Tomorrow’s my last blog day for the year. Naturally, then, I awoke thinking I’d write a sort of reflective post recapping the top sovereign fund stories of 2011. I thus dutifully sat down at my desk this morning to read through all the posts I wrote over the past 12 months. When I woke up — keyboard imprinted on my face — I decided to do something a bit more...eye opening, as it were.
So, let’s make some stuff up about 2012 instead! In other words, I thought I’d conjure up the big stories for next year. So, by the end of 2012...
1) Infrastructure: Every institutional investor in the world will be planning how they can allocate (or increase their allocation) to infrastructure.
2) Africa: Many institutional investors will be planning how they can allocate (or increase their allocation) to Africa.
3) New SWFs: Seven new countries will begin the process of launching a new SWF. (That’s right, seven, exactly.)
4) IFSWF: The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds will transition from a silent, placeholder-of-an-organization into a vibrant entity that effectively champions the interests of its constituents.
5) Data: SWFs around the world will begin restructuring and revamping their data management systems in order to increase the visibility of senior staff over the funds’ portfolios and risks therein.
