Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings (Temasek) is eyeing US deals and co-investments with private equity partners to offset what is expected to be the first annual decline in the value of its assets in seven years, according to Reuters.
Temasek, which holds a 16% stake – and is the biggest shareholder – in London-based Standard Chartered, has seen the value of its stakes depressed by 55% over the past financial year, aggravated partly by the Brexit effect. Meanwhile, its Asian investments have been hit by the effects of China’s economic slowdown………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office yesterday to tap into “one belt, one road” opportunities, for which an estimated HK$62 trillion is needed for infrastructure development in Asia from 2010 to 2020.
Eddie Yue Wai-man, deputy chief executive of the HKMA and also the director of the IFFO, said Hong Kong can help bridge the funding gap in Asia and belt and road countries and the office will look into turning projects bankable through effective financial intermediation and collaboration………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, signed a memorandum of understanding today to set up a strategic framework of co-operation to strengthen the ability of investors, banks and the financial sector to facilitate investment in infrastructure projects in Asia.
The MOU was signed shortly before the launching ceremony of the Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office of the HKMA. The IFFO will facilitate information exchange and experience sharing among the key stakeholders, such as multilateral development agencies, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and banks………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oman Investment Fund (OIF), a Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Sultanate of Oman, has launched an idea generating initiative called ‘Fikrati’ to seek the opinions and insights of the public and spur their imagination and creativity for the integrated planning of Yiti and Yenkit. People are invited to submit their creative ideas and views on the future of Yiti and Yenkit.
Covering over 12 million square meters of land combined, Yiti and Yenkit are national assets full of natural treasures with unique features. They will be developed as communities and destinations that celebrate and honor the Sultanate’s heritage, culture, and environment and at the same time enjoy the advantages of a modern lifestyle………………………………………..Full Article: Source

While the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Wealth Fund has been diversifying its portfolio away from Europe towards more investments in the United States and Asia in the last couple of years, it is still heavily invested in Britain and holds stakes in Barclays, Royal Dutch Shell and Sainsbury’s.
The QIA has $256 billion of assets under management globally, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI). It has at least $7 billion directly invested in equities traded on the London Stock Exchange, in which it also holds a 10.3 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data. Kuwait Investment Authority, which has $592 billion in assets under management according to SWFI, is also a major investor though its London-based Kuwait Investment Office………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The surprise announcement from Abu Dhabi that it is to merge two of its sovereign wealth funds, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and Mubadala Development Company, has highlighted the tight corner that even the richest Middle East governments are in these days.
The merger was announced on June 29, following a decision by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the most important political figure in the UAE. According to the announcement by the official news agency WAM, the merger will allow for “synergies”, which is a polite way of saying cost-cutting………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sovereign wealth funds continue to pull money out of investments with global asset managers, reports Attracta Mooney at Financial Times. SWFs, government-owned investment pools, sopped up petrodollars when oil prices were north of $100 a barrel. In turn, this money was pumped money into funds run by the world’s biggest asset managers.
But after oil prices plunged in summer 2014, governments of oil-producing countries that were sitting on comfortable budget surpluses suddenly were facing deficits. In turn, SFWs, which own a lot of property and private equity investments, have selling their liquid assets (stocks and bonds) first………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sovereign wealth funds have pulled billions of dollars from asset managers for the seventh consecutive quarter, piling further pressure on an industry battling falling profits and disappointing performance.
State-backed funds, which countries use to save for a rainy day or to provide money for future generations, withdrew at least $8.8bn from fund houses during the first quarter of this year. The redemptions follow record outflows last year, when state funds collectively withdrew at least $46.5bn from asset managers as the price of oil collapsed and governments raided state funds to prop up their economies………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC said on Friday it runs a long-term and diversified portfolio even though about 7 per cent of its portfolio is invested in the United Kingdom, making it the most exposed among Asian state investors after Britain’s shock exit from the European Union (EU).
