Dubai: Leading UAE sovereign wealth funds (SWFS) together have emerged top in the region with $1.4 trillion in aggregate assets under their management.
Top five SWFs from the UAE, such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company and Emirates Investment Authority (EIA) are ranked among top 20 in the top 100 list of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.
While Adia is ranked fourth in the global ranking with an estimated assets of $697.86 billion, Dubai’s Investment Corporation of Dubai comes second with $301.6 billion worth assets under its management.
In the global ranking, Norway Government Pension Fund Global with $1.4 trillion assets topped the list with China Investment Corporation, Kuwait Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio ranking among the top five.
Robust gains in equity values across the market last year have helped the surge in the asset values of sovereign wealth funds across the world.
UAE’s smaller wealth funds such as Mubadala ($243 billion), Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company ($79 billion) and Emirates Investment Authority ($78 billion) have seen significant growth in assets under management.
In the GCC, Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) has emerged as the top standalone SWF with $738 billion in assets followed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund ($580 billion) and Qatar Investment Authority with 450 billion in assets under management.
The bulging external reserves of GCC based SWFs along with higher government have added an additional dimension of economic stability and post-Covid recovery of GCC economies.
Oil price recovery is resulting in big gains in terms of government revenues for GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, according to Institute of International Finance (IIF), a Washington based association of global financial institutions. GCC’s aggregate current account surplus is projected to witness more than fivefold growth in 2021 to $109 billion from $20 billion in 2020. The IIF has projected GCC’s hydrocarbon revenue to increase from $221 billion in 2020 to $326 billion in 2021.
The International Monetary Fund expects the foreign reserves of the GCC to increase by $300-$350 billion in the next three years.
