Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), has recorded $19 billion profit from its investments in a number of global firms, according to Kuwait’s finance minister Nayef Al Hajraf.
The minister was responding to a question from a national assembly member and revealed that back in 2007, the KIA had invested $12.8 billion in 12 multinationals.
The companies include Dow Chemical, Bank of America, Citigroup, BlackRock, Visa, AIG, Areva and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
As of April 2019, these investments had realised a 148% profit totalling $31.8 billion. The figure, said Al Hajraf, included the realised profits after deducting losses from French energy group Areva.
The KIA, which claims to be the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the world, has added to its profits with the recent sale of a 16.1% stake in Gulf Bank to Kuwait-based conglomerate Alghanim Trading Group for $503 million.
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