SWF Radar ADIA

David Robertson, business correspondent of The Times, writes of ADIA’s investment portfolio that, “This looks very similar to [the portfolio of] any other conservatively run pension fund and it seems the more we learn about SWFs, the more we realise they are not malevolent capitalist forces but are actually rather dull.”

In the article he also suggests a reason for why the IMF’s International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds has called its guidelines, due to be published in September, the “Generally Accepted Principles and Practices” (GAPP), writing that, “This mouthy title came about because the SWFs balked at anything that sounded like a code of practice - anything, in other words, that sounded like the IMF imposing rules.”

He adds that, “These principles will almost certainly turn out to be pointless and unnecessary.”

Several days ago I suggested that, besides having a bad name and being potentially unnecessary, such rules will certainly also be unformulable.

Still, maybe the IMF will pull the rabbit out of the hat.

PRWeek reports that Edelman’s European health MD and EVP Kate Triggs will leave the agency in three months to head up communications at Mubadala Development Company.

This news follows the appointments at fellow Abu Dhabi investor ADIA of a global communications chief (Euart Glendinning) in May and a head of internal communications (Mark Darby) earlier this month.

Brad Setser writes that, “If oil stays at $140, the Gulf - based on projections that imply GCC spending and investment will rise so that the GCC needs $55 to $60 oil to cover its import bill - the big GCC funds and central banks should add close to $400 billion to their foreign assets in 2008.”

The big four he lists and discusses are the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA).

Thomson Reuters reports that, “Estimates placing the size of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund [ADIA] at $800 billion are exaggerated, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, was quoted as saying.”

Felix Salmon suggests that, rather than being too big to fail, Citi may be too big to rescue.

ADIA, GIC and KIA are the big sovereigns that have invested in Citigroup since November 2007, with the New Jersey Division of Investment also acquiring a stake.

PR Week reports that, “The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has signed up its first internal comms chief. Veteran internal comms specialist Mark Darby joins from Visa Europe, where he was head of internal comms.”

Darby’s appointment follows the recent appointment by ADIA of Euart Glendinning as head of global communications.

Thomson Reuters reports that, “The world’s largest hedge funds and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) need to convince a ‘cautious’ China of the benefits of their products, the groups said on a trip to the country, even as U.S. regulators look to rein them in. … ‘There is a cautious desire to understand what we do,’ said [Richard Baker, the former U.S. congressman and now chief of Managed Funds Association, a hedge fund industry lobbying group], referring to a conversation he had with Chinese officials including Gao Xiqing, the general manager of China Investment Corp (CIC), a sovereign wealth fund set up last year to manage $200 billion in reserves.”

The head of ADIA, arguably the world’s biggest SWF, recently mentioned in an interview that he will be shifting assets from hedge funds to index funds following what he sees as underperformance by the former.

Thomson Reuters writes that, “Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which bought into Citigroup, will slash its hedge fund investments and increase holdings in index funds, according to a report [in BusinessWeek].”

The directors of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund just gave their first public interviews to BusinessWeek.

The National reports that, “The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has unveiled a new website that offers a glimpse into the strategy, governance structure and history of investments into the world's largest - and most secretive - government-controlled investment funds.”