UAE sovereign wealth fund ADIA opens Hong Kong office
2016-10-27 10:19:51 GMT2016-10-27 18:19:51(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
DUBAI， Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) largest sovereign wealth fund，Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)，said on Thursday it opened an office in Hong Kong，the UAE's state news agency WAM reported.
ADIA, marking its first presence in the area，is one of the largest government-controlled wealth funds in the world，aims to tap the Chinese and the greater East Asian market.
ADIA Hong Kong will act as a platform for the sovereign wealth fund "to broaden and deepen its network of relationships and identify new opportunities in China and other key Asian markets，" said the report.
ADIA manages most of the petro-dollar-based wealth of the emirate of
Abu Dhabi，home to 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves.
The Hong Kong branch will be responsible for conducting comprehensive investment-related research and ongoing analysis of the Asia-Pacific market and economic trends.
In addition to bringing ADIA closer to its key local contacts and investments，the office will assist in identifying new avenues for cooperation and growth "in one of the fastest developing regions in the world，" said WAM.
Managing Director of ADIA Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the fund's decision to open an office in Hong Kong "is a symbol of our confidence in Asia's continued growth and our long-term commitment to the region."
According to the Las Vegas-based Sovereign Fund Institute，ADIA manages global assets worth approximately 792 billion U.S. dollars，ranking fifth in the sovereign wealth fund world.
ADIA's annual return in the last 20 years stands at 7.4 percent， according to ADIA's website.
http://english.sina.com/news/2016-10-27/detail-ifxxfysn7862637.shtml
Saudi sovereign fund fills key positions as it bulks up for reform drive
By
REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 13:00 GMT, 17 November 2016 | UPDATED: 13:00 GMT, 17 November 2016
By Tom Arnold and Andrew Torchia
DUBAI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), its main sovereign wealth fund, said on Thursday it had filled key posts as part of plans to expand investment capacity and help reduce the kingdom's dependence on oil income.
Under economic reform plans announced early this year, the government has said it aims eventually to expand the PIF, founded in 1971 to finance development projects in the country, from $160 billion to about $2 trillion and increase investments abroad.
The PIF did not name the people it had appointed, but LinkedIn profiles showed at least five financial professionals had begun working at the Fund in the last several weeks.
Kevin O'Donnell, previously managing director of private and opportunistic investments at Kaiser Permanente in California, has joined the PIF as head of global private equity, according to his LinkedIn page.
Other appointees include Marc-Oliver Fischer, an investment banking analyst at Jefferies in London who was appointed as an "investment professional" at the PIF in October.
Jacobo Solis joined in October also as an "investment professional". His LinkedIn page shows he was previously an investment banking associate at J.P. Morgan in New York.
LinkedIn also shows the PIF made hires in the fields of compliance and risk. Martin Botha was appointed this month as director of risk to oversee the set-up of a risk management function; he was head of risk management at Kleinwort Benson, a London-based private bank.
Richard Collins, previously head of risk management at Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, was hired in October to build a compliance function at the PIF.
Four of the five men did not respond to efforts by Reuters to contact them, while the other referred Reuters to the PIF's communications team.
In a statement today, the fund said the appointments would help it "build a world-class investment portfolio, domestically and internationally, positioning it amongst the leading sovereign wealth funds globally."
The PIF owns tens of billions of dollars' worth of stakes in top Saudi companies such as National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's biggest listed bank. In a statement this week, the Fund said it had no plan to sell stakes in local companies.
In its expanded role, it is to invest more actively abroad in order to boost the government's returns on its financial reserves and help to obtain business and technology that can diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil.
In June, the PIF departed from Saudi Arabia's traditional strategy of ultra-conservative investments abroad and took a step into the tech world by purchasing a $3.5 billion stake in U.S. transport firm Uber.
Last month, it said it might invest up to $45 billion over the next five years in a technology investment fund that it would establish with Japan's SoftBank Group. The new fund could grow as large as $100 billion, making it one of the world's biggest private equity investors, the partners said. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/re...sitions-bulks-reform-drive.html#ixzz4ROEueiTP
What to expect from the $100 billion Saudi-SoftBank partnership
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. CC BY-SA 3.0
The
$100 billion investment fund being up by Japan’s SoftBank and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) has yet to announce any major projects, but it stands as one of, if not the, largest
VC undertakings to date. SoftBank is putting up $25 billion already, with $45 billion on hand from the Saudis. On their own, SoftBank already has a large
portfolio of investments encompassing e-commerce, energy, transportation, telecommunications, cyber security, fintech, online marketing, and wearables.
