Weekly Digest: Khazanah's impact fund eyes larger bets; Temasek spent $3.3bn on tech stocks in Q2
TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
Khazanah Nasional’s Dana Impak (impact investment fund) is shifting from cautious deployment to larger projects this year, according to executive director Bryan Lim Tsin Lin.
Lim said this year will be a “pivotal watershed year” for the fund, where it is pivoting to work on larger programmes.
Last year, Lim said, the deployment of funds was relatively slow, with only a few hundred million invested.
Dana Impak has a RM6 billion ($1.4 billion) allocation over five years across six key themes – digital society and technology; food and energy security; decent work and social mobility; quality health and education for all; building climate resilience; and competing in global markets.
Source: The Sun
Temasek spent billions of dollars in the second quarter of 2024 on buying shares in US technology giants, just before the sector dropped in July.
The state-owned investor increased the value of its holdings in 11 big tech firms by $3.3 billion in the three months ended 30 June, according to an analysis of its two most recent 13F filings. The vast bulk of the increase – some $3.2 billion – went into six of those firms: Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon.
By the end of July, however, most of those companies saw their stocks slide amid concern about the extent of AI-related gains and fears of a recession.
Source: Bloomberg
Thailand’s $34 billion Government Pension Fund has developed an ESG strategy that integrates sustainability into two thirds of its holdings spanning all asset classes, with the exception of government bonds and hedge funds.
“Our objective is not to just maximize returns,” said Man Juttijudata, senior director, strategic and tactical asset allocation.
“We prefer to achieve an optimal return for our members and a social return for all our other stakeholders. We are not investing just for this generation but for future generations too and sustainability is the most important return.”
Source: Top1000funds.com
OTHER INVESTMENT NEWS
AUSTRALIA
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has imposed additional licence conditions on Cbus and BUSSQ, two superannuation funds with ties to the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), due to governance concerns.
APRA in a statement said it mandated both funds to engage independent experts to review their compliance with fitness and propriety standards for board members and examine their expenditure practices.
This action follows allegations of serious misconduct within the CFMEU, a powerful trade union in Australia's construction sector. The CFMEU has appointed directors to both funds' boards.
Source: APRA
JAPAN
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance (Meiji Yasuda) bought US casualty insurer Allstate’s two subsidiaries that operate employer voluntary benefits businesses through its US subsidiary StanCorp Financial Group for $2 billion.
Meiji Yasuda said the acquisition of Allstate units under the "American Heritage" brand was set to close by the April-June 2025 quarter, subject to regulatory approvals in the US and Japan.
The life insurer said in a statement overseas business was a key element in its plan to earn ¥100 billion ($683 million) base profit equivalents by financial year 2026/2027, and it would continue to explore further investment opportunities.
Source: Meiji Yasuda, Allstate
INDIA
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has committed up to 7.3 billion Indian rupees ($88 million) to the ENGIE solar power project to support India’s renewable energy expansion.
Cofinanced with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the project is expected to support the development, construction, operation and maintenance of a 400MW solar PV plant in Gujarat, India.
AIIB and ADB are jointly providing up to 14.6 billion Indian rupees ($175.9 million) equivalent in the form of a project finance senior debt facility in local currency.
According to its strategic plan, ENGIE aims to invest €22-25 billion ($24.5-$26.5 billion) between 2023 and 2025 in renewable energy and low-carbon energy solutions.
Source: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
KOREA
The Scientists and Engineers Mutual-aid Association (SEMA) are looking for asset managers for three mandates totalling W286 billion ($213.8 million), mostly in Korean alternative assets.
SEMA will hire four asset management firms for a domestic W160 billion private equity mandate, five firms for a W106 billion domestic venture capital mandate, and one for W20 billion biotech and healthcare mandate.
Applications are open until August 30.
Source: SEMA
The Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Fund is looking for managers for two mandates within domestic alternative investments, consisting of a W470 billion won ($351 million) private equity mandate and a W110 billion venture capital mandate.
The mutual aid, operated by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business also known as KBIZ, plans to appoint as many as 18 asset managers to oversee the mandates – nine for each of them.
The private equity mandate will span across both equity and debt. Applications are open until August 30.
Source: Yellow Umbrella
MALAYSIA
The Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) total distributable income for the second quarter (Q2 2024) after write-downs was RM17.5 billion ($4billion), a 25% increase from RM13.98 billion Q2 2023.
As of June 30, investment assets stood at RM1.2 trillion ($276 billion), of which 38% was invested in overseas investments.
In the second quarter, the EPF’s overseas investments generated RM8.64 billion or 49% of the total distributable income recorded.
EPF allocated more than 80% of its new investment annual allocation to the domestic market in Q2.
Source: EPF
THE PHILIPPINES
Maharlika Investment Corp. plans to decide on potential investments by the end of the year, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said.
“Admittedly it is taking time to identify investments that Maharlika can make,” he told a Senate Finance Committee hearing, according to a media report.
The country’s first sovereign wealth fund has not yet made any investments since the fund was signed into law in July 2023.
“As you know it is like a startup, we just passed the law last year, so it has been in operation for about six to seven months right now,” Recto said.
Source: Business World
The above briefs were curated from company news releases and third-party sources.