Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista will announce soon the sale of a 49 percent stake in his AUX gold business to a sovereign wealth fund in Qatar, Veja magazine reported, without saying how it obtained the information.
Bloomberg reported in June that Batista was planning to sell a stake AUX to the Qatar Investment Authority for about $2 billion, citing a person with knowledge of the transaction………………………………………..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

China’s sovereign wealth fund is negotiating to seek a stake in Australia’s largest dairying operation, the Van Diemen’s Land Company, which operates in Tasmania. The enterprise, which is in the north-west of the state, has 25,000 dairy cows and 6500 beef cattle and some 19,000 hectares in 27 farming operations, most of them dairying. It employs about 160 people.
It is now proposing to double its production and its workforce, with a $180 million investment. It is understood that the sovereign wealth fund has approached the Foreign Investment Review Board for preliminary consultations, prior to submitting a formal application if a deal is sealed………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has emerged as a possible investor in troubled CVC Capital Partners, which is said to have raised money by selling a 10% stake to a trio of investors including Singaporean and Kuwaiti sovereigns.
If true, it would mark a notable private equity investment by the HKMA, which had reserved $11 billion out of its $300 billion exchange fund for alternative investments in the year ending December 2011. Additionally it brings into question the selection process by the authority’s Exchange Fund for alternative investments and the transparency of its investments in the asset class………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The $19.7 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund and Wellington-based asset manager Morrison Co have teamed up to bid for London’s Stansted airport, the Telegraph newspaper reported on its website.
The UK’s third largest airport is being put up for sale by BAA Ltd under pressure from the UK’s Competition Commission, which has already forced the airport investor to sell the Gatwick and Edinburgh airports………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Nigeria’s state governors vowed on Thursday to go to court to stop the government putting oil revenues into a sovereign wealth fund. Africa’s top crude producer has been moving closer to joining its OPEC partners in creating a sovereign wealth fund for long-term investment of its oil cash.
The governors, who enjoy luxurious lifestyles and wield huge patronage, had been opposed to the fund because they feared it would reduce their share of the oil money………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states will go ahead with their law suit challenging the legal standing of the country’s $1 billion sovereign wealth fund.
The operation of the fund by the federal government violates a constitutional provision that all government revenue must be shared among that states and the center, the governors said……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that the establishment of the $1 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is not in contention since it received the support of the 36 state governors.
Okonjo-Iweala made the clarification to reporters in Abuja on Friday following the Nigeria Governors Forum’s (NGF) decision to return to court over deductions from the Excess Crude Account for subsidy payments………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Ireland’s “bad bank” plans to attract at least €500 million (Dh2.38 billion) to create a giant fund aimed at sovereign investors betting on a property recovery. The bad bank, otherwise known as the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), acquired €74bn in loans from five of the country’s largest lenders in 2009 as excessive lending to the property sector threatened to trigger the collapse of the entire Irish banking system.
Now the agency that controls assets worldwide, from terraced houses in the capital to huge developments across the country and others abroad, is pursuing regional investors as it bids to maximise returns to the government and replenish state coffers………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Although the inflow of money from state-controlled investors was initially viewed with scepticism, many now hope that SWFs will help to overcome the slowdown in global M&A activities and more generally contribute to the economic recovery.
For financial service providers, such as investment bank and private equity houses, this development presents opportunities, but it also raises specific governance and compliance challenges, as illustrated by recent controversies surrounding the Libyan Investment Authority………………………………………..Full Article: Source