According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, GIC manages US$344 billion in assets, of which US$24 billion or 7 per cent of its portfolio is invested in the UK based on its latest annual report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

So, Mayhoola for Investments — the Qatari sovereign wealth fund that owns Valentino, Anya Hindmarch and Pal Zileri, and that is backed by Qatar’s royal family — has bought Balmain, the Paris fashion house backed by the Kardashians (well, not exactly backed, but they are its biggest cheerleaders). This could have big repercussions on what we all wear.
Since 2005, when the designer Christophe Decarnin transformed the couture house to haute rock ‘n’ roll hotness, Balmain has been a brand whose buzz — with its own name, “Balmainia” — is significantly bigger than its bite of the market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Developed economies must reverse a two-decade decline in stock market listings to attract investment and revive growth, Norway’s $870 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said on Wednesday.
Governments must convince firms to go public by offering tax breaks and slashing red tape, while bankers should cut the cost of initial public offerings and index providers must include more stocks in benchmarks, the chief investment officer of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) told Reuters………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As an inevitable consequence of a prolonged period of low oil prices, Gulf-based sovereign wealth funds are readjusting their long-term strategies, selling their financial assets abroad and pulling the money out at a rapid rate to fill the gaping budgetary holes. Also, there has been increased pressure on the them to invest in the local market in order to support projects troubled by budgetary cuts.
During the “golden era” (until 2014), when black gold was routinely traded above $100 per barrel, Gulf countries recorded capital inflow reaching epic proportions. They entrusted their enormous surpluses to their Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) which heavily invested in a variety of assets around the globe. But the financial circumstances of the Arab Gulf countries have changed dramatically………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Libyan Investment Authority isn’t only pursuing its interests through legal action against top global financial firms, but also lobbying the United Nations Security Council to soften an asset freeze on its funds to halt their declining value.
The LIA’s actions are sending a clear message to financial institutions eager to engage in business with the multi-billion dollar fund: tread carefully, said compliance and sanctions experts. Not only has the LIA become very litigious, but the licenses to transact with the conflict-torn and financially-sanctioned African nation are hard to get and quite restrictive, they said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014. Somewhat stronger private property rights, slightly-loosened regulation and friendlier foreign investment laws have increased the flows of foreign institutional investor capital. Since 2013, direct investments by sovereign funds and public pensions into India have ramped up, according to time-series data from SWFI.
This data is adding in both sovereign wealth funds and large public pensions (mostly Canadian public investors). In 2006, just US$ 101 million was directly invested into India by public institutional investors. Most capital flowing in before the global financial crisis were private equity investors. In 2012, US$ 1.38 billion was directly invested into India by public institutional investors. By 2015, the number amounted to US$ 5.44 billion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Angola’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund is stepping up private equity investments at home and in sub-Saharan Africa as low commodity prices and currencies give it a cheap way in to hotel, farming and infrastructure projects, its chairman said.
Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the 38-year-old London-educated son of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said the fund had earmarked 60 percent of its capital to regional private equity, a shift in focus towards its own back yard………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sovereign wealth fund is prepared to protect its assets from extreme political events. The $850bn Norwegian oil fund has drawn up contingency plans to protect its assets from extreme political events such as a military invasion or coup. This comes at a time when the stability of several international sovereign wealth funds is in question.
Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, told FTfm that the oil fund had “drawn up contingency plans for various scenarios that represent a threat to the fund’s holdings”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Having gone from bumper cash inflows to redemptions in just two years, many sovereign wealth funds have been forced to shake up their investment strategies to embrace both super-liquid safe assets with more esoteric illiquid plays to bolster returns.
If the price of retaining easy-to-sell assets to meet sudden government cash calls is near-zero yields in cash deposits or Western government debt, then the $6.5 trillion sovereign fund sector will have to claw back returns by simultaneously moving deeper into riskier, less-liquid territory………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A succession of funding deals by deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds have thrown a life preserver to some of the world’s biggest private tech firms whose high valuations have come under scrutiny in the past year. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States along with state-backed investors in Singapore and China have ploughed money into hot tech investments such as ride-sharing company Uber and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba and its private affiliates.
