Welcome to the weekend, everybody. Here’s some news for your reading enjoyment:
- Deal flow: The Kuwait Investment Authority invested, in aggregate, $350 million directly in a U.S. cloud-based clinical health information system.
- Governance: The $33 billion Railpen has undergone a rather dramatic governance and management transformation.
- Direct lending: Ireland’s new sovereign development fund has been a critically important catalyst for the growth of nonbank financiers in the country.
- Collaboration: Eight Danish pensions have committed to participate in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
- Respect My Liquiditah!: A $45 billion surplus for Kuwait this year has helped to push the country’s sovereign wealth fund over a half trillion dollars in assets under management. That’s a lot.
- Russia I: The Russian Direct Investment Fund has hired U.S. lobbyists to “...provide accurate information to the U.S. Department of Treasury...”
- Russia II: As Western investors pull back from Russia, Putin says the RDIF and other Russian SWFs can pick up the slack.
- Russia III: Rosneft - with more than $100 billion in annual revenue - says it needs financial help from Russia’s SWF.
- Catalytic capital: The $4.5 billion New Mexico Severance Tax Permanent Fund has adopted a new 5 percent allocation to in-state venture capital. Good luck!
- Anti-SWF: The All Progressives Congress, Nigeria’s main opposition party, has said it will scrap the country’s new SWF if it wins elections in February.
- Alignment I: Will we see a big increase in cumulative performance fees for hedge funds? Here’s hopin’!
- Alignment II: San Diego County Employees Retirement Association vote on whether or not to fire outsourced CIO Salient Partners: “It’s well documented that we’re paying exorbitant outlier-type fees with no incentives except to grow the fund.” Sigh.
- Alignment III: “We believe that hedge funds in aggregate offer a poor trade-off between expected returns and cost...” Indeed.
- Collaboration: Oman’s state investment vehicles have come together to launch a local development company, Tatweer. The first big project: amusement parks!
- Scholars: The New Zealand Super Fund is droppin’ some science on all y’all.
- Selfie I: Halloween scares: October 1929. October 1987. October 2008. October 2014?
- Selfie II: If you’re having trouble sleeping, I bring you... The Production of Investment Returns in Spatially Extensive Financial Markets.
Have a great weekend!
