5th March, 2024
Gulf states have tended to use soft power to gain geopolitical influence via economic and cultural relations, particularly in the MENA and Central Asian regions. The cold war within the GCC has subsided with a deal between Doha and a Saudi-led alliance over Qatar’s alleged closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet, rivalries are still heated and they are vying for regional influence and at a time of heightened geopolitical sensitivities, with this week seeing Saudi Arabia cement its ties with Bahrain via their sovereign funds while Qatar's QIA is deepening its exposure to Uzbekistan.
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22nd January, 2024
Three years ago, sovereign wealth funds were plunging capital into national flag-carriers in the wake of the global lockdown, but the aviation sector is off life support and airlines have largely returned to profitability – with Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna confident to launch Air Astana Group’s IPO next month as well as relaunching its tender for up to 100% of Qazaq Air.
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21st August, 2023
A tender for the sale of 49% to 100% a Kazakhstan airline by the state’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna is likely to rouse the interest of Gulf peers in Qatar and the UAE amid a competition for influence in Central Asia’s biggest economy.
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12th January, 2023
Kazakhstan has always been home of significant Sovereign Wealth, due to vast gas reserves and annual revenues. The country’s most known and largest SWF is Samruk-Kazyna, which was modeled after Temasek and was born out of the merger of two holding companies, Samruk and Kazyna in 2008.
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16th September, 2022
Collectively known as the “stans”, the former Soviet republics of Central Asia are mineral wealthy, but often overlooked beyond their energy sectors – but sovereign wealth funds from the Arabian Gulf region are seeking to change this.
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22nd August, 2022
Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, is preparing to float a stake in oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) to raise “hundreds of million of dollars”, which will help fund a pipeline of projects including the development of renewable energy.
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26th April, 2022
Kazakhstan’s Samruk Kazyna sovereign wealth fund is hiring someone to help draft its new strategy and seeking to boost transparency and improve governance, just months after cutting half its staff to 124 personnel and closing offices in Beijing, Moscow and London and ahead of plans to divest portfolio companies.
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24th January, 2022
Kazakhstan’s US$69 billion sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, announced today that it was slashing its staff numbers in half and is set to close offices in Beijing, Moscow and London.
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22nd October, 2021
The Republics of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have much more in common than the Caspian Sea and the independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Both nations have a history of an active State Investment landscape, with various vehicles looking after different missions.
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25th August, 2021
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has indicated it is seeking to pump investment into Central Asia’s biggest economy Kazakhstan just months after Emirati fund Mubadala forged deals in the country’s renewable energy sector. Gulf funds are not simply looking for business ventures that generate yield to fulfil their mandate, but also to support economic diplomacy and "soft power" of their governments.
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10th June, 2021
After replacing its chairman and an array of managers, Kazakhstan’s US$64 billion sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna is planning for a new era with a schedule of privatizations set to generate dry powder for fresh investments - and new partnerships.
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27th February, 2021
Mubadala’s green investment arm, Masdar, is pushing into frontier markets in the Commonwealth of Independent States to establish clean energy production.
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