Long Weekend Reading January 2013

It’s a long weekend here in the US of A, so I’ll be returning to action on Tuesday. Until then, here’s some news and research:

First, here's the news:

- Frontier Finance: Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional reported a 24.3% rise (!) in the value of its investment portfolio in 2012.

- The End is Nigh I: For zero-sum-gaming the system so brilliantly... hedge fund employees will get a 15% raise this year.

- The End is Nigh II: U.S. venture capital investments dropped by 15% in 2012.

- White Knight: AIMCo is going to back some innovative technologies and game-changing companies in 2013.

- Cash for Gold: SOFAZ says its main objective in 2013 is to preserve assets; not grow them. And that explains the crazy gold binge the Azeri fund has been on.

- Bridge & Tunnel: New Jersey's State Investment Council unleashed a 13.3% return for 2012. Awesome job.

- Concentrated Bets: How has the Wellcome Trust done so well over the past decade? "A fewer number of larger positions.”

- Have A Blast: Subscribe to the AoG daily email blast... and find out exactly how late I am to meet my publication deadline every morning (9am PST).

Second, here’s some interesting research:

- Frédéric Blanc-Brude has published a lit review on infrastructure equity investing that’s worth a read. The paper is entitled, “Towards Efficient Benchmarks for Infrastructure Equity Investments”.

- David Kemme has a new paper entitled, “Sovereign Wealth Fund Issues and The National Fund(s) of Kazakhstan”. The paper describes in detail the two big SWFs in Kazakhstan: the National Fund for the Future of Kazakhstan (the “oil fund”, or NOF) and Samruk Kazyna. It’s worth a look.

Have a great weekend!