March/April 2012
The China-Africa Development Fund is shifting its investment strategy with the focus now on infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture, after a capital injection of $2 billion. Direct investment last year by China into Africa surged by 59 percent, from a year earlier, to $1.7 billion. During the same period, the nation's overseas direct investment grew by 1.8 percent year-on-year to $60 billion. Read more
The Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a subsidiary of Mubadala, and the German state of Saxony announced the establishment of the ‘twin labs' projects, a $4.8 million (Dh17.62 million) investment in research and development in areas of interest to the semiconductor industry. ATIC and Saxony will each contribute $2.4 million towards the plan over the next two years.
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Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has raised the alarm over the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) from $20 billion in 2006 to $3.6 billion as at Thursday. She said with a mere $3.6 billion left in the ECA, the country could be in serious economic problem in the event of volatility in the price of oil as witnessed in 2008 when oil prices crashed from $147 per barrel to about $38 per barrel. Read more
Qatar is planning to invest up to US$10bn in India over the next few years, but the head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund said the market was “a little complicated”. Hussain Al Abdulla, executive director of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), called on the Indian government to change its policies regarding regulation and access to the market by foreign investors. Read more
The 800-pound gorilla of the real estate market, sovereign wealth funds, is increasingly exercising its muscle by investing directly in property as a way of cutting fees and potentially achieving better returns, new research finds. The latest snapshot of sovereign wealth funds’ interest in property by alternative-asset researcher Preqin shows that 85 per cent of sovereign wealth funds now invest directly in real estate. Read more
The question of constructing a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kazakhstan is on the government's agenda, chairman of the board of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna, Umirzak Shukeyev, told reporters. Two site options for the construction of a nuclear power plant were previously discussed in Mangistau region and close to Lake Balkhash. Read more
Abu Dhabi’s government is to pump $10bn into a massive aviation development in Al Ain, consisting of a series of phased projects, according to senior officials. Strata, a subsidiary of Mubadala Aerospace, and ADAC have already launched the first phase of the aviation city project Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park, with construction now underway on an aviation academy and related facilties.
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Russia's newest state fund and an international private equity firm are in talks to invest in Moscow's healthcare system by taking a stake in a business owned by conglomerate Sistema. Sistema's Medsi chain of private clinics would first buy a handful of state-run hospitals owned by Moscow city, creating a business worth about $800 million. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), along with the private equity investor, would then buy a 25 percent stake in the combined entity. Read more
After a bit of a lull, Mubadala is back. The announcement of a $2bn investment in Brazil signals a return to big-spending, strategic overseas moves that characterised the Abu Dhabi state investment company until the emirate ran into economic trouble in the last couple of years. The $46bn diversified group mandated to generate financial and social returns is buying a 5.6 per cent stake in Eike Batista’s Brazilian EBX Group. Read more
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