With overall funding for start-ups slowing down by a third to $25.5 billion in the last two quarters, according to data from CB Insights, high-profile ventures are turning to government funds or institutional money to create “private IPOs” rather than to venture capitalists or chancing public listings………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Steady globalization, government interventions and increased investment into rapidly developing economies are key factors influencing emerging market currencies. Sovereign funds and large Canadian pensions, such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), continue to invest capital into markets such as India, Brazil and China.
Sizable portfolios of listed securities have accumulated for wealth fund investors in non G-7 economies, thus exposing them to currency risk. Public institutional investors continue to weigh the benefits of currency management and alpha opportunities versus the cost. According to SWFI Compass, an RFP and opportunity tracker, there continues to be compelling demand in 2016 for allocation to emerging market external fund managers………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Arabia’s surprisingly high-profile injection of $3.5 billion into Uber signals a more aggressive global investment presence by a kingdom trying to wean its economy off oil. San Francisco-based Uber, a smartphone app that connects passengers and drivers around the world, said on Wednesday the funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund would help Uber’s global expansion.
The PIF acted roughly six weeks after Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a wide-ranging plan to transform the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Start-ups have long been the domain of venture capitalists. But with this week’s staggering $3.5-billion investment in Uber from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the tech world has been put on notice — sovereign wealth funds are loaded with cash and ready to do business directly.
Paltry interest rates and volatile oil prices have made technology companies attractive to these government investment vehicles, which have assets of $7.2 trillion today, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Just when you thought the startup market can’t possibly get any crazier, Uber goes and raises another $3.5 billion in funding. That jaw-dropping amount of money, the single largest round of funding ever raised by a private U.S. company, highlights both the insatiable appetite certain startups have for capital and the little-discussed way they get that money.
Uber’s $3.5 billion in funding didn’t come from the usual collection of venture capital firms, technology giants or even the mutual funds who have been flooding the market with cash. Instead, all of that Uber money came from one source: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Built from oil and natural gas profits, Norway’s fund is an $850 billion behemoth. It’s said that the Government Pension Fund of Norway owns shares of every stock listed on the planet in some capacity. So when the fund decides to shift its investing strategy and policies, regular Joes may want to take notice. And this time, dividend investors may want to pay really close attention.
Norway has infrastcture on its mind. And why not? Investing in pipelines, toll roads, timberlands and other public pieces of infrastructure has plenty of benefits — especially for those looking for dividends………………………………………..Full Article: Source

One of the worst global financial scandals is taking its toll on the world’s longest bull market run. Deepening concerns over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the embattled state investment fund at the center of probes from Switzerland to Singapore, has spurred the biggest outflow of foreign funds in eight months.
Malaysia’s benchmark stock index has erased most of its gains after climbing to this year’s high in April. The prolonged impact of 1MDB is prompting investors to seek out other markets in Southeast Asia, according to Baring Asset Management………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The decline in oil prices had a trickle-down effect on money managers that run assets for sovereign wealth funds in 2015. Total assets managed for sovereign wealth funds by money managers in Pensions & Investments’ universe were $1.04 trillion as of Dec. 31, down 13.7% from 12 months earlier.
In fact, every manager among the top 10 ranked by sovereign wealth fund assets under management recorded declines in those assets during 2015. State Street Global Advisors had the most sovereign wealth fund assets under management in 2015, at $103.4 billion, but still saw assets fall 8.8% from 2014. BlackRock (BLK) Inc. (BLK) was second in 2015, with $79.7 billion, down 14.4% from a year earlier………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Azerbaijan’s state oil fund SOFAZ, which is in charge of accumulating and managing the country’s oil and gas revenues, plans to increase the profitability of asset management in the coming years.
