Business leaders from around the world gathered at Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum under the theme: “Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild.” Bader M. Al-Saad was successful in implementing the “Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild” theme to the Kuwait Investment Authority during his six-year tenure as the Managing Director, and I applaud him for that. His efforts were recognized as the Institutional Investor listed him as one of the Top 5 Middle East Most Influential Financiers.
Pre- Al Saad, the sleepy bureaucratic KIA was run without any clear vision or objectives. Its investments where highly concentrated in U.S. Treasuries with only 2.5% in real estate and 1.5% in private equity funds. In late 2003, upon his appointment as managing director, Mr. Al-Saad commissioned a study comparing the fund’s investment practices with those of the Yale and Harvard endowments and hired Mercer Investment Consulting to review the KIA’s strategic asset allocation and draft a new investment program. Since then, the KIA has been increasing its exposure in emerging markets, decreasing its allocations to traditional asset classes, and increasing its allocation to non-traditional and uncorrelated asset classes. Today, about $32 billion or 15% of the fund is invested in emerging markets, buyout funds, and hedge funds.
“Returns in 2009 may prove one of the best for the Authority” Al-Saad said during an interview in Davos with Al-Arabiya TV. How good was 2009? Well, remember the public outcry against the $5 billion capital injection into Citigroup and Merrill Lynch? In December 2009, the KIA sold its stake in Citigroup for $4.1 billion and made a profit of $1.1 billion. As for its stake in Bank of America, Al Saad said that he still expects the KIA to make a profit on its investment, despite the 35% loss. Moreover, last May the KIA invested about $750 million in BlackRock Inc.’s capital increase, and to date it has achieved a 40% return on its investment. Going forward, the KIA will focus on investments in the financial, insurance, and services sector and target countries with growth rates between 8-10% mainly in Asia and Latin America.
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Loading ...Tags: Bader Al Saad, Bader Alsaad, Davos, KIA, Kuwait, Kuwait Investment Authority
Thumbs up Mr. Al-Saad. Way to go..
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other institutions should take KIA as an example
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I have my thumbs up and fingers crossed for him. Hopefully the BoA investment will turn around.
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bravo. now just a little bit of lip gloss and the guy is set for life
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Very impressive…
All other govermental organizations should follow KIA tracks, thats the best way the country can operate efficiently
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Sadly, the biggest risk for KIA’s investment portfolio is the Parliment !!
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I agree with Ra’ad on this. We are in a political mess – sorry to say this – but the next generation of voters would be the least educated Kuwaiti’s since the 70’s (See Tony Blair’s analysis on Kuwaiti education), so there is no way out of this in the foreseable future.
This is as good as it gets!
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