SWF. That the acronym for those in the know. Well I cannot claim much personal knowledge of sovereign wealth, let alone a fund named in its honour. What I do understand from living in the Gulf Cooperative Council region is that many of the Arab governments that make up the GCC are really, really rich.
The term sovereign wealth fund was introduced in 2005 but the first such fund came about in 1953 by the government of Kuwait. This year, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) topped the list of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with assets worth $627 billion. China’s main sovereign fund comes second at $568 billion.
The New Abu Dhabi. D3000 f/8; Exposure 1/10sec; IS-800; Aperture Priority
After ADIA, the biggest GCC sovereign funds are Saudi Arabia’s SAMA Foreign Holding with $472.5 billion, Kuwait Investment Authority with $296 billion, and Qatar’s Investment Authority worth $85 billion.
Foreign investment funds are owned by national governments and financed by the country’s foreign currency reserves (dollar, euro, yen dirham). These funds are now major players in the world financial markets.
Emerati High Flyers. D3000 f/9; Exposure 1/200sec; ISO-100. Aperture Priority
Now here is a wee lesson: the combined assets of the major SWFs (owned by 2o governments) have reached around 10 trillion dollars. What tremendous and concentrated financial power. After all the whole point of sovereign wealth funds is for governments to maximize long term return.
Over half of the SWF assets are owned by oil and gas exporting nations, and about one third by Australia, China, and Singapore. SWFs are aggressive investors and have bought into firms as diverse as Morgan Stanley, General Electric, and Sony. It makes you wonder who indeed “owns” companies any more…
Formula 1 Track Abu Dhabi. D3000 f/14' Exposure 1/50sec; ISO-110
1 Response to Sovereign Wealth