BlackRock Inc has agreed to sell a 43-storey office building in Singapore to Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund, for S$3.4 billion ($2.5 billion), in what the U.S. firm said was the largest-ever single-tower real estate deal in the Asia-Pacific region.
Asia Square Tower 1, located in the city-state’s financial district, has over 1.25 million square feet of net lettable area and has Citigroup Inc as its anchor tenant, BlackRock and Qatar Investment Authority said in a joint statement. BlackRock was advised by real estate consultant firms JLL and CBRE………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Middle Eastern country, agreed to buy BlackRock Inc.’s Asia Square Tower 1 for S$3.4 billion ($2.5 billion) in the biggest office transaction in Singapore.
Qatar will purchase the officer tower in the central business district in the largest single-tower sale in the region, according to a joint statement from Qatar Investment Authority and BlackRock Monday. The building has been on the market since last year after bids by a consortium of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and CapitaLand Ltd., Singapore’s largest developer, and rival bids by ARA Asset Management Ltd. failed to clinch the deal………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The agreement between National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Qatar Investment Authority will boost infrastructure investments, Finance Ministry said. “MoU signed between NIIF and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) during Prime Minister’s visit. Will facilitate investments in infra projects,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted.
This is the third MoU of NIIF after those with Rusnano of Russia and ADIA of Abu Dhabi. “Things taking shape. NIIF to play big role in infra sector,” Das added. He said the government keenly working on enhancement of infra investments………………………………………..Full Article: Source

India and Qatar signed seven agreements, including on investment and tourism promotion, following delegation level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. India is hoping to tap the Gulf nation’s sovereign wealth fund, estimated at $300 billion, for infrastructure projects.
According to one memorandum of understanding (MoU), Qatar will invest in India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). The government had set up the Rs400 billion NIIF last year for enhancing infrastructure financing in India………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Africa investor (Ai), a leading international investment and communications group, announced recently that global institutional investors and US pension fund leaders will meet with African pension and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and capital market leaders at the Ai Pension and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum in New York in September.
In May of this year, Africa investor convened African institutional investors (comprising Africa’s largest and most active pension and sovereign wealth fund investors) to engage and explore ways to encourage and promote pension and SWF investing in African infrastructure investment opportunities, as well as co-investments amongst African and international pension and SWFs………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gulf Arab investors, some of the biggest buyers of British real estate, are holding back from new deals because they fear a property price slump if Britain leaves the European Union, according to legal and investment sources.
Sovereign and private investors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have been prolific buyers of British assets in the past decade, snapping up billions of dollars worth of property, mostly in London. “Sovereign wealth funds are concerned that Brexit is taking its toll on the property market in London,” said a London-based lawyer who works with some of the largest Gulf funds………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos tightened his family’s grip on sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest economy two years before he has indicated he’ll leave office by naming his billionaire daughter Isabel as chairwoman of the state oil company.
His son Jose Filomeno dos Santos already runs Angola’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund. Angola ranked 163 out of 167 countries in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index and had the world’s highest rate of child mortality under the age of 5, the United Nations Children’s Fund said last year………………………………………..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

The Public Investment Fund isn’t considering a loan and its investment in Uber Technologies Inc. wasn’t funded by a loan or any other form of borrowing, it said.
People familiar with the matter said Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is weighing a loan of as much as $3 billion for its investment in Uber. The PIF, as the fund is known, held preliminary talks with local and international banks about borrowing between $2 billion and $3 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Goldman Sachs is braced for a $1bn court battle this month, facing dramatic claims in the High Court that it took advantage of naïve leadership at the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) to rip off the sovereign wealth fund.
The LIA claims that its former management, in the Gaddafi era, lacked any financial knowledge and so were taken advantage of by senior staff at Goldman Sachs, losing more than $1bn in a series of nine derivatives trades in 2008 which gave Goldman hundreds of millions of dollars in profit………………………………………..Full Article: Source

On the heels of an announcement that it will meet outstanding back-pay to public servants, Government has quietly withdrawn $2.5 billion (about US$385 million) from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF).
It is the first time that there’s been a drawdown on the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which was established in 2007, and is often referred to as its rainy-day savings………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s first-ever withdrawal from its $860 billion sovereign wealth fund may be bigger than planned. Here’s why: The government has yet to account for a potential decline in payouts from Statoil ASA, of which it owns 67 percent. The oil producer has introduced a scrip dividend, allowing investors to take stock in-lieu of cash.
Norway has committed to keeping its stake intact and will have to accept shares in the same proportion as other owners, meaning its cash payout will be reduced. This possibility wasn’t apparent in Norway’s revised budget published last month, with the government estimating an unchanged income inflow this year of 15.4 billion kroner ($1.9 billion)………………………………………..Full Article: Source