems, is involved in developing submarines for the British Army that will contain nuclear weapons………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Institutional investors should look to the example of sovereign wealth funds, which have among the best practices with socially responsible investing (SRI), according to a newly released paper by a professor at the University of British Columbia.
The paper — titled “Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Quest for Sustainability: Insights from Norway and New Zealand” written by Benjamin J. Richardson — asserts that among sovereign funds, Norway ranks as the leader in SRI initiatives. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Australian Greens want to a establish Productivity Commission inquiry into the merits of sovereign wealth funds and how best one would suit Australia.
Greens MP Adam Bandt will pursue a motion in parliament on Tuesday that would instruct the commission to undertake an inquiry and respond in October………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has acquired a 5% stake in multinational grain producer Bunge, the company said. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bunge said the city-state’s sovereign wealth fund had acquired 7.31 million of its shares.
The filing did not give a value for the acquisition but Dow Jones Newswires said it was worth $495.5 million, based on the closing price of Bunge shares in New York on Thursday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Committee chair Moshe Gafni: If the government doesn’t stipulate that the fund will only be for social purposes, we will. Knesset Finance Committee members oppose recommendations of the inter-ministerial team, headed by National Economics Council chairman Eugene Kandell, which will review the management of the state’s revenues from oil and gas resources.
During yesterday’s discussion, committee members said that the team’s recommendations violate the spirit of the Sheshinski Committee to use revenues from natural gas discoveries for social purposes………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the government investment arm, is aiming for a bigger stake in companies with green credentials. Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said the sovereign wealth fund was committed to green growth adding that it had made investments in such industries.
He cited investments in toxic waste management and carbon development as examples of the country’s strategic investors’ portfolio for investments………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government’s proposed sovereign-wealth fund must be used to finance social projects rather than security needs, Knesset Finance Committee MKs said Tuesday.
The government must explain clearly which social projects it will finance using the fund, and if it fails to do so, the committee will draft its own clause to be sent to the Knesset for approval, committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the government’s investment arm, will continue to invest in green and sustainable initiatives to support Malaysia’s agenda enshrined in the 10th Malaysia Plan and Economic Transformation Programme, Managing Director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said Monday.
Asked whether new investments have been identified, he said, Khazanah was working on some projects (local and foreign) and would make the announcement at the right time………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Wermuth Asset Management has raised €110 million ($144 million) into a fund to invest in clean-tech companies targeting the Russian Federation, with a focus on Tatarstan.
The majority of the funding comes from the sovereign wealth fund of Tatarstan, which Polina Burnos, a principal at Wiesbaden, Germany-based Wermuth Asset Management, describes as “one of Russia’s most advanced regions”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gov. Sean Parnell is calling on the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. to divest investments in companies that either do business in Iran or with Iran’s ruling government.
Parnell, in a letter to the corporation’s executive director, said some believe free markets, and not government policy, should direct investment choices. But he said the “very real threat” posed by Iran requires action, citing, among other things, nuclear concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency and a hostile Iranian stance against Israel………………………………………..Full Article: Source

An eminent group of scientists and professionals have sent a collective communication to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund recommending disinvestment in the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell on ethical grounds.
The pension fund has already dis-invested in several mining and forestry companies “known to cause severe environmental and human rights related harm in their operations.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, National Bank of Bahrain and Durrat Khaleej Al Bahrain have announced their support for Think Pink Bahrain, a non-profit organisation which raises awareness and encourages early diagnosis of breast cancer.
The three companies will donate BD125,000 ($332,446) to the Think Pink MRI fund. The programme aims to raise funds for a digital MRI screening machine which will be used for early detection of breast cancer at the Salmaniya Medical Complex………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Future Fund’s investments in tobacco and companies involved in nuclear arms production face growing scrutiny this year, as the Greens step up calls for tighter rules on what assets the fund can buy.

With the government facing a legal fight with tobacco firms over new plain packaging laws, the Future Fund last year said it held $147 million worth of shares in cigarette producers………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Gillard government is facing pressure to stop its multibillion-dollar Future Fund from investing in the tobacco industry and in companies that make nuclear weapons. The Future Fund, which was set up by the former Howard government to help meet the long-term cost of public sector superannuation liabilities, revealed last year that it held $147 million worth of shares in cigarette producers.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund sold its investments in tobacco in 2010, and has guidelines preventing investing in companies that damage the environment………………………………………Full Article: Source

Like other oil-rich, water-poor Gulf states, Qatar has been investing in large areas of farmland overseas to ensure access to food supplies. The agricultural arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Hassad Food, has bought land in Sudan and Australia, and has announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on agricultural projects in countries including Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Ukraine.
But in contrast to the other Gulf states, Qatar also aims to produce most of its food domestically, by spending massively to boost crop yields and convert semi-desert into agricultural land………………………………………..Full Article: Source