1st May, 2021
We chat with Mr. Stephen Gilmore, Chief Investment Officer at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
1st April, 2021
We chat with Ms. Maarika Paul, EVP and Chief Financial and Operations Officer at global investor CDPQ
1st March, 2021
During the second half of 2020, FAP suffered the first two withdrawals in its short history, for US$ 105 million, i.e., an 8% of its AuM, to help support Panama’s recovery. At the same time, the fund managed to record its second highest return, to start investing in private capital, and to become a signatory member of the UN’s PRI. We had the pleasure to catch up with Mr. Abdiel Santiago, its CEO & CIO, who has led FAP for the past 7 years and is highly respected in the international investor community.
1st February, 2021
In December 2020, NIIFL announced that it had officially closed the Master Fund, which is focused on Indian core infrastructure, with USD 2.34 billion in commitments, including two SWFs (ADIA, Temasek), four PPFs (AustralianSuper, CPP, OTPP and PSP), US DFC and a number of domestic investors such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Group, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance. The institution is now fundraising for a Strategic Opportunities Fund (direct private equity) and a Fund of Funds, targeting a total to US$ 6 billion AuM. NIIFL is now regarded as a success story that focuses on two critical assets for the country – private equity and infrastructure – with governments around the world keen to emulate the model. We had the pleasure to catch up with its Head of Investor Relations & Partnerships, Ms. Saloni Jhaveri.
1st January, 2021
Saudi Arabia is a rapidly-changing nation – especially its economic and financial landscape. The roadmap for this change is contained in the Vison 2030 program, which was announced in 2016 and aims to add diversification to the Kingdom via infrastructure, tourism, technology and health. Well until 2015, very few people outside of Saudi Arabia had heard about the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which was solely focused on the development of the domestic economy.
1st December, 2020
APG has become one of the world’s most active and largest pension managers with over USD 630 billion, behind only Japan’s GPIF and South Korea’s NPS. At the end of October, APG and NPS entered into a formal MoU to scout for private assets globally, starting with a Portuguese toll road and an Australian student housing portfolio. We got to know more about the initiative firsthand from Gert Dijkstra and Genio van der Schaft, who run APG’s Global Peers & Networks from Amsterdam and Hong Kong, respectively.
1st November, 2020
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) was established in 2006 to manage surplus O&G revenues. With assets over $67 billion, the LIA is Africa’s largest SWF and has invested in assets such as Banking Hall in London, Juventus FC and Corinthia Group. However, political unrest and division of power in the wake of Gaddafi’s ousting from power had repercussions on the fund, which saw its international portfolio frozen by the UN in 2011. We had the pleasure of finding out more about the LIA’s latest developments with its current Chairman, Dr. Ali Mahmoud.
1st October, 2020
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) was established in 2014 as the successor of the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), under the umbrella of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
1st September, 2020
The Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA) was established in 2012 with an initial injection of USD 5 billion from O&G proceeds, which made it (and still is) the largest SWF in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the fund has gone through various Governance issues, with the son of the country’s President, José Filomeno “Zenú” dos Santos, acting as its Chairman. On August 15, 2020, after an eight-month trial, Zenú was sentenced to five years in jail for embezzling US$ 0.5 billion from the Central Bank. This could be a second chance for the SWF, despite the significant withdrawals faced during the past 14 months. We had the pleasure of catching up with Miguel Carneiro, former Head of Alternatives Investments at FSDEA and currently a partner at AFC & Partners.
1st August, 2020
The Turkish Sovereign Fund was established in 2016 as the strategic investment arm of the Republic of Turkey. After a rocky start where the country’s President Erdogan rewamped TWF’s management and reshuffled the board by appointing himself as the Chairman, the fund seems to have finally found the support and stability to be among the world’s leading SWFs. The recruitment of Mr. Zafer Sönmez as its CEO in September 2018, after he had spent six years with Khazanah, has been instrumental towards that goal. We had the pleasure of catching up with Mr. Sönmez and discussing with him TWF’s recent progress and improvement of its GSR score.