Ziya Kangarli, chief investment advisor at SOFAZ announced about this while addressing the Forum on “Decrease in oil prices and economic reforms: Challenges and Opportunities” held at Khazar University on May 24. Kangarli noted that SOFAZ plans to achieve this goal by increasing the share of long-term instruments in its investment portfolio………………………………………..Full Article: Source

When Malaysia’s largest sovereign wealth fund asked bankers to pitch for work arranging a US$750 million (S$1 billion) bond sale in December, one big name was conspicuous by its absence - Goldman Sachs Group.
Khazanah Nasional omitted the Wall Street firm from the list of banks invited to bid on that and other bond transactions in the past three years, according to a person familiar with the matter. During that time, Goldman Sachs slid down the Malaysian deal league tables, cold-shouldered by potential clients concerned about negative publicity from its dealings with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Angola’s sovereign wealth fund increased the amount of funds earmarked for private equity investments focused on sub-Saharan Africa last year and sharply cut exposure to developed market bonds, the fund’s chairman said on Thursday. The fund had $4.7 billion under management at the end of last year, chairman Jose Filomeno dos Santos said, while audited results posted on its website showed it had $4.88 billion at the end of 2014.
The fund, known by its Portuguese acronym FSDEA, had $2.7 billion or 58 percent of its portfolio allocated for investments in private equity - unlisted securities and debt - in infrastructure, real estate, agriculture, timber, healthcare, mining and mezzanine capital, according to dos Santos………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Using extracts from the 2016 Preqin Sovereign Wealth Fund Review and data from Preqin’s Infrastructure Online, Joe McGee and Selina Sy examine these investors’ plans and preferences concerning infrastructure investments.
Sovereign wealth funds continue to1 capture attention as a result of their ever growing assets under management (AUM) and corresponding influence on global financial markets. Despite market volatility and the ongoing decline in commodity prices, which has reduced the capital available to some sovereign wealth funds, AUM managed by these investors reached $6.51tn in March 2016. This is over double the aggregate assets held in 2008 ($3.07tn), the year Preqin launched its first Sovereign Wealth Fund Review………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Southeast Asia’s largest economy with a GDP of US$888.54 billion – is mulling over creating a sovereign investment company modelled after Singapore’s Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (Temasek), in a bid to drive continuous development in the country, says Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bambang was quoted as saying that the proposed investment holding company would constitute four or five state-owned entities, which could then buy shares in Indonesian companies. “A super-holding of our state-owned enterprises (SOEs), that could be a very good sovereign wealth fund (SWF) for Indonesia,” he says………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Arabia aims to create the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, a $2 trillion behemoth that can throw its weight around global markets, but the fund’s growth abroad is likely to be slowed by its responsibility for aiding the economy at home.
Building the Public Investment Fund (PIF) into “the largest fund in the world by far” is a cornerstone of radical economic reforms announced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last month to cut the kingdom’s reliance on oil. The PIF, founded in 1971 to finance development projects in Saudi Arabia and until now little known abroad, is to grow from 600 billion riyals ($160 billion) to over 7 trillion riyals, helping make Riyadh a global “investment power”, he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is undergoing its biggest overhaul since 2014, grouping $100bn of investments in local companies into a new unit and abandoning the Qatar Holding name synonymous with its highest-profile deals. About $100bn of the Qatar Investment Authority’s stakes in companies such as Qatar Airways and Qatar National Bank will be placed into a new internal division named Qatar Investments, they said.
The fund is seeking to bring greater oversight by having a single person in charge, the sources said. The Qatar Holding name, under which the state gained an international profile after investing in companies ranging from Glencore to Barclays, will now be replaced by the QIA name on international investments, according to the sources………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As many as 44 of the world’s countries have at least one sovereign wealth fund set up for a rainy day, and now it seems that for many of them that day has arrived. Let’s take a look at which of these countries have made use of their piggy banks.