While the fund’s remit remains unclear, SoftBank has said it already has several
multibillion dollar acquisitions planned. The Saudis for their part appear to be busying themselves ahead of the October announcement this summer in Silicon Valley. In a round of high-profile visits to technology companies and venture capitalists alike, a royal delegation, “visited with tech CEOs including Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella” according to
The Wall Street Journal.
Just prior to this grand tour, Uber raised
$3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia over the summer, the biggest single investment the kingdom has yet made in ICT. More deals like it will follow. But as PIF develops its investments, both with SoftBank and on its own or with other partners, only time will tell if further issues about localization, ethics, and the politics of the kingdom itself will prove stumbling blocks. Both domestic and international constraints loom ahead.
Domestically, because of a limited base to work off of and laws limiting online access. Saudi Arabia is, according to a study from
Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, one of the more wired-in nations of the Middle East, but still, “is in the early stage of technology startup development.” Add to this the perception internationally, as suggested by the
Journal’s report and complaints from transparency and free speech advocates, fears that letting the Saudis put capital and executives into projects may compromise companies’ core values.
Sovereign wealth expansion
The Saudis’ willingness to invest in foreign technology companies is a relatively new development, since most sovereign wealth funding from the kingdom flows to domestic enterprises. But the new ICT focus does shift Saudi wealth managers from primarily putting money into the national development funds, large banks, and conglomerates of their major trading partners.
This complements an existing strategy for building a stronger ICT portfolio. As outlined by
Startup Illusion, “Few are aware that Saudi Arabia has already been investing heavily in acquiring and commercializing international patents and technologies, and is already actively engaged with companies and institutions such as General Electric, MIT, Siemens and IBM.”
Aware that the socioeconomic order of the kingdom remains highly dependent on oil, the Saudis hope by
2030 to have a more diversified investment portfolio abroad … as well a more diversified economy at home. Already, “The government is responsible for 50 percent of the Kingdom’s startup incubators,” reports
Arab News, which tend to be in healthcare, energy, and, now, ICT.
SoftBank’s portfolio. Photo Credit: SoftBank
Some cash has already been put down for such ends. The Saudi Telecom Company set up
$50 million for, “smaller firms operating in the field of telecommunications and IT”. Later, in 2014, the Saudi government announced a
$270 million venture capital fund for domestic technology applications, albeit with some room for foreign investments as well. And last year, the government set up an ICT fund worth
$137 million for investing in pan-Arab digital enterprises, plus another innovation fund offering up to
$2 million in domestic ICT grants.
However, these moves are not immune from criticism. Saudi Arabia is one of the Middle East’s
most censoriousstates when it comes to internet usage.
Collaboration among foreign telecoms, international research centers, and Saudi security services in the past have been a sore point in arguing for greater ICT collaboration for years, given the likelihood the fruits of such investment and partnership may be used in restrictive policies that actually limit Saudis’ access to the web.
State of the kingdom
The history of Twitter in Saudi Arabia is one example of such a clash of cultures. While
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the worst’s richest men, bought up $1 billion worth of shares between 2013 and 2015, top clerics were
condemning the platform as un-Islamic. People have been
arrested for “improper” use of it as well.
But to make matters even more complicated, despite the jeremiads against it, Twitter is a popular platform among many
religious personalities, to get their
messages out. Granted, one particularly sore point about the app within the royal family is that an anonymous leaker,
@Mujtahidd, has used it to break open government scandals. Banned on and off as a result, he remained popular for tabloid exposés of rarely covered issues.
The very fact that so many Saudi Twitter users keep taking to the site to denounce misuse of it shows that the official line, to stay off it altogether, has never been very convincing.
5 million Saudis have accounts on Twitter and are among the
most active users worldwide. But, increasingly, the app is being policed for signs of incipient dissent, chilling users’ speech. “People don’t openly discuss important things on Twitter anymore,” the activist
Ali Adubisi told
Bloomberg.
Controversy even attends the ride-sharing market in the kingdom. The reason Uber is a reasonably sound investment for the Saudis is the fact that
women cannot drive anyplace by themselves in the country, so ride-sharing has a large market. Uber argues that despite the continuing ban on women driving themselves, the expansion of operations is a successful work around that will improve female mobility regardless. Some Saudi women, though, actually
protestedthe Uber deal because an expanded ride-sharing campaign with the government’s imprimatur suggests a shutdown of
debate over the eventual easing out of these restrictions.
Uber’s $3.5 billion Saudi announcement is a gigantic gamechanger for private capital (image, screenshot Uber KSA on Twitter)
Uber is also aware that in August, a series of
arrests in the neighboring UAE effectively grounded their operations in that country. (
Ride-sharing restrictions there are as strict as anything in Saudi Arabia itself.) Entering markets with
heavy government restrictions has proven problematic for Uber elsewhere, too.
