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Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s fourth largest SWF, will not pull out of any European country due to fears of recession and other factors, a newspaper in the OPEC member said on Wednesday, citing informed sources.
The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) has large assets in Europe and all of them are “balanced investments” that are protected by precautionary measures, the Arabic language daily Alrai said.
“These measures are still in place and allow KIA to deal with any development…as for fears of recession and other factors, KIA management will not react with hasty measures such as exiting the European market,” the paper said.
“Any decision in this regard will be based on comprehensive studies in collaboration with global institution with which KIA is cooperating.”
The paper quoted the sources as saying that KIA’s investments in Europe and other regions are “stable” adding all those markets have been targeted “according to medium and long term investment plans and deep studies that take into account market factors and growth in each market including inflation and recession.”
The report said the investments cover various sectors in different geographical areas, including infrastructure, energy, technology, real estate and other sectors.
“KIA has in the past period given attention to achieving balance in Europe and other markets in order to maintain the required diversity and balance in its assets and achieve the goals it has set,” the report said.
According to the US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, KIA’s total assets are estimated at around $708 billion, making it the fourth largest SWF after the SWFs of Norway, China and Abu Dhabi.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
