Free Republic

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has made an iconic purchase in America — a stake in the company that owns New York’s Empire State Building. The $622-million purchase by the Qatar Investment Authority comes as the Doha fund increases its investments in the US as the small country on the Arabian Peninsula tries to cope with low global oil and gas prices.

March 3, 2011 Libya’s Hidden Wealth May Be Next Battle By LANDON THOMAS Jr. LONDON — As the battle for Libya rages on, the struggle over control of the country’s sovereign wealth fund and its $70 billion in assets has just begun. With a sizable pot of ready cash and stakes in a few elite European companies — including the British publisher Pearson and the Italian soccer club Juventus — the fund served as an emphatic calling card for its founder, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan ruler who was once regarded as the reformer in the family....

Losses by Gulf Funds may Reach $450b: Deutsche Bank Issac John 23 December 2008 DUBAI - Losses by Gulf sovereign funds in the global financial turmoil is expected to reach to $450 billion, which is equivalent to the region’s oil income for a whole year, a top executive of Deutsche Bank in the Middle East said. Henry Azzam, Deutsche Bank CEO for the MENA region, said the region’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) may not perform well in 2009 after poor 2008 results. According to recent estimates, the size of the combined GCC sovereign funds stood at well over $1.3 trillion,...

Japan to create £25bn sovereign fund as fears mount on global sub-prime loss Leo Lewis Japan is in advanced discussions to create its first sovereign wealth fund in a move aimed at mobilising one of the world’s biggest pools of foreign exchange reserves. The plans, described to The Times by the Minister for Financial Services and Administrative Reform, would give Japan membership of what is fast becoming a formidably powerful club of investors. Yoshimi Watanabe revealed that a high-level team of advisers was designing the operations of the fund, and that representatives had visited existing sovereign wealth funds in the...