However at this point, it appears unlikely that the Saudis would attempt to throw up too many roadblocks with their foreign partners, given the importance of developing these relationships to benefit the country’s economic reforms looking ahead to 2030. There is a lot to work needed to be done domestically to make this a reality. A recent
SAI Computing Conference report likewise concluded that, “Saudi Arabian universities must improve their ICT infrastructure, including the provision of suitable connection networks and formal training of staff in utilising ICT resources.”
While there are signs of change afoot, don’t expect improvements from inside any time soon. As one expert told
Seeker, “Dependence on external sources of skills and technology will continue, perhaps for another ten years before a discernible shift to domestic sourcing.”
The PIF itself is worth $160 billion today. Total assets across the entirety of the kingdom’s SAMA Foreign Holdings entity, though, are valued at
$600 billion. This would make SAMA the fourth largest sovereign wealth fund by assets in the world: only Norway, China, and the UAE surpass it. And the Saudis hope to raise these figures even more, to nearly
$2 trillion.
For the Saudis too, then, $100 billion is “only” the beginning.
http://www.geektime.com/2016/10/30/what-to-expect-from-the-100-billion-saudi-softbank-partnership/
Alabbar, Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund Launch E-Commerce Firm Noon
Noon will initially operate from and focus on the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia before expanding across the region
Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, is one of several Gulf-based investors jointly contributing $500 million to Noon. PHOTO: REUTERS
By
NICOLAS PARASIE
Nov. 13, 2016 9:08 a.m. ET
DUBAI—Emirati businessman Mohamed Alabbar on Sunday launched an e-commerce business with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund at an initial investment of $1 billion, as he seeks to tap the Middle East’s small but growing online sales market.
The new venture called “Noon” will offer 20 million products—ranging from fashion to electronics—to Middle Eastern households starting in January in a bid to create a homegrown version of e-commerce giants such as Amazon Inc. and Alibaba Group.
Noon will be based in Riyadh and initially operate from and focus on the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia before expanding across a region where populations are growing, internet penetration is expanding and disposable incomes rising.
“We need to turn the whole digital and e-commerce environment in the Middle East upside down,” Mr. Alabbar said. “We owe it to our region; it’s a fabulous environment,” he said. The initial investment will be used to set up the company’s supportive technology such as payment and delivery channels, warehouses and staff.
Mr. Alabbar himself and several other Gulf-based investors are jointly contributing $500 million to the company, while the rest of the equity comes from the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign-wealth fund that stands at the heart of the oil exporter’s economic reform plans. In a separate deal, the PIF last month said it was teaming up with Japan’s SoftBank to set up a
$100 billion technology investment fund.
E-commerce in the Persian Gulf region is still in its infancy stage. Consultancy A.T. Kearney estimated its size to be about $5.3 billion in 2015, contributing a mere 0.4% to the region’s gross domestic product, small compared with more mature markets. But it also said the region is on the verge of becoming the fastest-growing e-commerce market in the world.
Noon will be competing with Souq.com, another Middle Eastern online retailer which earlier this year raised $275 million in funding from a group of international investors, including $50 million from
Standard Chartered’s private equity arm.
Mr. Alabbar is chairman of Dubai’s flagship developer Emaar Properties, the company behind the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, and Dubai Mall, the world’s busiest shopping center. Emaar also just commenced work on
a tower that will exceed the Burj Khalifa in height and has plans for an even bigger mall to be built in the emirate.
Mr. Alabbar said he met with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chairman, over the weekend in Dubai, both to share information and experiences about the region. Mr. Bezos’s Amazon isn’t part of the new Noon venture.
“These people are the people of tomorrow; I admire them,” said Mr. Alabbar of Mr. Bezos.
Asked whether an online retailer wouldn’t mean more competition for the Emaar malls business, Mr. Alabbar said: “It [online retail] is coming to you anyway. I’d rather be part of it, know it.”
It has been a very busy period for Mr. Alabbar, a prominent name in Gulf business circles. Earlier this year, he led a group of investors to buy a stake in Kuwait Food Co., better known as Americana, for around $2.5 billion in one of the biggest acquisitions in the region this year. He also bought a stake in online fashion retailer
Yoox Net-a-Porter and invested in Dubai-based courier Aramex.
Mr. Alabbar said Noon may consider a public listing after five to seven years from now. “We are in a rush to build a company; we’re not rushing to go public,” he said.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alabbar...-fund-launch-e-commerece-firm-noon-1479046128
This thread is most likely causing tremendous butthurt for certain individuals on this forum. A great thing.
