The outlook for Libya is grim as it slides further into anarchy, but the African Development Bank believes that one promising area is the country’s formidable financial resources and a sovereign wealth fund that could be leveraged to help the economy.
In a recent report on Libya, the African Development Bank looked to “re-engage” with the country to seek a better understanding of economic and political developments amid political instability, threats to the survival and legitimacy of the state, and regional tensions over control of country’s rich natural resources………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Nina Jensen, chief executive officer of WWF Norway, explains why Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world, is critically important in tackling climate change. The most important tool to act on climate change in Norway is our sovereign wealth fund - known as the Government Pension Fund Global, or the Oil Fund, valued at over $800bn.
Because of its size and the investment potential, Norway holds high responsibility: it could contribute to redefining investments globally and, by doing so, to moving the dial on climate change………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna Wealth Fund is planning to commission dozens of projects totally worth $26 billion within the next 3 years, Tengrinews reports citing the Fund’s senior director for business development and a member of the Management Board Berik Beisengaliyev.
Samruk-Kazyna is a state-run holding in Kazakhstan that owns, either in whole or in part, many important companies in the country, including the national rail and postal service, the state oil and gas company KazMunayGas, the state uranium company Kazatomprom, Air Astana, and numerous financial groups. Samruk-Kazyna controls $78 billion in assets, or nearly 56% of the GDP……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) has earned more than $100 billion ($1 = 0.78390 AZN) in the period of 2001-2013. This was said in fund’s last report released on June 4.
About 64 percent, or $64.23 billion of SOFAZ revenue earned in the past 13 years were allocated for investment, while the remaining 36 percent ($35.88 billion) were deposited in the saving account of the fund. Meanwhile, the volume of fund’s income amounted to $17.33 billion in 2013, which is slightly lower than 2012 ($17.41 million)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and a New York-based private equity firm will acquire US plagiarism detection software maker iParadigms for US$752 million (S$944 million), the firms said.
A GIC spokesman declined to disclose GIC’s stake in the venture or its investment amount. It is the fund’s third US deal this year, after its investment in human resource software firm Kronos Inc and Time Warner Centre in New York. In a joint statement, GIC and Insight Venture Partners said the deal will likely close this third quarter. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has been a majority owner in iParadigms since 2008………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund has fully subscribed for the second tranche of AIM-listed Green Dragon Gas’s convertible bond facility. The second chunk of the convertible bond, worth US$50mln, has been issued to GIC Private Limited.
It has a 7% coupon, a 36-month maturity, and can be converted at US$9.34 a share, equivalent to 558p a share. That is a premium to the current share price, which is just shy of 500p. Earlier this week, GIC converted the first tranche into 5.78mln shares early at a price of US$6.06 each………………………………………..Full Article: Source

1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) has dismissed reports that its debt poses significant risk to the sovereign rating and stability of Malaysia. In a rare response to media reports, 1MDB said in a statement posted on its website yesterday that as a limited liability company, 1MDB poses limited liability risks to the government as its shareholder.
The government guarantees RM5.8 billion of the group’s total loans, on which 1MDB has significant interest cover. 1MDB has never missed any payment schedule. “All of 1MDB’s debts are backed by the group’s operational assets, with healthy cash flows and strong growth potential beyond their finite life,” the statement said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Malaysian state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd has canceled plans to sell up to $750 million worth of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds, after failing to reach its price targets from two hours of book building, IFR reported.
Khazanah, in a note to investors seen by Reuters, said it received solid market support for the bond with over 50 high-quality investors participating, but decided not to proceed with the deal as it missed specific pricing objectives………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), the country’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) with total AUM of US$72 billion, has appointed Lee Jeong Ja as director of its affiliate research centre. Ms. Lee has a distinguished career as an analyst in the securities industry, working in the 1980s at WI Carr Securities, before moving to HSBC Securities Korea in the late 1990s to become head of research and branch manager. She was the first female in Korea to take up a senior position at a foreign securities brokerage.
Ms. Lee’s appointment comes after KIC’s new chief investment officer Choo Heung Sik recently revealed that the SWF aims to double alternative investments, including private equity, real estate, and hedge funds, over the next ten years. The fund has seen declining returns from bonds and equities………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sovereign wealth funds are plowing more money into (Brazil, Russia, India and China) BRIC nations, despite economic and political headwinds in emerging markets. Proprietary data from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute shows that more direct sovereign fund investment for 2014 is funneling into BRIC countries compared to similar quarters in 2013.
According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Transaction Database, for the first two quarters of 2013, about US$ 4.37 billion of direct sovereign wealth fund investment was allocated toward BRIC countries. For the first two quarters of 2014, BRIC countries received about US$ 4.62 billion. Furthermore, second quarter figures for 2014 are not fully counted for in the database. The 5.7% increase in BRIC direct sovereign wealth fund investment from those similar quarters indicates that sovereign funds remain tepidly optimistic in these dynamic growth markets……………………………………….Full Article: Source