Wall St. Giants Seek a Piece of Nigeria’s Sovereign Fund

Nigeria, the West African nation that has gained notoriety for the illicit e-mail spammers aiming for Western bank accounts, is attracting attention for legitimate financial opportunities — investing its own savings.

Libya SWF probes $5 billion losses in Africa portfolio

Libya's sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), which is conducting a review of all investments made by the toppled Muammar Gaddafi regime, has uncovered potentially large losses in its $5 billion Africa portfolio, its acting chief executive, Rafik Nayed, told Reuters.Nayed said that its investment operations are on hold while it looks through $65 billion in assets to examine dealings with people tied to Gaddafi.

Tipping the scales

AMERICA’S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prosecuted insider trading for the first time in 1961, after a company employee tipped his broker that the firm would be cutting its dividend.

DPJ Policy Chief Proposes Japanese Sovereign Wealth Fund Article Video Stock Quote

Japan should set up a sovereign-wealth fund to fight the high yen, and sell as many government assets as possible to reduce reliance on tax increases to fund quake reconstruction, the ruling party's policy chief said Wednesday.

Morning business round-up: Slovakia takes centre stage

What made the business news in Asia and Europe this morning? Here's our daily business round-up:

he eurozone awaits a vote by Slovakia's parliament to bolster the powers of the bloc's bailout fund.

Wall Street down on rising concerns over Europe

NEW YORK: Stocks fell on Tuesday on news that a meeting by euro zone finance ministers was canceled, adding to doubts about the region's efforts to tackle its debt crisis.

China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Tries to Bolster Stocks of Major Banks

HONG KONG — Trying to stem a steep decline in the stock prices of China’s four main banks, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund started buying their shares Monday and plans to buy more in the coming year.
That word, disclosed by the banks late in Monday’s trading session, helped their share prices rebound somewhat on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

FG Kickstarts Sovereign Wealth Fund with $1bn – ThisDay

Amid dialogue with the governors of the 36 states of the federation, the Federal Government Tuesday announced that it had commenced the implementation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) with a seed capital of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who made the disclosure at a media parley in Abuja, said the government was launching the implementation of the SWF with a series of initial steps designed to build a strong foundation for achieving the objectives of the Fund as encapsulated in the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) Act.

Al Gore Urges Sovereign Wealth Funds to Focus on Sustainability

The world's sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) must take a longer-term investment view in order to realize their full potential in building a more sustainable economic system, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore told a conference on Tuesday.

Facing multiple financial, climatic, and demographic challenges ahead, "long-term investors need to be financially incentivized to consider long-term investment approaches," said Gore, co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership focused on a new approach to sustainable investing.

Nigeria Starts Sovereign Wealth Fund With $1 Billion

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, started a sovereign wealth fund with an initial capital of $1 billion and hired KPMG to select its management team.

“It is clear that given current challenges facing our economy and the global financial crisis, we cannot afford to waste any more time,” Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters in Abuja today. “What we have done can be compared to opening an account for the sovereign wealth fund and commencing with other necessary procedures in preparation for full implementation.”

Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund eyes greater China investment

Kuwait: Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the state's sovereign wealth fund, plans to boost its investments in China after opening an office in the world's second largest economy, a KIA official told the state news agency.

"China has huge potential, which presents opportunities that KIA can seize on the back of China's steady economic growth," Fahd Al Shatti, the head of KIA's newly opened office in China, was quoted as saying by Kuna yesterday.

Europe needs plan before China invests

China's sovereign wealth fund will be willing to invest in Europe once the continent presents a clear solution to its debt crisis, reforms its welfare system and invests money in itself, an official says.

With concerns about excessive debt threatening to bankrupt Italy and Spain and destabilising banks across the continent, European leaders have promised to offer proposals that will calm investors at their summit on Sunday.

Libya's shadow on sovereign wealth funds

NEW YORK: As Libya's citizens rebuild their lives and economy, undoing the corruption in the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the sovereign wealth fund in which Muammar Gaddafi's regime allegedly stashed and misused Libya's oil wealth, is becoming a priority.

The National Transitional Council is debating who should take over Libya's Central Bank and the LIA's assets - an especially important decision, given that oil production is not expected to return to pre-war levels for several years.

China’s CIC to Invest $1 Billion in Kremlin-Backed Fund

China Investment Corp., the nation’s sovereign-wealth fund, agreed to contribute $1 billion to a Russian private-equity vehicle, the first foreign commitment to a project championed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Beijing-based CIC, which oversaw $409.6 billion by end-2010, plans to invest in a new Russia-China Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that will co-manage the new vehicle, said by phone from Beijing yesterday, where the agreement was signed during a visit by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Tries to Bolster Stocks of Major Banks

HONG KONG — Trying to stem a steep decline in the stock prices of China’s four main banks, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund started buying their shares Monday and plans to buy more in the coming year.

That word, disclosed by the banks late in Monday’s trading session, helped their share prices rebound somewhat on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Qatari Sovereign Fund Seen As Buyer Of Dexia Luxembourg Bank

BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--The Qatar Investment Authority, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, is the leader of a consortium of investors that is set to buy Dexia SA's (DEXB.BT) Luxembourg retail banking subsidiary, a person familiar with the discussions said Thursday.

The sale is part of a plan to break up Dexia set in motion after Moody's Investors Service this week warned that the bank's heavy dependence on wholesale funding threatened its stability.

Wealth fund dropped over meddling fear

The Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand yesterday agreed not to tap the country's foreign reserves to establish a sovereign wealth fund, easing market concerns about government interference in the central bank.

The proposal, initiated by the ministry, would look to invest some of the country's US$180 billion (5.6 trillion baht) in foreign reserves in higher-performing assets other than low-yielding government bonds.

Qatari wealth fund on gold buying spree

The Qatari Royal family plans to spend up to $US10 billion ($10.4 billion) buying stakes in gold producers through their sovereign wealth fund, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The fund is seeking to invest in a range of natural resources, but gaining access to physical gold is its top strategic priority.

Yesterday, Qatar Holdings, which controls the wealth of the Middle East state’s royal family, confirmed it would invest about $US1 billion in European Goldfields, a London-listed miner currently developing the largest gold-mining project in Greece.