Norway, the owner of the largest of the funds, set up in 1990s to safeguard the country’s oil wealth for future generations, announced in January that it had made its first withdrawal from the country’s sovereign wealth fund while trying to counter the economic slowdown………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In the wake of the lifting of Iranian sanctions, Azerbaijan is determined to exploit its key location at the crossroads of the East-West silk road from China to Europe and the North-South axis from Iran to Russia.
The strength of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund, its sovereign wealth fund, is helping to prop up the country despite its oil-related woes. While its foreign currency assets declined 9.5% from 2014, they still remain at $33.6bn. Moody’s says that fund largely offsets the country’s underlying fiscal vulnerabilities which have stemmed from the government’s reliance on oil………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dubai, the emirate that teetered on the brink of default during the global recession, is weathering the economic slowdown afflicting its oil-rich Gulf neighbors, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF expects the U.A.E.’s economy to expand 2.3 percent this year. The subdued pace is largely due to the projected slowdown in the capital Abu Dhabi, home to 6 percent of global oil reserves and the world’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The federal government has disclosed that it plans to reposition the Sovereign Wealth Fund managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). The planned repositioning is in tandem with the infrastructure objectives of the federal government.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun made the disclosure in a statement issued by her Media Adviser, Mr. Festus Akanbinon. Under the SWF, which had a seed capital of $1.55bn, there are three categories of fund from which investments could be anchored………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Lawyers for Libya’s $67 billion sovereign wealth fund asked Goldman Sachs on Thursday to provide more information about an internship the bank gave to the brother of a key decision-maker at the fund.
In a long-running legal dispute with Goldman Sachs, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) alleges the investment bank advised it to invest more than $1 billion in nine derivatives trades in 2008 that it claims were unsuitable and ultimately worthless. The fund requested the details during a pre-court hearing, before a trial scheduled to start on June 13 in London’s High Court, with Judge Vivien Rose presiding………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s $872-billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said it would press U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron to do more to report on the risks of climate change. The fund said on Tuesday it would vote in favor of shareholder proposals, opposed by both companies’ boards, which would require them to report more fully about the risks and opportunities of a changing climate.
Royal Dutch Shell and BP adopted similar policies last year, following shareholder pressure, it said. Exxon and Chevron both say they are already doing enough to report on climate risks………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is reducing its focus on investments in Europe and placing more of its money with external managers following an internal review, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Qatar Investment Authority, estimated by industry tracker Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute to hold $256bn of assets, is known as an aggressive investor in high-profile European assets such as the Shard skyscraper and Harrods department store in London, as well as Credit Suisse and Volkswagen……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The oil crisis (for those who produce oil) has shed some light on the practices of Gulf sovereign investors. Sizable fund redemptions by SWFs occurred in 2015. For example, Northern Trust faced major outflows from several sovereign wealth fund clients, between March 2015 and March 2016.
Plain-vanilla mandates are being challenged, can they be effectively replicated by using investment factors? According to SWFI Compass, an RFP and opportunity intelligence tracker, increasingly all types of public investors are asking for specialist mandates in credit, real estate and real assets………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), is boosting its focus on investments in Asia and the United States, while cutting its allocations in Europe. The QIA, which reportedly holds USD256bn of assets, is now placing more money with external managers focused on Asia and the United States after its internal review showed sharp falls in the prices of some of the European assets it owns strongly suggest that the fund is over committed in Europe.
Sources quoted by Reuters said specific examples for changing strategy were the poor performance of QIA’s investments in German carmaker Volkswagen, where it holds a 17% stake, and London-listed commodities trading house Glencore, where it owns 9%………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global economic growth will determine whether sovereign wealth funds withdraw further funds from global markets, according to ADS Holding LLC Chairman Mahmood Al Mahmood. Funds are “there to act as a tool for governments when they’re needed,” Al Mahmood, who is also a board member at Abu Dhabi sovereign investment fund Mubadala Development Co., said.
