Kuwait sovereign fund posts $1 billion loss

KUWAIT / Reuters

Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, said it had incurred a loss of 312 million dinars ($1.03 billion) in the financial year ended in March 2016, according to the country’s state news agency.
The loss was 0.2 percent of total assets, KUNA quoted a KIA statement as saying late on Monday, denying local media reports of bigger losses. KIA rarely comments on its financial performance. Its statement implies the fund had assets of about $515 billion; the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, which tracks the industry, has estimated KIA’s assets at $592 billion.
Among KIA’s high-profile investments, it owns 6.8 percent of German automaker Daimler AG and a 4.8 percent stake in French nuclear power firm Areva SA, according to Thomson Reuters data. In its statement, KIA said: “It is unprofessional to judge a performance of one year, during which the market was down.” It said its performance for a 20-year period had been positive and outmatched other sovereign funds. It did not reveal its returns for the latest fiscal year ended in March 2017.