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(Bloomberg) – The abrupt departure of a key executive from the $769 billion Kuwait Investment Authority triggered an internal dispute, a brawl that rarely gives the public information about the operation of the secret fund.
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Last week, KIA fired the head of its London branch, Saleh Al-Ateeqi. The question is whether Al-Ateeqi is a reformer seeking to modernize the direct investment arm of Kuwait’s wealth fund or a leader who nurtured a poisonous culture that led to exits. and prosecutions, according to others with direct knowledge of the dispute.
The overthrow of Al-Ateeqi highlights internal divisions within the Kuwaiti fund that are likely to extend into the public domain. Such disputes are in the Middle East, where the sovereign wealth budget, a key equipment for oil-rich states to diversify their economies, works. secretly at the highest point of society. Some have tried to modernize, with Mubadala, the Qatar Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority among the entities that have changed their investment technique.
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A representative for Al-Ateeqi declined to comment. The Kuwait Investment Authority does not without delay to comment.
Last week, KIA said in notes that Hussain Al-Halabi would update Al-Ateeqi with immediate effect and that Al-Ateeqi would leave without the same three-month completion period.
Al-Ateeqi increased KIO’s assets and sought to modernize the unit by hiring executives from Barclays Plc and Carlyle Group Inc. for positions such as chief investment officer and chief strategy officer. He also clashed with some of the fund’s longtime employees, the resources said, asking to be known discussing internal issues.
Meanwhile, a legal war with KIO’s former head of steady revenue earlier this month sparked scrutiny, with a court order handing over internal documents the fund called “remarkable and invasive. “The fund has asserted diplomatic immunity in the employment case, prompting the UK Foreign Office to decide whether its workers enjoy diplomatic protections.
Complaint through Kuwait
Al-Ateeqi also filed a complaint with Kuwait’s attorney general against Kuwait’s finance minister, who oversees the KIA. According to a copy of the record reported through Bloomberg News, Al-Ateeqi said the government had refused to fire a worker it suspected of spying on. the wealth fund.
The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint sent outside of general business hours.
Kia, which manages the Future Generations Fund and the General Reserve Fund, is the world’s oldest sovereign wealth fund with stakes in ports, airports and electric power distribution around the world. The fund increased its holdings of U. S. assets when markets plunged in 2020, and the FGF reported returns of 33% for the year ending March 2021.
Kia’s upheaval comes amid years of political turmoil in Kuwait, which have hampered efforts to diversify the economy of OPEC’s fourth-largest oil producer. Reserve fund.
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Read more: This $600 billion wealth fund was kept in a struggle of forces
The KIO, formerly known as the Kuwait Board of Investment, was established in London in 1953, 8 years before Kuwait gained independence. It was later placed under the tutelage of the Kuwait Investment Authority and still manages about a third of the sovereign assets of the oil exporter, other people. familiar with the matter said.
KIO has been a prolific investor over the past year, in the U. S. personal justice board TPG Inc. , according to the people. In 2020, it bought an additional stake in BlackRock Inc. from PNC Financial Services Group Inc. , Bloomberg reported.
(Adds main points to Kuwait’s complaint in the ninth paragraph. )
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