Recent Blog Posts
-
The $4.5 Billion Dollar Bank Run
Nov 07 201111:20 am EDT -
The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
Apr 27 20099:26 am EDT -
Sinking Animal Spirits
Apr 27 20098:45 am EDT -
Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
Apr 26 200910:00 am EDT -
Be Your Own Counterfeiter
Apr 26 20099:36 am EDT -
Being Tim Geithner
Apr 25 200912:37 pm EDT -
Notes From a Press Conference Naif
Apr 25 20099:41 am EDT -
What Good is the News?
Apr 25 20098:32 am EDT -
Stressful Enough
Apr 24 20092:29 pm EDT -
Not Regretting the Pound
Apr 24 20091:09 pm EDT
Links
- Felix Salmon

- DealBreaker

- Ryan Avent: The Bellows

- The Epicurean Dealmaker

- Chris Anderson

- Ultimi Barbarorum

- MarketBeat

- Michelle Leder

- John Quiggin

- The Panelist

- Andrew Leonard

- Streetsblog

- Brad Setser

- Michael Mandel

- Financial Crookery

- Kash Mansori

- Dean Baker

- Calculated Risk

- Free Exchange

- Curbed

- Lance Knobel

- Econospeak

- Carbon Tax Center

- Overcoming Bias

- Mark Thoma

- Naked Capitalism

- Alphaville

- Barry Ritholtz

- Alexander Campbell

- The Bayesian Heresy

- Brad DeLong

- DealBook

- Greg Mankiw

- Deal Journal

- FP Passport

- Carl Bialik

- Marginal Revolution

- A Fistful of Euros

- Dan Gross

Sovereign Wealth Fund Datapoints of the Day
More from the December Euromoney, this time from Sudip Roy's cover story on sovereign wealth funds. Two datapoints jumped out at me:
"For all of the headlines being generated by the investments in the US and Europe, it’s a fraction of the money that’s going to the emerging markets," says Michael Philipp, chairman of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Credit Suisse in London, who estimates that as much as 80% to 90% of sovereign wealth money is being invested in emerging markets...
Many of the funds are attracted to China. Take Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s record-breaking $19.1 billion IPO last year, for example. Several sovereign funds participated in the deal, particularly funds from the Middle East, including Kuwait Investment Authority, Adia and QIA. Indeed, more than half of the top 15 allocations for the IPO went to Middle East investors.
Frankly, I don't believe the first one. Given the size and the risk aversion of Norway's sovereign wealth fund alone (not to mention the likes of Alaska's), I can't imagine that more than 80% of all money in sovereign wealth funds is invested in emerging markets. On a flow level, however, Philipp might be right: it could well be that the overwhelming majority of new money flowing into sovereign wealth funds is being invested in EM. And given that these funds are likely to multiply in size over the next few years, it's clear where the wind is blowing.
I'm also fascinated by the ties between a state-owned Chinese bank, on the one hand, and state-owned Middle Eastern wealth funds, on the other. Once upon a time, the main qualification needed to play an important role in international diplomacy was fluency in French. Nowadays, you're infinitely better off if you have control over a multi-billion dollar sovereign wealth fund which can buy equity stakes anywhere in the world.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.




