After Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, another sovereign wealth fund from West Asia, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has showed interest in India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
After Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, another sovereign wealth fund from West Asia, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has showed interest in India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Gulf country on June 5, the NIIF entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with QIA, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, to facilitate it to study investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector in India………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), India’s maiden sovereign wealth fund, will in “imminent” future get its chief executive, an appointment that was holding up the roll-out of investment proposals.
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the government received over 80 applications and the names of candidates shortlisted after interview have been sent to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for approval. “We are very close to announcing the candidate who will come as CEO of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF),” he told PTI in an interview………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday took stock of the progress made on operationalizing National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), India’s maiden sovereign wealth fund, including selection of its CEO and projects shortlisted for making initial investments.
The second Governing Council meeting of the Rs 40,000 crore National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) also discussed the follow-up action being taken on the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed with Rusnano of Russia, ADIA of Abu Dhabi and the Qatar Investment Authority………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Government is looking to tweak the investment norms for NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund) to allow investors to co-invest in this sovereign wealth fund as also in the individual projects.
The norms would be tweaked within the broad framework of the investment to take into account suggestions from the domestic and overseas investors, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said. Das also expressed hope that the retail inflation would remain at 5 per cent this fiscal, in line with the RBI’s projection, and help India develop into a low-cost economy in terms of lower interest rates, transaction costs and logistics costs………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) on Friday said the offer from France’s CMA CGM is now wholly unconditional, after NOL’s majority shareholder Temasek Holdings tendered all shares in the acceptance of the offer. This means the acceptance condition of the takeover has been met.
CMA CGM now owns 78.07 per cent of all NOL shares, and does not intend to preserve the listing status of NOL. It offered NOL shareholders the offer price of S$1.30 per share, in cash. Shares of NOL closed unchanged at S$1.30 on Thursday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The accelerator arm of global information technology (IT) major Microsoft and Singapore’s state investment major Temasek Holdings have entered into a strategic partnership to drive the growth of startup ventures.
In a blog post, the general manager of Microsoft Accelerator, Scott Coleman, shared: “Microsoft and Temasek have agreed to collaborate on deal flow in four of our accelerator locations – Berlin, Seattle, Tel Aviv, and Bangalore – with six of its portfolio companies — Ascendas, InnoVen Capital, Quann, ST Engineering, CapitaLand Limited, and Fullerton Financial – on board as partners. We believe this partnership will help startups in our accelerator program scale significantly and quickly reach global markets.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, is poised to buy a large minority stake in Irish telecoms group Eir, in a deal that is expected to value the former state monopoly provider at more than €3.3bn.
A deal is likely to be announced as soon as Friday morning, said people involved in the process. GIC’s arrival as a big investor would be the latest of a series of ownership changes at Eir since it was privatised as Telecom Eireann in 1999, and later became known as Eircom………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is set to buy a major stake in Irish telecoms firm Eir, the Irish Times reported on Thursday, in a move that would likely support its plans to hold off from a stock market flotation for now.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is on course to acquire York Capital, Eir’s second-largest shareholder’s stake of about 15 percent, in addition to a number of smaller shareholdings owned by other hedge funds, the newspaper said, without quoting any sources………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Arabia is about to confront a serious challenge: Where and how to invest the money in a gigantic new sovereign wealth fund created as part of an effort to diversify its economy and pivot away from its dependence on oil.
That is going to put a lot of pressure on whoever becomes the chief investment officer for the country’s Public Investment Fund, which may end up with responsibility for as much as $2 trillion. Before the Saudis start putting that enormous pile of money to work, they may want to take a moment to consider a few items related to costs and performance of the new fund………………………………………..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