13th February, 2024
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is flexing its financial muscles as it edged out of a UN sanctions regime with news that it is preparing a hostile takeover of South Africa’s Legacy Hotels via its Libyan African Investment Company (LAICO) subsidiary’s Ensemble Hotel brand.
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12th February, 2024
The decision by Mubadala-backed AI investor G42 to pull out from China reveals a growing wariness about upsetting US regulators, following Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ (CFIUS) decision last year to put the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s takeover of US asset manager Fortress Investment Group under the spotlight.
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9th February, 2024
Temasek is continuing to deepen its investment in the agri-food sector by backing a food and farming strategy launched by Seviora Capital, aligning its investments with Singapore’s bid to become 30% self-sufficient in food.
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8th February, 2024
A new EUR2 billion fund launched by Spain’s Compañía Española de Financiación del Desarrollo (Cofides) has been launched to catalyze foreign capital.
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7th February, 2024
Saudi Arabia has launched two separate new major economic development entities, established under the auspices of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the National Development Fund (NDF) respectively, to drive investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, with a stress on sustainability.
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6th February, 2024
A coalition of state-owned investors from across the world has thrown its weight behind Generate Capital in a US$1.5 billion fundraise, which boosted the sustainable infrastructure frontrunner’s funding for new projects and technologies. Existing state-owned investors from Australia, QIC and Australian Super, boosted their existing investments, while new investors included the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) and Australia’s HESTA. The fundraise brings the total raised since 2014 to US$10 billion. It is not unusual for Australian pension funds to co-invest, as well as draw in peers from other countries. The renewables and sustainability sector is notable in seeing a high level of convergence of state-owned investors (SOIs) in transactions. Generate Capital claimed it produced over 320GWh of sustainable power by September 2023. It is heavily concentrated in the US, particularly California, which may have drawn CalSTRS’s interest. Yet, the significant weight of Australian SOIs, acting together, suggests a potential domestic interest. Australia’s green hydrogen sector has already attracted billions of SOI capital and Generate Capital could focus increasingly on Australia’s resources. However, its ethos chimes well with the long-term objectives of a large section of the SOI universe and the platform could see other heavyweight investors pile capital into its projects. Alliances in green energy have been led by Singapore’s GIC while its sister organization Temasek focused on start-ups with new technology to advance renewables, batteries and low carbon industrial processes. Gulf funds also focused both on strategic investment in domestic renewables capacities and on yield-generating assets abroad, with Mubadala leading the way through the Masdar platform as well as directly. The interest in green hydrogen is high, as it could provide the feedstock for ammonia and methanol production and revive the chemicals chain, while being de-linked from the oil and gas sectors. GIC backed a major green ammonia plant in India, partnered with co-investors in Australia’s hydrogen sector, snapped up a stake in InterContinental Energy, and joined Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in backing a green bond issue by TagEnergy of up to US$ 0.6 billion to fund renewables and battery storage in Australia, the UK and Europe. Bio-based fuels also drew interest, with OTPP committing US$ 0.3 billion to a JV with Sevana Bioenergy to develop renewable natural gas projects utilizing organic waste; and Mubadala’s Acelen using its Mataripe refinery site in Brazil as host to an innovative US$ 2.5 billion push into cleaner aviation fuel from oils derived from soybean, palm and macauba oils. Instead of simply divesting carbon intensive assets, Canadian PPFs have looked to greening them. CPP partnered with IKAV to acquire Aera Energy, which represents 25% of California’s oil and gas production with a view to expanding its renewable energy portfolio. All in all, Sovereign Investors invested, once again, more in the so-called green assets than in the so-called black assets in 2023, reaching a historical maximum of US$ 26.1 billion in the support to companies related to the energy transition, including renewable energy, battery storage and electric vehicles. Gulf SWFs were responsible for almost half of that figure, and are pushing the energy transition agenda and recycling revenues from black assets into green impact investments, particularly in their own backyards. Canadian, European, Singaporean, and Australian funds are also freeing up plenty of dry powder to plunge capital into achieving their net zero ambitions, with the rest of the funds set to join them in co-investments.
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5th February, 2024
Temasek has exited Indian insurtech pioneer Policybazaar and sold a minority stake in Manipal Hospitals, but remains committed to India and is set to recycle the capital into new ventures.
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2nd February, 2024
The central position sovereign wealth funds are taking in India’s economic development was highlighted in the FY2024/25 budget published this week, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman extending their tax benefits and continuing exemption for businesses located at the International Financial Services Centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
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1st February, 2024
The maharlika (freedman) were feudal warriors in Luzon, the Philippines, and the term comes from Sanskrit, meaning man of wealth, knowledge, or ability. And this is exactly what Maharlika Investment Fund, the country’s new SWF, intends to do by managing intergenerational financial assets and advancing long-term development goals. We had the pleasure of speaking to its newly appointed CEO, Rafael Consing, about the fund’s background and prospects.