Happy Friday. Here’s the news:
- Assets Under Management: Commodity revenues may be slumping, but most sovereign funds’ assets are still going in the opposite direction. It’s interesting how you try to set up these investment vehicles that can be permanent and enduring sources of wealth for countries and then ... boom ... they do that.
- SDFs: Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund will deploy between €500 million and €1 billion in new, domestic projects this year. The SDF is apparently considering over 100 proposals for investment that can deliver both cash returns and local “additionality”, such as job creation. Good luck!
- Government Ventures: Before you scoff at news the US Department of Defense is planning to enter the venture capital landscape in Silicon Valley, ask yourself who first invented autonomous cars, cloud computing, virtual reality, the Internet and, hey why not, frikken laser beams. The real question we should all be asking is ... why has it taken the DoD this long?
- Quote of the Day: In reference to America’s inability to pay public pension employees anything approaching a median wage for the finance industry: “Americans tend to get upset when public employees are paid millions — unless they’re college-football coaches.” Word.
- Infrastructure: China’s new $40 billion Silk Road Fund has signed its first infrastructure project. It will apparently fund a big Chinese SOE to go into Pakistan and build a dam.
- News Flash: This just in from the bureau of obviousness: Very few pension funds understand how much they are paying private equity GPs. Very. Very. Few.
- Governance Fail: The Korea Investment Corporation’s Chair is so excited about the Dodgers — home of Korean player Hyun-jin Ryu — that he violated internal rules — and common sense — by actively sourcing an investment in the Los Angeles baseball team.
- White Knights: Russia will reportedly use $737 million from its welfare fund to finance infrastructure projects.
- Real Estate: Norway’s Giant just bought a 45% stake in a portfolio of US industrial real estate assets for $2.3 billion.
- Political Risk: The Canada Pension Plan and other Giants are about to get burned by Norway on pipeline tariff reduction.
Have a great weekend!
