Who funds sovereign wealth funds?
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), also known as a social wealth fund, is the surplus money that a country accrues over time. The government-backed pool of funds is mostly funded from a country's foreign exchange reserves. Other sources of funds for an SWF account include: Bank reserves.
The funding for a SWF can come from a variety of sources. Popular sources are surplus reserves from state-owned natural resource revenues, trade surpluses, bank reserves that may accumulate from budgeting excesses, foreign currency operations, money from privatizations, and governmental transfer payments.
A sovereign wealth fund is owned by the general government, which includes both central government and sub-national governments. Includes investments in foreign financial assets.
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are large institutional investors that manage billions of dollars of state capital in numerous countries around the world.
Summary. The main sources of funding are retained earnings, debt capital, and equity capital. Companies use retained earnings from business operations to expand or distribute dividends to their shareholders. Businesses raise funds by borrowing debt privately from a bank or by going public (issuing debt securities).
SWFs grew rapidly between 2008 and 2021, with global assets under management by these funds increasing from approximately $4 trillion to more than $10 trillion. SWFs invest in a variety of asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, private equity and hedge funds.
China is home to one of the world's largest sovereign funds, China Investment Corporation. CIC's total assets under management reached about $1.24 trillion at the end of 2022, bigger than Saudi Arabia's 2022 GDP (about $1.1 trillion). Saudi Arabia was the 17th largest economy in the world in 2022.
SWFs are usually established using balance of payments surpluses, official foreign currency reservoirs, proceeds of privatizations, government transfer payments, fiscal surpluses, and/or receipts from commodity exports.
Britain did not opt for such a scheme when its North Sea oil boom began in the 1970s. Instead, successive governments used the proceeds from oil and gas fields to keep public borrowing down rather than to build a fighting fund to tackle long-term problems such as our ageing population.
Saudi Arabia's PIF is fastest growing sovereign wealth fund globally: Governor.
What are the structures of sovereign wealth funds?
Sovereign Wealth Fund Structure
While SWF structures differ, they typically involve: Sponsoring Government - Provides initial capital and oversight. Governing Board - Responsible for oversight and appointing operational management. Operational Management - Handle day-to-day investing activities.
Financial sponsors are investors in the private equity sector. Organized much like fund management companies, they raise funds from institutional investors (pension funds, insurers, mutual insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, etc.)
Feb 5 (Interfax) - Russia's National Wealth Fund totaled just over 11.922 trillion rubles as of February 1 and was the equivalent of $133.526 billion, or 6.6% of forecast GDP for 2024, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The effect goes further: wealth allows people to purchase better healthcare and education, and assets like a house or a car themselves enable people to save time and take on better jobs (this article over at Quartz has a great summary of this point). Income can be stored as wealth, but wealth begets income.
Debt and equity are the two major sources of financing. Government grants to finance certain aspects of a business may be an option. Also, incentives may be available to locate in certain communities or encourage activities in particular industries.
- Also, lenders' expected returns are lower than those of equity investors (shareholders).
- Dividends to equity holders are not taxed deductible.
Sovereign wealth funds use a variety of investment strategies: Some funds invest exclusively in publicly listed financial assets. Others invest in all of the major asset classes.
Pension funds, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, can be government-owned or privately held. A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), also known as a sovereign investment fund or a social wealth fund, is a state-owned investment fund.
- Maturity: Long maturity period of 8 years, which some investors find discouraging. Designed to mitigate gold price volatility and prevent losses. ...
- Capital Loss: Bond value linked to international gold prices. Possibility of capital loss if redemption price is lower than purchase price.
What is China's largest sovereign wealth fund?
China is home to one of the world's largest sovereign funds, China Investment Corporation. CIC's total assets under management reached about $1.24 trillion at the end of 2022, bigger than Saudi Arabia's 2022 GDP (about $1.1 trillion).
The Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF) remains the largest pension fund, and tops the table with assets of 1.4 trillion dollars. It has held the top spot since 2002. Meanwhile, the Employees' Provident Fund of India joins as the only new participant among the top 20 funds of 2022.
While the vast majority of SWFs invest in public equity and fixed income vehicles, about half invest in private equity (PE).
At the end of 2021, of the 98 countries for whom data was available, Pakistan ($27.4 billion of external debt to China), Angola (22.0 billion), Ethiopia (7.4 billion), Kenya (7.4 billion) and Sri Lanka (7.2 billion) held the biggest debts to China.
Rank | Sovereign Wealth Fund | Region |
---|---|---|
1 | China Investment Corporation | Asia |
2 | GIC Private Limited | Asia |
3 | Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio | Asia |
4 | Temasek Holdings | Asia |
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