Mandelson: SWFs welcome in London (Updated)
Posted by Editor on November 01, 2008 at 03:15 PM
The Associated Press quotes Peter Mandelson, the British secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, as telling reports on Saturday that, “We haven’t had a problem with sovereign wealth funds in the past, so I don’t see why it should be a problem in the future. … I hope they are going to go on acting as they have.”
In fact, Britain did indeed have a problem with an SWF in the past.
UPDATE (November 2, 2008): Other news sources indicate that Mandelson was referring to Europe, not to the UK.
BP confirms that Chinese buyer is SAFE
Posted by Editor on April 16, 2008 at 07:25 AM
AFP reports that, “British energy giant BP has confirmed that the buyer of just under one percent of its shares is a Hong Kong branch of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, state media said Wednesday. A BP spokesperson in charge of global investor relations said the buyer was SAFE Investment Company Limited, formed in 1997 with a registered capital of 100 million Hong Kong dollars (13 million dollars), the Caijing magazine said.”
UK to be SWF testbed for what is acceptable
Posted by Editor on April 15, 2008 at 08:28 PM
The Independent writes that, “[Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, predicts that,] The limits of what is acceptable [in terms of SWF investment] will be tested in the UK - and sooner rather than later.”
The article quotes Lyons as saying that, “The UK economy is up for sale, and I think the whole question of ownership will be really tested in the next couple of years. … We’ve only really had a problem in the Eighties when Kuwait was speculated to be buying BP, so we do protect sensitive and secure areas, but I think the debates will very much be tested out in my opinion in the UK.”
Chinese fund builds up £1bn stake in BP
Posted by Editor on April 14, 2008 at 09:55 PM
The Telegraph writes that, “A Chinese sovereign wealth fund has built up a stake of about £1bn in BP, in a move which has caused a stir within the British Government.”
The article identifies the fund only as the same one that has acquired a stake in Total. This suggests that the BP acquisition was made with reserves deployed directly from SAFE, the “fund” identified in some reports in connection with the French company.
The last time a sovereign fund took a high-profile stake in BP, things got very messy.