Qatar's SWF Plans $5 Billion Investment in Malaysia

1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will pursue a partnership to capitalize on opportunities in the energy and real estate sectors in Malaysia's Klang Valley.

(May 17, 2010) — The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with an estimated $60 billion or more in assets under management, plans to invest $5 billion in projects located in Malaysia.

Following Malaysia’s first recession in a decade, the country is looking to increase foreign investment. “Malaysia is an attractive investment destination with plenty of opportunities to consider and explore,” Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Jassim, who is also chief executive officer of Qatar Investment Authority, said to Bloomberg.

A memorandum of understanding between the QIA and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a Kuala Lumpur-based wealth fund, to explore potential ventures, was signed Friday. The projects will include energy and real estate in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, in a reported $2.3 billion deal, the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund last week announced the purchase of London’s luxury department store Harrods from Mohamed al-Fayed, a 77-year-old Egyptian-born businessman. The deal represents the biggest deal in UK retailing since the 11.1 billion-pound takeover of Alliance Boots Plc in 2007, Bloomberg reported.

Want the latest institutional investment industry
news and insights? Sign up for CIO newsletters.

QIA’s additional investments include some skyscrapers in London’s financial district, Canary Wharf, and stakes in British lender Barclays, supermarket chain J Sainsbury and the London Stock Exchange.

QIA, chaired by the country’s prime minister, was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen its economy by diversifying into new asset classes.



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

TIAA-CREF Seeks Endowment Management

The New York-based retirement plan provider is looking for money managers from colleges and foundations and may announce the initiative as soon as this week.

(May 17, 2010) — TIAA-CREF, which oversees more than $400 billion in pensions for teachers and academic researchers, plans to expand into investment management for endowments and foundations, Bloomberg reported.

The push by TIAA-CREF, founded in 1918 by Andrew Carnegie as a pension fund for professors, comprises the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America and the College Retirement Equities Fund. The decision to seek endowment management follows similar moves by Goldman Sachs and the Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), which are seeking funds to reassess their investments after suffering record losses during the financial crisis.

“It is a natural extension of their franchise in the academic community, to trade off their reputation,” Burt Greenwald, an independent fund consultant based in Philadelphia, said about TIAA-CREF in a telephone interview with the news service. The New York-based firm hired Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive-search firm, to recruit money managers from colleges and foundations.

According to estimates by Casey Quirk & Associates LLC, U.S. institutions will outsource more than $500 billion to outside fund managers by the end of 2012. The majority of outsourcing candidates are smaller-sized firms with assets of $250 million to $750 million, which may lack the funds to hire top-tier managers internally, Casey Quirk & Associates LLC said to Bloomberg.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter.



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

«