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New York: Sovereign wealth funds, state-sponsored pools from governments including the UAE, invested $58 billion in the first quarter, more than they spent from 2000 to 2005.
First-quarter outlays were more than half of 2007's $92 billion, according to an advanced copy of a study to be released on Monday by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Grail Research, a unit of consulting firm Monitor Group.
The funds have as much as $2.9 trillion in capital, an amount that may exceed $10 trillion by about 2015, according to the report.
The funds have battled the perception among some US lawmakers that they have political motivations for their holdings.
Sovereign wealth funds, which invest in private companies, public equities and real estate, played a key role in propping up Wall Street firms stung by the US subprime-mortgage crisis.
The Kuwait Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority were among the investors who infused $44.1 billion into Citigroup Inc.
Such funds are wielding growing investment clout, having invested $92 billion in publicly disclosed equity transactions in 2007, compared to $3 billion in 2000, Monitor found.
The study analysed more than 1,100 transactions between 1975 and March 2008.
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