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Sovereign wealth fund
This Week in AsiaEconomics

Singapore’s ‘voracious’ GIC tops list of most active state-linked investors, ahead of China and Japan

  • According to a report by Global SWF comparing the activities of 438 state-owned investors, GIC came top, deploying US$17.7 billion into 65 deals
  • Funds including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority largely stayed on the sidelines last year, preferring conservative investment strategies

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Singapore‘s GIC was said to be more aggressive than other state-linked funds in its hunt for long-term yield, with a heavy focus on tech and innovation. Photo: AFP
Dewey Simin Singapore
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC emerged as the most active state-owned investor in the world last year, outranking larger state funds from China, Norway and Japan, as other investors downshifted amid the volatility brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a report by independent data and analysis platform Global SWF comparing the activities of 438 state-owned investors, GIC, the 10th-largest state fund worldwide, deployed US$17.7 billion into 65 deals – down slightly from US$24 billion in 2019.

The three largest state-owned investors in the world – namely Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) and China Investment Corporation (CIC) – were not ranked among the most active funds last year. Neither was the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which was ranked the ninth-largest state-owned investor, just ahead of GIC.

This was because of their lack of investments in private markets, said Daniel Brett, the head of research at Global SWF.

“GPIF, NBIM and HKMA have relatively little exposure to private markets, with much of their assets in fixed income and public equity,” he told This Week In Asia. The NBIM, for example, has 27 per cent of its assets in fixed income, 70 per cent in public equity, and 3 per cent in real estate, he said.

Even so, the Norwegian fund remained the second largest state-owned investor globally, with US$1.128 trillion assets under management, just below the GPIF’s US$1.592 trillion. The CIC followed at US$1.046 trillion, then came China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange at US$743 billion and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority at US$726 billion. The HKMA had US$540 billion of assets under management.

In terms of investment activity last year, the Canada Pension Plan tailed Singapore’s GIC, at US$15 billion, followed by Canadian pension investor CDPQ with US$12.1 billion. Singaporean state investor Temasek came in fifth, at US$11.3 billion.
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