“Is this the end of it? It depends how the economy is whether they’ll continue operating the same way they did in the past.” Sovereign funds from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates and Russia, which amassed about $7 trillion of assets as oil soared higher than $100 a barrel, have been liquidating investments after a more than 70 percent slump in crude since 2014………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fajr - Arabic for “dawn,” to symbolize hope - has a modest $700 million in capital, but its founding shareholders have much deeper pockets. Three sovereign wealth funds - the $111 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Brunei Investment Agency, the sovereign fund of the oil-rich Southeast Asian sultanate, and Malaysia’s $35 billion Khazanah Nasional - joined forces with Mohammed Alsubeaei & Sons Investments Co. (MASIC) to create and nurture the young firm.
Fajr is a union of institutions that have high credibility and share the same values, says Ihsan Bafakih, CEO of MASIC. According to a 2015 report published by Spain’s ESADE business school, the 36 sovereign wealth funds based in Muslim countries account for 46 percent of the estimated $7 trillion in global sovereign wealth assets………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s $868-billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, does not expect the Chinese economy to come to an abrupt standstill, a senior official said on Thursday.
“There have been many discussions about the slowdown in growth (in China). There seems to be signs that it will not be too harsh a stop,” the fund’s deputy CEO, Trond Grande, said during a presentation of the fund’s first-quarter results. He added that the fund would remain a long-term investor in China………………………………………..Full Article: Source

At first sight, the Saudi Vision 2030 plan, unveiled this week by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, seems to break with the Kingdom’s evolutionary approach. The implications of a radical realignment of the economy are profound.
The biggest headline change is the part-privatization of Aramco. The money raised will form the basis of the $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. Other than this, the deputy crown prince’s plan in fact takes forward initiatives that have long been recognized. He has given concrete form to long-held ambitions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund is weighing asset sales, loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a move into local-currency borrowing as it seeks to reduce its $17.3 billion debt load.
“We expect to gradually optimize our debt, but it’s complicated in the coming 12 months with the weak economy,” Yelena Bakhmutova, the managing director of Samruk-Kazyna, said by phone from the Kazakh capital, Astana. “The biggest challenge for us is the drop in business activity, the pace of gross domestic product growth.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Future Fund chief executive David Neal has warned that a prolonged period of ultra-low interest rates has reduced the probability of the fund achieving its long-term growth targets, while defending the fund’s big move into cash.
Mr Neal said the $117 billion sovereign wealth fund was not hiding under a blanket and still ran a “significantly risky” portfolio in an effort to meet its return target of the consumer price index plus 4.5 per cent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sovereign wealth funds are having a tough time finding good investments amid the difficult economic environment, and Singapore’s GIC is no different. Stock market volatility and low yields across various other asset classes amid flagging global growth have combined to create a challenging environment for state investors.
But GIC is no stranger to buying when the outlook appears bleak, and its recent investments point to a willingness and ability to ride out short-term volatility with a view to potential long-term payoffs………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Real estate is now a prime play for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as equity markets remain unpredictable, said an analyst Wednesday. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute president Michael Maduell said, “They are looking for long-term investments where they can lock up their capital and not have to continually reinvest that capital.”
The institute analyzes investments by public asset owners such as SWFs and other long-term governmental investors. Vehicles such as pension funds and endowments are also increasing investing in real estate and infrastructure, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The ringgit fell for a fourth day in its longest stretch of losses since November and stocks dropped to a six-week low as troubled state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. confirmed it’s in default after missing an interest payment on bonds.
The company is withholding a $50 million payment on $1.75 billion of dollar notes amid a dispute with International Petroleum Investment Co., Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund that is the co-guarantor of the bonds maturing in 2022, according to an e-mailed statement. The deadline was on Monday………………………………………..Full Article: Source